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*1 


I 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CAMBRIDGE 


\ 


i  FROM  THE  EARLIEST  TIMES 

;  TO  THE    ROYAL    INJUNCTIONS    OF    1535 


JAMES   BASS   MULLINGER,   M.A. 


T  JOBM'B  COLUOI,  OAlfBBIIKIK 


!     I 


CAMBRIDGE 
AT    THE  UHIVEKSITY 
1873 
lAU  Righti  ratneil.] 


K'       LIBRARY        ^ 

;  or  THE 

j  LELAND  STANFORD  JUNIOR 

\       UNIVERSITY,      y 


j\lj~^L<^. 


<tamiridsf : 


rBINTKD    BT   C.  J.  CLAT.    M.A. 
AT  TBI  VH1TKB8ITT  FRKflft. 


JOHN   EDWIN   SANDYS,   E8(j.,   M.A., 

FELLOW  AND  TUTOR  OF  ST.  JOHN'S  COLLEGE  CAMBRIDOK 

^lite  F'ttlttnit 

IB   DEDIOATBD. 


* 


I 


\ 


PREFACE. 


The  large  amount  of  attention  that  has,  during  the  hist 
few  years,  been  attracted  to  all  questions  bearing  upon  the 
higher  education  of  this  country,  and  the  increasing  public 
interest  in  all  that  is  connected  with  the  two  older  English 
universities,  might  alone  seem  suEGciently  to  justify  the 
appearance  of  the  present  volume.  It  may  not  however  he 
undesirable  to  offer  some  explanation  with  regard  to  the 
method  of  treatment  which,  in  researches  extending  over 
nearly  seven  years,  the  author  has  chiefly  kept  before  him. 

A  very  cursory  inspection  of  the  Table  of  Contents  will 
suffice  to  shew  that  the  subject  of  university  history  has  here 
been  approached  from  a  somewhat  different  point  of  view  to 
that  of  previous  labourers  in  the  same  field.  The  volume  ia 
neither  a  collection  of  antiquities  nor  a  collection  of  biogra- 
phies ;  nor  is  it  a  series  of  detached  essays  on  questions  of 
special  interest  or  episodes  of  exceptional  importance.  It  is 
rather  an  endeavour  to  tra«!e  out  the  continuous  history  of  a 
great  national  institution,  as  that  history  presents  itself,  not 
only  in  successive  systems  and  various  forms  of  mental 
culture,  but  also  in  relation  to  the  experiences  of  the  country 
at  large ;  and  at  the  same  time  to  point  out  in  how  great  a 
degree  the  uuifersities  have  influenced  the  whole  thought 


VUl  PREFACE. 

of  the  educated  classes,  and  have  in  turn  reflected  the 
political  and  social  changes  in  progress  both  at  home  and 
abroad. 

To  those  who  best  understand  how  important  and 
numerous  are  the  relations  of  university  culture  to  the 
histoiy  of  the  people,  such  a  method  of  treatment  will 
probably  appear  most  arduous  and  the  qualifications  neces- 
sary to  its  competent  execution  most  varied;  it  may  con- 
sequently be  desirable^so  to  explain  how  greatly  the  author 
has  been  aided  by  the  researches  of  previous  investigators. 

It  is  now  more  than  thirty  years  ago  since  the  late  Mr. 
C.  H.  Cooper^  published  the  first  instalment  of  that  valuable 
series, — ^the  Annals  of  Cambridge,  the  Memorials  of  Cambridge, 
and  the  AthencB  Cantahrigienses, — with  respect  to  which  it 
has  been  truly  said  that '  no  other  town  in  England  has  three 
such  records.*  To  extraordinary  powers  of  minute  investiga- 
tion he  united  great  attainments  as  an  antiquarian,  a  fidelity 
and  fairness  beyond  reproach,  and  a  rare  judicial  faculty  in 
assessing  the  comparative  value  of  conflicting  evidence.  It 
need  hardly  be  added  that  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century 
of  research  on  the  part  of  so  able  and  trustworthy  a  guide, 
has  materially  diminished  and  in  some  respects  altogether 
forestalled  the  labours  of  subsequent  explorers  in  the  same 
field.  But  valuable  as  were  Mr.  Cooper's  services,  his  aim 
was  entirely  restricted  to  one  object, — the  accurate  investi- 
gation and  chronological  arrangement  of  facts;  he  never 
sought  to  establish  any  general  results  by  the  aid  of  a 
legitimate  induction;  and  in  the  nine  volumes  that  attest 
his  labours  it  may  be  questioned  whether  as  many  observa- 

^  For  the  infonnation  of  readers  who  may  have  no  personal  knowledge  of 
Cambridge,  I  may  state  that  Mr  Cooper  was  not  a  member  of  the  nniversity, 
but  filled  for  many  years  the  offices  of  town  coroner  and  town  derk. 


tions  can  be  found,  that  tend  to  shew  the  connexion  of  one 
fact  with  another,  or  the  relevancy  of  any  one  isolated  event 
to  the  greater  movemeDts  in  prepress  beyond  the  university 
walls;  while  to  the  all-important  subject  of  the  character 
and  effects  of  the  different  studies  successively  dominant  in 
the  university,  he  did  not  attempt  to  supply  any  elucidation 
beyond  what  might  be  incidentally  afforded  in  his  own 
department  of  enquiry. 

The  aid  however  which  he  did  not  profess  to  give  has 
been  to  a  great  extent  supplied  by  other  writers.  During  the 
same  period  contributions  to  literature,  both  at  home  and 
abroad,  have  given  aid  in  this  latter  direction  scarcely  less 
valuable  than  that  which  he  rendered  in  the  province  which 
he  made  so  peculiarly  his  own.  The  literatures  of  both 
CSennany  and  France  have  been  richly  productive  of  works 
of  sterhng  value  illustrative  of  mediaeval  thought  and 
mediseval  institutions ;  and  have  furnished  a  succession  of 
standard  histories,  elaborate  essays,  and  careful  monographs, 
which  have  shed  a  new  light  on  the  subject  of  the  present 
volume,  in  common  with  all  that  relates  to  the  education 
and  learning  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Among  these  it  is  sufficient 
to  name  the  works  of  Oeiger,  Huber,  Kleut^n,  Lechler, 
Frantl,  Kanke,  Von  Raumer,  Schaarschmidt,  Ueberweg,  and 
UUmann  in  Germany;  those  of  Victor  Le  Clerc,  Cousin, 
Haur^u,  the  younger  Jourdain,  B^musat,  Benan,  and 
Thurot  in  France ;  and  to  these  may  be  added  the  histories 
of  single  universities, — like  that  of  Basel  by  Vischer,  of 
Erfurt  by  Kampschulte,  of  Leipsic  by  Zamcke,  and  of  Louvain 
by  Felix  N&ve ;  while  at  home,  the  valuable  series  that 
has  appeared  under  the  sanction  of  the  Master  of  the  Bolls, 
and  the  able  prefaces  to  different  volumes  of  that  collection 
from  the  pens   of   Mr.  Anstey,  professor  Brewer,  the  late 


X  PREFACE. 

professor  Shirley,  Mr.  Luard,  professor  Mayor,  and  professor 
Stubbe, — ^the  *  Documents'  published  by  the  Royal  Com- 
mission,— the  papers  relating  to  points  of  minuter  interest 
in  the  publications  of  the  Cambridge  Antiquarian  Society, — 
and  the  histories  of  separate  coU^es,  especially  Baker's 
History  of  St.  John's  College  in  the  exhaustiye  and  ad- 
mirable edition  by  professor  Mayor, — ^have  a£forded  not  less 
valuable  aid  in  connexion  with  the  corresponding  periods 
in  England. 

But  contributions  thus  varied  and  voluminous  to  the 
literature  of  the  subject,  while  forestalling  labour  in  one 
direction  have  also  not  a  little  augmented  the  necessity  for 
patient  enquiry  and  careful  deliberation  in  arriving  at 
conclusions;  and  the  responsibility  involved  might  have 
altogether  deterred  the  author  from  the  attempt,  had  he 
not  at  the  same  time  been  able  to  have  recourse  to  assist- 
ance of  another  but  not  less  valuable  kind.  From  the  time 
that  he  was  able  to  make  his  design  known  to  those  most 
able  to  advise  in  the  prosecution  of  such  a  work,  he  has 
been  under  constant  obligations  to  different  members  of  the 
university  for  direction  with  respect  to  sources  of  informa- 
tion, for  access  to  records,  and  for  much  helpful  criticism. 
Among  those  who  have  evinced  a  kindly  interest  in  the  work 
he  may  be  permitted  to  name  Henry  Bradshaw,  Esq.,  M.A., 
fellow  of  Eang's  Coll^;e  and  university  librarian ;  William 
George  Clark,  Esq.,  MJL.,  senior  fellow  of  Trinity  College  and 
late  public  orator ;  the  Rev.  John  Eyton  Bickersteth  Mayor, 
MJL,  senior  fellow  of  St.  John's  College,  and  professor  of 
Latin ;  John  Edwin  Sandys,  Esq.,  M.A.,  fellow  and  tutor 
of  St  John's  College;  and  Isaac  Todhunter,  Esq.,  jljL, 
F.B.S.,  late  fellow  of  St  John's  College;  as  gentlemen  to 
whom  he  is  indebted  not  only  for  the  revision  and  correction 


of  large  portioiiB  of  the  work,  either  in  manuscript  or  when 
passing  through  the  preas,  but  also  for  numerous  su^^Umib 
and  a  general  guidance  which  have  served  to  render  ihe 
volume  much  less  faulty  and  defective  than  it  would  other- 
wise have  been. 

For  iaoilitiea  afforded,  or  fiir  information  and  assistance 
in  matters  <^  detail,  his  acknowledgements  are  also  due  to 
the  authorities  of  Paterhouae,  and  of  Pembroke,  Corpus 
Christi,  and  Queens'  Colleges ;  to  J.  Willis  Clark,  Esq.,  M.A., 
late  fellow  of  Trinity  College ;  to  W.  A.  Cox,  Esq.,  U.A.,  fellow 
of  St  John's  College ;  to  the  late  professor  De  Morgan ;  to 
K  A.  Freeman,  Esq.,  d.cl.  ;  to  the  Rev.  E  L.  Hicks,  MJl., 
fellow  and  librarian  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford ;  to  the 
Rev.  S.  S.  Lewis,  M.A.,  fellow  and  librarian  of  Corpus  Chriati 
College,  Cambridge ;  to  the  Rev.  H.  K  Luard,  M.A.,  registrary 
of  the  university;  to  the  Rev,  P.  H.  Mason,  M.A.,  senior 
fellow  and  Hebrew  lecturer  of  St  John's  College ;  to  M.  Paul 
Meyer,  formerly  editor  of  the  Sevue  Critique ;  to  the  Rev. 
W.  G.  Searle,  M.A.,  historian  and  late  fellow  of  Queens' 
College ;  to  professor  Stubbs ;  to  the  Rev.  C.  Wordsworth, 
M.A.,  fellow  of  Peterhouse ;  and  to  W.  Aldis  Wright,  Esq., 
MX,  senior  bursar  and  late  hbrarian  of  Trinity  College. 

finally  his  grateful  acknowledgements  are  due  to  the 
Syndics  of  the  University  Press,  during  the  last  three  years, 
for  encouragement  and  assistance  most  liberally  extended  in 
relation  to  the  publication  of  the  present  voluma 

In  conclusion,  the  author  cannot  but  express  his  sense 
that  his  work,  notwithstanding  these  advantages,  must  still 
appear  very  far  from  being  a  complete  and  satisfactory  treat- 
ment of  the  subject,  even  within  the  period  it  comprises. 
He  can  only  hope  that,  with  all  its  defects,  it  may  yet  be 
recognised  as  partially  supplying  a  long  existing  want ;  and  at 


xii  PREFACE. 

a  time  when  those  few  restrictioDS  that  have  been  supposed  to 
hinder  a  perfectly  free  intercourse  between  the  university  and 
the  country  at  large  either  have  been  entirely  removed  or 
seem  likely  soon  to  disappear,  it  will  be  no  small  reward  if 
his  efforts  should  conduce,  in  however  slight  a  degree,  to  a 
more  accurate  knowledge  of  the  past  history,  and  a  livelier 
interest  in  the  future  prospects,  of  one  of  the  most  ancient, 
most  important,  and  most  widely  useful  of  the  nation's  insti- 
tutiona 


CONTENTS. 


PAOE 

iHTBODtlOnON 1 

The  ihirteenth  century ib. 

Imperial  schools  of  the  Empire 2 

Commencement  of  the  Benedictine  era  ib. 

The  Benedictine  theory  of  education 3 

Teaching  of  the  Latin  Fathers ib, 

Theorj  of  Augaaiiae^s  De  OivikUe  Dei         ....  4 
Apparent  confirmation  of  this  theory  afforded  by  subse- 
quent erents    6 

Teaching  of  Gregory  the  Great 6 

Partial  justification  of  his  teaching  afforded  by  the  circum- 
stances of  the  times 7 

Arrival  of  Theodoras  in  Britain 8 

Aldhelm,  Bede,  and  Alcuin 9 

Change  in  the  aspect  of  afEJEurs  in  Euvope     ....  ib. 

The  empire  of  Charlemagne           ...              .       .  10 

The  episcopal  and  monastic  schools 11 

Chariemagne  and  Alcuin ib. 

State  of  learning  among  the  clergy 12 

Schools  founded  by  Charlemagne 13 

Alooin's  distrast  of  pagan  learning 14 

The  study  of  ancient  literature  forbidden  under  a  new 

plea. 15 

Alcuin's  view  becomes  the  traditional  theory  of  the  Church  18 

Dr.  Maitland's  defence  of  this  view ib. 

Distinction  instituted  in  the  monastic  schools  between  the 

seculars  and  the  o&/^f 19 

Disturbed  state  of  the  empire  after  the  death  of  Charle- 
magne       ib. 

Bishop  Lupus  of  Ferri^res 20 

His  letters  and  studies  .       .     - ib. 

State  of  learning  in  England 21 


XXVIU  CONTENTS. 

rxCfK 

John  A Icock,  bishop  of  Ely 321 

Early  statutes  of  Jesus  College  giron  by  bishops  Stanley 

and  West i^. 

,  Study  of  the  canon  law  forbidden 322 

Despondency  in  the  tone  of  promoters  of  learning  at  this 

period ib. 

Foundation  of  the  University  Library         ....  323 

Different  benefactors  to  the  library ib. 

Two  early  catalogues ib. 

The  library  building f^. 

Thomas  Rotheram 324 

Early  catalogues  of  the  libraries  of  Peterliouse,  Trinity 

UaU,  Pembroke,  Queens',  and  SL  Catherine's        .  ib. 

Illustration  of  mediaeval  additions  to  learning  afforded  by 

these  catalogues 325 

Evidence  afforded  with  respect  to  the  theological  studies 

of  the  time ib, 

Hugo  of  St.  Victor,  Hugo  of  St  Cher,  and  Nicholas  de  Lyra  326 

Absence  of  the  Arabian  commentators  on  Aristotle     .        .  ib. 

Fewer  works  than  we  should  expect  on  logic  and  contro- 
versial theology ib. 

The  Fathers  very  imperfectly  represented   ....  ib. 

Entire  absence  of  Greek  authors 327 

Chap.  IV.    Student  Life  in  tub  Middle  Ages. 

Changes  which  sever  modem  and  mediseval  times       .        .        .  328 

Outline  of  the  physical  aspects  of  mediaeval  Cambridge      .        .  329 

The  Cam      .        .        .        .        .        *        .        .        .       '.        .  ib. 

The  Fen  Country 329 

Rivers  by  which  it  is  traversed 330 

Ancient  channel  of  the  Ouso i&. 

Its  course  described  by  Spenser •  ib. 

The  Bedford  Level ib. 

Extent  of  the  inundations  in  former  times           .        .        .        .  331 

Gradual  growth  of  the  town  of  Cambridge           ....  332 
The  question, — ^how  such    a  locality  came  to  be  selected  for 

a  university  discussed    ..*....  333 

No  definite  act  of  selection  ever  took  place          ....  ib. 

Why  the  university  was  not  removed 334 

Migration  opx)Osed  on  principle ib. 

Drawbacks   to  modem   eyes   recommendations   in    mediaeval 

times ih. 

The  ascetic  tlieory ib. 


CONTENTS. 


XV 

PAOE 


This  passage  known  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  through 

two  translations 51 

Criticism  of  Boethius  on  the  passage:  (1)  as  it  appears 
in  the  version  by  Victorinus ;  (2)  as  it  appears  in  his 

own  translation .       •  51 

Cousin's  view  of  the  purport  of  the  Utter  criticism      .       .  53 
The  controversy  concerning  universals  evidently  familiar  to 

the  Middle  Ages  long  before  the  time  of  Rosoeilinus   .  64 

Importance  with  which  ho  invested  the  controversy  55 

Relevancy  of  his  doctrines  to  Trinitarianism  t&. 

John  of  Salisbury 56 

His  estimate  of  the  logical  disputations  at  Paris                 .  ib. 

Bernard  of  Chartres 57 

Character  of  the  Latmity  of  this  period        ....  ib. 

William  of  Champeaux (b. 

Ab^rd 63 

Symptoms  of  the  age ib. 

A  singularly  critical  time ib. 

The  Sentences  of  Peter  Lombard 58 

Outline  of  the  work 59 

Notable  dialectical  element  in  the  treatment       ...  60 

Real  value  of  the  treatise 61 

It  encounters  at  first  considerable  opposition       .               .  i&. 
Remarkable  influence  it  subsequently  exerted                     .62 

St  Anselm 63 

Obligations  of  mediaeval  theology  to  his  teaching.  ib. 

Conclusion 64 

Chap.  I.    Commencement  of  the  Universitt  Era. 

Recapitulation  of  introductory  chapter 65 

Fabulous  element  in  the  early  accounts  of  the  university  of 

Cambridge 66 

The  account  given  by  Peter  of  Blois ib. 

Norman  influences  prior  and  subsequent  to  the  Conquest   .        .  67 
The  university  of  Paris  the  model  both  for  Oxford  and  Cambridge  ib. 
Influence  of  the  French  universities  with  respect  to  the  mo- 
nastic sdiools         68 

Connexion  between  the  schools  of  Charlemagne  and  the  uni- 
versity of  Paris      69 

The  univendties  progressive,  the  monasteries  stationary     .        .  70 

Original  meaning  of  the  term  Unimrntas 71 

Savigny's  view  of  the  original  formation  of  the  older  imiversities .  72 


XXX  0»NTKSTS. 

*  PAGE 

The  qtuidririum 351 

Mathematics t&. 

Perceptible  adrauce  in  the  siady  in  different  onivenities    .  352 

Tlic  bachelor  of  arU 352 

Original  meaning  of  the  term (b. 

The  sophiiiter ti^. 

The  questiouist 353 

The  ttij'plioit ib, 

Stokvd'  accoimt  of  the  ceremony  observed  by  the  qnesUoniat  ib. 

The  deter  miner 354 

Stare  in  qu'idi'iigcfhna «^. 

Determineni  admitted  to  determine  by  proxy       .        .        .  t&. 

I  mportiinco  attached  to  the  ceremony  of  determination  355 

The  iiiceptor (b. 

Account  of  the  ceremony  of  inception ib. 

The*  father'           .        ! 356 

The  prweuricatf/r ib. 

Heavy  expenses  often  incurred  at  the  ceremony  of  inception  t^. 

Limitation  on  such  expenses  imposed  by  the  miiverrity       .  357 

Incepting  for  others 358 

The  regent ib. 

Lectures .  ib. 

Lecturing  ordinarie,  cunoriej  and  extraordinarie             .  ib. 

Methods  employed  by  the  lecturer 359 

The  analytical  method ib. 

The  dialectical  method 3G0 

Tlie  non-regent 361 

Professional  pros^yects  of  an  ordinary  master  of  arts     .        .  362 

Course  of  study  in  the  faculty  of  theology 363 

Bachelors  of  theology  permitted  to  lecture  (/rdinarie                 ,  ib. 

Course  of  study  in  the  faculty  of  the  civil  law      ....  364 

Course  of  study  in  the  faculty  of  the  canon  kw  .        .        .  ib. 

The  faculty  of  medicine 365 

The  education  thus  imparted  thorough  of  its  kind       ...  ib. 

Baneful  ofFects  on  the  theology  of  the  time         ....  ib 

College  life 3g(j 

Asceticism  again  the  dominant  theory          ...        .        .  iff. 

Account  given  by  Erasmus  of  the  College  do  Montaigu       .  367 

His  account  unchallenged     ...         ....  368 

Our  t^rly  colleges  designed  only  for  poor  students       .        .  i^. 
Certain  attainmcnte  necessary  in  tliose  admitted  on  the 

foundation ^  3(j(j 

Extreme  youth  of  the  majority  at  the  time  of  their  ad- 
mission ....  ,7, 


CONTESTS.  TXXi 

MOB 

Their  treatment 36!> 

Bachelors itt. 

KcKmu  in  college A. 

The  coUcge  library                 370 

Description  of  student  life  by  a  master  of  St  John's  in  tho 

year  1530 t6. 

Ilisdcscriptioti  refers  loan  aboonnal  statu  ofoffiUrs  .        ,  371 

Other  evidence,  less  open  to  exception         ....  i6. 

Use  of  Latin  and  French  in  coDTersatidn      ....  i&. 

Fellows  required  to  be  in  residence  ....  372 
Colleges  increasing  in  wealth  to  add  to  the  namhcr  of  their 

fellowships ib. 

Autocracy  of  the  master ib. 

Tho  office  frcqaeDtlf  combined  with  other  prefermcDts       ,  ib. 

SpOBTd  ASD  PAmUES 373 

Fishing S>. 

The  river  reallj-  the  propcrtj  of  the  town      .        .        .        .  ib. 

The  rilitlits  of  tho  corporation  set  at  deBanoe  both  b;  the 

reUgioos  and  tho  anivenitj 374 

Scbolan  required  to  take  their  walks  with  a  companiaD  ib. 
Pcatnrca  of  the  andent  town  and  univorsitf        ....  ib. 
Tbe  m^ority  of  mediieval  students  actuated  bj  the  same  mo- 
tives as  those  of  modem  times 875 

A  |)ossiblc  mbority 377 

Experiences  of  one  of  the  latter  munber Si. 

Cbaf.  V.    Caubbidoe  at  the  Revival  of  Classical  Leabkho. 
I^rt  I.     7^  HujjMJiittt. 

PxT&AScn 379 

Effects  of  the  reTival  of  dusical  learning  contrasted  with 

preceding  influences '      .  3S0 

Extravagancies  of  tho  Averroists  at  this  period    .       .        .  3S1 

General  decline  in  the  attention  to  Latin  authors         .        .  ib 

Petrarch  a*  a  reformer ib. 

His  estimate  of  the  h>giciana  of  bis  day  and  of  the  uni- 
versities           382 

Hia  influence  (1)  on  Latin  tcbolanhip ;  (2)  as  a  reviver  of 

the  study  of  Greek 383 

Change  in  the  modem  estiuLite  of  hb  genios  from  tliat  of 

his  contemporaries ib. 

Reason  of  this  cliango *■ 

IlisBcrriccsinrelatiou  to  the  works  of  Cicero      .        .        -  3S4 

His  knowledge  of  PUto 385 

He  initiates  the  struggle  against  the  supremacy  of  Aristotlo  386 


XXXll 


(.'ONTFNTS. 


I  lis  position  in  relation  to  Aristotle  compared  with  that  of 
Aquinas .        .    - 

He  attacks  the  style  of  the  existing^  versions 

He  rejects  the  ethical  system  of  Aristotle     . 

The  Italian  Humanists  of  later  times    . 

Florence  and  Constantinople  contrasted 

Florence  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries 

Contrast  between  the  culture  of  the  two  cities     . 

Causes  of  variance  between  the  two  cities 

Italian  scholars  at  Constantinople 

Philclphns 

His  account  of  Greek  learning  at  Constantinople 
Emmanuel  Chrtsoloras 

His  eminence  as  a  teacher  of  Greek      .        .      «. 

His  Greek  Grammar 

His  residence  at  Rome 

Closing  years  of  his  life 

Critical  condition  of  the  eastern  empire 

He  becomes  a  convert  to  the  western  Church 

He  attends  the  council  of  Constance  as  a  delegate  of  Pope 
John  xxiT. •       t 

His  death  at  Constance 

His  funeral  oration  by  Julianus 

GUARINO         .  • 

Eminent  Englishmen  among  his  pupils         .... 

William  Gray 

MSS.  brought  by  Gray  to  England 

His  collection  bequeathed  to  Balliol  College 

Old  age  of  Guarino 

Leonardo  Bruni 

His  tratislations  of  Aristotle 

He  translates  the  Politics  at  the  request  of  Humphrey,  duke 

of  Gloucester 

Duke  Humphrey's  bequests  to  Oxford 

Novel  elements  thus  introduced 

Fall  op  Constantinople,  a.d.  1453     .        .       .        .        . 

The  flight  to  Italy 

Prior  importations  of  Greek  literature  .... 

Forebodings  of  Italian  scholars 

Lament  of  Quiriuus 

Predictions  of  iEneas  Sylvius 

His  predictions  falsified  by  the  sequel  .... 

Conduct  of  the  Greek  exiles  in  Italy    ..... 

Their  decline  in  the  general  estimation  .       . 


PAGE 

386 
387 

t». 

ib, 
388 

as9 

390 
ib, 
ib. 


391 
tb. 

392 
ib. 

393 
ib. 


394 

ib. 

ib. 
395 
396 

ib. 


ib. 
397 

ib. 

ib. 
398 
398 

ib. 

ib. 

399 

ib. 


400 

ib. 

ib. 

ib. 

ib. 
401 

ib. 
402 

1^. 


CONTENTS.  xix 

PAGE 

Difficulfcies  presented  by  the  destruction  of  the  early  univer- 
sity records 136 

Incendiary  fii-es 137 

FuUer's  view  of  the  matter           ib. 

Opportunities  thus  afforded  for  the  introduction  of  forgeries       .  ib. 

Disquiet  occasioned  by  tournaments 138 

Ileligious  orders  at  Cambridge ib. 

The  Franciscans ib. 

The  Dominicans,  Carmelites,  and  Augustine  Friars    ,        .        .  139 

The  Priory  at  Barnwell ib. 

OCJTLDIE  OF   THE    EARLY   ORGANISATION   OF  THE    EnOUSH   UNI- 
VERSITIES      ib. 

Dean  Peacock's  account  of  the  constitution  of  the  univer- 
sity of  Cambridge 140 

Authority  of  the  chancellor  .......  141 

His  powers  ecclesiastical  in  their  origin       ....  ib. 

Uis  powers  distinguished  from  those  of  the  regents  and 

non-regents 142 

Important    distinction    in  the  powers  possessed  by  the 

latter  bodies  ....                ....  142 

Powers  vested  in  the  non-regents  at  a  later  period      .       .  143 

The  proctors  .                                       .  •     .  144 

The  bedels ib. 

Scrutators  and  taxors 145 

The  working  body  formerly  the  sole  legislative  body  .        .  ib. 

The  university  recognised  at  Rome  as  SLttiidium  gencrcde  .  ib. 

Privil^es  resulting  from  the  papal  recognition    •        .  146 

The  Mendicants ib. 

Increase  of  their  power  and  decline  of  their  popularity       .  ib. 

Their  conduct  as  described  by  Matthew  Paris  147 

His  description  of  the  rivalry  between  the  two  orders  .  148 

Conflict  with  the  old  monastic  orders   .        .        .  149 

The  Franciscans  at  Bury lb. 

The  Dominicans  at  Canterbury 150 

Subserviency  of  the  new  orders  to  papal  extortion              .  ib. 
Interview  between  the  Franciscan  emissaries  and  Grosse- 

teste 151 

Rapid  degeneracy  of  the  friars 152 

Testimony  of  Roger  Bacon  to  the  general  corruption  of  the 

religious  orders  in  his  day ib. 

Death  of  Grossctesto 153 

His  services  to  his  generation ib. 

Testimony  of  Matthew  Paris  to  his  merits '''• 

His  efforts  on  behalf  of  the  new  learning ib, 

6  2 


XJXIV  CX)XTENTS. 

PIQI 

The  opposition  in  the  northern  uniTenities   ftr   more  per- 

BCTcring 421 

Causes  of  this  difference ib. 

Difference  in  the  constitution  of  the  retpectire  imiTerBitiet 

offers  a  further  explanation  of  the  htt  ....  ib. 

Victories  of  the  Humanists ift. 

Chap.  V.    Cambridge  at  the  Retital  of  Classioal  LKAmvuro. 

Part  II.    BMcpFM^r. 

John  Fisher 423 

His  parentage  and  early  education ib. 

Entered  at  Michaclhousc  ib. 

Elected  master  424 

Prosperity  of  Michaclhouse  at  this  period  ....  ib. 

Character  and  views  of  Fisher  ib. 

Eminent  men  at  Cambridge  at  this  time        ....  425 
Rotheram,  John  Barker,  VTilliam  Chuhbes  ....  ib, 

John  Argentine 426 

His  proposed  Act  in  the  schools ib. 

Robert  Hacomblene ^, 

Henry  Homeby tjt 

These,  and  other  eminent  men  in  theuniyersity,  able  workers 

but  not  reformers ,        .         tft. 

The  phenomena  of  the  age  not  of  an  inspiriting  character  •        .  427 

Fisher'sdescriptionof  the  prevalent  tone  of  the  uniyersity   .        .         ib, 

A  counter  influence      .....,,  ,  428 

Continued  progress  of  the  new  learning  in  Italy       .       .         ib, 

Demetrius  Chalcondyles 429 

His  edition  of  Homer ib. 

Angelus  PoliUanus «&. 

His  Miscellanea ib. 

Thoodorus  Gaza ib. 

Georgius  Trapezuntius .  ib. 

His  Logic ib, 

Constantino  Lascaris,   Hcrmolaus  Barbarus  and  George 

Hermonymus 430 

Early  Greek  Grammars ib. 

Sentiments  with  which  the  progress  of  the  new  learning  was 

regarded  at  Cambridge 431 

Progress  of  scepticism  in  Italy ib. 

Testimony  of  Machiavelli  and  Savonarola  to  the  depravity  of 

the  nation ib. 

Feelings  of  the  supporters  of  the  traditional  learning         .        .  432 


CONTENTS.  Xxi 

PAGE 

Theory  of  the  intentio  secunda 181 

State  of  the  controversy  prior  to  the  time  of  Duns  Sootus  .  ib. 

Theory  of  the  Arabian  commentators ib. 

Counter  theory  of  Duns  Scotus 182 

Logic,  a  science  as  well  as  an  art ib. 

Logic,  the  science  of.  sciences 183 

Important  results  of  the  introduction  of  the  Byzantine 

logic 184 

Limits  observed  by  Duns  Scotus  in  the  application  of  log^c 

to  theology ib. 

Duns  Scotus  and  Roger  Bacon  compared             .        .  185 
Long  duration  of  the  influence  of  the  former  at  the  univer- 
sities         186 

Edition  of  his  works  published  in  1639                                .  '  ib. 

Schoolmen  after  Duns  Scotus ib. 

William  of  Occam 187 

Ascendancy  of  nomibalism  in  the  schools      ....  188 

Criticism  of  Prantl ib. 

Influence  of  the  Byzantine  logic  on  the  controversy  re- 
specting imiversals 189 

Theory  of  the  supposith ib. 

Occam  the  first  to  shew  the  true  value  of  universals    .  189 
He  defines  the  limits  of  logical  enquiry  with  reference  to 

theology 191 

Consequent  effect  upon  the  subsequent  character  of  scholas- 
tic controversy 192 

The  popes  at  Avignon  opposed  by  the  English  Franciscans  .  193 

Eminent  members  of  this  fraternity  in  England  .        .        .  194 

Subserviency  of  the  court  at  Avignon  to  French  interests  .  ib. 

Dissatisfaction  in  Italy 195 

'  Indignation  in  England ib. 

The  writings  of  Occam  condemned  by  John  xxn. .      •  .  ib. 

Sympathy  evinced  with  his  doctrines  in  England  .               .  ib. 

Contrast  between  Oxford  and  Paris 196 

Anti-nominalistic  tendencies  at  the  latter  university    .  ib. 

Popularity  of  Occam's  teaching  at  Oxford    .                .        .  197 

Influence  of  nominalism  on  the  scholastic  method  ib. 

Thomas  Bradwabdine 198 

His  treatise  De  Causa  Dei ib. 

Its  extensive  influence 199 

Illustration  it  affords  of  the  learning  of  the  age    .  200 

Richard  of  Bury ib. 

His  early  career  and  experiences 201 

His  interview  with  Petrarch  at  Avignon      ....  ih. 


XXXiv  CONTENTS. 

The  opposition  in  the  iiorUiom  uniTeraitieB    far   more  per- 

eevoring 421 

Cftiues  of  this  differoDco ih. 

Difforenco  in  tho  constitution  uf  the  respective  uniTenities 

offers  a  furtlicr  oxplonalion  of  tlie  fact  ....  tb. 

Vict4)riee  of  the  Humanists ib. 

Chap.  V,    Cambkidob  at  the  Rbtital  op  Classical  Lkarning. 
Part  II.    Sit/Kip  Fither. 

John  Fishsr 423 

Eij  parentage  and  earl;  education ib. 

Entered  at  Michaolhoiisc             i&. 

Elected  master             424 

Prosperity  of  Michaelbouse  at  tliia  period           ....  ib. 

Character  and  vieirs  of  Fisher             ib. 

EUUCEKT  XES  AT  CAHBBlDOt:  AT  TIItB  TIHE  ....  42S 

RothCram,  John  Barker,  AVilUom  Chubbes  ....  ib. 

John  Argentine 426 

His  proposed  Act  in  the  schools ib. 

Robert  Hacombleue ib. 

Henry  Homeb; ib. 

These,  and  other  eminent  men  in  the  nnirerdt;,  able  workers 

but  not  reformere ib. 

The  phenomonn  of  the  age  not  of  an  inspiritint^  character  .        .        427 
Fisber'sdeBcriptionof  the  prevalent  tone  of  the  nnirersit;   .        .  ib. 

A  counter  influence .        428 

Continued  pkobrebb  ov  the  new  lbabmno  in  Italt       .       .         ib. 

Demetrius  Chalcondyles 489 

His  edition  of  Homer  .... 

Angelns  PoliUanns       .... 

His  MiteeUoMa 

Theodoras  Oasa 

Oeorgius  Tnpemntins . 

His  Logic 

Constantiue  Laacaris,  nennolaai  Bubanis  and  George 
HermfHiyniuB        ■       •       •       > 

Early  Greek  Orammars 
Sentiments  with  which  the  progreu  of  the  new  Icnming  H 

regarded  at  Cambridge 
ProgrMS  of  scepticism  in  Italy  . 
Testimony  of  MachiaTelli  and  Baroiurolft  to  Ote  d 

the  naUon 

Feelings  of  the  supporters  of  ttie  truUtiDBil 


CONTENTS. 


XXUl 


Separation  of  the  Seculars  and  Regulars 
Foundation  op  Peterhousb,  aj>.  1284       .... 

The  college  endowed  with  the  site  of  a  suppressed  priory 

Simon  Montacute  surrenders  his  right  of  presenting  to 
fellowships  on  the  foundation         .... 

Early  statutes  of  Peterhouse  (circ.  1338) 

These  statutes  copied  from  those  of  Merton  College    . 

Proficiency  in  logic  the  chief  pro-requisite  in  candidates  for 
fellowships . 

Laxity  at  the  universities  with  respect  to  dress  . 

Decree  of  archbishop  Stratford  on  this  subject 

Statute  of  Peterhouse 

The  foundation  in  its  relation  to  monastic  foundations 
Foundation  op  MicnAELnousE,  a.d.  1324   .... 

Early  statutes  of  Michaclhouso  given  by  Hervoy  do  Stanton 
Foundation  op  Pembroke  Colleoe,  a.d.  1347   . 

Marie  de  St.  Paul 

Inaccuracy  of  the  story  alluded  to  by  Gray  . 

The  original  statutes  no  longer  extant 

Leading  features  of  the  second  statutes 
Foundation  op  Gonville  Hall,  a.d.  1348 

Original  statutes  given  by  Edward  Gonville 

His  main  object  to  promote  the  study  of  theology 

Study  of  the  canon  law  permitted  but  not  obligatory  . 

William  Bateman,  bishop  of  Norwich  .... 

The  Great  Phigue  of  1349 

Its  devastations  at  the  universities 

Foundation  of  Trinity  Hall,  by  bishop  Bateman,  a.d.  1350, 
to  repair  the  losses  sustained  by  deaths  among  the 
clergy 

Statutes  of  Trinity  Hall 

The  college  designed  exclusively  for  canonists  and  civilians 

Conditions  in  elections  to  the  mastership  and  fellowships    . 

Library  presented  by  bishop  Bateman  to  the  foundation 

Bishop  Bateman  confirms  the  foundation  of  Gonville  Hall  . 

The  alteration  in  the  name  of  the  Hall         .... 

Agreement  Do  ami cahil Hate  with  the  scholars  of  Trinity 
Hall 

Statutes  given  to  Gonville  Hall  by  bishop  Bateman 
Foundation  op  Corpus  Ciiristi  College,  a.d.  1352  . 

Mr  Toulmin  Smith's  account  of  the  early  Gilds     . 

Gilds  at  Cambridge 

Designs  in  view  in  foundation  of  Corpus  Christi  College 

Its  statutes  apparently  borrowed  from  thoso  of  Michael- 
house      ....... 


PAGE 

228 

ib- 

229 

230 
ib, 
ib. 

231 
232 
233 

ib. 

lb. 
234 

ib. 
236 

ib. 


ib. 
237 
238 
239 
240 

ib. 

ib. 

ib. 
241 

ib. 


242 
ib. 
ib. 

243 
lb. 

244 

245 


246 
ib. 

247 

248 
ib. 

249 

ib. 


IV  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The  opposition  in  the  northern  uniirersities  far  more  per- 
severing          421 

Causes  of  this  difference th. 

Difference  in  the  constitution  of  the  respectiye  iiniyersities 

offers  a  further  explanation  of  the  fact  ....  ib. 

Victories  of  the  Humanists ib, 

Chap.V.    Cambridge  at  the  Revital  of  Classical  Leabnino. 

Part  II.    Bishop  FUher. 

John  Fisher 423 

His  parentage  and  early  education ib. 

Entered  at  Michaelhouse             ib. 

Elected  master            424 

Prosperity  of  Michaelhouse  at  this  period           ....  ib. 

Character  and  views  of  Fisher             ib. 

• 

EKINENt  MEN  AT  CAMBRIDGE  AT  THIS  TIME  425 

Rotheram,  John  Barker,  William  Chubbes  ....  ib. 

John  Argentine 426 

His  proposed  Act  in  the  schools ib. 

Robert  Hacomblene ib. 

Henry  Homeby ib. 

These,  and  other  eminent  men  in  the  uniyersity,  able  workers 

but  not  refonners ib. 

The  phenomena  of  the  age  not  of  an  inspiriting  character  .        .  427 

Fisher's  description  of  the  prevalent  tone  of  the  university   .       .  ib. 

A  cotmter  influence .  428 

Continued  progress  of  the  new  learning  in  Italy       .       .  ib. 

Demetrius  Chalcondyles 429 

His  edition  of  Homer ib. 

Angelus  Polifianus ib. 

"HiB  MisceUansa ib. 

Theodoms  Gaza ib. 

Georgius  Trapezuntius . ib. 

His  Logic ib. 

Constantine  Lascaris,  Hermolaus  Barbarus  and  George 

Hermonymus •        .  430 

Early  Greek  Grammars ib. 

Sentiments  with  which  the  progress  of  the  new  learning  was 

r^arded  at  Cambric^ 431 

Progress  of  scepticism  in  Italy ib. 

Testimony  of  Machiavelli  and  Savonarola  to  the  depravity  of 

the  nation •  ib. 

Feelings  of  the  supporters  of  the  traditional  learning         .        .  432 


rONTEN-TS.  XXXV 

Eu-liest  ■traces  ofBome  atUntion  to  tlio  writings  of  tiio  IIuiiuii- 

ists  at  Cambridge 433 

A  treatUe  by-Petrarch  at  Michoclhoiue ib. 

Cains  AnberiniiB  lectures  on  Terence  to  the  uniTersity       .  434 

Fiiber  at  court ib. 

He  attracta  the  notice  of  the  king's  mother,  Mai^aret,  counteas 

of  Richmond ,  434 

Bakcr'i  account  of  her  ancestry ib. 

Fiaher  at^inted  her  confessor 43$ 

Her  character ib. 

Fisher  elected  rice-chancellor ^ 

FoTND-iTioir  OF  THE  LADY  Makgarft  profebsorbhtp  .        .        .  3>. 

The  reTenaes  entrusted  to  the  abbey  of  Westminster  -        .  438 

Salarj  attached  to  the  office. ib. 

The  snbjects  selected  bj  the  lecturer  to  be  sanctioned  by 

the  authoritiee ib. 

Other  regulations 437 

Fisher  the  first  professor ib. 


Keglect  of  the  art  and  practice  of  preaching  at  this  period         .  t&. 

Preaching  discountenanced  from  fear  of  LoUardism    .        .        .  438 

Consequent  rarity  of  sermons ib. 

Artificial    and   cKtraTagant    character   of   the   preaching   in 

vogue 439 

Shelton'adeacripUoDof  the  jonng  theologians  of  his  day    .        .  1*6. 

EBbrts  towards  a  reform ib. 

Fund  bequeathed  by  Thomas  Collage  at  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge   ib. 

Bun  of  Ateiauder  ti,  aj>.  1003 ib. 

FoUSDATIOIr  OFTHB  LADTMaBOjLBBTFREACHEKSBIP.                    .  440 

Double  purpose  of  Fisher t%. 

Testimony  of  Erasmus  to  the  character  of  his  design    .        .  i(. 

Regulations  of  the  preochcrship ib. 

Fisher's  claims  to  be  regarded  as  a  roformer       ....  44X 
His  election  to  the  chancellorship  and  promotion  to  the  bishopric 

of  Ely &. 

His  influence  mtli  the  countess    .                .        .        .               .  442 

UotiTes  of  founders  m  these  times 443 

Pwign  of  the  countess  in  connexion  with  the  abbey  of  West- 


Sbe  is  dissuaded  by  the  arguments  of  Fislier       .... 

Signs)  gain  of  the  uniTCrsity 

H»roBT  or  God's  House 

Design  of  Uenry  TI 

c2 


XXXVl  CONTENTS. 

FAOI 

Accessions  to  the  revenues  of  the  society     .        •       .       •  445 

Design  of  the  lady  Margaret         ...*..  tb, 

Fisher  elected  president  of  Queens*  College        ...»  446 

Foundation  of  Christ's  College,  a.d.  150o        ....  tb. 

Estates  settled  on  the  society  by  the  lady  Margaret   .  447 

Other  bequests  to  the  college 448 

The  countess  yisits  Cambridge  in  1505 ib. 

HSB  SECOND  YISIT  WITH  KING  HeNKT  IK  1606       ....  tb. 

King  Henry's  reception 449 

Fisher's  oration  to  king  Henry ib. 

His  excessiye  adulation ib. 

Traditions  concerning  the  foundation  of  the  university        .  450 
Fisher's  acknowledgement  of  the  favours  he  had  himself  . 

receWed ib. 

llie  procession  through  the  town 4H 

King  Henry  attends  service  in  King's  College  chapel .  ib. 

Incomplete  condition  of  the  building ib. 

Good  effects  resulting  possibly  from  the  royal  vi8it      .        .  452 
The  monarch's  subsequent  bequests  for  the  completion  of 

the  chapel ib. 

His  fi^fts  to  Great  St  Mary's  and  to  the  university       .        .  ib. 

Erasmus  is  admitted  B.D.  and  D.D.            ib. 

He  becomes  the  friend  and  guest  of  Fisher         ....  453 

Original  statutes  of  Christ's  College,  a.d.  1506   .       .       .  t^. 
Numerous  restrictions  imposed  upon  the  authority  of  the 

master 454 

The  conditions  compared  with  those   imposed  at  Jesus 

College ib. 

Residence  strictly  enforced ib. 

Half-yearly  accounts  to  be  rendered  of  the  college  finances  .  t&. 

Qualifications  required  for  fellowships 455 

Preference  to  be  given  to  north  countrymen        ,        ,        ,  ib. 

Form  of  oath  at  election ib. 

The  form  compared  vnth  that  prescribed  at  Jesus  College  .  ib. 

Clause  against  dispensations  from  the  oath  ....  ib. 

Precedent  for  this  clause  in  statutes  of  King's  College         .  456 

Question  raised  by  dean  Peacock  in  connexion  with  this  clause  ib. 

The  clause  originally  aimed  at  dispensations  from  Rome     .  457 
Clause  in  the  form  of  oath  administered  to  the  master  of 

Christ's  College     ....        :       .        ;        .  458 
Probable  explanation  of  the  retention  of  the  clause  in  sub- 
sequent revisions  of  the  statutes   ib. 

The  scholars  to  be  sufficiently  Instructed  in  grammar  and 

to  be  trained  in  arts  and  theology         ....  ib. 


CONTENTS.  Xllvii 

Proviaioti  for  the  ailnusBipD  of  penaionen  of  Approved  di^- 

meter 408 

A  college  lecturer  appointed 4JS9 

Bis  lecture  to  include  readings  from  the  poets  and  orators  .  ib. 

Lcctnres  to  be  given  in  the  long  vacation      ....  460 

Fiaher  appointed  visitor  for  life it, 

AUowance  for  commoua tit 

Olyect  of  these  restrictions ib. 

Tlie  saioe  amoaut  subseqaeotlj  prescribud  ia  the  stotutes  of 
SL  John's  and  maintained  by  Fisher  thronghont  bis 

life 461 

Portnnateresult  of  thisfrugalit; ib. 

PftorosED  TOvitDiTios  OF  St.  John's  Collboz,  by  thb  last 

Uaboaaet lb.  ' 

The  Boepita]  of  the  Brethren  of  St.  John     ....  tfi. 

Its  condition  at  the  commencement  of  the  16tli  century       .  462 

Its  proposed  dissolution ib. 

Eudomuents  set  apart  by  the  lady  Margaret  for  the  now 

coUege ib. 

King  Henry  gives  his  assent ib. 

Death  of  king  Henry  and  of  tlie  lady  Margaret    .                .  463 

Fisher  preaches  her  funeral  sermon 464 

Charterof  thefoondation  ofSt- John's  Coll«^,  IBll  .        .  ib. 

Robert  Shorten  Brat  master  .......  »6. 

Executors  of  the  lady  Margaret 4M 

Lovell,  Pox,  Asliton,  Hornby ib. 

The  burden  devolves  miunly  on  Fisher         ....  ib. 
The  revenues  bequeathed  by  the  lady  Margaret  to  the  col- 
lege become  subject  to  the  royal  disposal        .               .  466 
Apparent  contradiction  in  the  royal  licence                 .  ib. 
Bishop  Stanley  opposes  the  dissolution  of  the  hospital .  ib. 

His  chatActer i&. 

The  executors  obtain  a  bnll  from  Rome  for  the  dis8oluti(»i .  467 

This  proves  defective Sk 

A  second  bull  is  obtained i^. 

Dissolntion  of  the  hospital dh 

The  coU^e  still  in  embryo 46*t 

Decisionin  the  court  of  chancery  in  favour  of  the  college    -  *. 

A  second  suit  is  instituted  bj  the  cronn      ....  ib. 

The  executors  abandon  tlieir  claioi ib. 

The  loss  thus  sustained  attributetl  to  Wolsey's  inBuence  ib. 

Motives  by  which  he  was  probably  aetnaleJ  ....  469 
The  executors  obtain  the  1  ospit«l  at  Ospringe  as  a  partial 

compensation *b. 


•  •  • 


XXXVm  CONTENTS. 

PAOK 

Baker's  observations  respecting  the  lost  estates  .        .        .  469 
Formal  opening  of  the  College  of  8t.  John  the  Evangelist, 

-  July,  1516 470 

Fisher  presides  at  the  ceremony ib. 

Thirty-one  fellows  elected ib. 

Alan  Percy  succeeds  Shorton  as  master       ....  ib. 

The  statutes  given  identical  with  those  of  Christ's  College  .  ib. 

Illustration  they  afford  of  Fisher's  character        .        .        .  471 
The  clauses  against  innovations  contrasted  with  a  clause  in 

Colet*s  statutes  of  St.  Paul's  School       .                .        ,  '     ib, 

Ebasmus 472 

His  second  visit  to  Cambridge,  1509-10 ib. 

Object  of  his  visit ib. 

Circumstances  that  led  to  his  selection  of  Cambridge  in  pre- 
ference to  Paris,  Italy,  Louvain,  or  Oxford    .        ,        .  473-6 

Friends  of  Erasmus  at  Oxford 476 

Probable  reasons  why  he  did  not  return  to  Oxford                     .  477 
Outline  of  the  bistort  of  the  introduction  of  Greek  into 

England  in  the  fifteenth  century  ....  ib. 

William  Selling ib. 

Studies.Greek  in  Italy  under  Politian ib. 

Thomas  Linacre 478 

The  pupil  of  Selling  at  Christchurch  and  of  Yitelli  at 

Oxford    •••....•..  ib. 

He  accompanies  Selling  to  Italy  '..*...  ib. 

Becomes  a  pupil  of  Politian  .......  ib. 

Makes  the  acquaintance  of  Hermolaus  Barbarus  at  Rome  .  479 

Important  results  of  their  subsequent  intercourse       .        .  ib. 
Influence  of  his  example  at  Oxford  on  Grocyn,  Lily,  imd 

Latimer t^. 

Different  candidates  for  the  title  of  restorer  of  Greek  learn- 
ing in  Engknd ib. 

Testimony  of  Erasmus  to  the  merits  of  his  Oxford  friends  .        .  480 

Debt  of  Cambridge  to  Oxford i"&. 

Gibbon's  dictum .  {^^ 

Where  and  when  Erasmus  acquired  his  knowledge  of  Greek       .  481 

Chiefly  indebted  to  liis  own  efforts       .        .        .        .        .        .  ib. 

Progress  of  Greek  studies  at  Oxford ift. 

Linacrc's  translations i^. 

The  odium  theologicum 482 

The  study  of  Greek  sanctioned  in  the  fourteenth  century  by 

papal  decree t&. 

Subsequent  omission  of  Greek   in  the  text  of  the  Clemen- 
tines         ib. 


CONTENTS. 


XXIX 


Results  of  monastic  industry  not  to  be  confounded  with  re«ison8 
for  the  original  selection  of  monastic  sites     . 

Instance  from  Matthew  Paris 

The  Fen  Country  as  described  by  the  chroniclers 

Change  in  the  monastic  practice  in  the  selection  of  new  sites 

The  change  shewn   to  bo  at  yariance  with  their  professed 

theory 

Poggio  Bracciolini  and  the  Fratres  Observantice 

The  mediae?al  theory  that  on  which  Poggio  insisted 

Sounder  views  held  only  by  a  few 

The  theory  not  without  an  element  of  truth 

The  university  originally  only  a  Grammar  School 

The  JIf agister  OhmericB 

Course  of  study  pursued  by  the  student  of  grammar 
Introduction  of  the  arts  course  of  study  at  Cambridge 
Intercourse  between  Paris  and  the  English  universities 
Assistance  afforded  by  the  statute  books  of  the   university 
of  Paris  in  investigating  the  antiquities  of  the  English 

universities 

Inferior  position  of  grammar  students  compared   with   that 

held  by  students  in  arts 

Causes  which  conduced  to  this  result  ...... 

The  grammcUicus  at  this  time  nothing  more  than  a  school- 
master       

The  class  as  described  by  Erasmus 

I    EXPEEIENOES  AND  COURSE  OF  AN  ARTS  STUDENT  DESCRIRED  . 

Average  age  at  time  of  entry 

Master  and  scholar 

University  aids  to  poor  scholars    .        .        .        .        . 

Practice  of  mendicity  by  the  scholars 

Restrictions  imposed  upon  the  practice        .... 

Dress  of  the  scholar 

Assumption  of  academic  dress  by  those  not  entitled  to 

wear  it 

Instruction  in  grammar  to  some  extent  preliminary  to  the 

arts  course      ...  

Foundation  of  grammar  schools  discouraged  throughout 

the  country 

Concession  made  in  1431       ....... 

Foundation  of  God's  House,  A.D.  1439  .... 

Grammar  always  included  in  the  arts  course 

Logic      ........... 

The  Summulce  of  Petrus  Hispanus 

Rhetoric 


PAGE 

335 

i&. 

336 

337 


t&. 
339 

lb. 
340 

i&. 

ib. 
341 
342  • 

lb. 


343 

1^ 
ib, 

344 
345 

ib, 

ib. 
346 
347 

ib. 
348 

lb. 


ib. 


349 

ib. 
ib. 


ib. 

ib. 
350 

ib. 
351 


xl  CONTENTS. 

FAGK 

John  Fawne,  Richard  Whitford,  and  Richard  Sampson              .  500 

Gerard  the  bookseller *• 

Views  of  Erasmuff  compared  with  those  prevalent  in  the  uni- 

Toraity  during  his  stay 5^1 

His  estimate  of  different  fathers ^' 

St  Chrysostom,  St.  Jerome,  and  Origen ib. 

St  Hilary M2 

Nicholas  de  Lyra  and  Hugo  of  St  Victor ib. 

The  Hierarchy  of  Dionysius 503 

His  Cambridge  experiences  of  a  trying  character        ...  ib. 

Minor  sources  of  dissatisfaction 504 

His  pecuniary  circumstances 505 

Erasmus's  last  Cambridge  letter          .......  ib. 

The  last  glimpse  of  Erasmus  at  Cambridge         ....  506 

Counter  testimony  of  Erasmus  in  favour  of  Cambridge       .        .  507 

Progress  of  theology  in  the  university ib. 

His  praise  of  three  colleges  ib. 
His  own  language  and  that  of  his  biogrr^phers  implies  a  sense 

offailure 508 

His  failure  apparent  rather  than  real ib. 

His  Novum  Instrumentum        • ib. 

The  outcome  of  his  work  in  England  and  of  English  patronage  .  509 

Professor  Brewer's  criticism       .......  ib. 

Defects  and  errors  in  the  work    .......  510 

Its  great  merit 511 

Bullock's  letter  to  Erasmus,  August,  1516           ....  ib. 
Favorable  reception  of  the  Novum  Instrumentum  among  influ- 
ential men ib. 

Leo  X  accepts  the  dedication 512 

Counter  demonstrations  at  Cambridge ib. 

Sarcastic  allusions  in  the  commentary  of  the  Novum  Inttru- 

mentum         . ib. 

He  attacks  the  secular  clergy,  the  monks,  the  Mendicants  and 

the  schoolmen •       •  ib. 

Erasmus's  reply  to  Bullock,  Aug.  31, 1516 513 

He  attacks  his  opponents  with  acrimony 514 

Justifies  himself  by  the  precedent  afforded  by  the  new  versions 

of  Aristotle ib. 

Refers  to  the   distinguished   approval   which  his  work    had 

already  obtained 515 

Compares  the  Cambridge  of  1516  with  that  of  thirty  years 

previous.        .        .        .        .        .        ,        .        ,        ,  ib, 

Hopes  his  work  may  load  men  to  study  the  Scriptures  more 

and  to  trouble  themselves  less  with  qutpsfiones            .  ib. 


lU 


BdieTeaposteritj.wiU  do  hini  more  justice         .        ,       ,       ,  51c 

Hi*  imdiction  fnlGUed 517 

Tbe  mlycct  at  Greek  coDtinuc*  to  excite  the  cbief  interest  at 

.  Cninbridge ib. 

B17U1  Icctnrcs  in  the  schools  from  the  new  versions  of  Aristotlo  ib. 

Sir  Robert  Rode  founds  the  Rede  lecturoahip*           .        .        .  BIS 
Senie  of  the  importooco  of  Greek  induced  by  tbe  controTeny 

respecting  the  Noeum  Irutrumetttitm  ....  H. 

Erumns  again  Tiaits  England 16. 

His  tostimoa;  to  the  cluui^  at  Cambridge         ....  SI9 

Fiiher  aspires  to  a  knowledge  of  Greek {6. 

&nbarrusment  of  his  friends ib. 

'l^timer  declines  tho  office  of  instructor tft. 

Cambridge  also  in  wont  of  a  teacher  of  Greek     ,        ,        .        .  S20 

FotnroATiox  or  Coxpua  Ceuibti  Colleob,  Oitobd,  a.  d.  1616    .  611 

Bisbt^  Fox's  statutes ib. 

Bohlnessof  his  innovations  on  the  cuBtomor;  studies  .  S22 

Affiearaiice  of  Erasmus's  iVopum  Tetlamenlum         .  523 

He  discards  the  Vulgate  translation ib. 

Statb  or  FECLiao  at  Oxpobd    ........  ib. 

The  earlier  teachers  of  Greek  no  longer  rcsidout .  324 

Condnct  of  tbe  Oxford  atndents ib, 

Grecians  vertut  Trojans 16. 

More  remonstrates  with  the  nniversitjautiiorities  on  bohatf 

of  theGreciotiR S2S 

He  contrasts  the  disposition  shewn  by  the  Oxonians  with 

that  of  the  Cantabrigians ib. 

A  rofal  letter  to  the  university  secnree  tho  Grecians  from 

fnrther  inolcstation 026 

Woiaejr,  in  tbe  following  jrear,  fonnds  «  chair  of  Greek  at 

Oxford 16, 

EicHARD  C&oKB 027 

Befriended  bj  Erasmus i^. 

His  career  on  tho  continent &>. 

He  retama  to  Cambridge  and  lectures  on  Greek  to  the  uni- 
versity      628 

Is  appointed  Greek  reader  in  1519 ib. 

His  antecedents  better  fitted  than  those  of  Erasmus  to  dis- 
arm hostility ib. 

Ilirinaugnratoratlon,  July,  1519 S29 

OalJine  of  bis  oration 529-37 

Merits  of  tlie  oration S37 

Tbe  oration  compared  witb  thit  delivered  by  Mclanclitlion 

at  Wittenberg  in  tlie  preceding  year     ....  t6. 

Cruke'a  second  oration 639 


Xlii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Oxford**  Cambridge  colony* 639 

Retortof  Anthony  Wood ib. 

Institution  of  the  office  of  Public  Orator,  ▲•  d.  1622     .       •  ib. 

Croke  elected  for  life   ...*•••       •  ib, 

John  Skelton 640 

Hifl  satirical  verses  on  the  attention  now  given  to  Greek  at 

Cambridge ib. 

TnOHAS  WOLSEY 641 

His  relations  to  Cambridge ib. 

He  declines  the  chancellorship ib, 

Fisher  elected  for  life 642 

Wdscy  visits  Cambridge,  a.  d.  1620 ib, 

Fisher  absent  on  the  occasion 643 

Relations  of  Fisher  to  Wolsey ib, 

Fisher  and  Wolsey  at  the  council  of  1618     ....  ib. 
Contrast  presented  between  the  two  prelates  on  that  oc- 
casion             .        .  644 

Wolsey's  relations  to  Cambridge 646 

Bullock's  congratulatory  oration 646 

Crossness  of  his  flattery        . ib. 

Peroration  of  his  speech 547 

Wolsey's  victims  at  the  universities ib, 

Stafford,  Skelton,  and  Pace 548 

Oxford  surrenders  its  statutes  to  be  altered  at  Wolsey's 

pleasure 549 

The  precedent  followed  by  Cambridge ib, 

Fiddes*s  criticism  on  the  Cambridge  address       •        .        .  ib, 

A  humiliating  episode  in  the  history  of  both  universities     .  660 

Royal  visits  to  Cambridge 551 

Foundation  of  Cardinal  College,  Oxford       ....  ib. 

Scholars  from  Cambridge  placed' on  the  foundation     .       .  562 


Chap.  VI.    Cahbbidge  at  the  Reformation. 

Different  theories  respecting  the  origin  of  the  Reformation 

The  Reformation  in  England  began  at  Cambridge 

The  Reformation  not  a  developement  of  Lollardism  but  to  be 

traced  to  the  influence  of  Erasmus's  New  Testament 
Bilney's  testimony        ...  .... 

Proclamation  of  Indulgences  by  Leo  x.        .        .        .        , 

Copy  affixed  by  Fisher  to  the  gate  of  the  common  schools 

Act  of  Peter  de  Valence 

His  excommtmication 

Prospects  of  reform  prior  to  a.  d.  1617 


653 
656 

*^. 
656 

ib, 

ib, 

657 

ib, 

ib. 


•  •  • 


CH^NTKNTS.  XXXUl 

PAOR 

Bkssarion 403 

His  patriotic  zoal ib. 

His  efforts  towards  tbe  union  of  the  Okurches      ,        ,       ,  ib. 

His  conyersion  to  the  western  Chorch  .....  404 

His  example  productive  of  little  result         ....  ib, 

Greek  becomes  associated  with  heresy 405 

Aboyropulos ib* 

Devotes  himself  to  improving  the  knowledge  of  Aristotle    .  ib. 

Admitted  excellence  of  his  translations        ....  ib. 

His  depreciation  of  Cicero  as  a  philosopher  ....  406 

His  other  literary  labours i6. 

Reuchlin  and  Argyropulos 407 

Learning  in  Germany ib. 

jEneas  Sylvius  and  Gregory  Heimburg         ....  408 

The  Italian  scholar  and  German  jurist  contrasted                .  ib, 

Hegius ib. 

'     His  school  at  Deventer 409 

Rudolf  von  liange ib. 

His  innovations  on  the  traditional  methods  of  instruction    .  ib. 

John  Wessel ib. 

He  disputes  the  authority  of  Aquinas ib. 

RUDOLPHUS  AORICJOIiA             ........  410 

His  Z>«  Fonnando  Studio    .......  ib. 

He  regards  natural  science  as  ancillary  to  philosophy  .        .  411 

Use  of  the  native  language  in  classical  studies      ...  ib. 

Acquired  knowledge  to  be  not  only  stored  but  assimilated  .  ib. 

Real  novelty  of  thought  in  this  treatise        .                        .  412 

His  De  Inretitione,  a  popular  treatise  on  logic             .        .  ib. 

GkNXRAL  CONCLUSIONS  FROM  THE  FOREOOINO  OUTLINE  .          .          .  413 

Italian  and  German  scholarship  compared   ....  ib. 

Their  respective  affinities  to  the  Reformation      .        .        .  414 
The  forebodings  of  Gr^ory  and  Alcuin  partially  verified  by 

the  result 415 

The  Humanists  and  the  religious  orders 416 

The  Humanists  and  the  universities ib. 

Progress  of  Nominalism  at  the  universities ib. 

Attitude  of  the  universities  with  respect  to  the  new  learning  417 

The  Humanists  attack  the  civilians 418 

Valla  at  the  university  of  Pavia ib. 

Comparison  instituted  by  an  eminent  jurist  between  Oicero  and 

Bartolus 419 

Valla's  attack  on  Bartolus ib. 

Poggio  and  the  canonists 4*20 

c 


xliv  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

King  Ifenry.and  Fisher  write  against  Luther     ....  572 

Meetings  of  the  Reformers  at  Cambridge    .....  t&. 

The  Wuite  Horse t&. 

The  inn  becomes  known  as  '  Germany '         •        »       •       •  573 

Participators  in  the  movement     •....•  t&. 

Character  of  their  proceedings t&. 

The  Cambridge  Reformers  not  all  young  men     ....  574 
Circum^tanct's  th^t  plead  in  their  behalf  in  connexion  with  their 

subsequent  career ib. 

Their  meetii^  reported  in  Jjondon     i. 575 

Wolsey  declines  to  appoint  a  commission  of  enquiry  .  ib, 

Barnes*  scrmonion  Christmas  Eve ib. 

Articles  lodged  against  him  with  the  vice-chancellor  .        .        . .  576 

He  is  confronted  with  his  accusers  in  the  schools        ...  ib. 
The  proceedings  interrupted  by  demonstrations  on  the  part  of 

the  students 577 

His  second  examination,  which  is  similarly  interrupted      .        .  578 

He  refuses  to  sign  a  revocation ib, 

Wolsey  resolves  on  energetic  measures ib. 

Search  made  for  Lutheran  books  at  Cambridge  ....  ib, 

Barnes  is  arrested  and  conveyed  to  London        ....  ib. 

His  trial  before  Fisher  and  other  bishops  at  Westminster  .        .  ib. 

His  narrative  of  the  conclusion 579 

Hugh  Latimer 580 

His  early  career  and  character 581 

He  attacks  Melanchthon ib. 

His  position  in  the  university ib. 

He  is  co^iverted  by  Bilney ib. 

He  becomes  his  intimate  associate 582 

Effects  of  his  example ib. 

Bishop  West  attends  Latimer^s  sermon        ....  583 

He  requests  Latimer  to  preach  against  Luther    .        .        .  ib. 

West  inhibits  Latimer  from  preaching .        .        .        .        .  584 

Latimer  preaches  at  the  church  of  the  Augustinian  friars   .  ib. 

Latimer  is  summoned  before  Wolsey  in  London  ...  ib. 

Wolsey  licenses  Latimer  to  preach        .        •        .        .        .  ib. 

Sir  Thomas  More  elected  high  steward ib. 

Absorbing  attention  given  to  Luther's  writings  throughout  Europe  585 

General  disquietude  of  the  times ib. 

Natural  phenomena 586 

Predictions  of  the  almanac  makers tj. 

Appearance  of  William  TyndaJe's  New  Testament       ...  587 
His  translation  exactly  what  Erasmus  had  expressed  the  great- 
est desire  to  see i^^ 


xlv 


Reuoti  of  the  dislike  with  which  it  KU  now  regarded        ,       , 
Ennniu  writet  t>e  Libero  Arbitrio  agsiott  Luther  . 
Bis  ene-nies  denoance  him  u  the  c&nae  of  the  Refonn&tion 

William  Tthmle 

Probabl;  »  papil  uf  Croke  but  imt  of  Emxnius     . 

Hin  rominiBcences  of  Oxford 

HeleavaCambridge,  circ.  1521 

His  life  At  LitUe  tiodburj 

CmuEBT  TrxniL 

HUchknMter 

His  temporising  policy 

His  writiiig* 

His  De  Arte  Supputandi 

TTDdide  and  Tonstal 

I^Fnd&le's  attainnieiitB  as  t,  scholar  nndicated  .... 
Canon  Westcott's  gammary  of  the  question         .... 

Tjndtde  Lutheran  in  respect  to  doctrine 

Otange  in  the  thedogical  tendendes  of  the  Cambridge  Re- 
formers ....  

Alarm  niaed  bj  archbishop  Lee  on  the  appearance  of  Tyndale'a 

Kew  Testament 

Demand  for  the  wotk  in  England  ....'■. 
The  rdmne  homt  by  Tniutal  at  Panl's  Cross      .... 

Progress  of  Cardinal  College 

MotiTM  that  poswbly  goided  the  wledJon  of  the  Cambridge 

Mndenta 

The  aid  tbna  rendered  to  Oxford  not  superflaoiis        .        .       . 

Deatii  of  Linacre 

The  IJnacre  lectureships 

'Hte  Cambridge  students  at  Cardinal  College     .... 

Their  treatment  by  WoUey 

Proceedings  against  the  Reformers  at  Cambridge       ,        ,        , 

George  Joye  escapes  to  Straasbarg 

fizaaunation  of  Arthur  and  Bilney  at  Westminster     . 

Articles  against  Arthur , 

His  recantation ,       , 

Articles  against  Bilney  .  

He  recants  a  second  time 

gkelton's  satire  of  the  Camtwidge  Reformers      .... 

Death  of  StaSbrd 

LaUmer's  Sermona  on  the  Card 

Bockeobam  attempts  to  reply  to  LaUmer  ■  >  >  ■  > 
Spread  of  the  controrersy  in  the  nniTersity  i  •  •  • 
The  contest  stopped  by  royal  interrention  .        ,       ,       •     .  ■ 


XXXvi  CONTENTS. 

PAOB 

AccessioDB  to  the  revenues  of  the  society    •       •       •       •  446 

Design  of  the  lady  Margaret         ...•••  ib, 

Fisher  elected  president  of  Queens*  College        ...»  446 

FoundationofCnmsT's  College,  A.D.  1505        ....  t^. 

Estates  settled  on  the  society  by  the  lady  Margaret   ...  447 

Other  bequests  to  the  college 448 

The  countess  visits  Cambridge  in  1505 ib. 

Her  second  visit  with  kino  Henry  in  1506     ....  •&. 

King  Henry's  reception 449 

Fisher's  oration  to  king  Henry t^* 

His  excessive  adulation tb. 

Traditions  concerning  the  foundation  of  the  university        .  450 
Fisher's  acknowledgement  of  the  favours  he  had  himself  . 

receWed tb. 

ITie  procession  through  the  town 4^1 

King  Henry  attends  service  in  King's  College  chapel .  ib. 

Incomplete  condition  of  the  building ib. 

Good  effects  resulting  possibly  from  the  royal  vi8it              .  452 
The  monarch's  subsequent  bequests  for  the  con)]>letion  of 

the  chapel tb. 

His  gifts  to  Great  St  Mary's  and  to  the  university              .  ib. 

Erasmus  is  admitteil  B.D.  and  D.D.            ib» 

He  becomes  the  friend  and  guest  of  Fisher         ....  453 

Original  statittes  of  Christ's  College,  a.d.  1506   .       .       .  ib. 
Numerous  restrictions  imposed  upon  the  authority  of  the 

master 454 

The  conditions  compared  with  those   imposed  at  Jesus 

CoUege ib. 

Residence  strictly  enforced ' .  t^. 

Half-yearly  accounts  to  be  rendered  of  the  college  finances  .  ib. 

Qualifications  required  for  fellowships 455 

Preference  to  be  given  to  north  countrymen        ...  t^. 

Form  of  oath  at  election t^. 

The  form  compared  with  that  prescribed  at  Jesus  College  .  ib. 

Clause  against  dispensations  from  the  oath  ....  ib. 

Precedent  for  this  clause  in  statutes  of  King's  College         .  456 

Question  raised  by  dean  Peacock  in  connexion  with  this  clause  ib. 

The  clause  originally  aimed  at  dispensations  from  Rome     .  457 
Clause  in  the  form  of  oath  administered  to  the  master  of 

Christ*s  College     ....:.:.  458 
Probable  explanation  of  the  retention  of  the  clause  in  sab- 
sequent  revisions  of  the  statutes ib. 

The  scholars  to  be  suflSdently  instructed  in  grammar  and 

to  be  trained  in  arts  and  theology        ....  ib. 


CONTENTS.  XXXvii 

ProTiflion  for  the  adnuBsioii  of  pensioners  of  approved  cha^ 

racier 458 

A  college  lecturer,  appointed 459 

His  lecture  to  include  readings  from  the  poets  and  orators  .  ti^. 

Lectures  to  be  given  in  the  long  vacation      ....  460 

Fisher  appointed  visitor  for  life     ......  ti^. 

Allowance  for  commons ib, 

Olject  of  these  restrictions ib. 

The  same  amount  subsequently  prescribed  in  the  statutes  of 
St  John's  and  maintained  by  Fisher  throughout  his 

life. 461 

Fortunate  result  of  this  frugality ib, 

PSOPOSSD  rOUNDATION   OF  St.  JoHN*S    COLLEGE,   BY  THE   LADY 

Maboaret .  ib. 

The  Hospital  of  the  Brethren  of  St.  John     ....  ib. 

Its  condition  at  the  commencement  of  the  16th  century       .  462 

Its  proposed  dissolution ib. 

Endowments  set  apart  by  the  lady  Margaret  for  the  new 

college ti^. 

King  Henry  gives  his  assent         ......  ib. 

Death  of  king  Henry  and  of  the  lady  Margaret    .                .  463 

Fisher  preaches  her  funeral  sermon 464 

Charter  of  the  foundation  of  St.  John's  Collie,  1511  .        .  ib. 

Robert  Shortion  first  master  ........  ib. 

Executors  of  the  lady  Margaret 465 

Lovell,  Fox,  Ashton,  Horuby ib. 

The  burden  devolves  mainly  on  Fisher         ....  ib. 

The  revenues  bequeathed  by  the  lady  Margaret  to  the  col- 
lege become  subject  to  the  royal  disposal        .        .        .  466 

Apparent  contradiction  in  the  royal  licence         .        .        .  ib. 

Bishop  Stanley  opposes  the  dissolution  of  the  hospital .  ib. 

His  character ib. 

The  executors  obtain  a  bull  from  Rome  for  the  dissolution .  467 

This  proves  defective t^. 

A  second  bull  is  obtained ib. 

Dissolution  of  the  hospital t^. 

The  college  still  in  embryo 468 

Decision  in  the  court  of  chancery  in  favour  of  the  college  ib. 

A  second  suit  is  instituted  by  the  crown      ....  ib. 

The  executors  abandon  their  claim ib. 

The  loss  thus  sustained  attributed  to  Wolsey's  influence  ib. 

Motives  by  which  be  was  probably  actuated  ....  469 

The  executors  obtain  the  i  ospital  at  Ospringe  as  a  partial 

compensation ib. 


XXXVlll  CONTENTS. 

PAOI 

Baker's  observatioiui  respecting  the  lost  estates  .        .       .  469 
Formal  opening  of  the  College  of  St.  John  the  EvaDgelist, 

<  July,  1516 470 

Fisher  presides  at  the  ceremony ib. 

Thirty-one  fellows  elected ib, 

Alan  Percy  succeeds  Shorton  as  master       ....  ib. 

The  statutes  given  identical  with  those  of  Christ's  College  .  ib, 

Illustnition  they  afford  of  Fisher's  character                        .  471 
The  clauses  against  innovations  contrasted  with  a  clause  in 

Colet's  statutes  of  St.  Paul's  School       .        .        .        ,  '     ib, 

Erasmus 472 

His  second  visit  to  Cambridge,  1509-10 ib. 

Object  of  his  visit ib. 

Circumstances  that  led  to  his  selection  of  Cambridge  in  pre- 
ference to  Paris,  Italy,  Louvain,  or  Oxford    .        .        .  473-6 

Friends  of  Erasmus  at  Oxford 476 

Probable  reasons  why  he  did  not  return  to  Oxford                     .  477 
Outline  of  the  history  of  the  introduction  of  Greek  into 

England  in  the  fifteenth  century  ....  ib. 

William  Selling ib. 

Studies  Greek  in  Italy  under  Politian ib, 

Thomas  Linacre 478 

The  pupil  of  Selling  at  Cbristchurch  and  of  Vitelli  at 

Oxford ib. 

H&  accompanies  Selling  to  Italy ' ib. 

Becomes  a  pupil  of  Politian ib. 

Makes  the  acquaintance  of  Hcrmolaus  Barbarus  at  Rome  .  479 

Important  results  of  their  subsequent  intercourse       .        .  ib. 
Influence  of  his  example  at  Oxford  on  Grocyn,  Lily,  and 

Latimer t^. 

Different  candidates  for  the  title  of  restorer  of  Greek  learn- 
ing in  England ib. 

Testimony  of  Erasmus  to  the  merits  of  his  Oxford  friends  .        .  480 

Debt  of  Cambridge  to  Oxford t&. 

Gibbon's  dictum ,  {^^ 

Where  and  when  Erasmus  acquired  his  knowledge  of  Greek       .  481 

Chiefly  indebted  to  his  own  efforts       .                               .        .  (i,. 

Progress  of  Greek  studies  at  Oxford ib. 

Linacre^s  translations i^. 

The  odium  theoiogicum, 4g2 

The  study  of  Greek  sanctioned  in  the  fourteenth  century  by 

papal  decree /?>. 

Subsequent  omission  of  Greek   in  the  text  of  the  Clemen- 
tines   ib. 


CONTENTS.  J 

The  Gre^  btlben  begiii  to  be  better  known      .... 
Their  influence  on  the  views  of  emineDt  Homanuts     .       •       , 

Vitrariiu 

Eranuus 

Colet  and  Reuclilin 

Tme  cause  of  the  dislike  diewn  to  the  Greek  fkthen  bj  the 

opposite  part; 

Spirit  of  the  Greek  and  the  Latin  theologj  eontnuted 
Pontion  assumed  by  the  aDti-Augustinian  psrty 

Permanence  of  Augustine'*  influence 

Stoiy  from  Euaebiua 

Greek  studios  begin  to  be  regarded  ss  heretical 

Renchlin's  experience  at  Basel 

Prevalence  of  the  Kame  spirit  at  Oxford 

Character  of  ErasDius 

Indications  of  character  afforded  in  his  letters    .... 

Luther  on  Erasmus 

Impulsiveness  of  Erasmus's  character 

Coutradictorj  character  of  his  criticisms  on  Rome,  Italj,  Holland 

and  England 

His  portrait  as  analysed  by  Layater  

His  first  lecture  at  Cambridge 

His  previous  career  an  example  to  the  student  .... 

Uncertain  chronology  of  his  Cambridge  lettOTB    .... 

Ammonius  of  Lucca      ......... 

Erasmus  appointed  lady  Margaret  professor  of  divinity 
Failure  of  his  hopes  as  a  teacher  of  Greek  .... 

Uis  account  of  his  disappointments  and  exaggerated  sense  of 

His  literary  labours  while  resident 

Ilioir  vast  importance 

Ko  record  of  any  collision  on   his  part  with  the  Cambridge 

theologians 

Forewarped  bj  Colct 

protected  by  Fisher 

His  admiration  of  Fislier's  character 

His  influence  on  Fisher 

His  influence  ou  other  members  of  the  university 

Henry  Bullock 

William  Goneil 

John  Bryan 

Robert  Aldrich 

J(An  Watson 

Ilia  letter  to  Bnumas 


xl  CONTKNTS. 

PAGE 

John  Fawne,  Richard  Whitford,  and  Richard  Sampson              .  600 

Gerard  the  bookseller v^* 

Views  of  Erasmus  compared  with  those  prevalent  in  the  uni- 

Torsity  dming  his  stay 501 

His  estimate  of  different  fathers t&. 

St  Ghrysostom,  St  Jerome,  and  Origen ib. 

St  Hilary 502 

Nicholas  de  Lyra  and  Hugo  of  St  Victor ib. 

The  Hierarchy  of  Dionysios 603 

His  Cambridge  experiences  of  a  trying  character         .        .        .  f&. 

Minor  sources  of  dissatisfaction 504 

His  pecuniary  circumstances 505 

Erasmus's  last  Cambridge  letter ib. 

The  last  glimpse  of  Erasmus  at  Cambridge         ....  506 

Counter  testimony  of  Erasmus  in  &vour  of  Cambridge        .        .  507 

Progress  of  theology  in  the  university ib. 

His  praise  of  three  colleges         .......  ib. 

His  own  language  and  that  of  his  biographers  implies  a  sense 

offailure 508 

His  failure  apparent  rather  than  real ib. 

His  Novum  Instrumentum ib. 

The  outcome  of  his  work  in  England  and  of  English  patronage  .  509 

Professor  Brewer's  criticism ib. 

Defects  and  errors  in  the  work 610 

Its  great  merit 511 

Bollock's  letter  to  Erasmus,  August,  1616  ib. 
Favorable  reception  of  the  Novum  Instrumentum  among  influ- 
ential men ib, 

Leo  X  accepts  the  dedication 612 

Coonter  demonstrations  at  Cambridge ib. 

Sarcastic  allusions  in  the  commentary  of  the  Novum  Inttru- 

mentum ib. 

He  attacks  the  secular  clergy,  the  monks,  the  Mendicants  and 

the  schoolmen .  ib. 

Erasmus'sreply  to  Bullock,  Aug.  31,  1616 613 

He  attacks  his  opponents  with  acrimony 614 

Justifies  himself  by  the  precedent  afforded  by  the  new  versions 

of  Aristotle ib. 

Refers  to  the   distinguished   approval   which  his  work    had 

already  obtained 616 

Compares  the  Cambridge  of  1516  with  that  of  thirty  years 

previous ,        .        .        .  ib, 

Hopes  his  work  may  lead  men  to  study  the  Scriptures  more 

and  to  trouble  themselves  less  with  qutVff tones     .        .  ib. 


CONTENTS.  xli 

Belicvea  posterity  .will  do  him  more  justice         •        .       .       •  516 

His  prediction  fulfilled         «       .       « 517 

The  sul^ect  pf  Greek  continues  to  excite  the  chief  interest  at 

.Cambridge     ^       „       ^       .......        .  ib. 

Bryan  lectures  in  the  schools  from  the  new  versions  of  Aristotle  ih. 

Sir  Robert  Redo  founds  the  Rede  lectureships           .        .        •  518 
Sense  of  the  importance  of  Greek  induced  by  the  controversy 

respecting  the  Noeum  Instrumentum  ....  ib, 

Erasmus  again  visits  England ih. 

His  testimony  to  the  change  at  Cambridge         .        .        .  519 

Fisher  aspires  to  a  knowledge  of  Greek ib. 

Embarrassment  of  his  friends ib, 

'  Latimer  declines  the  office  of  instructor ib, 

Cambridge  also  io  want  of  a  teacher  of  Greek     ....  520 

Foundation  of  Corpus  Cubisti  College,  Oxfobd,  a.d.  1516    .  521 

Bishop  Fox's  statutes ib. 

Boldness  of  his  innovations  on  the  customary  studies  .  522 

Appearance  of  Erasmus's  Novum  Teitamentum        .  523 

He  discards  the  Vulgate  translation t^. 

State  of  feeuno  at  Oxford     ........  tb. 

The  earlier  teachers  of  Greek  no  longer  rcdidcnt .  524 

Conduct  of  the  Oxford  students   ......  %b, 

Grecians  versus  Trojans ib. 

More  remonstrates  with  the  university  authorities  on  behalf 

of  the  Grecians 525 

He  contrasts  the  disposition  shewn  by  the  Oxonians  with 

that  of  the  Cantabrigians ib, 

A  royal  letter  to  the  university  secures  the  Grecians  from 

further  molestation 526 

Woisey,  in  the  following  year,  founds  a  chair  of  Greek  at 

Oxford ib. 

Richard  Croke 527 

Befriended  by  Erasmus ib. 

His  career  on  the  continent ib. 

He  returns  to  Cambridge  and  lectures  on  Greek  to  the  uni- 
versity     528 

Is  appointed  Greek  reader  in  1519 ib. 

His  antecedents  better  fitted  than  those  of  Erasmus  to  dis- 
arm hostility ib. 

lliffinauguratoration,  July,  1519 529 

Outline  of  his  oration 529-37 

Merits  of  t)ie  oration 537 

The  oration  compared  with  that  delivered  by  Mclanchthon 

at  Wittenberg  in  the  preceding  year     ....  ib. 

Croke's  second  oration 539 


Xlii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Oxford**  Cambridge  colony* 639 

Retort  of  Anthony  Wood ib. 

Institution  of  the  office  of  Public  Orator,  a.  d.  1522     •       .  ib. 

Croke  elected  for  life ib. 

John  Skelton 640 

His  satirical  verses  on  tiiie  attention  now  given  to  Greek  at 

Cambridge ib» 

TUOMAB  WOLSEY 641 

His  relations  to  Cambridge ib. 

lie  declines  the  chancellorship ib. 

Fisher  elected  for  life  .        . 642 

Wolscy  visits  Cambridge,  a.  d.  1620 ib. 

Fisher  absent  on  the  occasion 643 

Relations  of  Fisher  to  Wolsey ib. 

Fisher  and  Wolsey  at  the  council  of  1518     ....  ib. 
Contrast  presented  between  the  two  prelates  on  that  oc- 
casion       644 

Wolsey's  relations  to  Cambridge 646 

Bullock's  congratulatory  oration 646 

Crossness  of  his  flattery ti^. 

Peroration  of  his  speech 647 

Wolsey's  victims  at  the  universities ib. 

Stafford,  Skolton,  and  Pace 548 

Oxford  surrenders  its  statutes  to  be  altered  at  Wolsey's 

pleasure 549 

The  precedent  followed  by  Cambridge ib. 

Fiddes's  criticism  on  the  Cambridge  address       ...  ib. 

A  humiliating  episode  in  the  history  of  both  imiversities     .  650 

Royal  visits  to  Cambridge 551 

Foundation  of  Cardinal  College,  Oxford       ....  ib. 

Scholars  from  Cambridge  placed  on  the  foundation      .        .  552 


Chap.  VI.    Cambridge  at  the  Reformation. 

Different  theories  respecting  the  origin  of  the  Reformation 

The  Refonnation  in  England  began  at  Cambridge 

The  Reformation  not  a  developement  of  Lollardism  but  to  be 

traced  to  the  influence  of  Erasmus's  New  Testament 
Dilney's  testimony        ...  .... 

Proclamation  of  Indulgences  by  Leo  x.        .        .        .        . 

Copy  affixed  by  Fisher  to  the  gate  of  the  common  schools 

Act  of  Peter  de  Valence 

His  excommunication 

Prospectsof  reform  prior  to  A.  D.  1517        .... 


553 
655 

»&. 
556 

ib. 

ib. 

557 

ib. 

ih. 


CONTENTS.  xliii 

PAGE 

Eventsof  the  year  1516 558 

Hopes  of  the  Humanists ib. 

Commencement  of  a  new  movement  at  Cambridge      .        .        .  559 

Thomas  Bilnet  %        v 560 

His  eccentric  character         .- ib. 

His  account  of  his  spiritual  experiences       ....  ib. 

Over  importance  attaclied  to  his  description  by  Protestant 

writers 561 

He  reads  the  New  Testament  of  Erasmus  ....  562 

Change  in  his  reh'gious  views ib. 

His  character  as  drawn  by  Latimer ib. 

His  converts  at  Trinity  Hall, — Arthur,  Paget,  and  Smith     .  ib. 

His  influence  especially  perceptible  among  natives  of  his 

own  country 563 

Thomas  Forman,  John  Lambert  ......  ib. 

Nicholas  Shaxton 564 

Gonvillo  Hall  noted  for  its  sympathy  with  the  Reformers   .  tb. 

BoBERT  Barnes ib. 

Character  of  the  Augustinian  friars  as  a  body    ...  ib. 

John  Tonnys 565 

Barnes  sent  to  study  at  Louvain ib. 

Jerome  Busleiden ib. 

Foundation  of  the  collegiujn  trilingiie .....  ib. 

Jealousy  of  the  conservatives 566 

Barnes  returns  to  England  with  Paynell       ....  ib. 

His  lectures  on  the  Latin  classics  and  on  the  Epistles  of 

St.  Paul ib. 

George  Stafford 567 

He  lectures  on  the  Scriptures  instead  of  the  Sentences      .  ib. 

Becon's  estimate  of  the  value  of  his  services        ...  ib. 

Barnes  and  Stafford  dispute  in  the  divinity  schools    .        .        .  568 

Barnes  converted  to  Bilney's  religious  views      ....  ib. 

Luther's  works 569 

His  earlier  treatises  handed  over   to  the  Sorbonne  for  ex- 
amination        570 

Rapid  spread  of  Lutheran  doctrines  in  the  eastern  counties       .  ib. 

Wolsey  adverse  to  extreme  measures ib. 

Luther  bums  the  papal  bull  at  Wittenberg         ....  ib. 

Wolsey  convenes  a  conference  in  London 571 

Decisions  of  the  Sorbonne  and  the  London  conference  ib, 

Luther*8  books  burnt  at  Paul's  Cross ib. 

Fisher*s  sermon  against  Luther t^- 

Wolsey  authorises  a  general  search  for  Luther's  writin;ps   .  ib, 

Luther's  works  burnt  at  Oxford  and  at  Cambridge  ib. 


xliv  CONTENTS. 

King  TfenrT.uid  Fisher  write  agoinit  Luther     ....  ST2 

Heetings  of  the  Reformen  at  Cambridj^    ,        .        ,        .        ,  A. 

Thk  White  IIobsi tA. 

The  iDn  becomee  known  as '  Garmuif '         .       .       .       .  673 

PftrticijiatorB  in  the  movement ib. 

Character  of  tlieir  proceedings ib. 

The  Cambride»  Refonnern  not  all  f  oung  men     ....  C74 
Circomstanci-B  that  plepd  in  their  behalf  in  conneiiou  with  tlieir 

subsequent  career ib. 

Their  meetinga  reported  in  London     l ft7S 

Wolse;  declines  to  appoint  ft  comraisuon  of  euiiniiy  .        .  ib. 

Barnes'  sermon^on  Chriatmas  Eve ib. 

Articles  lodged  a<^niit  him  with  the  Tice-chauce!l<ir  .  G7$ 

He  is  confronted  ^ith  hia  accosera  in  the  schonia  t(. 
The  proceedings  interrupted  bj  denionatrations  on  tlie  part  of 

the  atudonts 077 

Bia  BBcond  examination,  which  is  similarly  interrapted      .  678 

lie  refusea  to  sign  a  rovocatiuu ib, 

Wolsey  resolves  on  energetic  meaaurea ib. 

Search  made  for  Lutheran  books  at  Cambridge  ....  ib. 

Bamoa  m  arrested  and  convejed  to  London        ....  ib. 

His  taial  before  Fisher  and  other  bishopa  at  Westminster  .  ib. 

His  narrative  of  tho  coDcInsion 679 

Huau  Latiuee £80 

His  earlycareer  and  character S8l 

lie  attacks  Melanchthon ib. 

His  position  in  the  nnivergity ib. 

Ilo.iscopvcrtod  bjfiilncj ib. 

lie  becomes  bis  intimate  asjociate 68! 

Effects  of  his  example i&. 

Bishop  Wcat  utteude  Latimer's  sermon        ....  683 

He  requests  Latimer  to  preach  against  Luther    .        .        ,  ib. 

West  inhibits  Latimer  from  prcaebing 684 

Latimer  preaches  at  the  church  of  the  Augustinian  friara    ,  ib, 

Latimer  is  summoned  before  WoUoj  iii  London  ...  ib. 

Wolaey  licenses  Latimer  to  preach       .        "        .        ,        .  i6. 

Bir  Thomas  More  elected  high  steward ib. 

Absorbing  attention  given  to  Luther's  writiuga  throoghont  Europe  566 

General  disquietude  of  the  times ib. 

Natural  phenomena Ggg 

Predictions  of  the  almanac  makers i6. 

Appearance  of  William  Tjndale's  New  Testament               .        .  687 
Hia  translation  exactly  what  Eraamos  bad  cxpreSM^l  the  great- 

eit  desire  to  aee ,'5 


CONTENTS,  xlv 

PAOI 

Reason  of  the  dislike  with  which  it  was  now  regarded       .       •  588 

Erasmus  writes  De  Libera  Arbitrio  against  Lather  ...  tb. 

His  enemies  denounce  him  as  the  cause  of  the  Reformation       .  ib. 

William  Tyndale 689 

Probably  a  pupil  of  Croko  but  not  of  Erasmus  ib. 

His  reminiscences  of  Oxford 590 

Ho  leaves  Cambridge,  circ.  1521 591 

His  afe  at  Little  ISodbury %b. 

CUTHBERT  TUNBTAL %b. 

His  character tb. 

His  temporising  policy 592 

His  writings  .....»•...  ibm 

His  De  Arte  SuppiUandi 593 

Tyndale  and  Tunstal ib, 

Tyndale's  attainments  as  a  scholar  rindicated     •        •       •        •  596 

Canon  Westcott*s  summary  of  the  question         ....  597 

Tyndale  Lutheran  in  respect  to  doctrine 598 

C^nge  in  the  theological  tendencies  of  the  Cambridge  Re- 
formers ....              ib. 

Alarm  raised  by  archbishop  Lee  on  the  appearance  of  Tyndale's 

New  Testament 599 

Demand  for  the  work  in  England        ......  ti^. 

The  Tolume  burnt  by  Tunstal  at  Paul's  Cross      .        •        .       •  ib. 

Progress  of  Cardinal  College 601 

Motives  that  possibly  guided  the  selection  of  the  Cambridge 

students •  ib. 

The  aid  thus  rendered  to  Oxford  not  superfluous       •        .       •  602 

Death  of  Linacre ib. 

The  Linacre  lectureships 603 

The  Cambridge  students  at  Cardinal  College     •       •        •       •  604 

Their  treatment  by  Wolsey ,       .  ib. 

Proceedings  against  the  Reformers  at  Cambridge       .        .        .  605 

Geoi^  Joye  escapes  to  Strassbuig ib. 

Examination  of  Arthur  and  Bilney  at  Westminster     •        .        •  606 

Articles  against  Arthur ib. 

His  recantation t& 

Articles  against  Bilney          .               •  i&. 

He  recants  a  second  time t  607 

Skelton's  satire  of  the  Cambridge  Reformers      •        •       •       •  ib. 

Death  of  Stafford •        .       •  608 

Latimer's  Sermons  on  the  Card •  609 

Buckenham  attempts  to  reply  to  Latimer   •       •       •       •       •  610 

Spread  of  the  oontroversy  in -the  uniyersity        •       •       •       •  ib. 

The  contest  stopped  by  royal  interrention  .       •       •       %     ,%  611 


Thi  Ror^  DfToaoE C12 

Tho)iab  I^ranmeb if>- 

Hii  univenit;  career *&■ 

His  iuggestioD  at  WaJtham  that  the  qaeation  ihould  be 

referred  to  the  uiuTenities 613 

The  questJoD,  bb  thus  referred *b. 

It  reallj  involved  that  of  the  Hupremac]' of  the  pope    .  C14 

FoUadoiu  character  of  the  expedient iti- 

Croke  in  Ital; ...  615 

Hia  activity  in  brihing  the  Italian  aniverutiea     .        .  ib. 

King  Henry  menaces  Oxford 616 

Hr.  Froude'B  coinparisttn  of  the  conduct  of  Oxford  and 

Camttridgo     .                        A. 

His  criUdem  tested  bf  the  documentary  eTidenco  G17 

King  HenrT's  lettei;  to  the  university  of  Cambridge  ib. 

Cranmer's  treatise  on  the  qneation ib. 

Bep(>rt  of  Gardiner  and  Fox  to  the  king      ....  618 

Grace  proposed  to  the  Bonate 620 

Important  reservation  in  the  decision  arrived  at  b^  the 

noiversitf ib. 

Buclunaiter's  narrative  of  hi«  eiperiencee  at  court  and  on 

.his  return 621 

Facta  nhich  tend  to  qnalifj  Mr  Froude's  culoginm      .        .  ib. 

FcBition  of  Fisher 622 

Prosperity  of  St  John's  CoUege  nnder  Metcalfe's  rale  6S3 

Fisher's  statutes  of]  524  and  1530 ib. 

Multiplidty  and  elaborateness  of  the  details       ....  ib. 

The  statutes  qevertheless  contain  a  grave  omission     .                .  624 
Ascham'^  tostjmoDj  to  the  evils  resulting  from  the  indiscriminate 

adrnjasioQ  of  p^isiooers                 3>. 

The  omiqsion  repaired  in  the  statutes  of  1545      ....  £26 

The  Universitv  Press i6. 

John  Siberch tft. 

Licence  of  15M $2$ 

Sygv  Nicholson ib. 

Singular  phase  of  the  relations  between  tonn  and  nniverutj  627 

Fisher  is  committed  to  prison G28 

Feeling  of  the  uniTersit; ib. 

Letter  of  St.  John's  College ft. 

Cromwell  succeeds  Fisher  as  chancellor       .....  629 

His  commisaionerg  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge     ....  ib. 

Leightou's  account  of  the  prpceedicgs  at  Oxford        ...  ib. 

The  Rotal  Injcsctions  of  1530 630 

Commencemtnit  of'a  netr  era  in  nniTeraity  hJetory      ...  631 


CONTENTS.  xlvii 


APPENDIX. 


PAOE 


(A)  Lydgate's  verses  on  the  Foundation  of  the  University  of 
Cambridge 635 

(B)  The  University  of  Stamford 637 

(C)  An  ancient  Statute  on  the  Hiring  of  Hostels  .       •  638 

(D)  The  original  Statutes  of  Michaelhouse  .        •        .        .        •  640 

(E)  Legere  ordinarie,  extraordinarie,  cursorie ,  •  645 


ABBREVUTIONS.  ETC. 


Two  names  connected  by  a  hjphen  denote  the  aiitLor  and 
the  editor :  e.  g.  Wood-Gutcti,  Baker-JUajor,  denote  reS]>ectiTeIy 
Wood's  AnnaU  of  Oxford,  edited  by  Gulcl),  and  Baker's  HUUny 
of  the  CotUge  of  St.  John  tin;  Eoaiigi^Ut,  edited  bj  profesaor 
Hajor. 

A  Binaller  numeral  added  to  that  of  the  volume  or  pajje,  t,g. 
it',  375't  denotes  the  edition  to  which  reference  is  made. 


p.  283,  not«  2,  tor  '  eolUgiam  Irilingut  aX  Louvain,'  rend  'anivoraity  of 
LoDTuia. ' 


VOL.    I. 


EBBATA,  <fcc. 

P.  12, 1.  17,  /or  '  suggestion '  read  *  that  is  suggestive/ 

P.  21,  1.  16,  for  •  Aelfrid'  read  'Aelfred.' 

P.  43, 1.  20,  for  *  to  the  one '  read  *  from  the  one/ 

P.  49,  margin,  for  •  b.  1088  *  read  *  b.  1033.' 

P.  67, 1.  25,  for  'Paris*  read  *  Tours  or  Aaohen.' 

P.  223,  1.  25,  *  exemption  from  taxation,'  i.e.  taxation  by  the  chancellor 
of  the  university. 

P.  228, 1.  5,  for  'adjourning'  read  'adjoining.' 

P.  235.  'John  Hotham.'  I  have  done  Hotham  some  injustice  in 
omitting  to  notice  that  it  was  he  who  (see  p.  253)  appropriated  Hinton  to 
Peterhonse. 

P.  236,  1.  7,  for  '1850'  read  '1348.' 

P.  255, 1.  7,  for  'seven'  read  'eight.' 

P.  282,  n.  2,  *  foundation  of  the  collegium  trilingue  at  Louvain,'  for 
*  collegium  trilingue  at '  read  '  university  of.'  Louvain,  however,  was  created 
a  faculty  of  theology  in  1451,  and  may  thus  afford  an  illustration  of  Thurot's 
argument,  though  not  at  its  first  foundation. 

P.  394.  1.  9,  for  '  Greek  instructions '  read  *  f^esh  instructions.' 

P.  398,  last  line,  for  'Pallas  de  Strozzi'  read  *  Pallas  de'  Strozzi.' 

P.  411, 1.  '2,  for  'is  but'  read  'but  is.' 

P.  431,  last  line,  '  the  right  of  virtue,'  for  '  right '  read  *  sight.' 

P.  433,  1.  8,  for  '  1426 '  read  '  1418.' 

P.  445, 11. 11 — 12,  omit  the  words  '  property  once  in  possession.' 

P.  464, 1  29,  for  '  oraturarum  '  read  '  oraturorum. ' 

P.  630,  L  12  from  bottom,  for  'geography'  (thus  printed  in  Cooper)  read 
'geometry.' 

P.  639,  par.  6,  for  '  rennntiari '  read  '  renuntiare.' 

P.  642,  S.  6,  for  'augentur'  read  'augeatur.' 

P.  643,  par.  4,  for  '  competentur '  read  *  oompetenter. ' 

P.  644,  par.  19,  for  'quo  ad'  read  'quoad.' 

,,       par.  21,  omit  comma  after  '  simplidter. ' 
P.  670,  (Index),  for  '  Linacre,  Wm.'  read  'Linacre,  Tho.' 


INTKODUCTION. 


The  thirteenth  century  embraces  within  its  limits  an  intro- 
eminently  eventful  era  in  European  history.  It  was  an  age 
of  turbulence  and  confusion,  of  revolution  and  contention, 
wherein,  amid  the  strife  of  elements,  it  is  often  difficult  to 
discern  the  tendencies  for  good  that  were  undoubtedly  at 
work,  and  where  the  observer  is  apt  to  lose  sight  of  the  real 
onward  progress  of  the  current  as  he  marks  the  agitations 
which  trouble  the  surface  of  the  waters.  But  that  a  great 
advance  was  then  achieved  it  is  impossible  to  deny.  The 
social,  the  religious,  and  the  intellectual  life  of  Europe  were 
roused  by  a  common  impulse  from  comparative  stagnation. 
The  Church,  threatened  by  its  own  degeneracy,  took  to  itself 
other  and  more  potent  weapons;  scholasticism,  enriched  by 
the  influx  of  new  learning,  entered  on  its  most  brilliant 
phase  ;  oriental  influences,  the  reflex  action  of  the  Crusades, 
stirred  men  to  fresh  paths  of  thought ;  and  England,  no  longer 
regarded  as  a  subjugated  nation,  grew  rapidly  in  strength 
and  freedom.  To  this  century  the  University  of  Cambridge 
traces  back  its  first  recorded  recognition  as  a  legally  consti- 
tuted body,  and  refers  the  foundation  of  its  most  ancient 
college,  and,  in  the  absence  of  authentic  records  concerning 
her  early  history,  it  becomes  especially  desirable  to  arrive  at 
a  clear  conception  of  the  circumstances  that  belong  to  so 
important  a  commencement.  It  will  accordingly  be  desirable, 
in  this  introductory  chapter,  to  pass  under  review  the  leading 
features  of  education  and  learning  in   those   ages  which 

1 


2  THE  BENEDICTINE  ERA. 

INTRO-  preceded  the  university  era;  to  trace  out,  as  far  as  may  be 
^— V— '  conducive  to  our  main  purpose,  the  habits  of  thought  and 
traditional  belief  that  necessarily  found  expression  in  the  first 
organisation  and  discipline  of  the  universities  themselves ; 
to  estimate  the  character  and  direction  of  those  innovations 
which  the  universities  inaugurated ;  and  in  order  to  do  this, 
however  imperfectly,  we  shall  find  it  necessary  to  go  back  to 
that  yet  earlier  time  which  links  the  civilization  of  Paganism 
with  that  of  Christianity. 

The  university  age  commences  in  the  twelfih  century; 
and  it  is  a  fact  familiar  to  every  student,  that  nearly  all 
learning  had  up  to  that  period  been  the  exclusive  possession 
Tbe  Imperial  of  the  Church.  In  the  third  and  fourth  centuries  indeed  the 
tiMluoBuui  traditions  of  Roman  culture  were  still  preserved  in  full  vigour 
in  Transalpine  Gaul;  Autun,  Treves,  Lyons,  and  Bordeaux 
were  distinguished  as  schools  of  rhetoric  and  their  teaching 
was  ennobled  by  many  an  illustrious  name;  but  with  the  inva- 
sion of  the  Franks  the  imperial  schools  were  swept  away,  and 
education  when  it  reappeared  had  formed  those  associations 
which,  amid  so  many  important  revolutions  in  thought  and  ' 
the  decay  of  so  many  ancient  institutions,  h^lve  retained  their 
hold  with  such  remarkable  tenacity  and  power  up  to  our 
own  day.  The  four  centuries  that  preceded  the  reign 
Commence-  of  Philip  Augustus  liavc  been  termed,  not  inaptly,  'the 
Benedictine  Benedict iue  era\'  In  the  monasteries  of  that  great  order, 
.which  rose  in  the  sixth  century,  was  preserved  nearly  all 
that  survived  of  ancient  thought,  and  was  imparted  what- 
ever still  deserved  the  name  of  education.  It  is  important 
to  remember  to  how  great  an  extent  the  monasticism  of 
the  West  was  the  result  of  the  troubles  and  calamities  that 
tishered  in  the  fall  of  the  western  empire.  The  fierce  ascetic- 
ism of  the  anchorites  of  the  East  found  no  place  in  the 
earlier  institutions  associated  with  the  names  of  the  most 
illustrious  of  the  Latin  Fathers.  The  members  of  those 
humble  communities  which  were  found  in  Rome,  Milan,  and 
Carthage,   were  men  seeking  refuge  from  the  corruption, 

1  L6on  Maitre,  Lei  Ecole$  EpUeapdUt  et  Monoitifues  de  VOccident,  p.  174. 


THEORY  OF  MONASTICISM.  3 

anarchy,  and  misery  of  their  age,  ready  to  bid  adieu  to  the    intro- 
world  and  its  cares,  so  that  they  might  pass  the  remainder   ' — v^ 
of  their  days  in  holy  duties  and  tranquil  occupations,  in  coSS^n  of 
fasting,  meditation,  and  prayer.     In  precisely  the  same  spirit  u^e. 
St  Benedict  reared  on   Monte  Cassino  the  first  monastery  Foundation 
of  his  order,  and   drew  up  those   rules   for   its   observance  Monastery  of 

*^,  Monte 

whereby  self-mortification,  isolation  from  mankind,  the  ex-  Jg*^ 
elusion  of  all  social  and  patriotic  virtues  in  the  cultivation 
of  a  lonely  perfection,  were  indicated  as  the  chief  principles 
of  the  religious  life. 

Inasmuch,  accordingly,  as  the  monk  renounced  the  world,  influence  of 
his  education  was  conceived  solely  with  reference  to  those  ▼lewupon 

•^  education. 

acquirements  necessary  to  the  performance  of  his  monotonous 
routine  of  duties.  The  Benedictine's  knowledge  of  music 
was  given  him  only  that  he  might  chant  the  Gregorian 
antiphony;  of  arithmetic  and  astronomy,  that  he  might 
rightly  calctilate  the  return  of  Easter;  of  Latin,  that  he 
might  understand  the  Fathers  and  the  Vulgate ;  and  these 
acquirements,  together  with  a  slender  knowledge  of  geometry 
and  versification,  made  up,  for  centuries,  the  ordinary  culture 
of  his  order.  That  the  education  of  those  times  was  that  of 
the  monk,  and  consequently  breathed  only  of  the  monastery, 
has  indeed  been  the  superficial  criticism  with  which  the 
subject  has  often  been  contemptuously  dismissed,  but  a 
somewhat  closer  investigation  would  seem  to  reveal  to  us 
another  element  in  the  motives  and  sentiments  then  preva- 
lent, which  should  not  in  justice  be  left  unrecognized. 

The  teaching  of  the  Latin  Church  at  the  time  when, 
under  Gregory  the  Great,  she  laid  the  foundations  of  her 
temporal  power,  rested  on  the  authority  of  three  Fathers, — 
Ambrose,  Jerome,  and  Augustine*.  From  the  first  she  stAuguitine. 
derived  her  conception  of  sacerdotal  authority ;  from  the  *  «o. 
second,  her  attachment  to  monasticism ;  from  the  third,  her 
dogmatic  theology ;  and  to  these  three  conceptions  the  most 
remarkable  phenomena  in  European  history  may  undoubtedly 
be  referred.    In  the  writings  of  Augustine,  especially, — '  the  jgjj^gj^^ 

^  MUman,  UUX,  of  Latin  ChHitianityt  Book  n  o.  4. 

1—^ 


4  ST  AUGUSTINE. 

INTRO-    oracle  of  thirteen  centuries/ — ^is  to  be  found  the  key  to  the 
^-  y— ^'  belief  and  practice  of  the  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  diflferent  treatises  by  the  bishop  of  Hippo  that  have 

descended  to  us  are  voluminous,  but  his  philosophy  of  history 

is  set  forth  in  a  work  of  comparatively  moderate  compass, — 

Hit  j}f  CM-  the  De  Civitate  Dei.     From  the  earliest  times,  a  very  solemn 

taUJM.  .... 

belief  had  prevailed  with  more  or  less  intensity  in  the  different 
sections  of  the  Church  that  the  day  of  judgement  and  the  end 
of  the  world  were  at  hand.     As  the  troubles  of  the  empire 
multiplied,  this  conviction  grew  and  deepened  alike  in  the 
eastern  and  western  communities.     It  was  held  by  Clemens 
and  Tertullian,  by  Origen  and  Cyprian,  by  Athanasius  and 
Lactantius,  by  Chrysostom,  Ambrose,  and   Jerome,   but  it 
devolved  on  Augustine  to  develope  it  in  its  full  significance 
Theaseof     ^^^   logical   counexiou   with  human   history.     The  age  in 
^^"****'*°**  which  this  father  lived  was  that  wherein  the  fabric  of  the 
empire,  already  undermined  and  shaken,  began  actually  to 
go  to  pieces.     During  his  lifetime  he  saw  the  Eternal  City 
become  the  abode  of  the  Goth ;  he  died  while  the  Vandal 
was  laying  siege  to  the  city  of  his  own  episcopate.  Paganism, 
in  its  terror  and  despair  at  the  fast  thickening  calamities, 
affirmed  that  the  ancient  gods,  incensed  at  the  neglect  of 
their  worship,  had  thus  manifested  their  displeasure ;  Chris- 
tianity, it  was  declared,  was  responsible  for  the  sack  of  Rome 
and  the  defeat  of  the  imperial  armies.     In  reply  to  such 
accusations,  Augustine  put  forth  the  De  Civitate  Dei.    An 
exposition   of  the   theory   so   elaborately  unfolded   in  the 
twenty-four  books  of  this  work  would  be  here  misplaced, 
but  the  leading  sentiment  may  be  stated  in  a  few  words. 
Attttdgjaoni  Rome  had  indeed  fallen,  replied  the  Christian  Father,  nor 
gJ^J*"    could  it  well  be  otherwise ;  for  she  represented  an  order  of 
things  fated  to  be  overthrown  ;   the  earthly  city,  with  its 
superstitions   and   its   crimes,   its    glory   and   renown,   was 
destined  -to  give  place  to  another  city,  the  city  of  the  New 
Jerusalem.    A  sublime  theocracy  was  to  supersede  the  rule 
of  the  CsBsars.    No  vision  of  temporal  power,  like  that  which 
invested  the  seven  hills,  rose  before  his  eyes;  the  city  he 
beheld  was  that  which  he  of  the  Apocalypse  saw  descending 


FINIS  MUNDI.  6 

from  heaven,  wliither  should  be  brought  the  'glory  and  the    intro- 

DUCTION. 

honour  of  the  nations/    Time  itself  should  cease  to  be  when  ^— v— '" 
the  true  Eternal  City  had  appeared. 

In  brief  the  advent  of  the  new  reign  necessarily  implied  Thaaniiica. 
the  termination  of  the  old,  and  the  calamities  of  the  age 
were  but  the  funeral  knell  of  the  Roman  empire.  But  what 
imported  the  downfall  of  an  empire,  when  all  earthly  things 
were  destined  so  soon  *  to  pass  away  ?  A  question  of  far 
deeper  moment,  of  a  far  closer  personal  interest,  pressed  on 
men  for  a  solution.  '  Seeing  then  that  all  these  things  shall 
be  dissolved,  what  manner  of  persons  ought  ye  to  be  in  all 
holy  conversation  and  godliness,  looking  for  and  hasting  unto 
the  coming  of  the  day  of  God,  wherein  the  heavens  being  on 
fire  shall  be  dissolved,  and  the  elements  shall  melt  with 
fervent  heat*?'  The  language  of  St  Peter  was  but  echoed 
by  Augustine  with  a  greater  particularity  of  time  and  place. 

It  is  easy  to  perceive  that  events  after  Augustine's  time  se«mhi^cor. 
would  certainly  not  tend  to  dispel  the  belief  to  which  he  thus  JJg^JJ^'JL 
gave  expression ;  that  as  the  Visigoth  in  Spain,  the  Frank  eT^IS"*"* 
in  Gaul,  the  Lombard  in  Italy,  trampled  on  the  remnants  of 
ancient  civilization, — that  as  Christianity  itself  expired  in 
Africa,  under  the  advance  of  the  victorious  Crescent, — while 
the  sword  and  famine  reduced  once  fertile  and  populous 
regions  to  desolate  wastes, — men's  hearts  might  well  begin  ncsiudr  the 
to  fail  them  at  the  contemplation  of  so  hopeless  a  future.  *«j«?»«ng. 
We  can  well  understand  that  the  ordinary  aims  and  pursuits 
of  life  appeared  frivolous  and  unmeaning,  as  the  expected 
crisis  seemed  yearly  to  draw  nearer,  heralded  by  each  succes- 
sive disaster ;  and  that  the  religious  or  monastic  life  might 
thus  come  to  be  regarded  as  the  only  adequate  expression  of 
one  profound  conviction,  the  conviction, — ^to  use  the  forcible 
language  of  Guizot, — of  '  V impossibility  de  tout  long  travail 
et  de  tout  paisible  loisir*     The  monastery  indeed  which 
St  Benedict  founded  on  Monte  Cassino,  and  which  the  Lom- 
bard soon  after  levelled  to  the  ground,  affords  alike  in  its 
conception,  its  institution,  and  its  fall,  an  illustration  of  the 

>  2  Peter  iii  18. 


6  GREGORY  THE  GREAT. 

INTRO-  characteristics  of  those  times.  In  its  conception, — as  an 
^- V  ml'  effort  to  escape  from  the  disquiet  of  the  age,  and  a  renuncia- 
tion of  all  hope  and  interest  in  the  pursuits  of  mankind ;  in 
its  institution, — supplanting  as  it  did  a  temple  of  Apollo 
where  the  pagan  peasant  still  brought  his  offerings  and  paid 
his  vows,  but  where  the  monk  now  cut  down  the  once  sacred 
grove,  and  broke  in  pieces  the  idol ;  in  its  fall, — as  partici- 
pating in  the  general  devastation  that  marked  the  progress 
of  the  barbarian,  hostile  alike  to  the  ancient  civilization  and 
the  new  faith. 

The  terror  and  despair  which  the  Lombard  spread  through 
Italy  imparted  new  force  to  the  prevalent  conviction,  and  the 
Gregor7th6  policy  of  Grcgor}'  the  Great  affords  a  remarkable  illustration 
d.9&.  ^^^"^  of  the  hold  which  these  forebodings  had  gained  on  the 
foremost  minds  of  the  period,  and  their  collateral  effects  on 
learning  and  education.  The  activity  and  energy  displayed 
by  this  ecclesiastic  in  consolidating  the  institutions  and 
extending  the  authority  of  his  see,  might  appear  at  variance 
with  such  a  theory,  were  we  not  also  to  remember  that  his 
efforts  were  undoubtedly  conceived  in  subordination  to 
vjj»j^gdby  exclusively  religious  feelings.  It  was  thus  that  while  he 
laboured  to  raise  his  country  from  physical  and  moral  degra- 
dation, to  husband  and  augment  the  patrimony  of  the  Church, 
to  convert  the  heathen,  to  bring  about  a  unity  of  faith  and 
of  forms  of  worship,  he  is  still  to  be  found  anticipating,  with 
an  earnestness  beyond  suspicion,  the  approach  of  the  final 
consummation.  'What,'  he  says,  at  the  close  of  a  long 
enumeration  of  the  calamities  that  had  befallen  Italy,  '  what 
may  be  taking  place  elsewhere  I  know  not,  but  in  this 
country,  wherein  we  dwell,  events  plainly  no  longer  foretell 
the  end  but  exhibit  it  in  actual  process  ;*  in  a  letter  to  the 
converted  Ethelbert,  the  Bretwalda,  he  again  declares  that 
signs,  such  as  those  amid  which  St  Benedict  had  foretold 
that  Bome  should  be  overthrown,  fearful  portents  in  the 
heavens  and  tumults  in  the  air,  war,  famine,  pestilence,  and 
earthquake,  all  point  to  the  same  conclusion^ ;  elsewhere  he 

^  *  Appropinquante  antem  eodem      ante  non  fueront,  videlicet  immnta- 
mnndi  temuno,  molta  imminent  qiue      tiones  aeriB,  teiroresque  de  cielo,  et 


HIS  ESTIMATE  OF  SECULAR  LEARNING.  7 

relates  how  th^  spirit  of  Eutychius  the  martjn:  appeared  in  a    intro- 
vision  to  the  bishop  of  Ferentina,  urging  him  to  watchfuhiess   ^— v-r^ 
with   the  thrice  reiterated  warning,  *  Finis  venit  univerace 
carnis;*  in  another  passage  he  compares  the  age  to  the  early 
dawn,  with  the  light  of  eternity  already  traversing  the  gloom 
and  darkness  of  time*. 

That,  with  such  convictions,  he  should  have  set  small  ooMWei*. 

'  '  tionB  that 

value  on  merely  secular  learning  becomes  sufficiently  intelli-  SSi^^^ 
gible,  and  it  might  have  served,  perhaps,  in  many  instances,  SteSHSirtor. 
to  diminish  the  asperity  with  which  his  memory  has  been 
treated,  had  this  feature  been  more  frequently  borne  in  mind. 
Puritanism,  in  later  times,  has  reproduced  his  illiberal ity 
with  far  less  to  plead  in  justification.  Whether  we  owe  to 
him  the  loss  of  the  Palatine  library  or  that  of  the  missing 
decades  of  Livy,  we  need  not  here  stop  to  enquire,  but  it  is 
certain  that  his  hostility  to  pagan  learning  is  but  imperfectly 
explained  if  attributed  solely  to  the  prejudices  of  a  bigoted 
and  unlettered  spirit.  It  took  its  rise  rather  in  what 
appeared  to  him  the  utter  irrelevancy  of  such  studies  to 
the  religious  life,  as  that  life  was  conceived  under  the 
influence  of  one  overwhelming  idea.  He  inherited  in  all  its 
force  the  theory  of  Augustine,  but  he  lacked  the  sympathetic 
genius  and  the  culture  of  the  African  Father.  In  education, 
that  alone  appeared  to  him  of  any  value,  which  was  recom- 
mended by  its  presumed  utility  in  promoting  a  more 
intelligent  comprehension  of  Christian  doctrine  or  imparting 
greater  ability  to  conduct  the  services  of  the  Church.  What- 
ever appeared  likely  to  subserve  such  purposes  at  once  gained 
his  warmest  advocacy.  Thus,  accordingly,  while  he  is  to  be 
found  on  one  occasion  austerely  condemning  certain  monks 
who  had  ventured  to  instruct  their  pupils  in  profane  litera- 
ture', he  was  yet  the  great  promoter  of  education  in  his 


contra  ordinem  tempornm  tempesta- 
tes,  bella,  fames,  pestilentiiB,  terrsB 
motuB  per  loca.'  EpUt.  xi  67.  For 
the  prophecy  of  St  Benedict  recorded 
by  Gregory,  see  Dialog,  u  15. 

*  Dialogues f  iv  41. 

'  *  Quod  sine  yerecondia  memorare 
non  possumos^ ,  fratemitatem  iaam 


grammaticam  quibnsdam  ezponere.' 
Epist.  zi  54.  'Grammatica*  among 
the  Bomans  in  the  time  of  the  Em- 
pire meant  the  elements  of  literature 
generally ;  it  also  included  Philology. 
'£t  grammatice,  quam  in  Latinum 
transferentes  [tf  teraturamyocaverunt, 
iiues  suos  norii.'     QuintiL  vi  1  4. 


8 


L£AKNINO  IN   BlUTAIN. 


IXTRO- 
DUCTION. 


HiMHloroi. 

b.601 

d.6M. 


time ' ;  and,  while  he  so  largely  encouraged  the  monastic 
spirit,  his  administration  of  the  temporalities  of  his  see  was 
eminently  sagacious  and  successful. 

The  light  of  faith  was  rekindled  in  Britain  by  the 
teaching  of  Augustine  and  his  missionai'ies ;  and  within 
little  more  than  half  a  century  after  the  death  of  Gregory, 
Theodonis,  an  Asiatic  Greek,  was  appointed  to  the  see  of 
Canterbury.  The  impulse  given  by  this  ecclesiastic  to 
education  long  continued  to  influence  the  course  of  instruc- 
tion, and  in  the  curriculum  he  introduced  may  be  discerned 
the  rude  outlines  of  our  modern  system*.  His  work  was 
ably  continued  by  Aldhelm,  second  abbot  of  the  Benedictine 
monastery  of  Malmesbury,  and  afterwards  also  archbishop 
of  Canterbury.  The  talents  and  intense  application  of  this 
prelate  enabled  him  to  acquire  a  mastery  of  the  Latin  and 
Greek  tongues,  and  his  biographer,  the  monk  Faricius,  even 


See  also  Suetonius  de  OrammaticU, 
c.  4,  and  remarks  of  Graf  euhan  in  his 
Geschichte  der  Klatniclien  Philologie 
im  Alterihum^  iv  52,  58.  In  the 
Chapter  entitled  UeherhJich  den  (jram- 
matischen  Studiums  (it.  95 — 113)  this 
writer  has  elaborately  illustrated  the 
extended  functions  of  the  Grammatici 
in  the  third  and  fourth  centuries.  It 
is  evident  that  they  really  included 
those  of  the  Rheiores.  Ozanam  re- 
marks that,  in  Gaul,  *  grammar  ex- 
tended into  the  domain  of  rhetoric, 
comprising  the  humanities,  and  a 
critical  reading  of  aU  the  great  ora- 
tors and  poets  of  antiquity.*  History 
of  Civilization  in  the  Fifth  Century^ 
I  204.  The  term  continued  to  bear 
this  meaning  throughout  the  Middle 
Ages.  Cf.  l>a  Cange,  s.  v.,  and  Dr 
Maitland's  remarks  in  The  Dark  Ages, 
p.  179. 

^  Prof.  Maurice  adduces  in  proof 
of  this  the  improvement  in  Britain 
consequent  upon  the  arrival  of  (i^re- 
goiy's  missionaries: — *  Schools  seem 
to  rise  as  by  enchantment ;  all  classes, 
down  to  the  poorest  (Bede  himself  is 
the  obvious  example),  are  admitted 
to  them ;  the  studies  beginning  from 
theology  embrace  logic,  rhetoric,  mu- 
Bip,  and  astronomy.*  PhUottophyof 
ih€  Fir$t  Six  Centuries,  p.  153.    The 


whole  criticism  of  Gregoxy  in  this 
treatise  will  be  found  eminently  sug- 
gestive: it  may,  however,  be  ques- 
tioned whether,  as  Bede  was  bom 
seventy-six  years  after  the  landing  of 
Augustine  and  his  fellow-labourers, 
the  learning  of  our  earliest  encyclo- 
paidist  is  not  rather  attributable  to 
the  influence  of  Theodore. 

'  For  an  interesting  account  of  the 
instruction  given  in  these  schools,  see 
Dean  Hook's  Lives  of  the  Archbishops 
of  CanUrbury,  i  240—244.  *When 
books  were  scarce,  oral  instruction, 
or  instruction  through  the  medium 

of  lectures,  was  a  necessity The 

proficiency  of  the  scholars  was  tested, 
not  only  by  an  occasional  examina- 
tion, but  by  a  constant  course  of 
questioning  and  cross-questioning,  as 
connected  with  each  lesson.  The 
instruction  was  catechetical.  Of  the 
mode  of  conducting  these  examina- 
tions some  examples  exist,  and  the 
questions  put  to  the  pupils  of  the 
arithmetic  class  are  very  similar  to 
those  with  which  the  masters  and 
scholars  of  National  Schools  are  fa- 
miliar as  emanating  from  Her  Ma- 
jesty's ins(>ectors.'  Bespecting  the 
library  which  Theodorus  is  reported 
to  have  brought  with  him,  see  ICd- 
warda*  Memoirs  of  Libraries,  1 101. 


CHANGE  IN  EUROPEAN  AFFAIRS.  9 

accredits  him  with  some  knowledge  of  Hebrew  ^     Aldhelm    intro- 
died   in   709,  and  was  succeeded  by  Bede  the  Venerable,   >— y— '' 
whose  writings  form  an  important  contribution  to  the  text-  ^*1*»**°- 
books  of  the  subsequent  age.     In  the  eighth  century  thfe  u^de.' 
school    of   York   rose   into   celebrity,   distinguished   by   its  d.m. 
valuable  library  and  the  eminence  of  its  scholars ;  of  these, 
Alcuin,  for  some  time  the  guardian  of  its  literary  treasures,  ^^^..^ 
must  undoubtedly  be  regarded  as   the   most   accomplished  *'•  *^ 
scholar   of  his   day.      The   culture   to   which   our  country 
attained  at  this  period  cannot  however  be  shown  to  have 
had  much  connexion  with  subsequent  developements.     The 
comparative  immunity  she  then  enjoyed  from  troubles  like 
those  that  agitated  the  Continent  favoured  her  advance  in 
education  and  learning,  but  with  the  Danish  invasions  the 
fair  promise   disappeared.      The  land   relapsed   into   semi- 
barbarism;  and  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  rising   like 
a  wall  of  granite,  between  the  times  of  Alcuin  and  those  of 
Lanfranc,  seem   effectually  to  isolate  the  earlier  age.     To 
trace  the  progress  of  European  thought  we  shall  consequently  ch«rie- 
find  it  necessary  to  follow  Alcuin  across  the  English  channel  ^  JJ| 
to  the  court  of  Charlemagne. 

It  is  a  trite  observation,  that  a  state  of  warfare,  like  oimnge  in 

tlie  aspect  of 

many  other  evils,  is  far  from  being  an  unmixed  ill,  in  that  ^J|JJ^ 
it  calls  into  action  virtues  which  are  wont  to  slumber  in 
times  of  prosperity  and  peace;  and  similarly  we  may  note 
that,  in  seasons  of  great  national  suffering  and  trial,  ideas 
often  reappear  which  seem  to  have  well  nigh  passed  from 
the  memory  of  man  amid  the  pursuits  of  a  more  tranquil 
age.  Monasticism,  in  the  sixth  century,  was  dignified  by 
a  conviction  in  comparison  with  which  the  ordinary  hopes 
and  fears  of  men  might  well  appear  contemptible  ;  if  repre- 
senting despondency  in  relation  to  things  temporal,  it  had 
its  heroism  not  less  than  its  despair ;  but  when  we  recall  to 
how  great  an  extent  the  theory  enunciated  by  Augustine 

^  *Mirodeiiiqaemodogratiffi[?QraiiB]  tria  volamina,  Hebndcis  Uteris  bene 

facnndisB  omnia  idiomata  sciobat,  et  novit,  et  lefi^m  Mosaicam.*  Aldhelmi 

quAHi   Graecus   natione :   scriptis  et  Vita^  Faricio  Auct.,  published  by  the 

verbis  pronoutiabat  Prophetanim  ex-  Caxton  Society, 
empla,  Davidis  Psalmos,  Salamonis 


10  RISE  OF  THE  CABLOTIKQIAN   EUPIBK 

ranto-    and  enforced   by  Gregory   derived   its   strength   from    the 
^-v — ■'  apparent  corroboration  afforded  by  contemporary  calamities, 
we  naturally  turn  to  enquire,  with  some  curiosity,  how  far 
such  anticipatioQB  were  found  to  consist  with  the  spectacle 
that  now   greeted   Europe, — the   formation   of  a  new  and 
Ti««nf*»    splendid  empire.     It  must  then  be  admitted  that  this  theory 
"v-        appears  well  nigh  lost  to  view  amid  the  promise  of  the  reign 
of  Charlemagne,  but  it  should  be  remembered  that  a  specific 
aa  well  as  a  general  explanation  of  the  fact  oHers  itself  for 
our  consideration.     It  was  the  belief  of  the  Church  that  the 
Ti»«^.        advent  of  Antichrist  would  precede  the  final  dbsolution  of 
mw^Anu-  ^'^  things,  and  we  accordingly  find  that,  inasmuch  as  the 
''''**''         fall  of  the  Roman  empire  had  been  supposed  to  be  necessarily 
involved  in  his  triumph  and  reign,  it  was  customary  among 
the  earlier  Christians   to   pray   for    the    preservation   and 
stability  of  the   imperial  power,   as   interposing  a  barrier 
between  their  own  times  and  those  of  yet  darker  calamity. 
It  was  not  until  Rome  had  been  taken  by  Alaric  that  Augus- 
tine composed  the  Be  Civitate  Dei.     But  now,  with  tbe  lapse 
of  the  two  centuries  that  separated  the  age  of  Gregory  from 
that  of  Charlemngne,  a  change  had  come  over  the  aspect  of 
ui-MauJi  human  affairs.     The  empire  of  the  Franks  had,  by  successive 
JJSSaa™*    conquests,  been  extended  over  the  greater  part  of  Europe ; 
■"°*'         the  Iiombards,  the  great  foes  of  all  culture,  acknowledged 
the  superiority  of  a  stronger  arm ;  the  descendants  of  the 
Huns,  thinned  by  a  series  of  sanguinary  conflicts,  accepted 
Christianity  at  the  point  of  the  sword ;  the  long  struggle 
between   the   emperor  and   the  Saxons  of  the   north   had 
represented,   from   the   first,   an    antagonism    between   the 
traditions  of  civilization  and  those  of  barbarism  and  idolatry ; 
while   in   the   devotion  of  Charlemagne  to   the  Church,  a 
sentiment  already  so  conspicuous  in  his  father,  it  became 
evident  that  the  preponderance  of  strength  was  again  ranged 
on  the  side  of  the  new  faith.     The  advent  of  Antichrist  was 
therefore  not  yet ;  and  with  that  belief  the  still  more  dread 
anticipation  which  had  so  long  filled  the  minds  of  men  ceased 
to  assert  itself  with  the  same  intensity,  and  in  the  conception 
of  Charlemagne,  to  which  our  attention  must  now  be  directed. 


CHARLEMAGNE  AND  ALCmN. 


11 


we  discern  the  presence  of  ideas  widely  diflfering  from  those    r^-^^ 
of  Gregory.  Ducriok. 

We  have  already  remarked  that,  in  Gaul,  the  imperial 
schools  established  under  the  Roman  empire  disappeared 
amid  the  havoc  wrought  by  the  Franks ;  those  by  which 
they  were  succeeded  were  entirely  under  the  control  of 
the  Church.  The  researches  of  Ampere  and  other  writers 
have  ascertained  that  these  schools  were  of  two  kinds, — the  The  Epi- 
episcopal  and  the  monastic.     In  the  former  an  exclusively  tS  Mowtio 


Schools. 


religious  training  was  imparted;  in  the  latter  a  slight  infusion 
of  secular  knowledge  found  a  place  \  A  similar  fate  to  that 
of  their  predecessors  appeared  likely  at  one  time  to  befall 
these  institutions ;  in  the  kingdom  of  Aquitaine,  where  they 
had  flourished  with  most  vigour,  the  destruction  of  the 
churches  and  monasteries  by  the  Saracens  well  nigh  extin- 
guished education,  and  we  can  well  understand  that  the  rule 
of  Charles  Martel  and  the  Merovingian  dynasty  was  little 
likely  to  favour  its  restoration.  We  have  therefore  small 
difficulty  in  crediting  the  statement  of  the  monk  of  St  Gall 
that,  at  the  accession  of  Charlemagne,  the  study  of  letters  was 
everywhere  well  nigh  forgotten'. 

~7    It  is  no  easy  task,  especially  in  the  presence  of  the  conflict-  iMffcrent 
ine  conclusions  of  eminent  authorities,  to  determine  the  exact  '«p«c<*»vf 

o  '  Charlemagne 

character  of  the  parts  played  by  Charlemagne  and  Alcuin  as  "**  ^^^'^^'^ 
the  authors  of  the  great  educational  revival  which  marks  the 
close   of  the   eighth   century.     Some   have   held   that  the 
ecclesiastic  was  the  leading  mind;  others,  that  all  the  origi- 
nality and  merit  of  the  conception  were  the  emperors*;  but 


^  Devoting  some  attention  '  k  des 
connaissances  qni  ne  Re  rapportaient 
pas  immedi&tement  aux  besoins  jour- 
nuliers  de  TEglise,*  is  the  language 
of  Ampere.  Histoire  Litt4raire  de  la 
France  avant  le  Douzihme  Sihclt,  u 
278. 

'  '  Stndia  litterarum  nbique  prope- 
modnm  esscnt  in  oblivione/  Bouquet, 
T  106.  C'ompare  HaUam,  Middle 
J<7<r«,  iii"418. 

*  Among  the  former  may  be  cited 
Guizot,  Civilisation  en  Europe^  ii 
202 ;  Haur^u,  Philosophie  SchoUu- 


tique;  Monnier,  Alcuin  et  son  InflU' 

ence;  li^on  Maitre,  Les  Ecoles  Epi- 
scopaUs  et  Monastiques  de  VOccident 
depuis  Charlemagne  jusqu''h  Philippe- 
Auguste.  Milman,I<att;i  Christianity, 
Book  y  c.  1,  and  Professor  Maurice, 
Mediaeval  Philosophy  ^  p.  38,  incline 
to  a  far  less  favorable  estimate  of 
the  ecclesiastic.  Alcuin  has  been 
least  favorably  judged  by  his  own 
countrymen,  a  fact  which  may  be 
explained  by  his  sympathies  with 
monastidsm  in  its  more  ascetic 
phase. 


IS  CHARLEMAGNE  AND  ALCUIN. 

raroo-  none  appear  to  have  sufficiently  taken  into  account  the 
■ — , — ■  traditional  theory  that  lay  like  an  incubus  upon  the  thought 

"'•*™«"  and  learning  of  thewe  agee.  From  that  incubus  it  seems 
natural  Ut  infer  that  the  emperor,  the  warrior,  the  conqueror, 
would  be  the  first  to  set  himself  free,  as  he  beheld  athwart 
"  the  wide  teiritories  of  his  extending  empire  the  bow  of  hope 
rising  again  to  view.  The  new  element  introduced  by  him 
into  the  education  of  his  times  is,  indeed,  in  perfect  keeping 
with  the  whole  policy  of  that  master  intellect.  Though  his 
admirei's  have  probably  exa^erated  his  attainments,  it  is 
certain  that  they  were  such  as  alone  to  constitute  eminence 
in  that  age,  and  admitting  that  his  Capitularies  owe  much  of 
their  literary  correctness  to  the  aid  of  men  like  Theodulfus, 
Alcuin,  and  Eginhard,  it  must  be  allowed  that  many  of  them 
in  their  mere  concoption  attest  the  presence  of  considerable 

Aktdo.  culture.  In  Alcuin,  on  the  other  hand,  judging  Irom  his 
whole  career,  there  is  little  suggestion  of  a  mind  of  very 
uncommon  powero.  His  letters,  valuable  as  illustrations  of 
the  period,  reflect  a  mind  that  can  hardly  be  mistaken. 
A  clear  cool  intellect,  capable  of  receiving  and  arranging 
large  stores  of  infoi-niation, '  enough  of  a  questioner  to  be  able 
to  understand  for  himself  what  others  imparted,  not  enough  of 
one  to  be  embarrassed  with  any  serious  mental  peiplexities,' 
a  cautious  conservative  temperament,  faithful  to  inherited 
traditions  — such  are  the  leading  characteristics  of  the  first 
scholar  of  the  times  of  Charlemagne- 

saieof  Tlie  immediate  occasion  of  the  emperor's  action  on  behalf 

j^™*""  of  education  arose  out  of  the  glaring  solecisms  that  frequently 
arrested  his  attention  in  the  communications  he  received 
from  the  monasteries.  In  a  circular  letter  to  Baugulfus, 
abbot  of  Fulda,  he  calls  attention  to  the  grave  scandal 
then  presented.  The  pious  and  loyal  tone  of  the  letters, 
he  allows,  is  worthy  of  all  praise,  Imt  their  rude  and  care- 
less diction  is  such  as  to  surest  apprehensions  lest  the  Scrip- 
tures themselves  should  be  scarcely  intelligible  to  readers 
of  80  little  learning, — ne  forte  sicut  minor  eseet  in  scribendo 
prudentia,  ita  qaoque  et  multo  minor  essel,  quam  recte  esse 
debuisset,  in  ei«  Sanctarum   Scripturanim  ad  intelliffendum 


THE  SCHOOLS  OF  CHARLEMAGNE. 


13 


sapientia^.    Such  were  the  alleged  motives  of  the  emperor, —    intrc 
'pr^textes\    as   Ampere    regards   them,    'quil    mettait   en    >— v^^ 
avant  pour  motiver  sa  r^forme/     Gregory  could  not  have 
impeached  them,  though  there  is  sufficient  reason  for  con- 
cluding that  the  emperor  s  reforms  greatly  exceeded  what 
Gregory  would  have  approved. 

The  emperor  had  already  made  the  acquaintance  of  Alcuin  ''yjj^SS?** 
at  Parma;  he  now  invited  him  over  from  England  and  placed  "*«"«• 
him  at  the  head  of  the  Palace  school  attached  to  his  own 
court.  Under  Alcuin's  directions  a  scheme  of  education  was 
drawn  up  which  became  the  model  for  the  other  great  schools 
established  at  Tours,  Fontenelle,  Lyons,  Osnaburg,  and 
Metz ; — institutions  which  ably  sustained  the  tradition  of 
education  on  the  continent,  until  superseded  by  the  new 
methods  and  the  new  learning  which  belong  to  the  com- 
mencement of  the  university  era*. 

tTLe  work  of  Charlemagne  may  be  characterised  as  one  of  chaiactOTor 
both  renovation  and  innovation : — renovation  as  regarded  the  ^*^*»*** 
already  existing  schools,  innovation  in  the  reconstruction  of  |j£gj^ 
their  methods  and' the  extension  of  their  teaching  to  other 
classes.     Hitherto  the  privileges  of  the  mon'astic  schools  had 
been  jealously  confined  by   the  Benedictines  to  their  own 
order.    By  the  eflforts  of  Charlemagne  they  were  now  thrown 
open  to  the  secular  clergy.     The  monasteries,  in  the  new 
movement,  made  common  cause  in  the  work  of  instruction 
with  the  cathedral  or  episcopal  schools  ^  and  a  new  impulse 
was  thus  communicated  to  education.     If  we  add  to  these 
centres  of  activity  the  slight  element  of  lay  education  that 


^  Launoy,  De  SchoUs  Celebrioribus, 
etc.,  p.  7. 

*  *It  has  been  said  that  the  mana- 
Bcripts  which  Alcuin  procorcd  from 
England  were  the  means  of  forming 
a  special  school  of  transcribers  and 
illuminators  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  which 
for  many  generations  preserved  the 
traditionar}'  style  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
artists.*  Edwards*  Memoirs  of  Libra- 
rietf  1  106. 

*  A  fuU  account  of  the  method 
and  discipline  of  these  schools  will 

be  found  in  Leg  EcoUi  EpUcopalei 


et  Monastique»  of  L^n  Maitre,  deuz- 
ifeme  Partie.     Gaillard,  Hittoire  de 
Charlemagne,  u  87,  speaks  of  them 
as  '^coles  que  Tuniversit^  de  Paris 
pent  regarder  comme  son  berceau;' 
this,  however,  is  a  point  with  respect 
to  which  much  diversity  of  opinion 
prevails ;  see  commencement  of  Chap- 
ter I.     Savigny's  judgement  on  the 
question  is  em])hatic :  *  ist  doch  eine 
unmittelbare  Verbindung  derselben 
mit  der  spateren  Universitat  gauz 
nnerweislich.*     Oeschichte  des  B6nu 
RechUy  c.  XXI  sec.  126,  note. 


14  ALCUW. 

developed  itself  in  tlie  Palace  schnol,  where  the  emperor 
himself  participated  in  the  iDstructioD  given,  we  shall  per- 
ceive that  a  very  general  reform  was  initiated.  The  learned 
Benedictine,  Dom  Bouquet,  dwells  with  enthusiasm  on  the 
benefits  thus  extended  to  the  whole  student  class  of  the 
period'. 

It  seems  certain  that,  for  a  time  at  lea-st,  the  English 
eccleBiastic  heartily  seconded  the  phins  of  his  royal  employer; 
but  his  zeal  evidently  declined  with  advancing  age,  and  after 
fourteen  years  of  service  he  was  glad  to  seek  refuge  from  the 
splendour  of  the  court  in  the  retirement  of  the  monastery  at 
Tours.  Giiizot  has  inferred  that  the  demands  made  upon  his 
energies,  and  the  continual  tension  at  which  his  mind  was 
kept,  by  the  mental  activity  and  insatiable  curiosity  of  the 
emperor,  urged  him  to  this  step,  but  there  would  appear  to 
be  sufficient  reason  for  surmising  that  the  cause  lay  some- 
='  what  deeper.  Those  familiar  with  the  history  of  these 
centuries,  will  remember  the  frequent  feuds  between  the 
Benedictines  and  the  secular  clergy,  and  it  would  seem 
doubtful  whether  Alcuin  ever  cordially  sympathized  with  the 
extension  of  instruction  which  Charlemagne  brought  about ; 
his  heart  appears  far  more  warmly  given  to  the  task  of 
refuting  the  Adoptionista  and  denouncing  image-worship ; 
it  is  certain  that  he  viewed  with  dislike  the  increased  atten- 
tion to  pagan  literature,  which  necessarily  resulted  from  the 
mental  activity  thus  aroused*.     The  large  designs  and  wide 


)  Oermania 
a  Bheuum,  et  ex  Italia  cis  Alpes 
erupcnint,  ut  publicee  peuitus  eTima- 
eriat  Scholn',  et  curam  privaUmm 
ad  eruditionem  Cleiicorum  in  Epi- 
BcopiiB  gBBBeriat  Episcopi,  ut  Abbates 
inCiSDobiiB  ad  Monacborum  iiiBtrao- 
tionem.  Uncle  studia  deliteacebfuit 
in  solis  Episcopiomm  MoaaBteiio- 
ramqne  clauetria.  8ed  quia  tunc 
qnoque  em  tougaebant,  eaa  printiiio 
Bplendori  lestituere  CutoIds  etiam 
Bategit,  diiectiB  EpiBtolie,  de  quibua 
■Qpni.  Venimcum  privatarum  hujiii- 
cemodi  Schatanim  aditia  LaicU  liber 
non  etiet,  Carolut  ptibUcat  imtUuit, 
et  in  ipK  regio  Palatio  aliiu  ertxiu 


JUgii  exetnplma  itatitn  tfcuH  rant 
Ahbalti  et  Epitfopi.  Publica  per 
Epiicopin,  per  Sfimaitrria  moj:  $lrr- 
putrunt  Schola,  alia  Canoiiitit,  alia 
Sacularibiu  edocendii  dettinalte.' 
Bouquet,  Reram  Gallicarum  tl  Fran- 
cicanim  Scriptarei,  v  621. 

'  A  full  account  of  the  controversy 
Trith  the  AdaptionistH  will  be  found 
in  the  very  able  Li/e  of  Alcxtin  by 
Lcrenz,  Profeaaur  of  History  at  tbe 
UniTeraity  of  Halle,  1829.  The 
Boman  Catholic  writers  have  gene- 
rally Bought  to  ahow  that  the  paper 
tonnd  among  the  Carlovin; 


HIS  BETIBEMENT  AND  DEATH.  15 

views  of  the  emperor  ranged  beyond  the  conceptions  of  the    intro- 
somewhat  cold  and  decorous  ecclesiastic.    Though  an  ardent  ^  ■  v  — ' 
admirer  of  the   De  Civitate  Dei,   Charlemagne  had  other  sentim^tt 
sympathies,  sjrmpathies  which  strongly  inclined  him  to  that  peror. 
secular  learning  so  strongly  condemned  by  Gregory.     By  his 
directions  steps  were  taken  for  the  collection  and  revision  of 
manuscripts,   a  care  especially  necessary  now  that  Egypt 
under  Saracen  occupation  no  longer  furnished  the  papyrus 
for  the  use  of  Europe.     One   of  the  numerous  letters  of 
Alcuin  consists  of  a  reply  to   two    grammatical  questions 
propounded  by  the  emperor, — the  proper  gender  of  rvhits, 
and  whether  despexeris   or    dispexeris   be    the   preferable 
form.     The  letter  attests  no  contemptible  scholarship,  sup- 
ported as  its  decisions  are  by  references  to  Priscian  and 
Donatus ;  it  is  moreover  an  important  piece  of  evidence  with 
respect  to  Alcuin's  knowledge  of  Greek,  for  it  contains  seven 
quotations  in  that  language,  and  illustrates  the  force  of  di, 
in  such  Latin  compoimds  as  divido,  diruo,  diacurro,  by  the 
Greek  Sm\ 

Such  enquiries  on  the  part  of  the  emperor,  together  with  ^^^^ 
those  interesting  dialogues  wherein  Alcuin  unfolded  to  the  SjJ^*®*^ "' 
courtly 'circle  at  Aix-la-Chapelle  the  mysteries  of  logic  andsJwSSSby 


objections 


grammar,  unmistakeably  evidence  the  presence  of  a  spirit  very  founded  on 


itaim- 


different  from  that  of  Gregory  and  altogether  in  advance  of  ^onaty. 
the  ecclesiastical  ideas  of  the  time.  It  might  seem  indeed 
not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  when  the  dark  forebodings 
that  derived  their  strength  from  calamity  and  invasion  drew 
off  at  the  approach  of  a  more  hopeful  age,  and  that  as  the 
horizon  that  bounded  human  life  regained  the  charms  that 
belong  to  the  illimitable  and  the  unknown,  men  might  well 
again  find  leisure  to  draw  delight  and  inspiration  from  the 
page  of  Grecian  and  Roman  genius.     Such  happiness  how- 


Karlstadt,  who  heralded  the  cmsade  ment  to  act  as  arbiter  in  a  literary 

against  image-worship  that  preceded  controversy,  and  should  be  willing 

the  Reformation.  emerita  nomen  militia  in  castra  revo- 

*  Epitt.  27.     The  tone  of  this  let-  care  pugnantiu,  plainly  shows  how 

ter,  wherein  Alcnin  mildly  expresses  he  sought  in  his  latter  life  to  with- 

his  surprise  that  the  emperor  should  draw  himself  from  the  study  of  pagan 

haye  summoned  him  from  his  retire«  literature. 


16 


THE  NEW  OBJECTION  TO   PAGAN   LEARNING. 


INTRO- 
DUCTION. 


ever  the  scholar  was  not  yet  destined  to  enjoy.  The  course  of 
events,  it  is  true,  had  tended  to  weaken  the  belief  which 
Gregory  had  held\  but  there  had  at  the  same  time  been 
growing  up  in  the  Church  a  subsidiary  theory  with  respect 
to  pagan  literature,  which  equally  served  to  discredit  and 
discourage  the  study.  From  considerations  which  led  to  an 
estimate  of  pagan  learning  as  a  thing  wherein  the  Christian 
had  no  longer  part  or  lot,  objectors  now  turned  to  considera- 
tions derived  from  the  morality  of  the  literature.  The  spirit 
of  Tertullian  and  Amobius  long  survived  in  the  Latin  Church  ; 
and  the  most  learned  ecclesiastics  of  these  centuries  are  to 
be  found  ignoring  that  veiy  culture  which  in  a  later  age  has 
proved  the  road  to  ecclesiastical  preferment,  on  grounds 
precisely  similar  to  those  assumed  by  the  most  illiterate  and 
bigoted  zealots  of  more  modem  times'.  J[2ius  Alcuin  himself, 
who  had  been  wont  as  a  boy  to  conceal  in  his  bed  his  Virgil 
from  the  observation  of  the  brother  who  came  to  rouse  the 


r  ■ 


^  It  is  remarkable  how  the  antici- 

Eations  of  Gregory  assume  at  the 
ands  of  Alcuin  a  comparatively 
vague  and  indefinite  character: — 
'Qusedam  videlicet  signa,  qam  ipse 
Dominus  in  Evangelio  ante  finem 
mundi  futura  esse  pr8?dixit,transacta 
leguntur;  quiedam  vero  imminentia 
quotidie  sentiuntur.  Qua?dam  itaque 
necdum  acta  sunt,  sed  futura  esse 

certissime  creduntur et  regnum 

Antichristi  et  crudelitas  ejus  in  sane- 
tos ;  htec  enim  erit  novissima  perse- 
outio,  novissimo  imminente  judicio, 
quam  sancta  Ecdesia  toto  terrarum 
orbepatietur ;  uni versa  scilicet  civitas 
Christi,  ab  universa  diaboli  civitate.' 
De  Fidf  Sane.  Trinitatis,  Bk.  in 
c.  19.  Migne,  ci  51.  It  is  easy  to 
note  in  this  passage,  perhaps  the 
most  definite  in  Alcuii/s  writings, 
how  the  phrase olojy  of  Augustine 
continued  to  be  repej?ted  while  the 
application  of  his  theory  was  no 
longer  insisted  on  with  the  same 
distinctness.  In  his  brief  commeu- 
tary  on  the  Apocalypse  we  observe  a 
singular  reticence  in  interpreting  any 
portion  of  the  prophecy  by  specific 
events  ;  and  in  the  LiMlus  dt  Anti- 
christo,  once  attributed  to  him,  but 
now  proved  to  be  by  an  Abbot  of  the 


monastery  at  Montier-en-Der,  and 
written  more  than  a  century  later, 
we  find  the  foUowing  remarkable 
passage :  *  Quicumque  enim,  sive 
laious,  sive  canonicus,  sive  monachus 
contra  justitiam  vivit,  et  ordinis  sui 
regulam  impuguat,  et  quod  bonum 
est  blasphemat,  Antichristus  et  mi- 
nister SataniB  est.'  This  brief  tract, 
successively  attributed  to  Augustine, 
Alcuin,  and  Rabanus  Maurus  (see 
edition  of  the  last  named,  published 
at  Col.  Agripp.  VI  178,  also  Migne, 
CI  1291),  while  it  specifies  a  definite 
period  of  persecution,  assigns  the 
East  as  the  quarter  from  whence 
Antichrist  would  appear,  and  ranges 
against  him  the  Western  Powers. 
The  whole  has  a  marked  resem- 
blance to  Lactantius,  In$tituti<me$t 
Bk.  VII. 

*  Herwerden,  in  his  Commentatio 
De  Caroli  Magni,  etc.,  one  of  his 
earliest  productions,  has  veiy  happily 
characterised  this  prejudice  of  the 
time :   '  Yeteribus  Latinis  Ora^cisque 
litteris  pestifera  prsBsertim  erat  su- 
perstitiosissimi  ejus  levi  opinio,  stu-  ^ 
dium  earum  et  exercitationem  Chris- 
tiano  contumeliosa  esse,  eiqne  notai^ 
impietatis  inurere,  qu»  aetenue  ejnik  ; 
saluti  M  beatitodini  nodvE  sit.' 


THE  CHUBCH  STILL  HOSTILE  TO  PAGAN  LITERATUIIE.   17 


sleepers  to  noctums,  lived  to  set  a  bann  upon  the  '  impure 
eloquence'  of  the  poet,  and  forbade  him  to  his  pupil s\  The 
guardian  of  the  library  at  York,  who  had  once  so  enthusias- 
tically described  its  treasures*,  employed  his  later  years  in 
testifying  to  the  vanity  of  ail  pagan  learning.!  The  diflFerence 
we  have  noted  in  the  spirit  of  the  emperor  and  the  ecclesiastic 
is  apparent  to  the  close.  The  former  withdrew,  as  far  as  he 
was  able,  from  the  anxieties  of  political  life,  to  devote  himself 
with  yet  greater  ardour  to  his  literary  labours ;  the  latter  put 
aside  his  secular  learning  to  cultivate  more  closely  the 
asceticism  of  the  monastery.  The  one  died  while  occupied 
in  restoring  the  text  of  the  Gospels ;  the  other,  worn  out  by 
the  austerities  of  the  cloister". 

If  we  pursue  our  enquiry  beyond  the  time  of  Alcuin  it 
is  long  before  we  find  this  tradition  materially  impaired. 


TNTRO- 

DutmoN. 


1  'Saffidnnt  diyini  poets  yobis, 
neo  egetis  Inxuriosa  sermoiuB  Vir- 
gilii  V08  polloi  facnndia.'  Alcuini 
Vita,  Migne,  c  90. 

*  '  Illio  iiiTenies  yetemm  yestigia 

Pfttnun, 

Qaidqaid  habet   pro  se  Latio 
BomanuB  in  orbe, 

Onedayel  qnidquid  transmiBit 
dara  Laiinis ; 

Hebraicns  yel  quod  popnlas  bi- 
bit  imbre  snpemo 

Africa  lueifluo,  etc. 
Poema  de  Pontificihu$  et  8ancti$ 
EceUsiaEboraeensit,  Migne,  ci  843. 
This  description  is  of  coarse  exag- 
gerated; in  the  actual  enumeration 
of  authors  the  only  Oreek  pagan 
writers  mentioned  by  Alouin  are  Ari- 
stotle and  Aratus ;  the  only  Greek 
Fathers,  Clemens,  Ghrysostom,  and 
Athanasius.  The  poem  itself,  it  may 
be  obseryed,  is  of  Httle  historic  yalue, 
as  it  is  little  more  than  a  yersification 
of  the  passages  in  Bede's  history  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  Ghuieh  relating  to 
York,  with  additions  respecting  those 
dignitaries  who  had  filled  the  archi- 
episeopal  seat  since  Bede's  time. 

*  "  La  pens^  de  la  mort  ^tait 
deyenue  pour  lui  une  veritable  con- 
solation. En  lui  s'^tait  r^ahs^  apres 
Uen  des  transformations,  Tid^al  du 
apiritualiste:  il  yiyait  par  T&me.  Au 
sein  des  grandeurs,  le  corps  ne  lui 
ayait  eembl^  qa*ane  prison,  la  rie 


i. 


qu*un  exil.  Ce  qui  n'6tait  alors 
qu*une  sorte  de  r^ye  6tait  maintenant 
une  y^rit^.  Son  plus  cher  d^sir  ^tait 
de  mourir  le  jour  de  la  Pentecote. 
En  ce  jour  oil  les  apOtres  regurent 
une  nonyelle  existence,  la  mort  lui 
paraissait  6tre  le  souffle  divin  qui 
r^veillerait  son  &me  du  sommeil  de 
la  yie  humaine.  11  ayait  choisi  le 
lieu  de  sa  sepulture  non  loin  de 
r^glise  de  Saint  Martin.  Des  que  la 
unit  ^tait  yenue,  il  se  rendait  k  la 
d^rob^e  dans  cet  endroit  solitaire, 
et  aprbs  ayoir  r^cit^  des  pri^res  sur 
sa  tombe  en  esp^rance,  il  disoit :  *  O 
clef  de  Dayid,  sceptre  de  la  maison 
d'lsrael,  toi  qui  ouvres  pour  que 
personne  ne  ferme,  toi  qui  fermes 
sans  que  personne  puisse  onyrir, 
yiens,  prends  celui  qui  est  enchatn^ 
dans  la  prison,  qui  est  assis  duns  les 
t^n^bres  et  A  I'ombre  de  la  mort.' 
Les  fetes  du  Careme,  de  Paqnes  et 
de  rAscension,  ranimdreut  ses  forces. 
Mais  la  maladie  augmenta  dans  la 
nuit  de  TAsoension.  II  tomba  sur  son 
lit,  ^puise  et  sans  mouyement.  La 
connaissance  et  la  parole  lui  reyiye- 
rent  les  jours  suiyants,  et  il  r^cita  sa 
pribre :  *  O  clef  de  Darid,  yiens.'  Et 
ce  f  ut  le  matin  du  jour  de  la  Pente- 
c6te,  qu*eutour^  de  ses  ^Idves  en 
larmes,  au  moment  m§me  oi\  il 
entrait  ordinairement  au  choeur,  il 
rendit  le  dernier  soupir."  Monnicr, 
Alcuin  et  son  Injluence,  pp.  249-50. 

2 


18  THE  church's  tradition  DEFENDED. 

DuSSoN.  I^l>*^U8  Maurus,  his  most  illustrious  pupil,  while  distin- 

""^v— '  guished  by  his  ability  and  learning,  still  held  it,  as  Trithemius 

^*j™jj.      observes,  the  highest  excellence  of  the  scholar  to  render  all 

d.  sfid.  it)      profane  literature  subservient  to  the  illustration  of  the  Scrip- 

Aieoin*!       tures;   and,  up  to  the  eleventh  century,  the  great  prepon- 

tbTtnSitioii  derance  of  authority,  including  such  men  as  Odo,  abbot  of 

cirareh.       Clugui,  Peter  Damian,  and  Lanfranc,  is  to  be  found  ranged 

on  the  same  side.     Even  so  late  as  the  seventeenth  century, 

De  Ranc^,  in  his  celebrated  diatribe  against  secular  learning, 

could   point    triumphantly   to   the   fact  that   the   rule   so 

systematically  violated   by   the  honorable  activity  of  the 

DrMaitiuid's  Bencdictines  had  never  been  forinally  rescinded.     '  I  grant,' 

towutioa      says  one  of  the  ablest  apologists  of  the  culture  and  men  of 

these  ages, '  that  they  had  not  that  extravagant  and  factitious 

admiration  for  the  poets  of  antiquity,  which  they  probably 

would  have  had  if  they  had  been  brought  up  to  read  them 

before  they  could  understand  them,  and  to  admire  them  as 

a  necessary  matter  of  taste,  before  they  could   form  any 

intellectual  or  moral  estimate  of  them  :  they  thought  too  that 

there  were  worse  things  in  the  world  than  false  quantities, 

and  preferred  running  the  risk  of  them  to  some  other  risks 

which  they  apprehended ;  but  yet  there  are  instances  enough 

of  the  classics  (even  the  poets)  being  taught  in  schools,  and 

read  by  individuals ;   and  it  cannot,  be  doubted  that  they 

might  have  been,  and  would  have  been,  read  by  more,  but  for 

the  prevalence  of  that  feeling  which  I  have  described,  and 

which,  notwithstanding  these  exceptions,  wa^  very  general 

Modem  and,  as  it  is  supposed,  more  enlightened  views  of 

education  have  decided  that  this  was  all  wrong ;  but  let  us 

not  set  down  what  was  at  most  an  error  of  judgement,  as 

mere  stupidity  and  a  proof  of  total  barbarism.   If  the  modem 

ecclesiastic  should  ever  meet  with  a  crop-eared  monk  of  the 

tenth  century,  he  may,  if  he  pleases,  laugh  at  him  for  not 

having  read  Virgil ;  but  if  he  should  be  led  to  confess  that, 

though  a  priest  of  Christ's  catholic  church,  and  nourished  in 

the  languages  of  Greece  and  Rome  till  they  were  almost  as 

familiar  to  him  as  his  own,  he  had  never  read  a  single  page 

of  Chrysostom  or  Basil,  of  Augustine  or  Jerome,  of  Ambrose 


LETTERS  AFTEB  THE  DEATH  OF  CHARLEMAGNE.  19 

or  Hilary — if  he  should  confess  this,  I  am  of  opinion  that    intro- 
the  poor  monk  would  cross  himself,  and  make  off  without   >  ■■  y  ^^ 
looking  behind  him\' 

Within  three  years  after  the  death  of  Charlemagne  an  a.d.  sit. 
important  change  was  introduced  in  the  Benedictine  schools. 
The  seculars,  by  the  decree  of  a  Council  held  at  Aix-la- 
Chapelle,  were  no  lons^er  admitted  to  minsrle  with  the  oblati  Distinction 

^  ^    ,  ,  .  ,  introduced  in 

and  the  monks,  but  received  instruction  in  separate  classes,  Slfe^wta^ 
and  probably  without  the  precincts  of  the  mona8tery^  This 
distinction  continued  to  exist  down  to  the  twelfth  century, 
and  may  be  regarded  as  favorable  to  learning  in  so  far  that 
the  most  learned  body  of  the  period  still  continued  to  direct 
the  education  of  the  seculai*  clergy. 

In  the  political  disturbances  that  ensued  upon  the  death  Disturbed 
of  the  great  emperor  the  prospects  of  learning  became  again  empire  after 
clouded,   and  the  scholars   of  the   time  are   loud  in  their  chariemagne. 
laments  over  the  palmy  days  of  the  past,  and  gloomy  in  their 
prognostications  of  the  future.     The  few  who  still  essayed  to 
impart  to  others  something  of  learning  and  culture,  found 
their  efforts  useless  while  a  barbarous  soldiery  plundered  the 
monasteries,  and  the  country  resounded  with  the  clang  of 
arms'.    Heu!  misera  dies  quam  infelicior  nox  sequitur!  is 
the  exclamation  of  Paschasius  Radbertus*.      The  deacon  K*^^^"' 

Itadbcrtua. 

Florus,    in    the   dismal  strains  wherein   he  describes  the  p,^ 
disasters  that  followed   upon  the   division  of  the   empire,  *''*^*'* 
contrasts  the  prospects  of  learning  with  the  bright  promise  of 
the  time  when  Charlemagne  guided  the  fortunes  of  the  state. 
*  The  cultivation  of  letters  is  at  an  end,'  writes  Lupus,  bishop  Lunua, 
of  Ferriferes,  to  Altwinus,  '  who  is  there  who  does  not  deplore  J'«™'«^ 

0»  olio* 

d.  862.  (?) 

^  Dr  MaiUand,  Dark  Ages,  pp.  177  these  Coanoils  the  formal  distinction 

— 179.  of  the  seoalar  clergy  from   the  re- 

'   '  Ut  Bchola  in  monasterio  non  ligious  orders, 
habeatur  nisi  eomm  qui  oblati  sunt.'  '  The  school  at  Toors  appears  to 

Baloze,  Cap,  Regum,  i  585.    *  Oblati  have  suffered  under  a  special  dis- 

monasteriorum,  qui  se  ac  sua,  vel  advantage    owing    to    the    careless 

majorem   partem  bonorum  suorum  management  of  Fredegis,  the  abbot ; 

•ine  fraude  ac  dolo  monasteriliTipflis  its  celebrity  passed  over  to  the  school 

■ponte  ac  libera    obtulerunt.'    Du-  at  Fulda  which  Rabanus,   a  really 

eange,  s.  y.    Francis  Monnier  in  his  able    man,    raised    to    considerable 

interesting  Hi$toire  des  Luttes  Poli-  eminence. 

tiquet  et  Religie%ue$  dam  Us  Temps  ^  Vita  Wala,  Migne,  Vol.  cxiz. 

CarolingietUi  p.  38,  refers  back  to 

2—2 


20  BISHOP  LUPUS. 

TNTRO-  the  unskilfulness  of  the  teachers,  the  paucity  of  books,  the 
^— v^-^  want  of  leisure*?'  In  a  letter  to  Eginhard,  he  complains  that 
those  who  cultivate  learning  are  regarded  as  useless  drones, 
and  seem  raised  to  unenviable  eminence,  only  to  be  marked 
out  for  the  dislike  of  the  crowd,  who  impute  all  their  failings, 
not  to  the  common  infirmity  of  human  nature,  but  to  their 

nisietten.  literary  acquirements*.  The  letters  of  this  prelate  are, 
indeed,  among  the  most  interesting  and  valuable  records  of 
the  period.  We  prefer  them  greatly  to  the  intensely  edifying 
correspondence  of  Rabanus,  or  even  to  that  of  Alcuin  him- 
self; and  it  must  be  owned,  that  the  literary  activity  they 
reveal  is  in  singular  contrast  to  the  representations  of  those 
writers  who  would  have  us  regard  the  period  that  followed 
on  the  reign  of  Charlemagne,  as  one  wherein  learning  suffered 
a  ¥^11  nigh  total  eclipse.     At  Ferriferes,  at  least,  its  lamp 

nbntenuT  shouc  with  no  uncertain  light  In  a  letter  to  one  corre- 
spondent,  we  find  the  good  bishop  begging  for  the  loan  of  a 
copy  of  Cicero's  treatise  on  Rhetoric,  his  own  manuscript 
being  faulty  (mendoaum),  and  another,  which  he  had  com- 
pared with  it,  still  more  so*.  In  a  second  letter  he  mentions 
that  he  intended  to  have  forwarded  a  copy  of  Aulus  Qellius, 
but  his  friend,  the  abbot,  has  detained  it.  Writing  to  another 
correspondent,  he  thanks  him  for  the  pains  he  has  taken  in 
correcting  a  copy  of  Macrobius*;  to  a  third  he  promises  to 
send  a  copy  of  Caesar's  Commentaries,  and  enters  into  a 
lengthened  explanation  to  show  that  a  portion  of  that  work 
must  be  regarded  as  written  by  Hirtius.  In  another  letter 
we  find  him  begging  that  a  copy  of  the  Institutes  of  Quin- 
tilian  may  be  sent  to  Lantramnus  to  be  copied  under  his 
auspices'.  When  we  consider  that  pursuits  like  these  have 
l)een  held  to  add  lustre  to  the  reputation  of  not  a  few  of  the 
most  distinguished  prelates  of  our  English  Church,  it  seems 
hard  to  withhold  the  meed  of  praise  from  a  poor  French 
bishop  of  the  ninth  century;  unless  indeed  such  labours  are 
to  be  regarded  as  creditable  enough  when  associated  with 

1  EpUU  84,  Migne,  VoL  cxix.  *  EpUt.  8,  Ibid. 

»  Epiit.  1,  Ibid.  ft  EpUt,  62,  Ibid. 

»  Ibid. 


THB  SCHOOL  BOOKS  OF  THE  DABK  AGES.  21 

the  dignity  and  luxury  of  a  modem  bishopric,  but  quite  q^^SS;, 
another  thing  when  carried  on  amid  the  alarms  of  war  and  a   — v— ■ 
constant  struggle  with  poverty,  and  where  the  writer  has 
every  now  and  then  to  pause  to  tell  of  the  cruelty  of  the 
soldiery,   the  scanty   provision  for  his  household,  and  the 
tattered  apparel  of  his  servants. 

In  the  fierce  antagonism  of  races  amid  which  the  Carlo-  P^^P^*' 
Tingian  empire  broke   up,   we  find  little  to  Uluatrate  the 
progress  of  education.     The  light  which  illumined  the  court     ^ 
of  Charlemagne,   and   lingered  round  that  of  Charles   the 
Bald,  died  out  in  the  tenth  century,  or  took  refuge  with  the 
alien  race  that  ruled  in  Andalusia     Learning  still  revolved 
round  the  monastery  and  maintained  its  exclusively  theo- 
logical associations.     How  little  it  thus  prospered  in  England  ^^^ 
is  suflSciently  attested  by  the  evidence  of  our  king  Aelfifil,  a  ^s^S- 
monarch  with  strong  points  of  resemblance  to  Charlemagne, 
who  declared  that  he  knew  not  a  single  monk  south  of  the 
Thames  capable  of  translating  the  Latin  service. 

Having  now  however  examined,  sufficiently  for  our  pre- 
sent purpose,  what  may  be  termed  the  external  history  of  the 
education  of  these  centuries,  we  shall  proceed  to  endeavour 
to  ascertain,  in  turn,  the  real  value  and  amount  of  the  scanty 
learning  thus  transmitted  to  more  hopeful  times. 

The  fact  that  here  at  once  arrests  our  attention  is,  that 
vhile  education  was  warped  and  curtailed  by  the  views  of 
the  theologian,  the  substance  and  the  fashion  of  what  was  The  uui- 
actually  taught  were  to  a  great  extent  denved  from  pagan  2;j^°irtS" 
sources,  and  thus  preserved  in  a  very  remto'kable  manner  ™"'^' 
the  traditions  of  Roman  culture.     The  ordinary  instruction 
imparted  in  the  Middle  Ages,  prior  to  the  twelfth  century, 
was  almost  entirely  founded  on  the  works  of  five  authors, — 
Orosius,  Martianus,  Boethius,  Cassiodorus,  and  Isidorus, — of 
these  Martianus  and  Boethius  were  pagan,  the  others  Chris- 
tian writers,  but  all  for  the  most  part  slavish  compilers  from 
greatly  superior  Greek   and  Boman   treatises.     Jjet   us  be 
distinctly  understood.   We  do  not  assert  that  no  other  authors 
were  read',  but  simply  that  these  authors  were  the   schooi- 
•  Tbe   lale  M,   Amable  JoniAun,    whoie  anthority  on    inch   a   Bnbjeot 


22 


THE  SCHOOL  BOOKS  OF  THE  DABS  AQES. 


Orothii* 

Hdrc. 

A.D.41& 


advertut 
Ptaflawm 
lAbii  VII. 


books  of  those  times.  A  far  wider  range  of  reading  was 
undoubtedly  accessible.  Here  and  there  a  mind  of  superior 
energy  aspired  to  overcome  the  diflBculties  of  the  Greek 
tongue  and  gained  an  acquaintance  with  some  of  its  master- 
pieces, as  well  as  with  those  of  the  Latin  language.  The 
Latin  Fathers  were  not  unfrequently  studied ;  the  Vulgate  of 
Jerome  was  extensively  in  use;  Aristotle,  as  a  logician, 
survived  both  in '  Augustine  and  Boethius ;  Priscian  and 
Donatus  are  oft-quoted  authorities  in  questions  of  grammar; 
but  the  limits  within  which  such  studies  are  to  be  regarded 
as  having  directly  influenced  the  individual  are  so  narrow,  as 
to  render  it  especially  necessary  to  be  cautious  how  we  regard 
them  as  forming  any  appreciable  element  in  the  education 
then  imparted. 

The  first  of  the  five  treatises  above  enumerated  represents 
the  school  history  then  in  use.  Orosius,  the  compiler, 
Ozanam  remarks,  was  the  first  to  condense  the  annals  of  the 
world  into  the  formula,  divina  providentia  agitur  mimdus  et 
homo\  It  was  in  the  fifth  century  that  Orosius  wrote;  a 
time  when  paganism  was  loudly  reiterating  its  accusations 
against  Christianity,  in  order  to  fasten  upon  the  upholders  of 
the  new  faith  the  responsibility  of  the  calamities  that  were 
then  falling  so  thickly  on  the  empire.  Augustine's  elaborate 
vindication  was  but  half  completed,  and  he  called  upon 
Orosius,  who  was  his  pupil,  to  prepare  a  briefer  and  less 


few  will  caU  in  qnestion,  eUdms  for 
these  times  a  somewhat  larger  litera- 
ture than  is  usually  admitted  : — *  A 
toutes  les  6poqneB  dn  moyen  &ge  on 
a  lu  les  Questions  Naturelles  de 
S^o^que,  le  poeme  de  Lucr^ce,  les 
ouvrages  philosophiques  de  Cic^ron, 
les  livres  d' Apul6e,  oeux  de  Cassiodorc, 
de  Boece,  etc.'  Recherches  Critiques 
BUT  VAge  et  VOrigine  des  Traduc- 
tions La  tines  D'Aristote^  edit.  1843, 
p.  21.  Mr  Lewes  (Hist,  of  Philoso- 
phy^ II  65)  doubts  whether  Lucretius 
could  possibly  have  been  tolerated 
in  so  exclusively  theological  an  age; 
but  both  Babanus  Maurus  and  Wil- 
liam of  Conches  appear  to  have  been 
familiar  with  portions,  at  least,  of 
his  great  poem.    See  Charles  Jour- 


dain*8  Dissertation  sur  VEtat  de  la 
Philosophie  Naturelle  au  Douziime 
Si^cUy  p.  26.  Among  the  most  recent 
estimates  of  the  learning  of  these 
ages  that  of  M.  Victor  Le  Clerc's  is 
noticeable  for  its  highly  favorable 
character: — *  Quant  k  la  litt^ratnre 
latine,  pen  s'en  fallait  qu*on  ne  Vett 
dC'jk  telle  que  nous  Tavons  anjonr- 
d'hui.  Ce  mot  trop  l^rement  em- 
ploy6  de  renaissance  des  lettres  ne 
saurait  s'appliquer  aux  lettres  latines: 
elles  n^onl  point  ressuscit6,parce  qu^el- 
les  n*itaient  point  inortesJ'  Histoire 
Littiraire  de  la  France  au  QwUoT' 
zihme  Sih:lei  i  355. 

^  Ozanam,  History  of  Civilization 
in  the  Fifth  Century,  i  57. 


cJicnrnBtantia]  rejdy.  The  'Historiea'  are  accordingly  a  kind  nmta. 
of  abstract  of  the  Ih  Cmtate,— the  theory  of  Augugtine  ^ii^^ 
without  his  philosophy,  his  eloquence,  and  his  fertihty  of 
exposition.  Such  was  the  origin  of  the  volume  which  after- 
wards became  the  school  history  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  it 
must  be  owned  that  it  is  a  decidedly  sombre  treatise.  It  was 
the  object  of  the  writer  to  shew,  over  and  above  the  exposi- 
tion of  bis  main  theory,  that  the  times  were  by  no  means  so 
eiceptional  as  to  justify  the  hj^potiiesis  of  paganism;  that  in 
all  ages  the  Supreme  Ruler  had,  for  His  own  inscrutable 
purposes,  tried  mankind  by  calamities  even  greater  than 
those  that  the  pestilence  and  barbaric  invasion  were  then 
inflicting'.  His  pages  are  consequently  filled  with  famines, 
plagues,  earthquakes,  sieges,  and  battles;  the  tragic  and  the 
terrible  make  up  the  volume;  there  is  no  place  for  the  tran- 
quil days  of  the  old  Republic  or  for  the  sunny  age  of  the 
Autoninea  It  is  difficult  not  to  infer  that,  when  generation 
after  generation  was  left  to  derive  its  knowledge  of  history 
from  such  a  book,  the  effect  could  scarcely  have  been  otherwise 
than  too  much  in  assonance  with  ideas  like  that  which  has 
already  come  so  prominently  before  us. 

The  treatise  of  Martianus  Capella,  D«  Kuptiis  Philoloaice  Mteuum 
et  Merairii  et  de  Septem  A  rtibus  Liberalihiu  Libri  Ntmeiitf  iae-awcm. 
the  work  of  a  native  of  Carthage,  a  teacher  of  rhetoric  and  a  niA  i  - 
oont«mporaiy  probably  of  Orosius.     It  is  characterised  by 
the  usual  mannerisms  of  the  African  rhetoricians,  an  obefcure 
and  forced  diction,  a  turgid  rhetoric,  and  endles^artific^-of 
metaphor  and  expression,  such  as  belong  to  the  scfaboHof 
Appuleius  and  Amobius.    The  treatise,  as  the  title  implies,  is 
cast  in  an  allegorical  form:   and   the  first  two   books  are n* mtiDrT. 
almost  exclusively  devoted  to  a  somewhat  tedious  account  of 
the  celebration  of  the  marriage  of  Mercury  with  Pfailologia, 
the  goddess  of  speech.     Jupiter,  warned  by  the  oracles,  con- 

'  NMtOB  anim  Bom  praiteritoB  dies  (EfBBenhardt,  Lipsbi,  1666)  Boluidm 

HOD  aoliuil  M}Qe  at  hos  gTSTes,  vemm  th&t  be  lived  before  439,  and  conld 

elum  tanto  atrociilB  misetox,  qnanto  not    poBSibly    have   icn'rfra    snbM- 

longias   ft  remedio  vene    religiunia  quently  to  tlia  Vandal  OMmpation  of 

■lienoi.     Prafatio  ad  AuretitimAu-  A/riea.    He  conseiiueu lit  places  onr 

gaainum,  Uigne,  lui  667.  anthor  nearl;  half  a  century  earlier 

*  A   leceul   editor   of    Uartianna  tfaiu  the  usuollj  OEstgaed  date. 


I 


24 


THE  SCHOOL  BOOKS  OF  THE  DARK  AGES. 


INTRO- 
DUCTION. 


oulom. 


Gimmmar. 


venes  a  meeting  of  the  gods  and  demands  the  rights  of  natu- 
ralization for  one  hitherto  but  a  mortal  virgin;  and  Mercury 
assigns  to  his  bride  seven  virgins  as  her  attendants,  each  of 
whom  is  in  turn  introduced  at  the  marriage  banquet  and 
descants  on  that  particular  branch  of  knowledge  represented 
by  her  name.     Such  is  the  fantastic  allegory  wherein   was 
transmitted  to  the  imiversities  of  Europe  the  ancient  division 
of  the  trimum  and  quadrivium^.     To  modem  readers  neither 
the  instruction  nor  the  amusement  thus  conveyed  will  appear  of 
a  very  high  order.   The  elaborateness  of  the  machinery  seems 
out  of  all  proportion  to  the  end  in  view,  the  allegorical  por- 
tion of  the  treatise  occupying  more  than  a  fourth  part  of  the 
entire  work.     The  humour,  if  not  altogether  spiritless,   is 
often  coarse',  and  when  we  recollect  not  only  that  such  allure- 
ments to  learning  were   deemed  admissible,   but   that  the 
popularity  of  this  treatise  in  the  Middle  Ages  is  probably 
mainly  attributable  to  these  imaginative  accessories,  we  need 
seek  for  no  further  evidence  respecting  the  standard  of  literary 
taste  then  prevalent 

A  course  of  study  embracing  Grammar,  Logic,  Rhetoric^ 
Arithmetic,  Geometry,  Music,  and  Astronomy,  would  appear 
a  far  from  contemptible  curriculum;  it  is  only  when  we 
examine  what  was  really  represented  imder  each  of.  these 
branches,  that  we  become  aware  how  inadequately  they 
corresponded  to  modem  conceptions  of  such  studies.  The 
definition,  indeed,  given  by  Martianus  of  grammar,  would 
lead  us  to  anticipate  a  comprehensive  treatment  of  the 
subject, — it   is   not   only  docte  scHbere  legereque,  but  also 


*  See  Haur^-au,  De  la  Philosophie 
Scholastiqtte,  i  21.  Brucker,  Hist. 
Crit.  Phil.  Ill  957.  This  diviBion  of 
the  several  liberal  arts  is  to  be  found 
in  Augustine,  De  Ordine,  c.  13. 
Haur^au  would  therefore  seem  to  be 
in  error  when  he  attributes  its  first 
conception  to  Capella.  See  Dean 
Mansel's  Introd.  to  Artis  Logicce  Ru- 
dimenta,  p.  28. 

*  As  specimens  the  following  may 
suffice:— The  plaudits  that  follow 
upon  the  discourse  delivered  by 
Arithmetica  are  supposed  to  be  in- 
ten-upted  by  laughter,  occasioned  by 


the  loud  snores  of  Silenns  asleep 
under  the  influence  of  his  deep 
potations.  The  kiss  wherewith  Bhe- 
torica  salutes  Philologia  is  heard 
throughout  the  assembly,  nihil  enim 
silens,  ac  si  cuperet,  faciehat.  John 
of  Salisbury  (see  Metalogicus,  Lib.  rv) 
frequently  illustrates  Ins  discourses 
by  a  reference  to  this  allegozy  as 
especially  familiar  to  his  age.  Les 
imaginations  vives,  remarks  L^n 
Maitre,  donnaient  leur  prfiffirence  k 

Martianus  Capella.  EcoUs  Evisc. 
p.  211. 


26 


THE  SCHOOL  BOOKS  OF  THE  DARK  AGES. 


INTRO. 

Dr(moN. 


nimtnttoiia 
of  the 

KnowleoKe 
of  Uie  period. 


few  simple  propositions  concerning  the  properties  of  lines, 
plane  figures,  and  solids,  towards  the  close.  Some  of  the 
blunders  are  amusing.  For  instance,  Pliny  had  stated  that 
the  Northern  Ocean  had  been  explored  under  the  auspices 
of  Augustus :  Martianus,  by  way  of  embellishment,  tells  us 
that  Tiberius  had,  in  his  own  person,  traversed  the  whole 
extent  of  the  Northern  Ocean  and  had  penetrated  to  the 
country  of  the  Scythians  and  the  Arctic  regions,  rnagno  dehinc 
permenso  ad  Scythicam  plagam  ac  rigentea  undas  usque 
penetravit, — a  statement  for  which  we  can  only  account  by 
supposing  that  he  had  Germanicus  in  his  mind.  Other 
details,  too  numerous  to  be  noticed  here,  have  a  certain 
interest  as  illustrative  of  the  knowledge  and  nomenclature 
of  the  times.  Egypt  he  refers  to,  in  common  with  other 
geographers,  as  Asice  caput;  and,  while  admitting  that  the 
sources  of  the  Nile  are  unknown,  makes  mention  of  a  tradition 
that  it  takes  ite  rise  in  a  lake  situated  in  the  lower  regions 
of  Mauretauia.  In  speaking  of  Syria  he  refers  to  the  Essenes, 
but  Palestine  and  Galilee  fail  to  suggest  the  name  of 
Christianity.  The  science  of  Arithmetic  is  discussed  chiefly 
with  reference  to  the  properties  of  numbers,  mystically 
interpreted  after  the  manner  of  Pythagoras.  *  Music '  includes 
the  subject  of  metre,  together  with  a  brief  account  of  harmony 
Astronomy,  and  of  the  scalc  of  musical  notation.  Astronomy  is  treated 
according  to  the  traditions  of  Ptolemy,  and  contains  a  short 
account  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  an  investigation,  by  far 
the  most  philosophical  portion  of  the  treatise,  into  the 
supposed  laws  that  regulate  the  movements  of  the  planets, 
the  sun,  and  the  moon*. 


Arithmetic. 


Music 


^  It  is,  however,  very  remarkable 
that  superficial  as  is  his  treatment  of 
astronomy,  he  yet  appears  to  have 
to  some  extent  anticipated  the  Co- 
pemican  theory.  The  passage  de- 
serves quotation  : — *  Licet  generaliter 
sciendum,  cunctis  orbibus  planetarum 
eccentron  esse  tellurem,  hoc  est  non 
tencro  medium  circulorum ;  quoniam 
mundi  centrtm  esse  non  dubium  ;  et 
illud  geuerale  septem  omnibus  ad- 
vertendum,  quod  qunm  muudus  ejus- 
dem  ductus  rotatioue  miimoda  tor- 


queatur,  planetee  quotidie  tarn  loca 
qnam  diversitates  arripiant  circulo- 
rum. Nam  ex  his  nullum  sidus  ex, 
eo  loco  unde  pridie  ortum  estelevatur. 
Quod  si  est,  dubium  non  est,  cen- 
tum octoginta  tres  ciroulos  habere 
Solem,  per  qnos  aut  ab  solstitio  in 
brumam  redit,  aut  ab  eadem  in 
solsf  itialem  liueam  sublevatur ;  per 
easdem  quippe  mutationes  commeat 
circulorum.  Sed  quum  Sol  pnedictum 
nnmerum  habeat.  Mars  duplos  cir- 
culos   facit,  lovis    stclla   duodeoies 


28 


THE  SCHOOL  BOOKIE  OF  THE  DARK  AGES. 


The  educa- 
tifinitl  trea- 
tiM«  br 
Bootlttiu 
chiefly  com 
pllutknu,  but 


INTRO.  Arithmetic  in  Martianus,  for  instance,  occupies  but  47  pages ; 
that  of  Boethius,  in  two  books,  nearly  a  hundred,  and  though 
to  a  great  extent  founded  on  that  of  the  Greek  writer 
Nicomachus,  is  far  from  a  mere  translation,  being  accompanied 
by  numerous  and  useful  additions  \  A  yet  greater  disparity 
is  observable  in  their  respective  treatises  on  Music.  The 
treatment  by  Boethius  is  not  only  far  more  comprehensive, 
but  gives  to  the  whole  curriculum  a  dignity  and  coherence 
altogether  wanting  in  the  works  of  the  other  compilers.  The 
thi?rl!!!!i!mi  somewhat  transcendental  method  which  he  adopts  is,  indeed, 
*********  ****■  perhaps  the  true  explanation  of  the  preference  accorded  to 
other  writers  on  these  subjects  during  the  Middle  Ages. 
A  passion  for  mysticism,  in  an  exposition  of  the  exact 
sciences,  only  tended  still  further  to  shroud  such  learning 
from  the  gaze  of  the  neophyte,  nor  will  the  modem  mathe- 
matician find  much  to  repay  his  curiosity  in  the  discussion 
of  the  harmony  of  numbers,  the  generation  of  the  perfect 
•  number,  and  numbers  proportional  and  the  division  of 
magnitudes ;  nor  in  the  similar  method  of  treatment  to  be 
found  in  the  five  books  on  Music.  The  translation  of  Euclid, 
however, — that  is  to  say  of  the  first  four  books,  together 
with  their  figures,  and  a  few  additional  propositions  on  the 
properties  of  the  rhombus, — is  of  a  more  practical  character. 
Bocthhu  not  The  rcsults  of  modem  criticism  would  seem  to  have 
established  the  fact  that  Boethius  cannot  be  ranked  among 
the  adherents  of  early  Christianity".  The  theological  treatises 
once  attributed  to  him  afford  satisfactory  evidence  that  they 
are  by  a  different  hand.     In  fact,  his  efforts  to  familiarise  his 


aChristiMi 
writer. 


^  Cassiodoms  (in  the  two  pages  in 
which  he  diHrnisses  the  same  subject) 
bears  witness  to  its  merits : — *  quam 
(iirithmeticam)  apud  GriBCos  Nico- 
machus diligentcr  exposuit.  Hunc 
primum  Madaurensis  Apuleius,  de- 
iude  magniiicus  vir  Boetius  Latino 
sermune  trauslatum  Bomanis  conta- 
lit  lectitandum.'  De  Artibus  Liber ^ 
Migne,  lxx  1207.  Other  foUowers 
of  Boethius  were  Bede,  Gerbert,  and 
John  of  Salisbury.  For  a  succinct 
account  of  the  progress  of  the  science 
up  to  the  time  of  i3octhiu8  see  0.  F. 


Weber's  Preface  to  Fragmentum 
A.  M,  T.  S.  Boethii  de  Arithmetica. 
Cassellis,  1817. 

•  Boethium  a  Christi  doctrina  alie- 
num  fuUse  multU  ex  rebiis  effi^itur^ 
is  the  dictum  of  a  recent  editor. 
See  Be  ConsoL  Phil,  ed.  Obbarius, 
1B48.  The  supposition  that  Boethius 
encountered  his  fate  as  a  martyr  in 
the  cause  of  orthodoxy  against  the 
Arians,  though  sanctioned  by  Baehr 
and  Heyne,  has  been  completely 
refuted  by  Hand;  see  Ersch  and 
Grub.  Encyk^opacdiet  xi  233. 


CASStODOBUS.  S9 

eomitiTmen  with  the  writings  of  Aristotle  aod  Porphyry,  aud     nnnn- 
to  reoondle  Aristotle  with  Plato,  would  at  once  suggest,  to   ■ — r^' 
thoee  who  bore  in  mind  the  character  of  his  age,  that  his 
nmpathiefl   were   nothing  more  than  those  of  enlightened 
paganism.     The  student  of  the  history  of  the  Aristotelian  vkMudo 
philosophy  wiU  be  aware  how  frequently  its  predominant  *Jj^i^l™' 
aspect  has  varied  with  the  requirements,  the  tendencies,  and 
the  &shion   of  the  age.    It  has  been  the  fortune  of  the 
Stagirite  successively  to  represent  the  final  authority  in  the 
arena  <^  metaphysics,  of  morality,  and  of  natural  philosophy ; 
but  it  was  under  none  of  these  afpects  that  bis  influence  was 
preserved  to  Europe  by  Boethius. 

The  Aristotle  of  western  Europe,  from  the  sixth  to  the  oniTii.* 
thirteenth  century,  was  simply  Aristotle  the  logician ;  and  aSJou* 
evea   as  a  logician  he  was  but  imperfectly   known.     The  ^^'£^(^ 
wholeof  the  Organon  bad,  indeed,  been  translated  by  Boetbius,  iHIVpi?'' 
but  even  of  this  the  greater  part  was  unknown  to  Europe 
prior  to  the  twelfth  centuiy'.     The  Categories  and  the  J)e  *' 
Interpretatione,  together  with  the  laagoge  of  Porphyry,  were 
in  use,  but  the  Prior  and  Potterior  Analytics,  the  Topica, 
and  the  Elenehi  Bopkiatici  are  never  quoted.     Such  are  the 
important  limitations  with  which  it  is  consequently  necessary 
to   r^nard  the  study  of  Aristotle  as  existing  during  this 
lengthened   period;    bis    logical    method    survived,   but   in 
imperfect  bshion;  while  his  mental  and  moral  philosophy 
remained  altogether  unknown,  their  resuscitation  forming,  as 
we  shall  subsequently  see,  a  separate  and  very  imporlant 
chapter  in  the  history  of  European  thought. 

The  prejudices  and  suspicions  to  which,  towards  the  close 
of  bis  reign,  Theodoric  surrendered  his  judgement,  prove<I 
fatal  to  Boetbius,  but  a  distinguished  colleague  of  the  patriotic 
statesman,  who,  like  him,  had  tilled  under  the  Gothic  monarch 
some  of  the  highest  offices  of  the  state,  managed  to  retain 
the  royal  confidence  unimpaired ;  and  at  length,  when  nearly 

■  Si*  boetlnanuebe  Uebetsctznng  Jahrhmiderte    eiuizUcli    tuilnkarint 

dB  Hanptaehiiften  deaOiguioDB,  d.  );eiresen  ni.    PraDtl,  G-tchichle  der 

h.  dn  bdden  Aiuljliken  nnd  der  Loffik,  iii  3. 
Ttfik  Mfart  Bc^  EL,  tor  dem  12. 


30 


THE  SCHOOL  BOOKS  OF  THE  DARK  AGES. 


INTRO- 
DUCTION. 

Gmiodoiui. 
dL6M. 


seventy  years  of  age,  Cassiodorus  effected  his  retreat  to  the 
monastery  whicl)  he  had  founded  at  Scylacium,  to  enjoy,  far 
beyond  the  ordinary  term  of  life,  its  tranquil  solitudes  and 
studious  repose.  The  Gothic  History  by  this  writer  has 
survived  only  in  the  abridgement  of  Jomandes;  but  his 
Epistles,  a  series  of  state  documents  prepared  under  the 
direction  of  Theodoric  and  Justinian,  that  may  be  compared 
to  the  Capitularies  of  Charlemagne,  are  a  valuable  illustration 
of  these  times.  His  manual  of  education,  however,  with 
which  we  are  hero  chiefly  concerned, — the  De  Artibus  ac 
Disciplinis  Liberalium  Literarum, — is  the  most  meagre  of  all 
the  text  books  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  four  subjects  of  the 
Quadrivium,  for  instance,  are  each  dismissed  in  two  pages ; 
the  object  of  the  writer  being  apparently  rather  to  give 
a  general  notion  of  the  subject  than  definite  instruction 
therein.  In  his  general  arrangement  he  observes  the  same 
traditional  division  that  Martianus  and  Boethius  follow ; 
and  the  example  of  the  latter,  whose  genius  Cassiodorus 
warmly  admired,  is  to  be  discerned  in  the  adoption  of 
Aristotle  and  Porphyry  as  the  chief  guides  in  the  book  on 
Dialectics, — the  only  portion  of  the  work  that  presents  what 
can  be  held  to  constitute  a  real  study  of  the  subject  As  the 
production,  then,  of  an  aged  monk,  but  of  one  who  until  long 
past  his  manhood's  prime  had  mingled  much  with  the  world, 
borne  high  office  in  the  state,  and  held  intercourse  with  the 
foremost  spirits  of  the  age,  this  work  sufficiently  shews  how 
the  traditions  of  pagan  culture  were  dwindling  before  the 
combined  influences  of  a  narrow  theology  and  barbaric  rule*. 
The  wave  of  the  Lombard  invasion  spent  itself  on  the 
north  of  Italy,  and  while  Gregory  was  predicting  from  the 
suflferings  of  his  own  nation  the  speedy  dissolution  of  all 
things,   a  contemporary   ecclesiastic,   in    the    neighbouring 


*  *  HiR  Dialectic  contains  a  brief 
analysis  of  the  Isagoge  of  Porphyiy 
and  the  Organon  of  Aristotle,  with 
additions,  a  considerable  portion 
being  borrowed  from  Apoleius  and 
Jioeudas.  His  analysis  of  the  Or* 
ganon  does  not  include  the  Sophistic 
Kefutations,  but  contains  a  sejmrate 


chapter  De  Paralogismix,  which  treats 
of  purely  logical  fallacies.  The  ar- 
rangement of  the  work  is  by  no 
means  methodical,  and  extraneous 
matters  are  introduced  which  properly 
belong  to  Bhetoric'  Dean  Maiisel, 
Introd.  to  ArU$  Logica  Rudimenta, 
p.  xzix. 


THE  SCHOOL  BOOKS  OF  THE  DABK  AGES.       21 

the  dignity  and  luxury  of  a  modem  bishopric,   but  quite  ijgj^jg;^ 
another  thing  when  carried  on  amid  the  alarms  of  war  and  a  '■  v  -^ 
constant  struggle  with  poverty,  and  where  the  writer  has 
every  now  and  then  to  pause  to  tell  of  the  cruelty  of  the 
soldiery,   the  scanty  provision  for  his  household,  and  the 
tattered  apparel  of  his  servants. 

In  the  fierce  antagonism  of  races  amid  which  the  Carlo-  pecMneof 

.  learning. 

vingian  empire  broke  up,   we  find  little  to  illustrate  the 
progress  of  education.    The  light  which  illumined  the  court     ^ 
of  Charlemagne,   and   lingered  round  that  of  Charles  the 
Bald,  died  out  in  the  tenth  century,  or  took  refuge  with  the 
alien  race  that  ruled  in  Andalusia.     Learning  still  revolved 
round  the  monastery  and  maintained  its  exclusively  theo- 
logical associations.     How  little  it  thus  prospered  in  England  state  of 
ifl  sufficiently  attested  by  the  evidence  of  our  king  Aelfi€l,  a  KngSiH 
monarch  with  strong  points  of  resemblance  to  Charlemagne, 
who  declared  that  he  knew  not  a  single  monk  south  of  the 
Thames  capable  of  translating  the  Latin  service. 

Having  now  however  examined,  sufficiently  for  our  pre- 
sent purpose,  what  may  be  termed  the  external  history  of  the 
education  of  these  centuries,  we  shall  proceed  to  endeavour 
to  ascertain,  in  turn,  the  real  value  and  amount  of  the  scanty 
learning  thus  transmitted  to  more  hopeful  times. 

The  fact  that  here  at  once  arrests  our  attention  is,  that 
while  education  was  warped  and  curtailed  by  the  views  of 
the  theologian,  the  substance  and  the  fashion  of  what  wasThetext- 
actually  taught  were  to  a  great  extent  denved  from  pagan  Jg^^°iJ£  ^ 
sources,  and  thus  preserved  in  a  very  remarkable  manner  ^^'^^'y- 
the  traditions  of  Roman  culture.     The  ordinary  instruction 
imparted  in  the  Middle  Ages,  prior  to  the  twelfth  century, 
was  almost  entirely  founded  on  the  works  of  five  authors, — 
Orosius,  Martianus,  Boethius,  Cassiodorus,  and  Isidorus, — of 
these  Martianus  and  Boethius  were  pagan,  the  others  Chris- 
tian writers,  but  all  for  the  most  part  slavish  compilers  from 
greatly  superior  Greek  and  Roman   treatises.     Let  us  be 
distinctly  understood.   We  do  not  assert  that  no  other  authors 
were  read*,  but  simply  that  these  authors  were  the   school- 

^  The  late  M.   Amable  Jourdain,    whose  anthority  on    snch  a   subject 


22 


THE  SCHOOL  BOOKS  OF  THE  DARK  AQES. 


ILdzc 
A.D.41& 


BhHUUh 

rfondn 

aclvrrnw 

Poftantm 
Ubri  VIL 


books  of  those  times.  A  far  wider  range  of  reading  was 
undoubtedly  accessible.  Here  and  there  a  mind  of  superior 
energy  aspired  to  overcome  the  diflSculties  of  the  Greek 
tongue  and  gained  an  acquaintance  with  some  of  its  master- 
pieces, as  well  as  with  those  of  the  Latin  language.  The 
Latin  Fathers  were  not  unfrequently  studied ;  the  Vulgate  of 
Jerome  was  extensively  in  use;  Aristotle,  as  a  logician, 
survived  both  in 'Augustine  and  Boethius;  Priscian  and 
Donatus  are  oft-quoted  authorities  in  questions  of  grammar; 
but  the  limits  within  which  such  studies  are  to  be  regarded 
as  having  directly  influenced  the  individual  are  so  narrow,  as 
to  render  it  especially  necessary  to  be  cautious  how  we  regard 
them  as  forming  any  appreciable  element  in  the  education 
then  imparted. 

The  first  of  the  five  treatises  above  enumerated  represents 
the  school  history  then  in  use.  Orosius,  the  compiler, 
Ozanam  remarks,  was  the  first  to  condense  the  annals  of  the 
world  into  the  formula,  divina  providentia  agitur  mundua  et 
homo\  It  was  in  the  fifth  century  that  Orosius  wrote;  a 
time  when  paganism  was  loudly  reiterating  its  accusations 
against  Christianity,  in  order  to  fasten  upon  the  upholders  of 
the  new  faith  the  responsibility  of  the  calamities  that  were 
then  falling  so  thickly  on  the  empire.  Augustine's  elaborate 
vindication  was  but  half  completed,  and  he  called  upon 
Orosius,  who  was  his  pupil,  to  prepare  a  briefer  and  less 


few  wiU  caU  in  qneBtion,  elaims  for 
these  times  a  somewhat  larger  litera- 
ture than  is  usually  admitted  : — *  A 
toutes  les  6poques  da  moyen  dge  on 
a  lu  les  Questions  Naturelles  de 
S^n^quOf  le  poeme  de  Lucrdce,  les 
ouvrages  philosophiques  de  Cio(;ron, 
les  livres  d' Apul(;e ,  ceux  de  Cassiodore, 
de  Boece,  etc.'  RecherchtB  CritiqueB 
8ur  VAge  et  VOrigine  des  Traduc- 
tions Lotinen  D'Aristotft  edit.  1843, 
p.  21.  Mr  Lewes  (Hist,  of  Philoso- 
phy, II  65)  doubts  whether  Lucretius 
could  possibly  have  been  tolerated 
in  so  exclusively  theological  an  age ; 
but  both  Babanus  Maurus  and  Wil- 
liam of  Conches  appear  to  have  been 
familiar  with  portions,  at  least,  of 
his  great  poem.    See  Charles  Jour- 


dain's  Dtwfrfatton  sur  VEtat  de  la 
Philosophie  Naturelle  au  Douzihne 
Si^cle,  p.  26.  Among  the  most  recent 
estimates  of  the  learning  of  these 
ages  that  of  M.  Victor  Le  Clerc's  is 
noticeable  for  its  highly  favorable 
character: — *Qiiant  k  la  Utt^ratore 
latine,  peu  8*en  fallait  qu'on  ne  Veti 
d&}k  telle  que  nous  Tavons  aujoor- 
d'hui.  Ce  mot  trop  ICg^rement  em- 
ploy6  de  renaissance  des  lettres  n& 
saurait  s'appliquer  aux  lettres  latines: 
ellcs  n^onl  point  ressusciti,  parte  qWel- 
les  fV€taient  point  mortes.*  Histoire 
Littiraire  de  la  France  au  Quator- 
zihme  Si^le^  i  365. 

^  Ozanam,  History  of  Civilization 
in  the  Fifth  Century^  i  67. 


OBOSIUS.  23 

circnmstantial  reply.  The  '  Histories'  are  accordingljr  a  kind  rmto- 
of  abstract  of  the  Dt  Cmtofc,— the  theory  of  Augustine  ^^^^ 
without  his  philosophy,  his  eloquence,  and  his  fertility  of 
ezpodtion.  Such  was  the  origin  of  the  volume  which  after- 
wards became  the  school  history  of  the  Middle  A^es,  and  it 
must  be  owned  that  it  is  a  decidedly  sombre  treatise.  It  was 
the  object  of  the  writer  to  shew,  over  and  above  the  exposi- 
tion of  his  main  theory,  that  the  times  were  by  no  means  so 
exceptional  as  to  justify  the  hypothesis  of  paganism;  that  in 
all  ages  the  Supreme  Ruler  had,  for  His  own  inscrutable 
purposes,  tried  mankind  by  calamities  even  greater  than 
those  that  the  pestilence  and  barbaric  invasion  were  then 
inflicting'.  His  pt^es  are  consequently  filled  with  famines, 
pities,  earthquakes,  sieges,  and  battles;  the  tragic  and  the 
terrible  make  up  the  volume ;  there  b  no  place  for  the  traa- 
quil  days  of  the  old  Republic  or  for  the  sunny  age  of  the 
Antonines.  It  is  difficult  not  to  infer  that,  when  generation 
after  generation  was  [eft  to  derive  its  knowledge  of  history 
from  such  a  book,  the  effect  could  scarcely  have  been  otherwise 
than  too  much  in  assonance  with  ideas  like  that  which  has 
already  come  so  prominently  before  ua. 

The  treatise  of  Martianus  Capella,  De  Kuptiw  Pkilolmux  ittttm 
et  ifercurii  et  de  Seplem  Artibiia  Liberaltbut  Lihri  Notertt}  is  <LdiE.ui. 
the  work  of  a  native  of  Carthi^e,  a  teacher  of  rhetoric  and  a  nJL.   • 
contemporary  probably  of  Orosius.     It  is  characterised  by 
the  usual  mannerisms  of  the  African  rhetoricians,  an  obSbure 
and  forced  diction,  a  turgid  rhetoric,  and  endless  artifices  of 
metaphor  and  expression,  such  as  belong  to  the  schOoUof 
Appuleius  and  Amobtus.    The  treatise,  as  the  title  implies,  is 
cast  in  an  allegorical  form:   and   the  first  two  books  are n* *ii«ofT. 
almost  exclusively  devoted  to  a  somewhat  tedious  account  of 
the  celebration  of  the  marriage  of  Mercury  with  Philologia, 
the  goddess  of  speech.    Jupiter,  warned  by  the  oracles,  con- 

■  HactiiB  enim  Bom  prcteriloa  dice  (B7a«etihftrdt,  Lipat«,  1866)  oonsidprt 

noQ  tolnm  nqae  nt  hiM  sniTee,  Temin  that  he  Uved  before  439.  uid  eonld 

etiun  tanto  atrociiis  miaerot^  quanto  not    posfibi;    have   Kritln    bdImc- 

lougiiu    a  remedio   vcne   rdij^iuDiB  qnently  to  the  Vandal  occnpation  of 

•lienos.      Prafatio  ad  Aiirelium  Au-  AtricA.     He  cotiHequcntl.v  pliws  our 

giiilinum,  itigoe,  iiu  6CT.  author  nearly  half  a  centnij  earlier 

'  A   teeeut   editoi   of    Martianni  than  tbo  ostull;  assieiMNl  date. 


24 


THE  SCHOOL  BOOKS  OF  THE  DARK  AGES. 


INTRO- 
DIJCTION. 


ThtC^irrl- 
culom. 


Onunmar. 


vcnes  a  meeting  of  the  gods  and  demands  the  rights  of  natu- 
ralization for  one  hitherto  but  a  mortal  virgin;  and  Mercury 
assigns  to  his  bride  seven  virgins  as  her  attendants,  each  of 
whom  is  in  turn  introduced  at  the  marriage  banquet  and 
descants  on  that  particular  branch  of  knowledge  represented 
by  her  name.  Such  is  the  fantastic  allegory  wherein  was 
transmitted  to  the  imiversities  of  Europe  the  ancient  division 
of  the  irivium  and  qtuidrivium^.  To  modem  readers  neither 
the  instruction  nor  the  amusement  thus  conveyed  will  appear  of 
a  very  high  order.  ITie  elaborateness  of  the  machinery  seems 
out  of  all  proportion  to  the  end  in  view,  the  allegorical  por- 
tion of  the  treatise  occupying  more  than  a  fourth  part  of  the 
entire  work.  The  humour,  if  not  altogether  spiritless,  is 
often  coarse*,  and  when  we  recollect  not  only  that  such  allure- 
ments to  learning  were  deemed  admissible,  but  that  the 
popularity  of  this  treatise  in  the  Middle  Ages  is  probably 
mainly  attributable  to  these  imaginative  accessories,  we  need 
seek  for  no  further  evidence  respecting  the  standard  of  literary 
taste  then  prevalent. 

A  course  of  study  embracing  Oranmiar,  Logic,  Rhetoric, 
Arithmetic,  Geometry,  Music,  and  Astronomy,  would  appear 
a  far  from  contemptible  curriculum;  it  is  only  when  we 
examine  what  was  really  represented  imder  each  of.  these 
branches,  that  we  become  aware  how  inadequately  they 
corresponded  to  modem  conceptions  of  such  studies.  The 
definition,  indeed,  given  by  Martianus  of  grammar,  would 
lead  us  to  anticipate  a  comprehensive  treatment  of  the 
subject, — it   is   not   only  docte  scribere  legereque,  but  also 


^  See  HauW'ati,  De  la  Philosophie 
Scholantique,  i  21.  Brucker,  Hi»t, 
CHU  Phil.  Ill  957.  This  divieioii  of 
tho  several  liberal  arts  is  to  be  found 
in  Anj];ii8tine,  De  Ordine^  c.  13. 
Haur^au  would  therefore  seem  to  be 
in  error  when  he  attributes  its  first 
conc('))ti()n  to  Capella.  See  Dean 
Mansers  Introd.  to  Artis  Logic ce  Ru- 
dimenta^  p.  28. 

'  As  specimens  the  following  may 
sufTice:— The  plaudits  that  follow 
upon  the  discourse  delivered  by 
Arithmotica  are  supposed  to  be  in- 
terrui)ted  by  laugliter,  occasioned  by 


the  loud  snores  of  Silenns  asleep 
under  the  influence  of  his  deep 
potations.  The  kiss  wherewith  Bhe- 
torica  salutes  Philologia  is  heard 
throughout  the  assembly,  nihil  enim 
tilens,  ac  H  cuperet,  faciebat.  John 
of  Salisbury  (see  Metalogicus,  Lib.  iv) 
frequently  illustrates  his  discourses 
by  a  reference  to  this  allegory  as 
especially  familiar  to  his  age.  Let 
imaginations  vivesy  remarks  L^n 
Maitre,  donnaient  leur  J)r6f6rence  k 

Martianus  Cupella.  Ecolet  Episc. 
p.  211. 


MARTIANUS  CAPELLA. 


25 


erudite  intelUqere  probareque.      The  actual   information   is    intro- 

.  .  ....       DUCTION. 

meagre  in  the  extreme* ;  the  physiology  of  articulation,  it  is  ^ — ^* 
true,  is  analysed  with  a  care  that  M.  Jourdain's  tutor  might 
have  envied;    but  the  writer  appears  to  confuse  quantity 
with  accentuation,  and  it  indicates  the  neglect  into  which 
Cicero's  writings  had  already  fallen  that,  in  treating  of  the 
comparison    of   adverbs,  the   author    affirms   that    impune 
has    no    comparative.      Under   Dialectics    both    logic    and  Dialectics, 
metaphysics  are  included.     In  the  former  we  have  the  old 
definitions  of  genus  and  differentia,  accidens  and  proprium, 
and  the  diagram  familiar  to  students  of  Aldrich  or  Whately, 
illustrating  the  relations  of  the  four  kinds  of  logical  proposi- 
tions'.    The  portion  devoted  to  Rhetoric  contains  the  rules  Rhetoric. 
and  figures  of  the  art,  taken  chiefly  from  Cicero,  and  profusely 
illustrated  from  his  writings.      Geometry  consists   of  little 
more  than  geography,  a  short  compend  from  Pliny  with  a  coome.ry. 


^  Kqpp  here  observes,  *  ea  elegisse 
TidetoTf  in  quibus  vel  dissentiret  a 
Buperioribas  grammaticiSf  vel  clarius 
se  docere  posse  putaret/  an  expla- 
nation hardly  warranted,  I  think, 
when  we  compare  the  treatment  with 
that  of  similar  writers  like  Cassio- 
doms  and  Isidore.  C.  F.  Hermann, 
in  his  preface  to  Eopp*s  edition, 
expresses  his  belief  that  Martianns 
drew  largely  from  Varro, '  qnm  si  recte 
obserraYi,  fieri  poterit  ut  ex  Martiano 
si  nihil  aliud  tamen  aliquas  principis 
emditionis  Komana  reliqoias  lucre- 
mar.' 

*  The  causes  that  led  to  the  sin- 
gularly meagre  treatment  of  Logic 
by  these  writers  have  been  thus 
described  by  a  very  competent  critic : — 
*  It  was  only  indeed  in  the  time  of 
Cicero,  that  Aristotle^s  writings  were 
brought  to  light  from  the  long  ob- 
scurity in  which  they  were  buried. 
And  it  is  not  asserting  too  much  to 
say,  that,  even  had  the  Bomans  been 
disposed  to  encourage  a  speculative 
philosophy  there  was  then  no  one 
competent  either  justly  to  value,  or 
fully  to  explain,  his  logical  doctrines. 
An  art  of  logic  had  long  been  current 
in  use,  the  Dialectic  of  the  Stoics, 
which  so  far  from  opening  the  mind 
to  the  reception  of  a  truly  philoso- 


phical method,  had  diverted  men 
from  the  right  pursuit,  had  prejudiced 
them  with  wrong  notions  of  the 
science.  If  Aristotle,  therefore,  were 
studied,  it  would  naturally  be  such 
portions  of  his  Logic  as  coincided, 
or  seemed  to  coincide,  most  with  the 
existing  imperfect  views.  Hence  the 
almost  exclusive  use  among  the  Latins 
of  his  treatise  entitled  the  Categories 
or  the  Predicaments.  Though  other 
treatises  of  his  Logic  were  trans- 
lated into  Latin,  these  soon  fell  into 
disuse.  A  compendium  of  Dialectic, 
founded  on  the  Categories  of  Aris- 
totle, and  passed  under  the  name  of 
Augustine,  became  the  ordinary  text 
book  from  which  the  whole  science 
was  professed  to  be  taught  in  the 
Latin  schools,  down  to  the  end  of  the 
12th  century Each  distin- 
guished master  probably  composed 
his  own  treatise  of  the  art,  but  all 
were  confined  to  the  same  meagre 
technicalities,  which  alone  accorded 
with  the  corrupt  theological  taste  of 
the  times. '  Hampden's  (Bp.)  Bamp- 
ton  Lectures,  p.  66.  It  will  be  ob- 
served, however,  that  Dr  Hampden 
has  scarcely  given  sufficient  recog- 
nition to  the  labours  of  Boethius, 
see  p.  27. 


26 


THE  SCHOOL  BOOKS  OF  THE  DAUK  AGES. 


INTRO- 


niuttntknif 
of  the 

geogTsplilcal 
knowled;^ 
of  the  period. 


few  simple  propositions  concerning  the  properties  of  lines, 
plane  figures,  and  solids,  towards  the  close.  Some  of  the 
blimders  are  amusing.  For  instance,  Pliny  had  stated  that 
the  Northern  Ocean  had  been  explored  under  the  auspices 
of  Augustus :  Martianus,  by  way  of  embellishment,  tells  us 
that  Tiberius  had,  in  his  own  person,  traversed  the  whole 
extent  of  the  Northern  Ocean  and  had  penetrated  to  the 
country  of  the  Scythians  and  the  Arctic  regions,  magno  dehinc 
permenso  ad  Scyihicam  plagam  ac  rigentes  undas  usque 
penetravit, — a  statement  for  which  we  can  only  account  by 
supposing  that  he  had  Germanicus  in  his  mind.  Other 
details,  too  numerous  to  be  noticed  here,  have  a  certain 
interest  as  illustrative  of  the  knowledge  and  nomenclature 
of  the  times.  Egypt  he  refers  to,  in  common  with  other 
geographers,  as  Asice  caput;  and,  while  admitting  that  the 
sources  of  the  Nile  are  unknown,  makes  mention  of  a  tradition 
that  it  takes  its  rise  in  a  lake  situated  in  the  lower  regions 
of  Mauretania.  In  speaking  of  Syria  he  refers  to  the  Essenes, 
but  Palestine  and  Galilee  fail  to  suggest  the  name  of 
Christianity.  The  science  of  Arithmetic  is  discussed  chiefly 
with  reference  to  the  properties  of  numbers,  mystically 
interpreted  after  the  manner  of  Pythagoras.  *  Music '  includes 
the  subject  of  metre,  together  with  a  brief  account  of  harmony 
Astronomy,  and  of  the  scale  of  musical  notation.  Astronomy  is  treated 
according  to  the  traditions  of  Ptolemy,  and  contains  a  short 
account  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  an  investigation,  by  far 
the  most  philosophical  portion  of  the  treatise,  into  the 
supposed  laws  that  regulate  the  movements  of  the  planets, 
the  sun,  and  the  moon^. 


AriUunetic. 


Made. 


*  It  is,  however,  very  remarkable 
that  superficial  as  is  bis  treatment  of 
astronomy,  be  yet  appears  to  bave 
to  some  extent  anticipated  the  Co- 
pemican  theory.  The  passage  de- 
serves quotation  : — *  Licet  generaliter 
sciendum,  cunctis  orbibus  planetarum 
eocentron  esse  teUurem,  boo  est  non 
tenere  medium  circulorum ;  quoniam 
mnudi  centron  esse  non  dubiimi ;  et 
illud  generale  septem  onmibus  ad- 
vertendum,  quod  quum  mundus  ejus- 
dem  ductus  rotatlono  uuimoda  tor- 


queatur,  planetae  quotidie  tam  loca 
quam  diversitates  arripiant  oiroulo- 
rum.  Nam  ex  his  nullum  sidus  ex 
eo  loco  unde  pridie  ortum  est  elevatur. 
Quod  si  est,  dubium  non  est,  cen- 
tum octoginta  tres  circulos  habere 
Solem,  per  quos  aut  ab  solstitio  in 
brumam  redit,  aut  ab  eadem  in 
solstitialem  lineam  sublevatur ;  per 
easdem  quippe  mutationes  commeat 
circulorum.  Sed  quum  Sol  prtedictum 
uumerum  habeat,  Mars  duplos  cir- 
culos  fucit,  lovis   Stella   duodecies 


BOETHIUS. 


27 


If,  as  has  been  conjectured*,  the  allegory  presented  in  the    intro- 
De  Consolations  Fhilosophice  of  Boethins  was  conceived  in  >-^v— -' 
imitation  of  the  allegorical  treatment  adopted  by  Martianus,  b.  ctrc'.^a. 
the  fact  would  alone  point  to  a  wide  and  early  popularity 
gained  by  the  latter  writer, — a  popularity  largely  attributable 
to  the  predilection  for  abridgements,  making  small  demands 
on  the  time  and  attention  of  the  student,  which  characterised 
that  degenerate  age.     The  reputation  acquired  by  Boethius 
rests   upon  a  more  satisfactory  foundation.     The  services  his  pp»t 

,      ,  ,  ,        tcrvlce  to 

which  that  distinguished  statesman  rendered  to  posterity  »««™^ 
have  been  suflFered,  to  a  great  extent,  to  pass  from  recollection 
ever  since  that  infusion  of  learning  which,  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  superseded  his  philosophical  treatises  and  led  to 
their  comparative  neglect  from  that  time';  but  it  is  only 
just  to  remember  that  to  Boethius  we  owe  the  transmission 
down  to  that  era,  of  that  element  of  purely  Greek  thought 
which,  imperfect  and  insignificant  though  it  may  now  appear, 
was,  during  seven  centuries,  nearly  the  sole  remaining  tradition 
of  the  Aristotelian  philosophy  preserved  by  Western  Europe. 

If  we   compare   the   treatise  by  Boethius  with  that  ofMartfamw 

^  ^         ^  •'  ^  and  Boetbios 

Martianus,  we  shall  probably  incline  to  the  conclusion  that  <»°»p*wd. 
Boethius  wrote  for  a  different  and   a  higher  class.     The 


exercet,  octiea  yicies  emnnlatiir  Sa- 
tnmns,  eos  circulos  qui  parallel! 
dicuntiir  circumcurrens ;  qui  motus 
omnium  cum  mundo  proveniunt,  et 
terras  ortibus  occasibusque  circum- 
eunt.  Nam  Venus  Mercuriusque 
licet  ortus  occasusque  quotidianos 
ottendanty  tamen  eorum  circuli  terras 
omnino  non  ambiunt  sed  circa  Solvm 
laxiore  ambitu  circulantur ;  denique 
circulonim  suorum  centron  in  Sole 
eonstituuntt  ita  ut  supra  ipsum  ali- 
quandOf  infra  plerumque  propinquiorcs 
terris  ferantur^  a  quo  quidem  signo 
uno  et  parte  dimidia  Venus  disparatur; 
sed  quum  supra  Solem  sunt^  propin- 
quior  est  terris  MercuriuSy  quum  infra 
SoUm^  VenuSy  utpote  qua  orbe  cast  tore 
diffusioreque  curveturJ*  c.  viii.,  p.  856, 
ed.  Eopp.  '  On  dit/  says  Delambrc, 
'  qui  c'est  ce  peu  de  ligues  qui  a  ^16 
pris  par  Copemic  pour  le  sujct  de  ses 
meditations,  et  qui  Ta  conduit  k  son 
systt^me  du  monde ;  en  ce  cas  Mar- 


tianus aurait  rendu  k  I'astronomie 
plus  de  services  que  des  astronomes 
bien  plus  habiles,  et  nous  devons  lui 
pardonner  son  verbiage,  ses  b^vues 
et  son  galimathias.' 

*  See    article    by   Dean    Stanley, 

*  Boethius,*  in  Smith's  Diet,  of  Greek 
and  Hom.  Biography  and  Mythology. 

'  **  Both  of  the  great  esteem  in 
which  the  Consolation  of  Boethius 
was  held  by  the  Church  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  of  the  great  in- 
fluence of  the  monastic  schools,  Dr 
Pauli  finds  evidence  in  the  fact,  that 

*  as  soon  as  a  newly  formed  language 
began  to  produce,  we  meet  with  a 
version  of  Boethins  in  it ;  this  is 
also  the  case  with  all  the  most  ancient 
remains  of  the  old  High  Germans, 
the  Provenvals,  and  the  Northern 
French ;  even  Chaucer  formed  him- 
self upon  it  when  he  gave  England  its 
language.'"  Morley^s English  Writers, 
Vol.  I  pt.  1,  p.  399. 


28 


THE  SCHOOL  BOOKS  OF  THE  DARK  AGES. 


INTRO- 
DIKTION. 


The  educft- 
tltinul  tn»- 
tiaesbr 
Boothiua 
chiefly  cum- 
pUiitioiu,  but 
•uporior  In 


Arithmetic  in  Martianus,  for  instance,  occupies  but  47  pages ; 
that  of  Boethius,  in  two  books,  nearly  a  hundred,  and  though 
to  a  great  extent  founded  on  that  of  the  Greek  writer 
Nicomachus,  is  far  from  a  mere  translation,  being  accompanied 
by  numerous  and  useful  additions  \  A  yet  greater  disparity 
is  observable  in  their  respective  treatises  on  Music.  The 
treatment  by  Boethius  is  not  only  far  more  comprehensive, 
but  gives  to  the  whole  curriculum  a  dignity  and  coherence 
altogether  wanting  in  the  works  of  the  other  compilers.  The 
thSirTnmd  somowhat  transcendental  method  which  he  adopts  is,  indeed, 
coueep  on.    p^j.jj^pg  ^^iQ  truc  explanation  of  the  preference  accorded  to 

other  writers  on  these  subjects  during  the  Middle  Agea 
A  passion  for  mysticism,  in  an  exposition  of  the  exact 
sciences,  only  tended  still  further  to  shroud  such  learning 
from  the  gaze  of  the  neophyte,  nor  will  the  modem  mathe- 
matician find  much  to  repay  his  curiosity  in  the  discussion 
of  the  harmony  of  numbers,  the  generation  of  the  perfect 
•  number,  and  numbers  proportional  and  the  division  of 
magnitudes ;  nor  in  the  similar  method  of  treatment  to  be 
found  in  the  five  books  on  Music.  The  translation  of  Euclid, 
however, — ^that  is  to  say  of  the  first  four  books,  together 
with  their  figures,  and  a  few  additional  propositions  on  the 
properties  of  the  rhombus, — is  of  a  more  practical  character. 
BocUiiusnot  The  results  of  modem  criticism  would  seem  to  have 
established  the  fact  that  Boethius  cannot  be  ranked  among 
the  adherents  of  early  Christianity*.  The  theological  treatises 
once  attributed  to  him  afford  satisfactory  evidence  that  they 
are  by  a  different  hand.     In  fact,  his  efforts  to  familiarise  his 


aCliiirtian 
writer. 


^  CassiodoruB  (in  the  two  pages  in 
which  he  dismisBes  the  same  subject) 
bears  witness  to  its  merits: — 'qaam 
(arithmetioam)  apud  Grcecos  Nico- 
machos  diligenter  exposuit.  Huno 
primam  Madaurensis  ApoleiuSf  de- 
iude  magnificas  vir  Boctins  Latino 
sermone  translatum  Bomanis  contu- 
lit  lectitandum.*  De  Artibus  Liber, 
Migne,  lxx  1207.  Other  followers 
of  Boethius  were  Bede,  Gcrbert,  and 
John  of  Salisbury.  For  a  succinct 
account  of  the  progress  of  the  science 
up  to  the  time  of  Boethius  see  C.  F. 


Weber's  Preface  to  Fragmentum 
A.  M.  T.  S.  Bocthii  de  Arithmetica. 
Cassellis,  IS41. 

*  Bocthium  a  Christi  doctrina  alie- 
num  fuisse  multU  ex  rebus  ejlcitur, 
is  the  dictum  of  a  recent  editor. 
See  De  ComoL  Phil,  ed.  Obbarius, 
1843.  The  supposition  that  Boethius 
encountered  his  fate  as  a  martyr  in 
the  cause  of  orthodoxy  against  the 
Arians,  though  sanctioned  by  Baehr 
and  Heyne,  has  been  completely 
refuted  by  Hand;  see  Ersch  and 
Grub.  Enajklopaedie,  xx  233. 


CASSIODORUS.  29 

countrymen  with  the  writings  of  Aristotle  and  Porphjrry,  and    tntro- 
to  reconcile  Aristotle  with  Plato,  would  at  once  suggest,  to   -■  v  -^ 
those  who  bore  in  mind  the  character  of  his  age,  that  his 
sympathies   were  nothing  more  than  those  of  enlightened 
paganism.     The  student  of  the  history  of  the  Aristotelian  vidMitudM 
philosophy  will  be  aware  how  frequently  its  predominant  ^,JJi'[JJ^*'}5'° 
aspect  has  varied  with  the  requirements,  the  tendencies,  and 
the  fashion   of  the   age.    It  has  been  the  fortune  of  the 
Stagirite  successively  to  represent  the  final  authority  in  the 
areua  of  metaphysics,  of  morality,  and  of  natural  philosophy ; 
but  it  was  under  none  of  these  aspects  that  his  influence  was 
preserved  to  Europe  by  Boethius. 

The  Aristotle  of  western  Europe,  from  the  sixth  to  the  oniv  tiio 
thirteenth  century,  was  simply  Aristotle  the  logician ;  and  A&tie 
even   as   a  logician  he  was  but  imperfectly   known.     The  ][^"*^  {J>™ 
whole  of  the  Organon  had,  indeed,  been  translated  by  Boethius,  bu?in*jif** 
but  even  of  this  the  greater  part  was  unknown  to  Europe 
prior  to  the  twelfth  century  \     The  Categories  and  the  De  ^ 
Interpretationey  together  with  the  Tsagoge  of  Porphyry,  were 
in  use,  but  the  Prior  and  Posterior  Analytics,  the  Topica, 
and  the  Elenchi  Sophistici  are  never  quoted.     Such  are  the 
important  limitations  with  which  it  is  consequently  necessary 
to   regard   the   study  of  Aristotle   as  existing  during  this 
lengthened   period;    his    logical    method    survived,   but   in 
imperfect  fashion;  while  his  mental  and  moral  philosophy 
remained  altogether  unknown,  their  resuscitation  forming,  as 
we  shall  subsequently  see,  a  separate  and  very  important 
chapter  in  the  history  of  European  thought. 

The  prejudices  and  suspicions  to  which,  towards  the  close 
of  his  reign,  Theodoric  siurendered  his  judgement,  proved 
fatal  to  Boethius,  but  a  distinguished  colleague  of  the  patriotic 
statesman,  who,  like  him,  had  filled  under  the  Gothic  monarch 
some  of  the  highest  oflSces  of  the  state,  managed  to  retain 
the  royal  confidence  unimpaired ;  and  at  length,  when  nearly 

1  Die  boethiAnisohe  Uebersetznng  Jahrhonderte    ganzlich    nnbekannt 

der  Haaptschriften  des  Organons,  d.  gewesen  war.    Ihrantl,  Gctchichte  der 

h.  der  beiden  Analytiken  nnd  der  Logik,  iii  3. 
Topik  nebst  Sopb.  EL,  Yor  dcm  12. 


I 


30 


THE  SCHOOL  BOOKS  OF  THE  DARK  AGES. 


INTRO- 
DUCTION, 

OMiiodorua. 
dLMS. 


niti 


seventy  years  of  age,  Cassiodorus  effected  his  retreat  to  the 
monastery  which  he  had  founded  at  Scylacium,  to  enjoy,  far 
beyond  the  ordinary  term  of  life,  its  tranquil  solitudes  and 
studious  repose.  The  Gothic  History  by  this  writer  has 
survived  only  in  the  abridgement  of  Jomandes ;  but  his 
Epistles,  a  series  of  state  documents  prepared  under  the 
direction  of  Theodoric  and  Justinian,  that  may  be  compared 
to  the  Capitularies  of  Charlemagne,  are  a  valuable  illustration 
of  these  times.  His  manual  of  education,  however,  with 
which  we  are  here  chiefly  concerned, — the  De  Artibus  ac 
Disciplinis  Liberalium  Literarum, — is  the  most  meagre  of  all 
the  text  books  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  four  subjects  of  the 
Quadrivium,  for  instance,  are  each  dismissed  in  two  pages ; 
the  object  of  the  writer  being  apparently  rather  to  give 
a  general  notion  of  the  subject  than  definite  instruction 
therein.  In  his  general  arrangement  he  observes  the  same 
traditional  division  that  Martianus  and  Boethius  follow ; 
and  the  example  of  the  latter,  whose  genius  Cassiodorus 
warmly  admired,  is  to  be  discerned  in  the  adoption  of 
Aristotle  and  Porphyry  as  the  chief  guides  in  the  book  on 
Dialectics, — the  only  portion  of  the  work  that  presents  what 
can  be  held  to  constitute  a  real  study  of  the  subject  As  the 
production,  then,  of  an  aged  monk,  but  of  one  who  until  long 
past  his  manhood's  prime  had  mingled  much  with  the  world, 
borne  high  office  in  the  state,  and  held  intercourse  with  the 
foremost  spirits  of  the  age,  this  work  sufficiently  shews  how 
the  traditions  of  pagan  culture  were  dwindling  before  the 
combined  influences  of  a  narrow  theology  and  barbaric  rule*. 
The  wave  of  the  Lombard  invasion  spent  itself  on  the 
north  of  Italy,  and  while  Gregory  was  predicting  from  the 
sufferings  of  his  own  nation  the  speedy  dissolution  of  all 
things,   a  contemporary   ecclesiastic,   in    the    neighbouring 


^  *  Hifl  Dialectic  contains  a  brief 
analysis  of  the  Isagoge  of  Porphyry 
and  the  Organon  of  Aristotle,  with 
additions,  a  considerable  portion 
being  borrowed  from  Apuleius  and 
JSoeuiius.  His  analysis  of  the  Or- 
ganon does  not  include  the  Sophistic 
BefutationB,  but  contains  a  separate 


chapter  Df  ParalogismU^  which  treats 
of  purely  logical  fallacies.  The  ar- 
rangement of  the  work  is  by  no 
means  methodical,  and  extraneous 
matters  are  introduced  which  properly 
belong  to  Bhetoric*  Dean  Mansel, 
Introd.  to  Artit  Logica  Rtidimcnta, 
p.  xzix. 


tsroonus.  SI 

peninsula  of  Spain,  was  engaged  in  the  compilation  of  one  of  iimto- 
the  most  remarkable  educational  treatises  that  belong  to  the  ■ — v— - 
Middle  Ages,  Though  at  various  times  a  full  participant  in 
the  sufferings  of  the  empire,  Spain  had  enjoyed  since  the 
establishment  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Visigoths  comparative 
inmiunity  from  invasion,  and  Isidoms  could  survey  with  i^onu. 
a  calmer  eye  than  Gregory  the  portents  of  the  time. 
Descended  from  Theodoric  the  Great,  son  of  a  governor  of 
Cartagena,  and  himself  bishop  of  an  important  see,  be  appears 
to  have  passed  a  life  of  hondurable  activity  in  fteedom  from 
political  disquiet  like  that  which  agitated  the  country  of  the 
pontificate.  Considering  the  period  at  which  be  wrote,  the 
twenty  books  of  the  Origines,  a  kind  of  Encyclopsedia  of'i<><M»o^ 
sacred  and  profane  learning,  must  undoubtedly  be  regarded 
as  a  remarkable  achievement,  a  laborious  collection  of  such 
fragments  of  knowledge  as  were  still  discoverable  amid  the 
gloom  hastening  to  yet  more  intense  darkness.  The  tradi- 
tional classification  of  the  subjects  is  retained,  but  the 
treatment  shews  no  advance  on  that  of  preceding  writers. 
Verbal  explanations  of  scientific  terms  still  mock  with  the 
affectation  of  clearoess  and  precision  the  enquirer  after  reaJ 
knowledge.  'How  completely,'  observes  Mr  Lewes,  'the 
magnificent  labours  of  Hipparcbus  and  Ptolemy  had  vanished 
from  the  scene,  how  utterly  their  results  and  methods  had 
passed  away,  may  be  estimated  on  finding  Isidore,  in  his 
chapter  on  the  size  of  the  sun  and  the  moon,  unable  to  give 
more  precise  information  than  that  the  sun  is  larger  than  the 
earth,  and  the  moon  less  than  the  sun'.'  Even  the  spark 
which  had  illumined  the  dark  page  of  Martianus  appears  to 
have  expired. 

In  one  respect  the  Origtnea  present  a  novel  and  noticeable  xoni 
feature, — the  incorporation  of  the  remains  of  pagan  leamii^  twnnwiM. 
with  the  new  theology.     Of  the  twenty  books  into  which 
they  are -' divided,  only  the  first  three  are  devot«d  to  the 
subjects  treated  by  those  preceding  compilers  whose  treatises 
have  occupied  our  attention;  the  remaining  seventeen  being 

>  LewM  (Q.  H.),  Hitl.  of  PUlMophy,  n  CS. 


32       THE  SCHOOL  BOOKS  OF  THE  DARK  AGES. 

lyTRo-  composed  of  an  extraordinary  medley  of  medicine,  theology, 
^J  y  -/  natural  philosophy  and  natural  history,  political  history, 
architecture,  mineralogy,  and  husbandry.  The  good  bishop 
would  seem,  as  though  prescient  of  the  future,  to  have  sought 
to  gather  and  link  together  whatever  still  remained  of 
knowledge  and  learning  before  it  should  be  irretrievably 
lost.  Of  the  numerous  historical  and  theological  tractates  of 
Isidorus, — many  of  them  mere  reproductions  in  an  abridged 
form  of  his  larger  works, — we  cannot  here  stop  to  speak ;  but 
whoever  will  examine  them  for  himself  will  have  forcibly 
brought  home  to  him,  in  the  barbarisms,  the  solecisms  and 
the  poverty  of  thought  whereby  they  are  characterised,  the 
actual  state  of  learning  in  times  when  such  productions  could 
suffice  to  obtain  for  their  author  the  reputation  of  being  the 
most  accomplished  and  erudite  man  of  his  age. 

The  more  elaborate  researches  of  later  writers  have  tended 
somewhat' to  qualify  the  representations  of  Robertson,  Hallam, 
and  others  who  have  slightly  exaggerated  and  severely  criti- 
cised the  ignorance  of  these  times ;  but  there  still  remains 
Geneni       Sufficient  evidence  amply  to  warrant  two  general  conclusions : 
withJS|K?ct  — 1,  that  the  literature  of  the  seventh,  eighth,  ninth,  and 

tothe  culture  ,  .  '        o         >  > 

ofuieDark  tenth  ccnturics  was  scanty  m  the  extreme;  2,  that  whatever 


learning  existed  was  almost  exclusively  possessed  by  the 
clergy.  Nor  is  there  any  good  reason  for  believing  that 
these  conclusions  would  be  materially  modified  even  if  we 
could  restore  to  light  the  whole  literature  to  which  these 
centuries  gave  birth;  it  would  rather  seem,  that  in  what 
remains  we  have  enough  to  illustrate^the  real  value  and 
direction  of  what  intellectual  activity  existed,  and  .are  enabled 
Tji^ikadition  to  disccm,  with  but  little  difficulty,  the  torch  of  learning 
passing  in  succession  from  the  hand  of  each  solitary  runner 
who  maintained  the  race  in  that  darksome  night  In  the 
authors  who  have  just  occupied  our  attention  we  can  trace, 
for  instance,  with  tolerable  distinctness,  the  transmission  of 
the  literary  spirit.  Orosius  appears  reproducing,  under  the 
\  teaching  of  Augustine,  the  theological  interpretation  of 
V  history;  Martianus,  as  sustaining  the  traditions  of  pagan 
culture;    Boethiua^    as  imitating  the  allegorical  treatment 


ISIDORUS.  33 

pursued  by  Martianus,  and,  in  his  turn,  inspiring  Cassiodorus,  ixtro- 
who,  in  his  monastic  solitude,  feebly  retraced  the  outlines  of  ^-v—^ 
learning  marked  out  by  his  more  brilliant  compeer ;  while  in 
Isidorus,  the  grandson  of  Theodoric  the  Great,  we  seem  to 
recogpiise  the  transmitted  influence  of  both  theSe  illustrious 
ministers  of  the  most  enlightened  of  the  Gothic  conquerors. 
With  the  name  of  Isidorus  again,  is  associated,  though  in  no 
true  connexion,  one  of  the  most  important  movements  of  the 
Middle  Ages, — the  next  prominent  feature  that  arrests  our 
attention  in  pursuing  our  enquiry  \  ^ 

Amid  the  numerous  legends,  pretended  miracles,  and 
other  inventions,  which,  as  Christianity  became  corrupt,  hid 
the  simplicity  of  the  faith  from  view,  it  is  undeniable  that 
a  spirit  of  unveracity  grew  up,  that,  combining  with  the 
superstition  of  the  age,  became  a  prolific  source  of  imposture; 
and  in  the  ninth  century  we  are  presented  with  a  notable 
exemplification  of  this  tendency,  in  an  effort  at  investing  the 
dicta  of  Rome  with  the  appearance  of  greater  complete- 
ness and  continuity,  which,  commencing  in  deliberate  fraud, 
ultimately  expanded  into  one  of  the  most  gigantic  literary 
forgeries  that  the  world  has  seen.  Among  the  numerous 
writings  of  Isidorus  was  one,  De  Officiis  Ecclesiasticis,  where-  nfojmii 
in  he  had  collected  the  decisions  of  the  Church  on  numerous  ^caetUstuu. 
points  relating  to  discipline,  ceremonies,  and  the  limitations 
■  of  the  authority  attaching  to  the  different  sacred  offices.  The 
work  enjoyed  a  deserved  reputation,  and  must  still  be 
regarded  as  of  high  value  by  all  who  seek  to  form  an  accurate 
estimate  of  the  sanction  afforded  by  the  antiquities  of  the 
Church  for  the  observances  of  the  Romish  ritual.  In  one 
respect  however  this  treatise  failed  to  satisfy  the  minds  of  a 
later  generation,  for  it  contained  little  that  could  be  quoted 
in  favour  of  the  exclusive  pretensions  of  the  Bomish  see ; 
and,  more  especially,  the  chain  of  continuity,  the  unbroken 
tradition  from  the  time  of  St.  Peter,  could  not  be  traced  in 

^  'Qnant  an  programme  deB  etudes,  premiers  Bidoles  du  moyen  age  par 

il  n'a  pas  vari^  d*mie  nyllabe  avant  Booce,  Martianns  Capella,  Cassiodore 

le  xii*  si^e,  il  est  rest^  tel  qu'U  et  Isidore  de  Seville.'    Li^on  Maitre, 

aTait  4i4  tractf  pour  les  ^coles  des  Leg  Ecoles  EpitcopaUt,  etc.  p.  800. 

3 


34 


THE  CANON  LAW. 


INTTIO- 
DUCTIoy. 


Pretended 
dUcorery  of 
Mcrcator. 


IMapute 
between 
Hlacnutr 
aadRothrad. 


Dodtloain 
farour  of 
Koroe 
founded  on 
the  False 
Decretali. 


its  pages;  for  between  Clemens,  the  first  bishop,  and  Siricius, 
who  died  at  the  close  of  the  fourth  century,  the  decrees  of 
the  bishops  of  Rome  were  altogether  wanting.  But  suddenly 
the  missing  Decretals  were  forthcoming.  An  unknown 
individual,  ^ho  styled  himself  Mercator,  brought  forward 
what  purported  to  be  a  completion  of  the  work  of  Isidorus, 
inasmuch  as  it  supplied  what  was  necessary  to  constitute  that 
work  an  entire  collection  of  the  decrees  of  Rome  from  the 
earliest  times.  No  traces  of  these  documents  were  discover- 
able in  the  Roman  archives,  but  they  were  nevertheless 
accepted  as  genuine  by  Nicholas,  and  also  by  Hincmar,  the 
eminent  archbishop  of  Rheims.  It  so  happened  that  at  the 
time  when  this  pretended  discovery  took  place,  Rothrad, 
bishop  of  Soissons,  had  appealed  to  Nicholas  against  his 
deposition  from  his  see  by  his  metropolitan,  Hincmar.  It 
was  however  doubtful  whether  he  was  justified  in  such  a 
step,  and  Hincmar  loudly  affirmed  that  no  such  right  of 
appeal  existed.  It  was  now  found  that,  among  the  newly 
discovered  Decretals,  was  one  that  established  the  supremacy 
of  Rome  over  all  other  metropolitans;  Rothrad  was  rein- 
stated in  his  episcopal  chair  by  Nicholas ;  and  Hincmar  was 
compelled  reluctantly  to  bow  to  the  authority  he  had  so 
incautiously  admitted.  When  too  late,  he  endeavoured 
indeed  to  call  the  genuineness  of  that  authority  in  question, 
but  in  so  doing  he  only  incurred  the  inevitable  imputation* 
of  having  thus  acted  merely  from  a  selfish  regard  to  his  per- 
sonal interest  and  aggrandisement.  From  the  recognition  of 
these  Decretals  the  Papacy  IBates  an  important  advance  in 
legislative  power,  and  the  attainment  of  a  position  from 
which  it  never  afterwards  receded*.     It  was  not  until  three 


*  *The  False  Decretals  do  not 
merely  assert  the  snpremacy  of  the 
Popes— the  dignity  and  privileges  of 
the  Bishop  of  Borne.  They  compre- 
hend the  whole  dogmatic  system  and 
discipline  of  the  Church,  the  whole 
hierarchy  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest  degree,  their  sanctity  and  im- 
munities, their  persecutions,  their 
disputes,  their  right  of  appeal  to 
Bome.    They  are  full  and  minute  on 


Church  properly,  on  its  usurpation 
and  spoliation ;  on  ordinations ;  on 
the  sacraments,  on  baptism,  confirm- 
ation, marriage,  the  Eucharist ;  ob 
fasts  and  festivals ;  the  discovery  of 
the  cross,  the  discovery  of  the  reliques 
of  the  Apostles ;  on  the  chrism, 
holy  water,  consecration  of  churches, 
blessing  of  the  fruits  of  the  field  ;  on 
the  sacred  vessels  and  habiliments. 
Personal  incidents  are  not  wanting 


THE  DECRETUM  OF  GRATUy.  35 

eeDtuiies  later,  ia  tbe  year  1I5I,  that  Gratiao,  a  monk  of    intro- 
Bologoa,  published  a  new  Decretum  or  Concordia  Dwcor-   ■ — . — '-' 
darUium   Canonum,  irherein  he  incorporated  the  collection  n,,  j,n^ 
by   tte    Pseud o-Ifiidorus    with    numerous    alterations    and '""" 
additions.    Respecting  the  amount  of  actual  fraud  contained 
in  these  labours,  some  difference   of  opinion  has  prevailed. 
It  has  even  been  pointed  out,  that  Gratiau,  by  the  insertion 
of  decisions  unfavorable  to  tbe  pretensions  of  the  Romish 
tee,  has  sufficiently  proved  the  honesty  of  bis  motives ;  but 
it  is  certain  that  the  scope  of  the  entire  work  was  largely 
to  augment  the  privileges  and  authority  of  the  Papacy'.    It 
seems  difficult  moreover  to  understand,   how  many  of  the 
canons  could  ever  have  been  regarded  as  other  than  apo- 
ciyphal  for,   in   the    sisteenth  century.    Pope    Gregory  Xlir 
deemed  it  expedient  to  expunge  those  parts  which,  however 
tbey  might  charitably  have  been  supposed  to  have  deceived 


to  ^re  life  anil  reali^  to  tbe  fiction. 
The  whole  is  composed  irith  an  &ir 
at  protoanA  jiietj  and  rererpnce  ;  a 
fpeeioos  paritj-and  occaBiunal  beauty 
in  the  morsl  and  reli^ona  tone. 
Time  Mv  man;  aiioms  of  BCeminfflj 
nncere  and  tit^  religion.  But  f oi  the 
too  manifest  design,  the  nggrandise- 
meat  o(  the  See  of  Kome  and  the 
•ggmndisement  of  the  nbole  Flerg; 
in  gabordination  to  the  See  of  Bome  ; 
bot  Sot  the  monetrons  ignorance  of 
faistoij.  nhich  betrsTs  itself  in  glar- 
ing anachroniBms,  and  in  the  ntter 
ronfuaioD  of  tbe  order  of  ereittB  and 
tbe  lives  of  distingniBbcd  men — tbe 
tonner  avakening  keen  and  jealana 
suspicion,  the  latter  making  the  de- 
tection of  tbe  BpuriouRneiis  of  the 
vhote  easy,  clear,  irrefragable,— the 
Fake  Decretals  might  at  ill  have 
maintained  their  place  in  eccleKiaeti- 
tal  bialory.  Tbej  are  now  given  up 
bfall;  not  a  voice  is  raised  in  Ibcir 
favour :  tbe  ntmost  that  is  dona  b; 
those  irbo  cannot  suppress  all  regret 
at  their  explosion,  in  lo  paUiate  the 
(niilt  of  the  forger,  to  call  in  question 
CT  to  weaken  tbe  influence  wbicb 
they  bad  in  Ibeir  own  day,  and 
throughout  the  later  history  of  C'bria- 
liaoitj.'  Milmon,  Hiit.  Latin  C'Arii- 
lianily,  iii  192.    A  vriter  of  a  dif- 


ferent school  obserres,   '  The  great 

difference  between  tbe  use  which 
Hincmar  makes  of  these  decretal* 
and  tbe  advantage  to  which  they  are 
turned  by  Nicholas  is  that  the  latter 
builds  entirely  npon  tbem  doctrines 
hitherto  unknown,  and  which  could 
be  supported  by  no  other  proof, 
whereas  the  anjibisbop  of  Rheima 
quotes  tbem  only  as  furnishing  an 
additional  evidence  to  tmtha  already 
granted,  and  even  without  them  easily 
established  or  defended.  In  the 
bitter  case  their  genuineness  conid 
be  of  little  importance,  nor  wbb  it 
neceE<E[lrily  incumbent  on  tbe  writer 
who  thus  used  tbem  to  have  satisfied 
himeelf  without  any  doubt  on  this 
point.  But  when  employed  for  such 
a  purpose  as  that  for  which  tbey  ars 
advanced  by  Pope  Kicholaa,  ony  defi- 
ciency in  tbe  fullest  proof  that  they 
were  both  );i'unme  and  of  authority, 
subjects  tbe  nutbor  to  a  graver  charge 
than  even  that  of  the  most  culpable 
negliscnce.'  l.iff  and  Timet  of  Hine- 
mar,  by  the  late  Rev.  James  C,  Prich- 
ard,  M.A..  p.  330. 

'  In  one  passage  Gratian  even 
goes  so  far  as  to  assert  that  tbe  Pope 
is  not  l»mid  bj  the  canons  of  his 
predecessors.  See  Pleurj',  Troitihme 
J>i$eoun  tar  Tllittoire  Eeelaiattiqut. 
3—2 


30  THE  CANON   LAW. 

INTRO,    the  oririnal  compiler,  could  not  sustain  the  scrutiny  of  a 

DICTION.  .  .     ,  ^  "^ 

^^v— '  more  critical  age. 

The  Decretum,  as  it  passed  from  the  hands  of  Gratian, 
consisted  of  three  parts :  the  first  being  devoted  to  general 
law,  and  containing  the  canons  of  Councils,  decrees  of  the 
Popes,  and  opinions  of  the  Fathers;  the  second  comprising 
ecclesiastical  judgements  on  all  matters  of  morality  and  social 
life ;  the  third  containing  instruction  with  reference  to  the 
rites  and  ceremonies  of  the  Church.  The  Decretum  was 
received  throughout  Europe  with  unquestioning  submission ; 
Pope  Eugenius  lii  marked  his  sense  of  its  merits  by  raising 
Gratian  to  the  bishopric  of  Chiusi ;  and  Dante,  a  century 
later,  assigned  to  the  monk  of  Bologna  a  place  in  the 
celestial  hierarchy,  along  with  Albertus,  Aquinas,  and  the 
other  great  doctors  of  the  Church  ^  Such  was  the  work  the 
study  of  which  known  as  that  of  the  Canon  Law,  formed 
so  important  a  part  of  the  training  of  students  at  the  English 
universities  prior  to  the  Reformation;  which  still  survives  in 
both  Protestant  and  Catholic  Germany;  and  continues  to 
demand  the  attention  of  all  those  who  seek  to  grasp  intelli- 
gently the  history  and  literature  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Other 
additions  have  been  made  to  the  Decretum  since  the  time  of 
Gratian,  but  it  is  to  his  labours  and  those  of  his  predecessor 
that  are  undoubtedly  to  be  referred  the  most  unjustifiable 
pretensions  and  accordingly  the  greatest  misfortunes  of  the 
Bomish  Church  '.  It  was  on  the  foundation  of  the  canon  law 
that  those  claims  to  temporal  power  were  built  up,  which 
gave  rise  to  the  De  Potestate  of  Occam,  to  the  De  Dominio 
Dimno  of  Wyclif,  and  to  the  English  Reformation. 

ReriTaiof  Somewhat  earlier  in  the  same  century  that  saw  the 

•tudy  of  the  .  . 

uSJuw'  completion  of  Gratian's  labours,  Imerius  began  to  lecture  at 
Bologna  on  the  Civil  Law.  From  the  time  of  the  disruption 
of  the  Roman  empire,  the  codes  of  Theodosius  and  Justinian 
would  appear  to  have  survived  as  the  recognised  law  of  the 

^  Paradiso,  Bk.  x  113.  p*  3 ;    the    latter  writer,  though  a 

*  See  a  Lecture  by  B.  G.  Phillimore  staunch  Catholic,  admits  and  deplores 

'  On  the  Inftiience  of  Ecclennttical  the  effects  of  the  excessive  preten- 

Law  on  European  Legislation  ;*  also  sions  of  the  Decretals  on  behalf  of 

Batler*8  Hora  Juridiea  Subteciva,  the  Papal  power. 


IBNERIUS.  S7 

tiibanals  that  eiisted  uoder  the  Gothic,  the  Lombard,  and    intro- 
(he  CarloTuigiaD  dynasties;  but  the  knowledge  of  them  v&s   •^-.^-^ 
Teiy  imperfect,  and  indeed  almost  valueless,  save  as  repre- 
sentative of  a  great  tradition  and  marking  the  path  that  led 
to  a  more  syatematifled  and  comprehensive  theory'.     The 
•chool  founded  by  Imerius  marks  the  commencement  of  an 
improved  order  of  things.     The  states  of  Lombardy  were, 
at  this  time,  advancing  with  rapid  strides  in  populousness 
and  wealth,  and  their  increasing  commerce  and  manufactures       ^^ 
demanded  a  more  definite  application  of  the  admirable  code 
they  had  inherited.    Imerius  accordingly  not  only  expounded  inHrtuiH- 
the  Roman  code  in  lectures,  but  introduced,  for  the  first  ^J*""*^ 
time,  the  plan  of  annotating  it  with  brief  explanations  of 
terms  or  sentences,  these  annotations  being  known  under  the 
name  of  glosses.     His  example  was  followed   in  the  next 
century  by  Accursius  of  Florence,  whose  labours  may  be  Acmr^a. 
regaided  as  constituting  an  era  in  the  history  of  jurisprudence. 
The  precise  value  of  the  service  rendered  by  these  glossers 
has  been  the  subject  of  some  dispute ;  it  is  not  denied  that 
they  promoted  a  more  careful  and  intelligent  interpretation 
of  the  code,  but  some  have  regarded  it  as  a  serious  evil  that 
their  labours  almost  supeiseded  the  study  of  the  text.     The 
construction  placed  by  an  eminent  glossist  upon  an  obscure 
or  doubtful  passage  became  itself  the  law,  and  to  master  and 
digest  the  various  interpretations  a  separate  and  important 
study. 

It  was  now  however  that  jurisprudence  began  again  to  iubw  >Tt«d 
assume  its  true  dignity  as  a  science  and  a  profession.  The  ^^'  "^'i 
bme  of  the  new  learning  spread  rapidly  through  Europe,  and 
the  disciples  of  Imerius  diffused  his  teachings  in  Spain, 
France,  and  Germany.  In  its  progress  however  the  science 
lacked  the  all  powerful  aid  that  had  attended  the  canon  law, 
and  it  is  remarkable  that  a  study  which  was  before  long  to 
become   the  special   field  of  ambition   to   the   ecclesiastic, 

I   ' —  sber   diem  KenntiuBS   and  Sechu,   o.  zmi.   lec.  S3.     9«e  the 

Anwendang   desielben  Khi  dlirttig  -whole  of  the  Mme  eh&pter,  entitled 

«*i«n,iuidDiirklaUebeisai]gmeiner  fFUdfrJienttUung   d«r  Rtchtticiuen- 

lii— iiiiiii  Zeit  Wotli h&ben  koniitco.'  eha/t. 


38 


KEVIVAL   OF  THE  HOMAN   LAW. 


TXTRO- 
DUCTION. 

TheitudjT 
oppoMdat 
llratbjr 
RonM. 


OxnHTcfrc* 


um 


should,  in  the  first  instance,  have  been  viewed  with  such 
disfavour  at  Rome.  Already,  before  the  appearance  of  the 
Pandects  of  Amalfi,  it  had  been  forbidden  to  the  religious 
orders,  and  the  interdict  was  renewed  in  1139  and  again  in 
1163.  In  1219  Honorius  III  banished  it  from  the  university 
of  Paris,  and  thirty-five  years  later  Innocent  iii  reiterated 
the  papal  anathemas  in  France,  England  and  Spain \  In  our 
own  country  the  superior  clergy  appear  to  have  advocated  its 
reception,  and  it  is  unquestionable  that  Vacarius  lectured  on 
the  Pandects  at  Oxford*;  he  was  silenced  however  by  the 
mandate  of  king  Stephen,  and  John  of  Salisbury  informs  us 
that  many  of  his  own  acquaintance  regarded  the  new  learning 
with  so  much  animosity  that  they  destroyed  all  the  text- 
books that  came  within  their  reach';  The  opposition  of 
Stephen  is  attributed  by  Selden  to  the  monarch's  personal 
dislike  of  archbishop  Theobald,  who  had  shewn  a  disposition 
to  introduce  the  study.     This  state  of  feeling  however  was 


^  *Ce8  prohibitions  farent  Taines. 
Chez  nons,  au  centre  et  an  nord,  se 
propageait  en  langae  vnlgaire  la  re- 
daction des  contumes,  qui,  non  moins 
varices  que  lea  divisions  f^dales, 
conservaient  presque  la  mdthode  et 
souvent  meme  les  dispositions  des 
lois  romaines.  Ces  lois,  dans  les 
pays  de  coutomes,  furent  dtudi^es 
comme  raison  ^rite,  et,  dans  les 
pays  de  droit  romain,  adoptdes  comme 
lois.  £n  Languedoc,  elles  dtaient  le 
droit  common  da  pays ;  Toulouse  et 
Montpellier  les  enseignaient,  mSme 
avant  Tinstitution  de  leurs  uniyer- 
sit^s.  L*ecole  de  Paris,  qu'on  avait 
Youlu  preserver  de  cette  innovation, 
s^enhardit  jusqa*&  reconnaitre  k  I'un 
et  k  Tautre  droit  une  sorte  d'^gaUtd ; 
lorsqu^eUe  dut,  en  1408,  apr^s  la 
d^laration  de  neutrality  entre  les 
papaut^s  rivales,  fixer  les  conditions 
necessaires  pour  poss^der  les  bene- 
fices, elle  exigea  indifi^remment  des 
evdques  et  des  chefs  d'ordres  le  grade 
de  docteur  ou  de  licencie  soit  en 
iheologie,  soit  en  droit  canonique, 
soit  en  droit   civil.*    Y.  Le  Clerc, 

Etat  det  Lettra  au  14*  SiMe,  p.  510. 

'  YacArioB  appears  to  have  taught 

at  Oxford  about  the  year  1149,  al- 

moBt  exactly  the  same  4ime   that 


Oration  published  his  Decretum. 
The  fact  that  Vacarius  taught  at 
Oxford  has  been  called  in  questi<»i, 
but  the  evidence  appears  sufficiently 
conclusive.  Gervaise  of  Canterbury, 
a*  contemporary  writer  says : — Tune 
leges  et  causidici  in  Angliam  primo 
vocati  suntt  quorum  primus  erat  ma' 
gister  Vacarius.  Hie  in  Oxonefordia 
legem  docuit. 

'  Savigny*s  criticism  throws  addi- 
tional light  upon  the  circumstance  :•— 
'  Mehrere  haben  Anstosz  daran  gefun- 
den,  dass  bei  einem  Streit  unter  Geist- 
lichen  iiber  geistliche  Gegenstande 
gerade  Bomisches  Becht  wichtig  und 
unentbehrlich  gefunden  worden  sey; 
sie  haben  daher  angenonmien,  es  sey 
zugleich  das  canonische  Becht  mit 
verpflanzt  worden,  ja  Manche  haben 
den  Unterricht  des  Vacarius  ledigUch 
aiif  das  canonische  Becht  beziehen 
woUen.  Alleiu  diese  ganze  Schwierig- 
keit  scheint  mir  ohne  Grund.  Das 
canonische  Becht  war  stets  als  Theil 
der  Theologie  von  der  Geistlichkeit 
erlemt  worden,  so  dass  weder  die 
Abfassung  des  Decrets  von  Gratian, 
noch  dessen  Erklarung  in  der  Schule 
von  Bologna,  hierin  einen  ganz  neuen 
Zustand  hervorbrachte.  Anders  ver- 
hielt  es  sich  mit  dem  Bomiachen 


DEVOTION  OF  THK  CLKJiOY  TO  THE  STUDY. 


39 


but  transitory ;  before  the  expiration  of  the  twelfth  century    intro- 
the  attractions  and  direct  importance  of  a  science  a  know-  ^^.^.^y^' 
ledge  of  which  had  become  essential  to  those  concerned  in  «te^ely 


the  conduct  of  proceedings  before   ecclesiastical  tribunals,  ESSVnod* 
prevailed  over  all  prejudices;  St.  Bernard  complains,  even 
in  his  day,   of  the  ardour   with   which   the   clergy  betook 
themselves  to  its  pursuit ;  and  a  century  later,  as  we  shall 
hereafter  see,  the  study  had  assumed  such  proportions  as  the 
path  to  emolument  and  high  office,  that  it  seemed  likely  to 
bring  about  an  almost  total  neglect  of  theology  and  the  canon  combined 
law.    In  England  indeed  the  canon  law  was  mainly  preserved  ^fw?"*** 
from  the  neglect  into  which  it  fell  at  a  yet  later  period  on  the 
continent,  by  the  fact  that  the  canonist  and  civilian  were 
often  united  in  the  same  person,  and  did  not,  as  in  France 
and  Germany,  represent  distinct  and  separate  professions. 
It  is  to  this  combination  that  we  owe  the  title,  which  still 
survives,  of  LL.D.  (formerly  j.u.D.  or  Doctor  Utriusque  Juris). 
If  we  now  turn  to  follow  the  faintly  marked  path  of 
learning  and  philosophy  from  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  we 
shall  soon  perceive  indications  of  an  awakening  activity  of 
thought  that  promised  better  things  than  the  conceptions  of 
a  Gregory  or  an  Alcuin.     How  far  the  system  which  the 
latter  initiated  at  Tours  influenced  the  course  of  subsequent 


Becht,  welches,  in  seiner  Wieder- 
herateUong  dorch  die  Olossatoren, 
in  der  That  etwas  Neaes  war.  Zn- 
gleich  aber  ist  es  nnverkennbar,  dass 
der  Prozess,  aach  in  geistlichen 
Oerichten,  groszentheils  auf  Bomis- 
ches  Becht  gegriindet  war.  So  er- 
klart  es  sich,  dass  die  Englische  hohe 
Geistliohkeit  dorch  ihre  Prozesse  vor 
der  Bdmischen  Curie  veranlaszt  war- 
den konnte,  Legisten  and  Hand- 
flohriften  des  Bomischen  Bechts  aus 
Italien  in  England  einznfiihren, 
wahren  kein  ahnliches  Bediirlniss  in 
Ansehong  des  canonischen  Bechts 
empfunden  wurde.'  C.  xxxvi  sec.  125. 
Boger  Bacon,  who  was  prejudiced 
against  the  study  by  the  abuse  with 
which  it  had  become  associated  in 
his  day,  sought  to  found  upon  Ste- 
phanas opposition  an  argument  a- 
gainst  its  claims  : — '  Bex  (luidam  An- 


glise  Stephanus,  allatis  legibus  Italia 
in  Angliam,  publico  edicto  prohibuit, 
ne  ab  aliquo  retinerentur.  Si  igitur 
laicus  princeps  huci  principis  alte- 
rius  leges  respueret,  igitur  multo 
magis  omnis  clericus  deberet  respuere 
leges  laicorum.  Addo  etiam  quod 
magis  concordant  jura  FrancisB  cum 
Anglia,  et  e  converso,  propter  vicini- 
tatem  regnorum,  et  commimicatio- 
nem  mf&jorem  gentium  istarum,  quam 
Italite  et  illarum.  Igitur  deberent 
magis  clerici  AnglisB  subjicere  se 
legibus  Francis,  et  e  converso,  quam 
'  legibus  Lumbardiffi.'  Compendium 
Studii  Philotopkiaj  o.  4.  It  seems 
difficult  to  beUeve  that  this  passage 
could  have  been  written  by  the  same 
pen  that  has  so  admirably  pointed 
out,  in  the  Opus  Tertium,  the  rela- 
tions of  the  Bomance  language  to  each 
other  and  to  their  common  parent ! 


40 


INCREASING  SPECULATIVE  ACTIVITY. 


INTRO- 
DUCTION. 


PMdiMhit 
Radbotua, 
fl.drc860. 


speculation  it  is  difficult  accurately  to  decide',  but  it  is 
certain  that,  before  the  ninth  century  closed,  there  were 
symptoms  of  returning  vigour  which  plainly  indicated  that 
the  traditional  limits  would  ere  long  be  broken  through. 
The  dogma  maintained  by  Paschasius  concerning  the  real 
presence,  and  that  which  Godeschalchus  reasserted,  on  the 
authority  of  Augustine,  concerning  predestination,  attest  how 
men's  minds  were  again  essaying  to  grapple  with  the  pro- 
foundest  questions  appertaining  to  the  Christian  faith ;  the 
solutions  propounded,  it  is  true,  were,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
time,  conceived  in  conformity  to  the  requirements  of  a  formal 
logic  rather  than  in  unison  with  the  wants  of  men's  inner 
nature,  but  the  controversies  they  were  designed  to  set  at 
rest  were  not  the  less  the  commencement  of  that  great  eflfort 
to  bring  about  a  reconciliation  between  reason  and  authority, 
belief  and  dogma,  which  underlies  the  whole  history  of  the 
scholastic  philosophy*.  It  is  impossible  to  look  upon  the 
Ratnmnrai.  arguments  of  Paschasius  and  his  able  opponent  Batramnus 

wrote  drc  ®  J^*^ 

^^  as  a  mere  phase   of  bygone   habits   of  thought  when  we 

remember  that  they  inaugurated  a  controversy  which  has 
lasted  to  the  present  day ;  which  has  exercised,  perhaps  more 
than  any  other,  the  learning  of  Rome  and  the  intellect  of 
protestantism;  and  in  connexion  with  which  these  two  writers 
long  represented  the  armoury  whence  combatants  on  either 
side  most  frequently  equipped  themselves  for  the  contest*. 

In  John  Scotus  Erigena,  on  whom  it  devolved  to  uphold 
the  less  rigid  interpretation  against  both   Paschasius   and 


^  Profefisor  Maurice,  speaking  of 
the  theological  disputes  of  this  time, 
does  not  hesitate  to  say,  *It  was  a 
war  of  logic,  of  formal  proposition  on 
this  side  and  on  that.  This  was  the 
character  which  the  schools  of  A  Icuin 
and  Charlemagne  almost  inevitably 
gave  to  it.*   Mediaeval  Philosophy ^  p. 

*  Hampden,  Scholastic  Philosophy, 
p.  87.  See  also  M.  Barth^lemy  Saint- 
Hilaire,  De  la  Logique  d^Aristote^ 
ul94. 

*  Bellarmine  has  unfairly  repre- 
sented Batramnus  as  the  inaugurator 
of  the  oontroversy ;  but  the  doctrine 
of  transuhstantiatiQn  was  a  heresy  in 


the  Church  of  the  ninth  century,  and 
Paschasius  was  sharply  rebuked  by 
several  contemporaries,  among  others 
by  Rabanus  Maums,  then  archbishop 
of  Mayence.  At  a  subsequent  period, 
Pope  Gregory  VII  declared  that  the 
yiew  of  Paschasius,  as  expressed  by 
Lanfranc,  was  rejected  both  by  him- 
self and  Peter  Damiani.  It  was 
seven  centuries  after  the  time  of 
Ratramnus,  that  Ridley,  when  plead- 
ing  before  the  commissioners  at  Ox- 
ford, said,  *  This  man  was  the  first 
who  pulled  me  by  the  ear,  and  forced 
me  tcom  the  common  error  of  the 
Roman  Church,  to  a  more  diligent 
search  of  Scripture  and  ecclesiastical 


JOHN   SCOTUS   ERIGENA.  41 

Godesclialchus,  we  have  a  metaphysician  of  the  Platonic  intro- 
school  appearing  in  somewhat  singular  contrast  to  the  ^— v— '' 
quasi- Aristotelian  succession  of  the  western  Church.  In  his 
treatise  De  Dtvisione  Naturce,  he  shews  from  St.  Augustine 
that  the  Categories  fail  altogether  in  the  investigation  of  the 
divine  nature ;  he  maintains,  in  his  theory  of  primordial 
causes,  an  essentially  different  conception  from  that  put  forth 
in  the  Ethics  and  the  Metaphysics ;  and  his  mental  affinities 
to  the  Platonism  of  the  eastern  Church  are  sufficiently 
indicated  by  his  attempt  to  prove  that  the  first  chapter  in 
Genesis  represents,  not  the  creation  of  the  visible  world,  but 
the  evolution  of  the  typical  ideas  in  the  creative  mind.  With 
the  exception  of  a  Latin  translation  by  Chalcidius  of  a  portion 
of  Plato*s  TinicBus,  Augustine  was  undoubtedly  the  source 
from  whence  John  Scotus  derived  his  philosophy;  with  johnScotua 
respect  to  the  general  character  of  that  philosophy  it  is  the  <Lm^), 
less  necessary  to  go  into  detail,  inasmuch  as,  though  he  was 
probably  the  first  distinctly  to  indicate  the  main  theory  of 
scholasticism  \  his  method  was  not  that  which  scholasticism 
adopted',  and  his  somewhat  singular  eclecticism  and  Platonic 
affinities  became  lost  to  view  amid  the  vastly  extended  influ- 
ence which  yet  awaited  the  authority  of  Aristotla  His  most 
marked  relation  to  posterity  is  to  be  traced  in  the  attention 
he  directed  to  the  writings  falsely  attributed  to  Dionysius 
the  Areopagite.  Legend,  already  busy  in  the  Church, 
though  the  time  of  its  greatest  activity  was  still  distant, 
had  ascribed  to  the  Dionysius   mentioned  in  the  Acts  of  The  p«rado. 

'^  Dionyiiua. 

the  Apostles',  and  afterwards  first  bishop  of  Athens,  the 
conversion  of  Gaul,  as  the  earliest  Apostle  to  that  country; 
and  in  the  ninth  century  there  was  in  circulation  a  manu- 
script, a  forgery  of  the  fifth  century,  sent  by  Michael  the 

writers  on  this  question.*    See  Bel-  equally  unlike  the  pnre  Socratic  Pla- 

larmine,  De  Sac.  Euch,  Bk.  i  c.  1.  tonismof  which  that  was  a  corruption, 

Milman,  Hist,  of  Latin  Christianity,  different  in  most  important  respects 

Bk.yiii  c.  3.  from  the  Augustinian  Platonism,  or 

^  '  Der  friiheste  namhafte  Philo-  from  that  of  the  Greek  Father^  with 

soph  der  soholastischen  Zeit,*  says  which  it  stands  in  much  closer  af- 

Ueherweg.     See  his   Oeschichte  der  finity.*    Maurice,  Mediceval  Philoso- 

Philosophie,  ii»  103—111.  phy,   p.   68.      See    also    Christlieb, 

*  It  was  *  exceedingly  unlike  the  Leben  und   Lehre  des   Joh,   Scotus 

Alexandrian  Platonism  from  which  £ri^^na,  Gotha,  1860. 

it  has  been  supposed  to  be  deriyed,  *  Acts  xvu  34. 


42  THE  TENTU  CENTUKY. 

INTRO-    Stammerer,  emperor  of  Byzantium,  to  Louis  le  D^oDnaire, 
>— v~'   which  was  asserted  with  equal  truth  to  be  the  work  of  this 
same   Dionysius.     The  production,   from  whatever  pen  it 
proceeded,   is    of   small   intrinsic   value,   being  devoted  to 
speculations  respecting  the  celestial  hierarchy  and  the  ex- 
position of  a  highly  mystical   interpretation   of  Scripture; 
but  its  translation  into  Latin  from  the  Greek,  undertaken 
by  John  Scotus,  in  order,  in  all  probability,  to  gratify  the 
feelings  of  his  patron  Charles  the  Bald,  by  rendering  more 
accessible  to  the  subjects  of  the  latter  a  treatise  attributed 
to   their  national   Apostle, —  is  an    event    of   considerable 
KMimationiu  importance  in  the  history  of  European  studies.     From  this 
treatise  m   period  thc   Pscudo-Dionysius  occupied  a  foremost  place  in 
theutneof    the  estimation  of  the  theologian,  and  it  is  melancholy  to 
note  how  long  it  continued  to  impose  on  the  judgement  and 
to  inspire  the  labours   of  some   of  thc   ablest   scholars  of 
successive  generations*. 

With  the  tenth  century  the  darkness  in  France  and 
England  attained  its  greatest  intensity ;  it  was  the  nadir  of 
the  intellect  in  Europe.  Spain  alone,  under  the  beneficent 
rule  of  the  Ommiades,  oflFers  to  our  notice  any  signs  of 
general  culture  and  refinement,  the  instances  observable 
elsewhere  presenting  themselves  as  isolated  and  rare  pheno- 
mena. Of  these  the  most  remarkable  is  unquestionably  that 
popePvives-  of  Gcrbert,  afterwards  pope  Sylvester  li,  and  the  valuable 
additions  recently  made  to  our  knowledge  respecting  this 
eminent  man  may  be  deemed  sufficient  excuse  for  attempting 
briefly  to  embody  them  in  the  present  sketch.  It  is  now 
nearly  thirty  yeai-s  ago  that  antiquarian  research  brought  to 
light  the  long  lost  history  of  his  times  by  his  pupil  Richerus, 
and  the  information  therein  contained,  together  with  the 
lUMMchM  of  admirable  life  prefixed  by  M.  Olleris  to  the  more  recently 
published  magnificent  edition  of  his  works*,  has  somewhat 

*  Dean  Milman  truly  observes  that  nom  de  Sylvestre  11.^  Collationies  nir 
*  the  effect  of  this  work  on  the  whole  lea  Manuscrits,  Pricid6e$  de  ta  Bio- 
ecclesiastic  system,  and  on  the  popa-  graphie^  tuivie$  de  Notes  Critiquet  et 
lar  faith,  it  is  almost  impossible  justly  Hittorique^,  par  A.  OUeris,  doyen  des 
to  estimate.*  HUt.  of  Latin  ChriS'  Facult^s  de  Lettres,  Clermont-Fer- 
tianity,  Bk.  viii  c.  5.  rand,  1867. 

•  (Euvre$  de  Gerbert,  Pape  torn  le 


GERBERT.  43 

nicHliiied  the  codcIuhIoiis  previously  formed  retipecting  both 
the  individual  and  his  age, — the  obscure  period  of  transition   ' 
when  the  sceptre  passed  from  the  Carlovingian  to  the  Cape- 
tian  djnastj. 

That  tlie  method  of  numerical  notation  employed  by  b 
Gerbert  was  identical  with  that  of  our  modem  era,  and  that,  ■■' 
at  the  same  time,  his  knowledge  was  not  derived  from  the  *^ 
SaraceoB,  would  appear  to  be  equally  well  aacertained  huAe. 
The  dislike  and  dread  with  which  the  Mahometan  race  had 
been  regarded  ever  since  the  Crescent  and  the  Cross  con- 
tended for  the  possession  of  France  at  Poitiers,  and  tho 
consequent  rarity  of  their  intercourse  with  Christian  Europe', 
the  entire  absence  of  Arabic  words  and  of  everything 
suggestive  of  Arabic  inBuences  in  his  writings,  render  it  in 
the  highest  degree  improbable  that  Gerbert  was  indebted 
to  such  sources  for  his  method.  That  method,  M.  Olleris 
considers,  may  have  very  well  been  derived  from  those 
writers  whom  wo  have  already  passed  under  review  as 
constituting  the  manuals  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  especially 
to  the  one  by  whose  name,  as  the  '  new  Boethius,'  Gerbert 
was  known  among  his   admiring  contemporaries'.     Under 


>  M.  Guizot  has  pointed  out  the 
remsrkable  controal  obeervable  in  the 
writings  of  the  chromcUra  of  the  first 
Craaadcs.  such  as  Albert  d'AJse, 
Bobert  le  Moine,  and  RaymoDd 
d'Agiles,  and  the  ocoounts  of  the 
later  Cmsades,  beloDgmg  to  the  later 
half  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
ceDtnrics,  by  Guillaanie  de  Tjr  and 
Jaqnes  de  Vitry.  By  the  former  the 
.|'  Maihomelans  are  spoken  of  only  with 
[  contempt  and  hatred,  the  hatred  and 
contempt  of  ignorance ;  in  the  writings 
of  the  later  chrooielera  they  oie  no 
longer  regarded  as  nioneters;  it  is 
evident  that  a  certain  amoont  of  in- 
teiconrse  had  been  going  on  between 
"Vie  Chiiitian  and  the  Su^cen,  and  a 
corresponding  amonnt  of  sympathy 
has  been  developed;  the  montls  of 
the  latter  are  even  favoorably  con- 
trasted with  those  of  the  countrymen 
of  the  writers.  See  Hiil.  dt  la  Civili- 
Mti'oR  «n  Europe,  iii  304—207. 

•  With   respect  to  the  period   of 
Oerbert'B  residence  at  Barcelona,  H. 


OUetia  saya : — '  Le   voile  6pu»  qui 

naiseances  tort  eug^^i  en  math^- 
matiques  et  en  astrononue,penlurent, 
pi^a  d'nn  si^cle  apr£s  ss  mort,  k 
Bensson,  cardinal  de  I'antipape  Oni. 
bert,  ennemi  de  Saint-Sidge,  de  pro- 
filer d'un  mot  ^bapp£  i.  I'lgnorance 
d'AdhCmar  de  Chabonais,  qui  avait 
dit  qne  Gerbert  £tait  a]li  i  Cordone, 
pour  affirmer  qu'il  arait  appria  dans 
cette  ville  leg  sciences  et  la  mogie. 
DeB  moinea  credules,  avides  da  mer- 
veilleux  occreditirent  ces  broits.  j 
HJoutf  rent  de  nouvelles  fsbles,  que  le 
moyen  age  accueiUit  aans  h^ter,  lea 
temps  modemea  en  ont  admis  uno 
partie.  Uais  ces  r^its  menaoDgera 
ne  sont-ilB  pas  complStement  rdfntja 
par  la  faveur  constante  dout  Gerbert 
a  joui  auprSs  des  ^r&ines  et  dea 
princes  chrdtiens  du  X'  aiScle,  par 
le  silence  absoln  de  tons  Bee  oontem- 
porains,  dont  quelquesons  I'ont  at- 
taqud  aveo  achomement,  par  son 
aveu  indirect  qn'il  ne  ooniprend  paa 


41 


GERBERT. 


TNTRo-  the  patronage  of  the  princes  of  the  house  of  Saxe,  Gerbert 
N— .y^-l-*  taught  with  great  success  at  Rheims,  and  the  account  given 
by  Richerus  of  the  system  he  employed  and  the  authors 
upon  whom  he  commented,  is  deserving  of  quotation ;  it 
must  however  be  observed,  that  such  instruction,  at  this 
period,  can  only  be  regarded,  in  its  thoroughness  and  extent, 
HistoMfaing  as  of  an  entirely  exceptional  character: — Dialecticam  erqo 
ordine  librorum  percurrens,  dibicidis  sententiarum  verbis 
enodavit.  Imprimis  enim  Porphirii  ysagogas,  id  est  intro- 
dwotiones  secundum  Victorini  rhetoris  translationem,  inde 
etiam  easdem  secundum  Mardium^  explanavit;  caihegoriarumy 
id  est  prcedicamentorum  librum  Aristotelis  consequenter  enu- 
cleans.  Peri  ermeiiias  vero,  id  est  de  interpretatione  librum, 
cujus  laboris  sit,  aptissims  mxmstravit  Inde  etiam  topica,  id 
est  argumentarum  sedes,  a  Tullio  de  Oreco  in  Latinum 
translatd*,  et  a  Manlio  consule  sex  commentariorum  libris 
diluddata,  suis  auditoribus  intimavit.  Nee  non  et  qu>atvor 
de  topicis  differentiis  libros,  de  sillogismis  cathegoricis  duos, 
de  ypotheticis  tres,  difinitionumque  librum  unum,  divisionum 
asque  unum,  utiliter  legit  et  expressit  Post  quorum  laborem, 
cum  ad  rhetoricam  suos  provehere  vellet,  id  sibi  suspectum 
erat,  quod  sine  locutionum  modis,  qui  in  poetis  discendi  sunt^ 
ad  oratoriam  arteni  ante  perveniri  non  queat  Poetas  igitur 
adhibuit,  quibus  assuescendos  arbitrabatur.  Legit  itaque  a/o 
docuit  Maronem  et  Statium  Terentiumque  poetcts,  Juvenalem 
quoque  ac  Persium  Horatium/jue  satiricos,  Lucanum  etiam 
historiographum,  Quibus  assuefactos,  locutionumque  modis 
compositos,  ad  rhetoricam  transduxit*. 


Tarabe?  II  faut  done  reconnattre 
que  Gerbert  n*a  yisit^  ni  Seville  ni 
Cordoue,  que  sea  mattres  ^taient 
Chretiens,  que  les  anteors  places  en- 
ire  ses  mains  ^taient  ceux  que  Ton 
^tudiait  en  France  aTantleegnerreB  ci- 
Tile8,entre  autres  le  rh^teurVictorinufi, 
Martianos  Capella,  et  surtont  Bo^ce, 
dont  Cassiodore  fait  un  si  pompeux 
^loge.  C'est  chez  loi  qa*il  ptiisa  ces 
notions  scientifiqaes  tant  admires  par 
le  XI'  sidcle,  qui  lui  donna  les  ti^s 
flatteurs  de  philosophe,  de  savant, 
de  nonyeau  Bodoe.*  OUeris,  Vie  de 
Gerbert,  p.  2L 


^  *Manlia8*is,  of  conrse,  Boethinsj 
see  infra^  pp.  51 — 53.  It  woold 
scarcely  be  necessary  to  make  this 
observation  had  not  Hook  in  his 
Hiftoire  du  Pape  Sylvetter  II, 
traduitepar  M.  VAbbi  J.  M,  Axinger, 
supposed  a  totally  different  person  to 
be  designated. 

'  M.  Olleris  correctly  observes, 
*  Richer  se  trompe  quand  11  les  prend 
pour  une  traduction.* 

'  Bicheri  (E.)  UUtoriarum  Quatwtr 
Libri,  Lib.  in  o.  46  Ss  47.  Beims, 
1S55. 


nnCCBRENCE  OF  THE  OLD.PAJJIC.  45 

Pope  Gerbert  lived  to  see  the   commencement  of  the    '!*!•">- 
eleventh  century  and  the  mauguration  of  wnat  may  fairly  •— v— ' 
be  regarded  aa  a  less  gloomy  period,  but  the  years  which  thV^HtJ' 
immediately  followed  on  the  thousandth  Christian  year  were  ISll^!'"^ 
clouded   by   a  recurrence  of  that  same  terrible  foreboding 
which  occupied  our  attention   in  the   earlier  part  of  our 
enquiry.     The  Millennium  was  drawing  to  its  close ;  and  the 
monks,  as  they  turned  with  trembling  hand  the  mystic  pi^ 
of  the  Apocalypse,  declared  that  they  could  only  interpret 
the   solemn  prediction   which   marks   the  opening  of   the 
twentieth  chapter,  into  an  announcement  that  the  end  of 
all  things  must  now  be  looked  for.     A  panic  not  less  severe  Puk 
than  that  of  the  age  of  Jerome  or  of  Gregory  seized  upon  <j^£p 
men's  minda     The  land  was  left  untilled ;   the  pursuits  of 
buwness  and  pleasure  were  alike  disregarded ;  the  churches 
were  thronged  by  terrified  suppliants  seeking  to  avert  the 
Divine   wrath.      The    paroxysm    subsided   indeed    a;j    the  i-KiDwhich 
seasons  revolved  with  their  accustomed  regularity,  but  the  impMrtm 
clergy  skilfully  converted  the  predominant  feeling  into  chan-  '^^y  ** 
nels  that  well  subserved  the  interests  of  the  Church.     The 
ordinary  preamble  to  deeds  of  gift  of  this  period, — Mundi 
appropinquante    temiino,  —  ItUonante   jam   per    universum 
globum  evangelica  tuba, — attests   the   widespread   character 
and  the  reahty  of  the  conviction ;  and  from  this  time  we 
may  date  the  commencement   of  that  great  architectural 
movement  which  subsequently  reared  in  the  proudest  cities 
of  Europe  the  monuments  of  Christian  art  and  of  Christian 
self-devotion. 

In  no  subsequent  age  do  we  find  this  behef,  though  ever  TiHuttiip*- 
and  anon  recurrent,  operating  with  an  equal  power.     The  ^^^^ 
theory  has  been  revived  by  the  student  of  prophecy  and  ^^S,^ 
by  the  charlatan,  but  it  has  never  since  so  far  attracted  ^li^*^ 
popular  attention  as  to  paralyse  the  activities  of  a  nation 
and  to  divert  multitudes  from  the  ordinary  avocations  of  life. 
It  is  only  indeed  in  facts  like  these  that  we  xeaJise  how 
closely  the  avowed  belief  of  those  ages  was  interwoven  with 
their  action,  and,  when  we  find  conviction  thus  potent  to 
restrain  the  ardour  of  the  warrior  and  to  arrest  the  indu.4try 


40  FIXIS   MUNDI. 

iNTBo-    of  tbe  peasant,  we  beffin  in  some  measure  to  compreLend 

•  ^^y— l'"  how  great  must  have  been  its  power  in  the  cloister  where  it 

Jyj^tonw   waa  bom.     We  begin  to  discern  how  all  education,  conceived 

JJJ5Jj«^jjf°*and  directed  as  it  was  by  those  who  upheld  and  inculcated 

JJ2****'***  this  belief,  must  necessarily  have  reflected  its  influence ;  and 

conceding,  as  we  well  may,  that  in  no  other  period  in  the 

known  history  of  our  race  have  events  more  emphatically 

seemed  to  favour  the  construction  thus  placed  upon  them, 

we  may  claim  that  this  conviction  carried  with  it  something 

to  justify  as  well  as  to  explain  the  narrow  culture  of  those 

times.     And  further,  if  we  add  to  this  consideration  the 

recollection  how  imperfect  was  the  possession  then  retained 

of  the  literature  of  antiquity,  the  indifference  with  which 

that   literature    was    regarded    by  the  majority,   and    the 

difficulties  under  which  it  was  studied  and  transmitted,  it 

may  perhaps  occur  to  us  that  the  censure  and  the  sarcasm 

so  often  directed  against  these  ages,  might  well  give  place 

to  something  more  of  reverence  and  gratitude  towards  the 

heroic  few  who  tended  the  lamp  amid  the  darkness  and  the 

storm*. 

BerenMT,  The  eleventh  century  saw  the  revival  of  the  controversy 

Aiosi        which  Paschasius  had  initiated.      In  contravention  of  the 

extreme    theory    which    he    had    supported,    Berengar,   an 

archdeacon  of  Tours  and  head  of  the  great  school  founded 

by  Charlemagne  which  still  adorned  that  city,  maintained 

the  entirely  opposed  view  which  regarded  the  Lord's  Supper 

^  It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  dtre  fatale  eut  sonn^  sans  catastrophe, 

so  well-informed    a    writer    as    Mr  les  hommes,  animds  d'une  ardeur  in- 

Lecky,  in  his  able  sketch  of  the  be-  accoutnm^e,    sembl^rent     f^pr^cier 

lief  of  these  centuries  (see  Uist.  of  davantage  lo  bienfait  de  Texistence. 

Rationalism,  Vol.  i)  should  have  left  Do  toutes  parts  les  dcoles  sortireut 

this    theory    almost   altogether  un-  de    Icur    long    assoupissement ;    on 

noticed.    M.  Digot,   Rechcrches  tur  so  mit  k  roconstruire  les  dglises  et 

les  EcoUs  EpUcopales  et  Monast.  de  J^s  monastOres   en  ruine,   enfin  les 

la  province  de  Trh-es,  hm  indeed  in-  le^^^s  «*  1^«  ^^^  pnrent  subitement 

clined  to  thp  opinion  that  its  influ-  «»  essor  nouveau.*  Les  Ecoles  Epii- 

ence  has  been  exaggerated,  but  L6on  copales,  etc.  p.  U6.     M.  OUeris  has 

Maitre  quotes   satisfactory  evidence  forcibly  characterised  the  sentiment 

■       to  show  that  the  reconstruction  of  before     prevalent :  — '  Personne    ne 

the    ruined    churches    and    monas-  songeait  H  s'iustruire.     A  quoi  bon 

teries  in  France  was  not  attempted  cultiver  son  esprit  ?    Pourquoi  tran- 

antU   after   the  year   1000;    of  the  scriro  des  livres   qui  allaient  p^rir 

change  that  then  took  place  he  thus  d:ms  la  conflagration    uuiverselle  ?* 

writes:  'Lorsque  I'heure  qui  devait  Vie  de  Gerbert,  jp.  21, 


BEREXGAR  OF  TOURS.  4" 

fts  purely  emLlematical,     This  iDterpretatioD  was  as  old  as    intro- 
Clemeos  and  Origen,  but  ttie  principle  whicli  Berengar  con-  "— v— ' 
currenUy  asserted  startled  and  aroused  the  Church.     While  ^^^^^' 
familiar   with  the  writioga  of  the  Fathers,  for  he  was  one  "^  """""■ 
of  the  most  learned  men  of  his  time,  he  refused  implicit 
deference  to  their  authority,  and  declared'that  in  the  search 
for  truth  reason  must  be  the  guide.    The  sacred  writings 
themselves  attested,  he  urged,  that  the  highest  of  all  truth 
had  been  inculcated  by  the  Divine   Master  in  a  form  that 
recognised  this  fuudamental  law.     Such  was  the  commence- 
ment of  a  fresh  controversy  which,  though  familiar  to  modem 
eaFS,  seemed  strange  and  portentous  to  the  eleventh  century.  iMofnae. 
The   position  which   Berengar   was   led   finally   to  assume  il  imo.  ' 
aroused  a  host  of  anti^onists.     Foremost  among  them  was 
I^nfranc,  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  an  ecclesiastic  who 
having  once  contemplated  the  profession  of  the  jurist,  and 
studied  the  ciWl  law  at  Bologna,  had  afterwards  taken  upon 
himself  the  religious  hfe  and  uncompromisingly  espoused  its 
most   rigid   interpretation.     From    the   vantage   ground  of 
learning  superior  evea  to  that  of  Berengar,  he  assailed  in 
language  of  stem  rebuke  the  assumptions  of  the  latter.     The  n>  nuiniaiiii 
right  foith,  he  maintained,  did  not  exhaust  itself  in  efforts  ^^^^ 
to  reconcile  to  the  understanding  mysteries  above   human  '™^- 
eom prehension,  and  of  these  was  that  of  the  Real  Presence. 
'God   forbid,'  he  exclaimed,   'that  I  should  rely  rather  on 
human  reasoning  than  on  the  trath  and  the  authority  of  the 
holy  Fathers.'     Ne  videar  magis  arte  quam  veritate  sancfo- 
Tumque  Patrum  auctoritate  eoiijidere'.     In  the  sarcasm  here 
implied  in  the  use  of  arte  in  its  technical  sense,  we  are 
reminded  of  that  prevalent  conception  of  proof,  as  essentially 
a  dialectical  achievement  in  compliance  with  certain  rules, 
which  perhaps  more  than  anything  else  fettered  the  spirit  of 
enquiry  in  this  age.     A  wide  interval  had  been  traversed 

'  Dt  Sa^a  Cana,  e.  7.    Tlie  reply  oom  Menndnm  ratitmem  est  foctna 

of  BereagBT  in  the  loDg  lost  trea'  ftd  imogiaem  Dei.  Baom  hoDoiem  ro- 

tiw  dinvovered  by  Leaaing  is  worthy  linqajt,  nee  potest  ronorari  de  die  in 

of  Doi^:  'Maiimi  plane   oordia  eat,  diem  ad  imagiDem  Dei.'    Adr,  Lau- 

per  omnia  ad  dUlecticam  confugeie,  fnuie,   Lib.   Potteriar,   ed.  ViBclier, 

qnia  eonfof^re  ad  earn  ad  iBtionem  1634,  p.  105. 
Mt  axttagae,  quo  qui  son  oonfagit. 


48  LAN FRANC    AND    BERENGAR. 

• 

TNTRO-    since  the  time  when  Carneades  and  the  disciples  of  the  Later 
"-"V—'  Academy  proposed  no  longer  to  aspire  to  the  possession  of 
JSUSgj'J^  positive  or  absolute  truth,  but  to  rest  contented  in  the  hope 
^JSduwS^by  that  they  had  attained  to  tha  probable.     It  was  one  of  the 
riT«  aS^u^  effects,  and   undoubtedly   a  very   pernicious  effect,  of  the 
^-otic         almost  exclusive  study  of  the  Categories,  that  the  men  of  this 
time  were  beginning  to  imagine  that  neither  knowledge  nor 
faith  was  of  any  assured  value  or  certainty  unless  reducible 
to  formal  logical  demonstration  ;  not  merely  that  conformity 
was  deemed  essential  to  those  laws  of  thought  of  which  the 
syllogism  is  the  embodiment,  but  that  all  belief  was  held  to 
be  susceptible  of  proof  in  a  series  of  concatenated  propositions 
like  a  theorem  in  geometry.     It  was  consequently  only  in 
compliance  with  the  fashion  of  his  time  that  Berengar  thus 
moulded  the   form   of  his   first  treatise,  and  incurred  the 
ridicule  of  Lanfranc  for  his  pedantry.     In  method  he  fol- 
lowed, while  in  argument  he  challenged,  the  traditions  he 
had  inherited. 

The  spirit  in  which  Lanfranc  sought  to  defend  the  oppo- 
site interpretation  indicates  no  advance  upon  the  conventional 
treatment;  and  the  whole  tenor  of  his  argument  reveals 
rather  the  ecclesiastic  alarmed  for  the  authority  of  his  order 
than  the  dispassionate  enquirer  after  truth.  It  must,  how- 
JlSSiitiSof  ®^^^'  ^®  admitted  that  the  general  tone  of  Berengar's  treatise 
Berengw.  ^^g  iU-calculated  to  disarm  hostility.  If  his  mental  charac- 
teristics may  be  inferred  from  thence,  we  should  conclude 
that  he  was  one  in  whom  the  purely  logical  faculty  over- 
whelmed and  silenced  his  emotional  nature;  one  unable  to 
'  comprehend  that  union  of  faith  and  reason  which  commends 
itself  to  those  in  whom  the  religious  sentiment  maintains 
its  power.'  The  mind  of  the  archbishop  to  some  extent 
resembled  that  of  the  archdeacon.  Then  came  the  inevitable 
collision.  The  one  sternly  asserting  the  claims  of  authority; 
the  other  contemptuously  demonstrating  the  rigid  conclusions 
of  logic.  At  first  it  seemed  that  the  former  would  secure 
an  easy  triumph.  Berengar,  to  save  his  life,  capitulated  at 
the  summons  of  the  second  Lateran  Council,  and  formally 
recanted  his  opinions ;  but,  in  a  short  time,  he  had  revoked 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  SCHOLASTIC  ^PHILOSOPHY. 


49 


his  recantation,  and  again  betaking  himself  to  those  weapons  '^™5*^ 
of  logic  which  he  wielded  with  such  remarkable  adroitness,  ^— /^ 
successfully  parried  the  attacks  of  his  opponents.  The 
decisions  of  three  successive  Councils  vainly  denounced 
his  tenets.  Protected  by  the  powerful  arm  of  Hildebrand, 
the  archdeacon  of  Angers  died  in  full  possession  of  his 
honours,  unsilanced  and  unconvinced.  The  following  year 
died  Lanfranc,  and  the  mitre  of  his  episcopacy  descended  to 
his  pupil  Anselm. 

But  before  Anselm  succeeded  to  the  see  of  Canterbury,  AnMim. 
another  controversy  had  arisen,  which  unmistakably  attested  d.  iiobi 
how  the  chord  somewhat  roughly  touched  by  Berengar  had 
found  response  in  the  growing  thoughtfulness  of  the  time. 
Speculations  once  confined  to  solitary  thinkers  were  now 
beginning  to  be  heard  in  the  schools  and  to  be  discussed  in 
the  cloister.  It  was  at  the  request  of  his. fellow  monks,  as 
Anselm  himself  tells  U8\  that  he  entered  upon  those  subtle 
enquiries  wherein  we  find  the  echo  of  Augustine's  finest 
thought,  and  the  anticipation  of  Descartes.     But  it  'is  rather  ^ 

as  participant  in  the  controversy  which  would  appear  to 
mark  the  true  commencement  of  the  scholastic  era',  that 
this  illustrious  thinker  claims  our  attention,  and  here,  before 
we  become  involved  in  the  great  metaphysical  dispute,  it 


^  Prafatio  ad  Monologion, 
*  'It  may  appear  at  first  singnlar 
that  the  thou^t  which  suggested  it- 
self to  the  mind  of  a  monk  at  Beo 
■honld  stiU  be  the  problem  of  meta- 
physioU  theology  ;jmd  theology  must, 
when  foUowed  out,  become  metaphy- 
sieal;  metaphysics  must  become  theo- 
logical.  This  same  thought  seems, 
with  no  knowledge  of  its  medisval  ori- 
gin, to  have  forced  itself  on  Descartes, 
was  reasserted  by  Leibnitz,  if  not  re- 
jected was  tihon^t  insufficient  by 
Kant,  revived  in  another  form  by 
8ohelling  and  Hegel;  latterly  has 
been  discussed  with  Fingular  fulness 
and  ingenuity  by  M.  de  B^musat. 
Yet  will  it  less  surprise  the  more 
profoundly  reflective,  who  cannot  but 
perceive  how  soon  and  how  inevitably 
the  mind  arrives   at   the  verge  of 


human  thought.;  how  it  cannot  but 
encounter  this  same  question,  which 
in  .another  form  divided  in  eitlunr 
avowed  or  unconscious  antagonism, 
Plato  and  Aristotle,  Anselm  and  his 
opponents,  (for  opponents  he  had  of 
no  common  subtlety),  Leibnitz  and 
Locke;  which  Kant  failed  to  reconcile; 
which  his  followers  have  perhaps 
bewildered  by  a  new  and  intricato 
phraseology  more  than  elucidated; 
which  modem  eclecticism  harmmiiseR 
rather  in  seeming  than  in  reality;  the 
question  of  questions;  our  primary, 
elemental,  it  may  be  innate  or  in- 
stinctive, or  aoquirod  and  traditional, 
idea,  conception,  notion,  conviction 
of  Goi),  of  the  Immaterial,  the  Eter- 
nal, the  Infinite.*  Milman,  Hitt.  Lat, 
Christianitt/f  Bk.  vui  c.  5. 


50 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  SCHOLASTIC  PHILOSOPHY. 


INTRO-    becomes  necessary  to  turn  aside  awhile  to  examine  briefly  a 
preliminary  and  not  unimportant  question. 


IMdamof 
Goiuin  with 


It  was  originally  asserted  by  Cousin,  and  his  dictum  has 
SS£*om£*  been  repeatedly^  quoted,  that  the  scholastic  philosophy  had 
pwSlShy.  its  origin  in  a  sentence  from  the  Isagoge  of  Porphyry  as 
interpreted  by  Boethius.  '  Scholasticism/  he  says, '  was  bom 
at  Paris  and  there  it  died ;  a  sentence  from  Poi-phyry, — a 
single  ray  from  the  literature  of  the  ancient  world, — called 
it  into  being;  the  same  literature,  which  when  more  com* 
pletely  revealed,  extinguished  it\'  This  statement,  startling 
though  it  may  appear,  is  probably  substantially  correct;  it 
is  certainly  not  conceived  by  Cousin  in  any  contemptuous 
spirit;  but  it  has  been  insisted  on  by  a  later  writer  in 
another  tone,  and  apparently  under  considerable  misappre- 
hension with  respect  to  its  real  import;  and  a  fact  which 
simply  points  to.  the  scantiness  of  the  sources  whence  the 
earlier  schoolmen  derived  their  inspiration,  htis  been  wrested 
into  fresh  proof  of  their  proneness  to  convert  a  purely  verbal 
^  or  grammatical  distinction  into  a  lengthened  controversy. 

It  may  accordingly  be  worth  while  here  to  endeavour  to 
ascertain,  in  what  sense  influences  which  so  long  controlled 
the  whole  course  of  education  and  learning  can  with  accuracy 
be  referred  to  so  narrow  and  apparently  inadequate  a  source. 
Ti»Mj^  The  passage  in  Porphyry,  which  is  nothing  more  than  a 
Kiphyry.  passing  glance  at  a  question  familiar  to  his  age  but  not 
admitting  of  discussion  in  an  introduction  to  a  treatise  on 
logic  and  grammar,  is  to  the  following  effect.  Having 
premised  that  he  must  equally  avoid  questions  of  grave 
importance  and  those  of  a  trifling  character,  he  goes  on  to 
say: — 'Thus,   with  respect  to  genera  and  species,  whether 


^  The  tersenosB  of  the  French  is 
not  easily  preserved: — un  rayon  de- 
robi  h  V antiquity  la  produisit;  V an- 
tiquity  tout   entihre   Vftouffa *I1 

faut  snpposer/  he  adds,  'le  monde 
anoien  d^truit,  la  philosophic  ancieu- 
ne  ensevelie  aveo  la  ciTiUsation  dont 
elle  faisait  partie,  et  la  longae  et 
brillante  poMmiqae  qui  avait  fait  la 
yie  mdme  de  oette  philosophie,  r^- 
duite  k  la  phrase  de  Porphyre  dans 
la  tradaotion  latine  de  Boeee.    C*est 


snr  cetto  phrase  et  antour  d*elle  qne 
va  pen  tl  pen  se  reformer  nne  philo- 
Sophie  nouvcllo.  Les  commencements 
de  cette  philosophie  seront  Men 
faibles,  il  est  vrai,  et  se  ressentiront 
de  la  profonde  barbarie  dn  temps; 
mnis  une  fois  uC'e,  la  puissance  de 
Tdtemal  probleme  la  d^veloppera  et 
lui  ouvrira  une  carri^re  immense.' 
Fragments  PhilosophiqufSy  Abilard, 
pp.  82,  88,  89.   cd.  1810. 


BOETHIUS  ON  PORPHYRY. 


51 


they  have  a  substantial   existence   or   exist  only  as  mere    nrmo- 
concepts  of  the  intellect, — whether,  supposing  them  to  have 
a  substantial  existence,  they  are  material  or  immaterial, — 
and  again   whether   they   exist  independently   of   sensible 
objects  or  in  them  and  as  part  of  them, — I  shall  refrain  from 
enquiring.     For  this  is  a  question  of  the  greatest  profundity 
and  demanding  lengthened  investigation^!     It  is  to  be  noted 
that  of  this  passage  two  translations  were  familiar  to   the 
scholars  of  the  Middle  Ages :  the  first  that  in  the  translation 
of  Porphyry  by  Victorinus,  to  which  Boethius  appended  a 
commentary  in  the  form  of  a  dialogue ;  the  second  that  in  -[J®^  ^^  ^^ 
the  translation  made  by  Boethius  himself  and  accompanied  JSlJJJJhlh? 
by  a  second  and  fuller  commentary,  also  from  his  pen.     In  SS^Siim-' 
the  interval  between  the  composition  of  these  two  commen- 
taries it  is  evident,  as  Cousin  has  veiy  clearly  pointed  out, 
that  the  views  of  Boethius  had   undergone  an  important 
change.     In  the  first  he  insists  upon  an  ultra-Bealistic  in- 
terpretation,   and    would    seem    to    have    misapprehended 
Porphyry's  meaning ;  in  the  second,  he  inclines  to  a  Nomi- 
nalistic  view,  and  pronounces  that  genus  and  species  have 
no  objective  existence*.     Our  concern  however  is  with  two 
impoi-tant  facts  which  appear  beyond  dispute: — first,   that 
the  passage  in  Porphyry  was  known  to  the  Middle  Ages 
through  the  medium  of  two  translations;  secondly,  that  in 
both  his  commentaries  Boethius  recognises  the  question  in- 
volved as  one  of  primaiy  importance*.     Of  this  the  following  {J^^^Jf 
passages  are  conclusive  evidence :  '  Hsec  se  igitur  Porphyrins  I^„^"*on 
breviter  mediocriterque  promittit  exponere.     Non  enim  in-  uoV™  v!*' 
troductionis  vice  fungeretur,  si  ea  nobis  a  pnmordio  tundaret, 
ad  quae  nobis  haec  tam  clara  introductio  prseparatur.     Servat 


^  AvWxa  x€fA  y€P(2p  re  Kcd  eldCoPf  rb 
lih  €tT€  v^ariiKey  etre  Koi  iv  ti6yais 
^tXaif  ixarolaii  icetrai,  etre  Kal  vipfOTtf- 
Kira  atafULrd  icTiv  17  dtrb^/Aara,  naX 
x6rtpop  xwpicrd  fj  4p  rots  alaOriroit 
Ktd  Tfpl  ravra  v^trrura  irapaiTi^cofjiai 
Xiytip'  /3eU?UTori7t  06 arjt  rfjs  TOiavTrjt 
wpayfianlaSy  Kal  oXXijs  ficlj^opos  deo- 
fUvift  €^€rdff€on. 

*  CoiiBin,  Froffments  PhiUsophi- 
que$f  Philosophie  Schol<iftique^  Ab€- 


lard,  pp.  92,  93.  ed.  1840.  Dean 
Hansel  is  of  opinion  that  Boe- 
tliius  in  his  second  commentary  is  to 
be  regarded  as  a  conceptaalist,  see 
Artis  Logicce  Rudimenta,  Appendix, 
p.  160. 

3  Cousin's  remark  that  Boethius 
n" avail  pas  Vair  d'y  attacher  um 
grande  importance^  appears  to  be  in 
no  way  warranted  by  the  text  of 
Boethius  himself. 

4—2 


52 


ORIGIN  OP  THE  SCHOLASTIC  PHILOSOPHY. 


TNTRO. 
DUCTION. 


Critidtmof 
Hoethltuin 
hbCom- 
meoUury  on 
his  own 
TWiion* 


Boathhuu 

Interpreted 

bjOonsin. 


igitur  introductionis  modum  doctissima  parcitas  disputandi 
ut  iugrcdientium  viain  ad  obscurissimas  rerum  caligines 
aliquo  quasi  doctrinae  suae  lumine  temperaret  Dicit  enim 
apud  antiquos  cUta  et  magnifica  quasstione  disserta,  quae  ipse 
nunc  parce  breviterque  composuit.  Quid  autem  de  his  a 
priscis  philosophias  tractatoribus  dissertum  sit,  breviter  ipse 
tangit  et  praeterit.  Turn  Fabius : — Quid  illud,  inquit,  est  ?  Et 
ego : — Hoc,  inquam,  quod  ait  se  omnino  praetennittere  genera 
ipsa  et  species,  utrum  vere  subsistant,  an  intellectu  solo  et 
mente  teneantur,  an  corporalia  ista  sint  an  incorporalia :  et 
utrum  separata,  an  ipsis  sensibilibus  juncta.  De  his  sese 
quoniam  alta  esset  disputatio,  tacere  promisit:  nos  autem 
adhibito  moderationis  freno,  mediocriter  unumquodque  tan- 
gamus\' 

The  foregoing  passage  is  from  the  first  Dialogue  on  the 
translation  by  Victorinus :  the  following  are  from  the  Com- 
mentary by  Boethius  on  his  own  translation : — '  Sunt  autem 
quaestiones,  quae  sese  reticere  promittit  et  perutiles;  et 
secretae,  et  temptataB  quidem  a  doctis  viris  nee  a  pluribus 
dissolutae V 

'Ipsa  enim  genera  et  species  subsistunt  quidem  aliquo 
modo,  intelliguntur  vero  alio  modo  et  sunt  incorporalia,  sed 
sensibilibus  juncta  subsistimt  insensibilibus.  Intelliguntur 
vero  praeter  corpora,  ut  per  semetipsa  subsistentia,  ac  non 
in  aliis  esse  suum  habentia.  Sed  Plato  genera  et  species 
caeteraque  non  modo  intelligi  universalia,  verum  etiam  esse 
atque  praeter  corpora  subsistere  putat:  Aristoteles  vero 
intelligi  quidem  incorporalia  atque  universalia,  sed  subsistere 
insensibilibus  putat,  quorum  dijudicare  sententias  aptum 
esse  non  duxi.  Altioris  enim  est  philosophise,  idcirco  vero 
studiosius  Aristotelis  sententiam  exsecuti  sumus,  non  quod 
eam  maxime  probaremus,  sed  quod  hie  liber  ad  Praedicamenta 
conscriptus  est,  quorum  Aristotelis  auctor  est^' 

The  view  taken  by  Boethius  of  that  which  he  thus  con- 
ceived to  be  the  Aristotelian  theory  respecting  Universals, 


*  Boctliiufl,  Dialogus  i.  ed.  Basil.      Porphyrium  a  se  Translatunit  Lib.  i 
pp.  7  and  8.  ed.  Basil,  p.  64. 

'  Boetbiuu,     ComrMntariorum    in  ^  Ibid.  p.  56. 


BOETHIUS  ON  PORPHYRY.  53 

is  clearly  analysed  by  Cousin: — 'The  final  conclusion  of  intro- 
Boethius,'  says  this  writer,  *  upon  the  three  questions  contained 
in  the  sentence  of  Porphyry,  is  (i)  that  in  one  sense  genera 
and  species  may  be  regarded  os  possessing  an  independent 
existence,  though  not  in  another;  (2)  that  they  are  them- 
selves incorporeal  but  exist  only  in  corporeal  objects  of  sense; 
(3)  that  though  they  have  no  real  existence  save  in  the 
individual  and  sensible  object,  they  may  be  conceived,  apart 
from  the  sensible  and  particular,  as  incorporeal  and  self- 
subsistent.  According  to  Plato,  says  Boethius,  genera,  species, 
and  universals,  exist  not  only  as  concepts  of  the  intellect,  but 
independently  of  sensible  objects  and  abstracted  from  them ; 
according  to  Aristotle,  they  have  no  real  existence  save  in 
sensible  objects  and  are  imiversal  and  immaterial  only  as 
apprehended  by  the  mind.  It  remains  but  to  add  that 
Boethius  does  not  pretend  to  decide  between  the  two ;  the 
decision  of  the  controversy  belongs  to  a  higher  branch  of 
philosophy.  If  he  has  given  us  the  Aristotelian  conclusion, 
it  is  not  because  he  approves  it  rather  than  that  of  Plato,  but 
because  the  treatise  on  which  he  is  commenting  is  an  intro- 
duction to  the  Categories, — the  work  of  Aristotle  himself. 
From  this  statement,  which  is  scrupulously  accurate,  it  is 
evident  that  if  Boethius  in  his  first  commentary  would  seem 
to  favour  without  reservation  and  with  but  'Uttle  judgement 
the  Platonic  theory ;  in  the  second,  without  a  single  opinion 
upon  the  question  of  Universals  that  can  be  called  his  own, 
but  solely  in  his  capacity  as  translator  and  commentator  on 
Aristotle, — he  adopts  the  Peripatetic  theory,  enunciates  it 
with  equal  lucidity,  follows  it  out  into  considerable  detail, 
devoting  but  a  single  line  to  the  theory  of  Plato;  and  it 
was  thus  that,  of  the  two  great  schools  which  had  divjded 
antiquity,  one  only,  that  of  Aristotle,  was  to  any  extent 
known,  offering  indeed  with  respect  to  the  problem  of 
Porphyry  a  doctrine  not  altogether  satisfactoiy,  but  at  least 
clear  and  well  defined..  Add  to  this  that  the  Introduction 
by  Porphyry  and  the  two  works  of  Aristotle  translated  by 
Boethius,  are  works  on  logic  and  grammar ;  that  these  only 
were  studied  and  commented  on,  and  this  always  in  conformity 


54 


ORIGIN   OF  THE  SCHOLASTIC  PHILOSOPHY. 


INTRO-    with  Boetliius;   and  it  is  evident  that  from  this   exclusive 
^-^v— ^   study  there  coiud  scarcely  result  anything  but  tendencies 
and  intellectual  habits  entuely  opposed  to  realism  *.' 

It  will   scarcely  be  deemed   necessary   that  we   should 

produce  further  evidence  to  shew — that  not  simply  were  the 

main  features  of  the  Realistic  controversy  carefully  preserved 

in  the  pages  of  the  best  known  author  of  the  earlier  Middle 

Ages,  but  that  the  Aristotelian   refutation   was   especially 

familiar  to  the  learned  of  those  times;  and  it  is  further  to 

TbegioMof  be  observed  that  the  gloss  of  Rabanus  Maurus  quoted  by 

Maurus       Mr  Lcwcs   iu  liis  History   of  Philosophy,  and   erroneously 

thecoutro-    attributed  by   him  to   Boethius,   constitutes  not   the   locus 

iWrMii    classicuSy  as  he  has  inferred,  for  the  origin  of  the  controversy, 

tothenffith   but  is  rather  evidence  that  the  controversy  was  suJBBciently 

**°     *       familiar  to  the  age  in  which  Rabanus  wrote  to  permit  him 

to  indicate  it  by  nothing  more   than   a  passing   allusion*. 

Cousin,  indeed,  has  ventured  to  sunnise  that,  inasmuch  as 

Rabanus   was  a  pupil  of  Alcuin  at  Tours  and   afterwards 

himself  head  of  the  school  founded  by  Charlemagne  at  Fulda, 

this  gloss  may  possibly  represent  the  dialectical  teaching  of 

those  schools.     However  this  may  be,  it  is  suflSciently  certain 

that  the  great  dispute  respecting  Universals  did  not  remain 

fossilised  in  three  words  from  the  time  of  Boethius  to  that  of 

Roscellinus,  but  that  it  was  to  a  certain  extent  familiar  to 

the  students  of  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  and  that  when 

the  daring  upholder  of  ultra-Nominalism  came  forward  to 


*  Coasin,  Fragmentt  Philosophi- 
qiie«,  Abilard,  pp.  100—102.  The 
argaments  which  Boethius  brings  for- 
ward  are  borrowed  from  Aristotle, 
Metuphysics,  Bks.  iii  and  viii  pp.  62, 
158,  174,  ed.  Brandis. 

*  The  following  is  the  original  of 
the  passage  quoted  by  Mr  Lewes 
{Hist,  of  Phil.  II  25)  i—Intentio  For- 
jihyrii  est  in  hoc  opere  facilem  intel- 
lectum  ad  Pradicamenta  praparare, 
tractando  de  quinque  rebus  t^el  vocibutf 
genere  scilicet ^  specie ^  differentia ^  jtrc 
prio  et  accidentCf  quorum  cognitio 
valet  ad  Pradicameniorum  cognitio- 
ncm.  Mr  Lewes  (while  quoting 
Cousin  as  his  authority)  has,  as  it 
appears  te  mo,  fallen  into  error  on 


three  points: — (1)  in  ascribing  to 
Boethius  the  foregoing  passage,  which 
as  Cousin  expressly  states  is  part  of 
the  gloss  of  Rabanus  Maurus  ;  (2)  in 
applying  the  comments  of  Cousin  on 
the  translation  of  Porphyry  by  Boe- 
thius in  the  sixth  century,  to  the 
gloss  of  Babauus  Maurus  in  the 
ninth;  (3)  in  leaving  it  to  be  inferred 
that  the  above  fragment  of  this  gloss 
was  the  sole  surviving  passage  wherein 
the  question  of  Universals  was  ad- 
verted to  by  Boethius.  So  erroneous 
a  representation  of  the  history  of 
what  Mr  Lewes  himself  terms  the 
*  Great  Dispute*  of  these  times, 
attests  a  very  hasty  consultation  of 
his  authority. 


BOSCELLINUS. 


00 


urge  his  philosophic  arguments  in  contravention  of  the  doc-  auction. 
trine  of  the  Trinity,  he  did  little  more,  as  regards  the  arena  "-*v-^ 
of  metaphysics,  than  add  fresh  fuel  to  a  controversy  already 
frequently  debated*. 

But  though   it  would   appear  that   RoscelHnus  cannot  Rosoeiiinui. 

°  ^'-  ,  ci.ll06(?). 

rightly  be  regarded  as  the  first  to  renew  the  ancient  battle, 
it  is  undeniable  that  he  invested  it  with  a  gi-eatly  increased 
importance  by  the  new  element  he  introduced.  Hitherto 
the  existence  of  Universals  had  probably  been  regarded  as 
little  more  than  an  abstract  question,  and  indistinguishable 
as  such  from  the  many  numerous  discussions  that  exercised 
the  ingenuity  of  the  dialectician.  The  new  starting  point  uiBappUca- 
associated  with  the  name  of  Roscellinus,  is  that  marked  by  controversy 
the  application,  which  he  was  the  first  to  make,  of  the  {^*^JJ|^^ 
conclusions  of  the  prevailing  Nominalism  to  that  great  theo-  xJ^jy'"*® 
logical  doctrine  which  one  writer  has  ventured  to  characterise 
as  the  'foundation  of  all  the  metaphysical  thought  and 
speculation  of  the  ages  aftef  Gregory  the  Great,' — the  doctrine 
of  the  Trinity.  The  seeming  relevancy  of  his  opinion  to 
this  doctrine  scarcely  requires  to  be  indicated.  If  indeed  it 
were  possible  to  show  that  essences  or  qualities,  over  and 
above  their  presence  in  the  individual,  had  a  separate  entity, 
that  this  entity  again  was  something  apart  from  the  concept  in 
the  mind, — equally  distinct  from  the  sentient  subject  and  the 
sensible  object, — it  might  seem  to  many  to  follow  that  the 
great  mystery  of  a  Triune  Godhead,  the  Three  in  One,  the 
One  in  Three,  was  in  some  degree  brought  nearer  to  human 
apprehension*.     To  such  a  conclusion  however  the   Nomi- 


^  *  En  avano&nt  dans  ce  commen- 
taire  {that  of  Jiabamis)  on  8'aper<?oit 
que  ce  doute  n*est  pas  particiilier  k 
Faiitenr ;  on  apprend  qn'il  avait  d^j^ 
deux  partis  siir  cette  question  et 
comme  deux  ^coles  constitutes,  et 
que  Tune  de  ces  ^coles  prdtendait 
que  Porphyre  ne  consid^re  dans  cette 
Ihitroduction  le  genre,  Tespdce,  la  dif- 
ference, lepropre,  Taccident,  qu'ab- 
Btractiyenrent  et  comme  des  noms... 

II  r^nlte que  le  probldme  pos6 

par  Porphyre  dans  les  premit^res 
lignes  de  I'lntrodnction  excitait  dijh 
quelqut  attention;    que    la  solution 


p^ripatiticienne  r^pandue  par  Bo¥xe 
pr^valait  g^nSralement^  mais  quUl  y 
avait  pourtant  a  c6i6  de  celU-la  une 
solution  diffirente^  quiy  sans  etre  aussi 
accr6dit(!e,  avait  aussi  ses  partisans.* 
Fragments  Philosophiques,  A  b^lnrd,  p. 
106  and  119.  For  an  exbaustive  ex- 
amination of  the  relation  of  Boethius 
to  the  whole  controversy  see  B^musat, 
Ahilard,  ii  37—64. 

'  Such,  at  least,  was  certainly  the 
view  of  Anselm  : — '  Qui  enim  nondum 
intclligit  quomodo  plures  homines  in 
specie  sint  homo  unus,  qualiter  in  ilia 
secretissima  natura  comprehendet  quO' 


56 


CONTttOVERSV  RESPECTING  UNIVERSALS. 


John  of 


iMumoN   ^^^**"^  ^f  RoBccllmus  which-  appeared  inevitably  to  lead  up 
to  Tritheism,  offered  an  insuperable  barrier,  and  hence  the 
origin  of  that  great  controversy,  commencing  between-  this 
philosopher  and  Anselm,  which  so  long  divided  the  learning 
and  the  intellect  of  these  times.     Into  the  details  of  this 
long  dispute:  it  is  not  within*  our  province  to  enter^     For 
more  than  two  centuries  it  formed-  the  rallying  point  of 
contending  parties,  and  the  Schools  re-echoed  to  cries  of 
universcUia  ante  rem,  and  univerecUia  in  re.    John  of  Salis- 
bury,   writing  about  the  year  1152,  relates  how  when  he 
returned  to  Oxford  after  his  residence  at  Paris,  whither  he 
had  gone  to  study  the  canon  law,  he  found  the  wordy  warfare 
mging  witJi  undiminished  vigour.    The  science  of  sciences,  as 
Kabanus  Maurus  had  called  it,  seemed  likely  altogether  to 
absorb  the   rest^    The   enthusiasm  of  the  disputants  was 
puzzling  to  his  cool,  practical,  English  mind,  and  elicited 
from,  him*  expressions  of  unqualified  contempt, — the  earliest, 
perhaps,,  that  greeted  the  ears  of  the  learned  of  that  period. 
iifiiMtimato  'They  bring  forth,*  he  said)  'some  new  opinion  concerning 
5J|3J^^  genera  and  species,  that  had  escaped  Boethius,  and  of  which 
Plato  was  ignorant,  but  which- they  by  wonderful  good  fortune 
have  extracted  fromt  the  mine  of  Aristotle^     They  are  pre- 
pared to-  solve  the  old  question,  in  working  at  which  the 
world:  has  grown  old^  and  more  time  has  been  expended  than 
ii\e  CuBsars  employed  ia  winning  and  governing  the  universe, 
more  nioney  spent  tJmn  Chbsus  ever  possessed..    Long  has 
this  question  exercised  numbers  throughout  tiieir  vdiole  lives; 
this  single  discovery  has  been  the  sole  object  of  their  search; 
and  they  have  eventually  failed   to   arrive  at  any  result 
whatever.    The  reason  I  suppose  was  that  their  curiosity  was 
unsatiHiied  with  that  which  alone  could  be  discovered!    For 
lis  in  the  shadow  of  any  body  the  substance  of  solidity  is  vainly 


mnrfo  p1urf$  penoiut^  quarum  «iit<7M'a 

Niiii«/'  />f  Fi\U  Trinitatit  $ire  In- 
earHatUmr  IVr6i\  contra  blasphfmUu 
r«TW,  i|Uo<(m1  by  Cousin. 

*  For  nn  iinimrtinl  aiHHmnt  of  Uio 
otmiiuvvin^,  too  ApiH^ndix  (A)  io  Pro- 
(iMMior    liiuii'H    MrHtat   (ind    Moml 


Scifncf ;  Hanr^an,  PhilowphU  Seko* 
Uutiquf ;  Hampden*8  Bampton  Lee- 
tttrfs,  J>ct.  II ;  ancU  for  the  im- 
portant qnestion  of  tlievelatioii  of 
the  Categories  and  the  Isagoge  of 
ror|>liyry  to  the  oontroTersy,  Daaa 
Mausvl'g  Art  it  Logicic  RudimenUif 
Appendix,  Note  A.. 


JOHN  OF  SALISBURY. 


57 


INTRO- 
PUCTION. 


sought  for,  so  in  those  things  that  belong  to  the  intellect, 
and  can  only  be  conceived  as  universals  but  cannot  exist  as 
universals,  the  substance  of  a  more  solid  existence  cannot  be 
discerned.     To-  wear  out  a  life  in  things  of  this  kind  is  to 
work,  teach,  and  do  nothing ;  for  these  are  but  the  shadows 
of  things,  ever  fleeing  away  and  vanishing  the  more  quickly 
the  more  eagerly  they  are  pursued  \'     It  is  an  oft  repeated 
i^minder  to*  which  he  gives  utterance  in  his  writings,  that 
the  dialectic  art  however  admirable  is  not  the  sum  and  end 
of  human  acquirement".     To  such  vagaries  the  school  pre- 
sided over  by  Bernard  of  Chartres  at  the  close  of  the  eleventh  cSJ^^®' 
century  offers  an  agreeable  contrast.     Grammar  and  rhetoric 
appear  to  have  there  been  taught  after  a  far  less  mechanical  JnnS?2c^ 
fashion;  an  attention  to  correct  Latinity  was  inculcated,  and  "'*°* 
Cicero  and  Quintilian  were  studied  as  models.     The  Roman 
poets  were  not  neglected,  and  the  whole  system  of  instruc- 
tion elicited  the  commendation  of  the  writer  above  quoted. 
It  is  to  be  observed  indeed,  that  Lanfranc,  Anselm,  John  of  ^J^p;»™*JJ[J 
Salisbury',  and  Giraldus  Cambrensis  wrote  far  purer  Latin  u^jSS^ 
than  is  subsequently  to  be  found  among  those  whose  taste  was 
completely  corrupted  by  the  barbarous  versions  of  Aristotle 
that  were  studied  by  the  later  Schoolmen. 

In  the  year  1109  Anselm  died  ;  it  was  the  year  in  which 
William  of  Champeaux  opened  a  school  of  logic  at  Paris.  SJS^ux. 
Among  his  pupils  was  Abelard,  and  a  few  years  later  we  see  Abciard. 


»  PoUcTotieua,  Bk.  vn  c.  12.  His 
description  of  the  different  parties 
also  deserves  quotation: — 'Sont  qui, 
more  mathematicomm,  formas  ab- 
strahnnt,  et  ad  illas  qoidquid  de 
nniTersalibns  dicitor  refemnt.  Alii 
discntiont  intellectus,  et  eos  oniver- 
soliom  nominibus  censeri  confirmant. 
Fneront  et  qui  voces  ipsas  genera 
dicerent  esse  et  species;  sed  eoram 
jam  ezplosa  sententia  est^.et  facile 
com  anctore  sno  evanuit.  Sunt  ta- 
men  adhno  qni  deprehondontor  in. 
vestigiis  eomm,  licet  embescant  anc- 
torem  vel  sententiam  piofiteri,  solis 
nominibns  inluerentes,  quod  rebus  et 
inteUectibos  sabtrahnnt^  sermonibos 
asoribant.' 

'  Meialogieus,  Lib.  n  o.  9 ;  iv  27. 
'Fere  enim  inntilis  est  logioa,  si  sit 


sola.    Tone  demnm  eminet,  com  ad- 
junctaram  virtute  splendescit.' 

>  It  may  be  bore  noted  that  the 
nnmerons  citations  in  John  of  Salis- 
bury from.  clas8ica]  writers  are  fre- 
quently second-hand.  His  knowledge 
of  Greek  was  scanty;  he  had  read 
with  a  learned  Greek  parts  of  the 
Organon  and  of  the  Topica,  but  'he 
nowhere  professes  to  have  read  [for 
himself]  a  Greek  book;  we  find  in 
him' no  citation  from  a  Greek  author, 
not  known  to  him  through  the  me- 
dium of  Latin.*  C.  Schaarschmidt, 
Johannes  Saresheriensis  nach.Leben 
und  Studlen^  Schriften  nnd  PhilottO' 
phiey  (Leipzig;  1B62)  llSi  (Quoted 
by  Rev.  J.  E.  B.  Mayor,  Pref.  to 
Kichard  of  Cirencester  (Bolls  Series), 
p.  cxyii). 


58  ABELARD. 

DViJno's  *^®  handsome,  vain,  impetuous  youth  challenging  his  master 
^"■"v^-^  to  argument  and  completely  discomfiting  him  amid  the 
wonder  and  applause  of  his  fellow  students.  We  see  him 
again,  after  his  terrible  fall  and  disgrace,  venturing  once 
more  to  lift  his  head  among  men  and  asserting  with  far 
greater  power  and  acumen  than  Berengar,  the  rights  of 
reason  agauist  authority,  essaying  by  an  eclectic  theory  to 
reconcile  -to  the  intellect  the  mysteries  of  faith,  and  even 
daring  to  question  whether  Dionysius  the  Areopagite  ever 
set  foot  in  Gaul.  It  is  very  evident,  from  the  crowds  which 
hung  upon  his  teaching,  following  him  to  his  lonely  retreat, 
and  from  the  efforts  of  William  of  Thierry  and  Bernard  of 
J«*w«  o'  Clairvaux  to  check  the  progress  of  the  new  idea^,  that  a  spirit 
or  enquiry.  ^35  moviug  amoug  men  which  the  mere  traditionalist  regarded 
with  apprehension  and  alarm.  Throughout  Europe  indeed  a 
change  was  to  be  discerned.  The  preceding  century,  ushered 
in  amid  dire  apprehension,  had  closed  in  splendour.  The 
banner  of  the  Cross  had  been  seen  floating  from  the  battle- 
ments of  the  Holy  City;  the  second  CVusade,  already  projected, 
was  rekindling  enthusiasm.  The  university  of  Paris  was 
attracting  numerous  students;  the  teaching  of  Imerius  at 
Bologna  was  diffusing  a  knowledge  of  the  Roman  law ;  the 
poets  and  orators  of  antiquity  were  beginning  to  be  studied 
with  a  genuine  admiration,  and  a  less  barbarous  Latinity  to 
prevail  among  the  scholars  of  the  age.  *  It  was,*  observes  a 
writer  whom  we  have  already  quoted,  *  a  ^y  critical  moment 
in  the  history  of  European  culture,  not  altogether  unlike  the 
one  in  individual  life  when  the  boy  leaves  the  school  forms 
for  a  more  elaborate  and  systematic  course  of  instruction. 
In  both  there  is  the  danger  that  what  was  vital  and  energetic, 
however  immature,  in  the  first  stage,  should  be  exchanged 
for  formality  in  the  second;  the  equal  danger  that  there 
should  be  a  reaction  against  this  formality,  and  that  a  stormy 
life  should  take  the  phice  of  a  calm  one\' 
BcntenoM  Such  wcrc  the  tendencies  of  the  a<je  which  saw  the  sreat 

LombMd.     theological  text-book  of  the  next  three  centuries,  the  '  Sen- 

^  Professor  Maurice,  Jleditcval  Phihuojfhy,  p.  156. 


PETER  LOMBARD. 


59 


tences'  of  Peter  Lombard,  launched  upon  the  world, — the  j/^Ji^fJgj;^ 
first  of  '  a  long  series  of  attempts  to  obtain  for  the  doctrines  '*— v^ 
of  the  Church  a  scientific  system \'  Little  is  known  of  the 
author  of  this  important  volume,  though  archbishop  of  Paris 
in  1159,  and  the  originality  of  hife  performance  has  more 
than  once  been  called  in  question*.  Our  main  concern, 
however,  is  with  its  character  as  an  embodiment  of  the 
dogmatic  teaching  of  the  time*. 

The  Sententiae  are  in  four  books,  and  are  almost  entirely  gj**""*^ 
derived  from  the  writings  of  four  fathers  of  the  Latin 
Church, — Augustine,  Ambrose,  Hilary,  and  Cassiodorus,  the 
authority  of  the  first  being  evidently  paramount.  The  first 
book,  entitled  De  Myaterio  Trinitati8y  contains  an  exposition 
of  the  recognized  tenets  of  the  Church  concerning  this 
dogma,  and  its  forty-eight  Distinctiones  are  devoted  to  the 
attributes  of  the  Deity*.  The  second  book,  entitled  De  Rerum 
Carporalium  et  Spiritualium  Creatione  et  Formatione,  Aliis- 
que  PluHbua  eo  Pertineiitibus,  contains  the  doctrine  of  the 
Church  concerning  Free  Will  and  Original  Sin ;  the  theory 
maintained  being,  as  may  be  anticipated,  that  first  formulated 
by  Augustine.  The  third  book  bears  the  title  of  De  Incar- 
natione  Verbi,  and  treats  of  such  questions  as  1.  Utrum 
Christm  sit  creatara,  vel  creatus,  vel  /actus,     2.  Si  Anima 


>  Schwegler,  Hi$t.  of  Philosophy, 
p.  144,  Stirling*8  Translation. 

*  Some  accuse  the  i^hor  of  ex- 
tensive plagiarism  from  zTbelard,  and 
the  author  of  the  Introduction  in 
Migne,  Vol.  cxci  refers  to  a  report 
that  he  is  said  Bandinum  quendam 
obgcun  nominis  theologum  in  quatuor 
Sententiarum  libriSf  qui  Vienna  pro- 
dierunt  anno  1519,  pene  integrum 
exgcripsisse.  Others  think  his  con- 
ception is  to  be  traced  to  the  example 
of  Bobert  Pullen,  an  English  scho- 
lastic, who  wrote  Sententiarum  Libri 
Oeto.  See  Ueberweg,  Ge$chichte  der 
Philosophies  ii  146. 

>  It  may  perhaps  not  be  altogether 
saperflaoQS  to  remind  the  reader 
that  the  word  'sentences'  is  here 
bmy  a  translation  of  *  sententise,* — 
a  use  of  the  word  not  uncommon  in 
our  earlier  writers,  though  now  re- 
tained solely  as  a  grammatical  ex- 


pression. The  following  passage 
happily  illustrates  the  older  usage : — 
'  And  you,  that  do  read  Plato,  as  ye 
should,  do  well  perceive,  that  these 
be  no  questions  asked  by  Socrates, 
as  doutes,  but  they  be  sentences,  first 
affirmed  by  Socrates,  as  mere  trothes, 
and  after,  given  forth  by  Socrates 
as  right  rules,  most  necessarie  to  be 
marked  and  fitte  to  be  followed  of 
all  of  them  that  would  have  children 
taught  as  they  should.*  Ascham*8 
Scholemaster  ed.  by  Mayor,  p.  28. 

*  The  doctrine  with  which  the 
names  of  F^nelon  and  Palcy  have, 
from  divergent  views,  been  associated 
is  here  perhaps  first  distinctly  laid 
down  in  the  form  of  a  decision  from 
St.  Augustine;  virtue,  says  Peter 
Lombard,  is  to  be  followed  not  for 
its  own  sake  but  as  a  course  that  is 
pleasing  to  the  Deity. 


60 


THE  SENTENCES. 


DfaUectiaa 
ehmient  in 
UMwork. 


m^CTiuN.  ^^^*  habuerit  sapientiam  parent  cum  Deo ;  et  8%  ovinia  scU 
qv4JB  Deu8,  3.  Si  Christus  meruit  et  aibi  et  nobis,  et  quid  sibi 
et  quid  nobia^.  The  fourth  book  treats  of  the  Sacraments,  and 
the  distinction  between  the  Old  and  New  Law,  the  final 
judgement,  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  the  final  happiness 
of  the  saints,  and  the  sufferings  of  the  damned. 

A  comprehensive  outline  of  the  work  will  be  found  in  the 
Benedictine  Histoire  LiU6raire  de  la  France*;  our  main 
concern,  however,  is  with  that  new  element  which  the 
Sentences,  while  apparently  resting  solely  upon  patristic 
authority,  undoubtedly  served  to  introduce  into  the  study 
of  dogmatic  theology.  The  dialectics  of  the  age  were  pene- 
trating to  the  very  citadel  of  belief,  and  the  recognition 
afforded  to  this  tendency  of  the  times  may  be  regarded  as 
the  characteristic  feature  of  the  work.  As  each  article  of 
belief  is  enunciated,  an  effoi-t  is  made  to  define  with  greater 
precision  its  true  bearing  and  limitations;  hence  a  series 
of  Distinctions,  as  they  are  termed,  conceived  in  conformity 
with  a  dialectic  of  the  severest  order;  Cousin  indeed  has 
asserted  that  in  this  respect  they  surpass  all  previous  efforts 
of  scholasticism  ^  Of  the  value  of  such  a  method  different 
opinions  may  be  entertained.  It  is  easy,  on  the  one  hand,  to 
point  to  the  merest  puerilities,  the  natural  result  of  the 
application  of  the  same  process  to  details  with  respect  to 
which,  as  knowledge  was  wanting,  the  logician  could  but 
fight  the  air, — heresies,  representing  nothing  more  than 
flights  of  the  imagination,  met  by  dogmas  resting  upon  an 


^  One  of  tho  qnefltions  that  divi- 
ded the  schools  in  tho  time  of  Petrus 
was  whether  the  divine  nature,  or 
only  the  personality  of  the  Son,  be- 
came incarnate.  After  summing  up 
the  opinions  of  the  Fathers,  he  con- 
cludes that  we  must  admit  that  the 
person  of  the  Son  has  put  on  human 
nature,  and  that  thus  the  divine  and 
human  natures  have  been  united  in 
the  Son.  When  therefore  we  say  that 
the  Son  has  taken  on  him  the  nature 
of  a  slave,  we  intend  not  to  exclude 
the  divine  nature  but  only  the  per- 
sons of  the  Fathei;  and  the  Holy 
Ghost 


•  ■  Vol.  XII  p.  689.  A  fuller  and 
very  careful  one,  but  poor  in  lite- 
rary execution^  is  to  be  found  in  the 
Essai  iur  les  Stntencet  de  Pierre 
Lomh(\Td  Considiries  ious  le  point 
de  Vue  IliBtorivO'Dogmaiique ;  Th^se 
pour  obtenir  le  Grade  de  Bachelier 
en  Th  ^ologie,  par  Jean  Bresch.  Stras- 
bourg, 1857. 

'  Cousin  speaks  of  Petrus  Lom- 
bardus  as  distinguished  *par  ime 
sdv6rit^  de  dialectique  que  vous  ne 
trouveriez  point  dans  les  scholasti- 
ques  qui  lui  sont  anti^eure.'  (Euvres 
(Bruxelles),  1 192. 


TBB  SEKTENCEa 


61 


equally  nnsatisfactory  foundation.     On  the  other  hand,   it  nG^SS^ 
is  certain  that,  in  relation  to  fundamental  articles  of  belief,  — v—' 
this  rigid  analysis  of  their  meauing  and  whole  contest,  could 
scarcely  &il  to  develop  a  more  clear  and  intelligent  com> 
prehension  of  the  doctrines   of  the  Christiaa   faith.     'No 
student  of  divinity,'  says  a  critic  of  acknowledged  authority,  cctuciBBoi 
'can  read  the  first  book,  we  should  conceive,  without  acquir-  £[|^|^' 
ing  a  deeper  and  clearer  conception  of  principles  in  which  he 
has   implicitly  believed,    without   cultivating   the   precious 
habit  of  distinction.    And  we  doubt  whether  any  student  of 
philosophy  can  read  large  portions  of  that  book  and  of  the 
three  following,  without  acquiring  a  new  sense  of  the  dignity 
and  responsibility  of  the  name  which  he  has  taken  upon 
him,  without  confessing  that  the  dogmatist  has  taught  him 
to  be  more  of  an  enquirer  than  he  was  before.' 

The  modest  language  in  which  the  compiler  describes  his 
work,  as  containing  within  a  small  compass  the  opinions  of 
the  lathers,  to  save  the  enquirer  the  trouble  of  turning  over 
many  volumes',  might  seem  sufficient  to  have  averted  oppo- 
sition. In  that  endeavour  however  he  was  by  no  means 
completely  successful.  Like  all  innovations,  this  application 
of  the  logician's  art  was  regarded  at  first  with  disUke  and  opporitioD 
suspicion  The  volume  which  was  to  become  the  theological «» t*  »»> 
text-book  of  our  universities  up  to  the  Reformation,  was 
severely  criticised  on  its  first  introduction'.     Gualterus,  the 


*  'bMTi  Tolomine  ootiplieaiui  Pa- 
tram  MntentiM,  Rppositii  eomin 
twtimonliB.  nt  qod  sit  neceese  qiue- 
nuti  libTomm  Dameroailktem  evol- 
vaM.'    PraJ.  od  SentaU'ia. 

I  'It  ia  B  cniioiu  tut  that  the  spi- 
ritiiAl  powenpenisted  in  atrennoiuly 
OpiNMiiig  the  moeeiuTe  effort*  ol  the 
imtioiulirta,  uid  at  the  same  time 
graduallj  adopted  the  vei7  s^Btem  to 
■hich  they  were  »o  aTorse,  into  their 
own  authoritative  theolog;.  Th«y 
oppoied,  that  it,  both  the  principle 
M  the  rationaliBla,^ — the  principle 
that  bamMi  reason  vaa  to  be  eier. 
daed  in  matters  of  religion, — and  the 
eonelnaiMW  to  which  the  nnreetruned 
me  (rf  it  bad  led.  But  afterwarda, 
'  wboi  tb«  booki  of  ooutroreniaUstt 


had  passed  into  records  of  opinions, 
the^  readily  adopted,  as  gnidei  in 
then  decisiona  ol  any  new  opinions, 
the  ooncIueioDB  of  that  rationaliBiiig 
method  which  as  Bach  had  been  so 
paaaioiiately  denounced.  Throne- 
out  the  vhole  period,  when  the  scho- 
laatio  method  may  be  said  to  have 
been  growing,  we  meet  with  constant 
disclaimers,  on  the  part  of  Chnrch 
leaders,  of  the  sjitem  itself,  — a  con- 
stant appeal  to  the  anthority  of  the 
Scriptures  and  the  holy  Fathers 
against  the  rationaliettc  spirit  of  the 
times.  Lntlier  himself  has  not  more 
vehemeutly  dcnonnced  the  scholaBtic 
philoBophy.  than  Bernard  and  other 
doctors  anterior  to  the  Beformation 
bare  declaimed  aeaintt  tbe  importn- 


02 


THE  SESTEXCESL 


TIM 


bf 


•ITSK^  Prior  of  St.  Victoire,  in  his  celebrated  attack  on  Abelanl,  did 
'•'/  •"  urH  Hpare  the  prelate  who  appeared  to  have  learned  so  much 
from  tliat  philosopher,  and  denounced  a  method  which  he 
declare^l  Herve^l  rather  to  encourage  doubt  than  to  confinn 
the  belief  of  the  faithful\  Nor  can  we  assert  that  the 
rniiftruKt  thus  evinced  was  without  foundation.  Rome  has 
ever  apprehende<l  with  marvellous  instinct  the  approach  of 
danger, — of  danger  not  to  truth  but  to  her  own  interests  and 
jKjwer.  The  Sentences  of  Peter  Lombard  exerted  an  in- 
fluence which  equally  exceeded  the  intentions  of  the  compiler 
and  the  anticipations  of  his  opponents.     The  appeal  once 

fSfSmJSir  ^^^^  fjipm  authority  to  reason,  from  implicit  faith  to  logical 
satisfaction,  the  old  method  of  treatment  could  not  be  re- 
stored ;  the  standard  of  the  philosopher  had  been  planted 
within  the  precincts  of  the  Church*.  The  opposition  evoked, 
however,  was  but  shortlived,  for  the  Sentences  appealed 
with  singular  success  to  both  the  wants  and  mental  habits  of 
the  ago.  Before  long  it  became  the  recognised  obligation  of 
each  great  teacher  to  reconcile  his  philosophic  tenets  with 
tho  subtle  definitions,  the  rigidly  inflexible  analysis  of  the 

AotivHyor    commentaries  of  Peter  Lombard     To  this  task  two  of  the 

mraM«'>iii*  massive  folios  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  in  the  edition  published 
at  Venice  in  1593,  are  devoted ;  and  in  the  great  edition  of 
])unH  Scotus,  by  Luke  Wadding,  no  less  than  six  folio 
vohimes,  or  half  the  whole  number,  are  occupied  with  the 
sanio   labour.     Albertus  Magnus,   Bonaventura,   Durandus, 


natonoBB  of  tho  RpoonlationR  of  their 
iiimm.*  Ilumpdou  H  SclMlattic  Philo^ 
tophtft  Loot  I. 

*  Tho  fH'uvamon  of  tho  attack  made 
by  (hialtoniH  was  quod  qti<f  «ua  esset 
$fnifntiat  nunquam  fere  aperiret;  sed 
triplicem  vulfio  de  omni  quir»tione 
projMneret  opittionem;  quarum  prima 
forum  erat  qui  nee  Iltrretici  nee  Ca- 
tholivi  vere  did  poteruiU,  2.  Eorum 
qui  manifv$te  Catholici  erant,  8.  De- 
niquf  eorum  qui  tih*que  ullo  duhio 
ceMemli  erant  htrretici,  Omne*  vero 
authoriUUibu$  $ucrte  Si*ripturte  et 
MHctorum  Putrum^  nUitmibus  qmujue 
et  argumrnti$  dialectici$  cotifirmabaty 
mm  determinani  qu<e  vera  estent  et 
tenrmUt^  aiens  nolle  $e  ut  leetori  fua 


sujiceret  disputatio,    BvHsbiqb,  Hist, 
Univ.  Paris,  ii  406. 

'  '  Get  oavrage  destm^  k  tracer  des 
limites  k  Tesprit  humain,  k  lui  in- 
diquer  lea  soorceB  oH  il  devait  pniser 
la  theologie,  a  eu  nn  effet  toot  con- 
traire  k  sa  destination.  Jamaia  U 
licence  des  opinions  ne  fat  plus  grande 
qn^apr^  les  Sentences;  jamais  lea 
Scolastiques  n'etudibrent  aveo  plus 
d'ardear  la  philosophie  paienne  et 
n'en  usOrcut  plus  dans  les  matidres 
de  religion  que  depuis  que  Lombard 
en  en  montrC*  les  dangers.  Jamaia 
r^tude  des  P^res  ne  fut  plus  n^gligte 
que  depuis  qu'il  Tavait  recommand^.' 
L^Ilistoire  Litt^rairt  de  France ^  xa 
006. 


ST.  ANSELM.  63 

Occam,  and  Estius  are  scarcely  inferior  in  their  zeal  as  ductFon. 
expositors.  The  Church,  in  gratitude  for  the  signal  service  '"^'^^^ 
he  had  rendered,  long  celebrated  the  memoiy  of  Peter 
Lombard  by  an  annual  commemoration  in  his  honour,  and 
even  in  Protestant  communions,  those  who  could  so  far 
divest  themselves  of  the  prejudices  of  association  as  to  realise 
the  standpoint  from  whence  those  labours  were  conceived, 
have  borne  emphatic  testimony  to  their  merit. 

Round  the  authoritative  utterances  of  the  Sentences  grew 
up  the  dogmatic  theology  of  succeeding  generations, — ^the 
theology  of  the  schoolman,  trained  and  trammelled  over  a 
rigid  network  of  dialectics,  where  the  flower  often  lost  its 
perfume  and  the  fruit  perished.     It  was  well  for  the  faith  of 
those  ages  that,  before  the  prevailing  method  had  driven  life, 
warmth,  and  sensibility  from  out  the  pale  of  belief,  a  thinker  st  An«eim. 
of  a  diflferent  school  from  that  of  Peter  Lombard  arose  to  *  noa. 
transmit  a  loftier  tradition.     It  may  be   doubted  whether 
even  the   Sentences  more   strongly  affected   the   habits   of  hib  influence 
religious  thought  for  the  next  three  centuries  than  did  the  «*«»«»• 
writings  of  St.  Anselm.     Whatever  of  emotion  trembles  on 
the  lips  of  the  later  schoolmen, — Bonaventura,  Lincolniensis, 
or  Gerson, — whatever  of  theological  speculation  still  flung 
its  plummet  into  depths  which  defied  the  subtlety  of  the 
dialecticians — owed  its  inspiration,  to  a  great  extent,  to  the 
author  of  the  Proslogion.     And  yet  Anselm  was  no  mere 
enthusiast;    he  was  rather  the  metaphysician,   indignantly 
repudiating  the  shackles  which  the  new  logic  was  casting 
around  enquiries  which  he  regarded  as  the  highest  activity 
to  which   man  could    aspire.     His    argumentation,    for  the 
most   part,  is  equally  removed  from  the  puerilities  of  the 
schools  and  from  the  inconclusive  rhapsodies  of  the  mystic. 
In  his  writings  the  spirit  of  St.  Augustine  lives  again,  and  it 
was  indeed,  in  all  probability,  chiefly  through  the  influence 
of  the   English   archbishop  that  the  genius  of  the  African 
Father  retained  its   hold   upon   the  western  Church.     The 
Credo  ut  inteUigam  became  the   key-note  to  all  that  was 
most  noble  in  the  belief  of  the  Middle  Ages ;  and  modern 
speculation,  wearjdng  of  the  endless  search  for  mental  assur- 


64 


ST.  ANSEUf. 


DDCTroit  ^^'^^  ''^  ^^^  phenomCDa  of  the  external  worid,  has  more  than 
"— ^ —  once  returned  to  this  subjective  testimony,  to  reconstnict, — 
with  a  more  elaborate  synthesis,  it  iB  tni^  but  on  the  samfl 
foundation, — the  edifice  of  faith'. 

Our  retrospect  has  now  brought  us  to  the  threshold  of 
the  thirteenth  century.  We  have  endeavoured  to  trace  out 
the  chief  elements  and  tendenciea  in  the  thought  and  culture 
that  preceded  that  eventful  age,  and  more  especially  to  bring 
out  in  their  true  importance  and  relations  questions  with 
respect  to  which,  as  it  has  appeared  to  us,  the  interpretations 
of  certain  writers  have  been  ■defective  or  erroneous:  and 
while  the  necessity  for  brevity  has  perforce  .diminished  the 
value  of  our  enquiry  for  those  to  whom  the  field  is  new,  and 
its  interest  for  those  to  whom  it  ia  known,  we  may  yet  hope 
that  we  have  succeeded  in  indicating  the  more  important 
materials  for  a  more  lengthened  investigation. 

'  '  Lb  nouTeanU  de  oett«  th^logje 
vient  de  ee  qu'elle  eat  uoe  applioa- 
tion  aa  dogme,  noQ  de  la  logiqne, 
maie  de  la  ni^tapliyBiqae;  non  de  U 
dialcctiqUB  d' Aria  tote,  mais  do  la  dift- 


.  de  Via 


t  done  tout 


mblo  eiagirer  et  mCoonnaltre  le 
rule  d'Aiiaiiluie  qne  de  I'apppler  un 
dee  crentearB  de  la  BcoliuUque.  II 
fnudrait  an  moini  (aire  nne  diHtino- 
tioQ  quo  lo8  oritiqueB  omettent  trop 
soQTent,  eotre  la  pbiloBophie  bco- 
Lutiqae  et  U  th^logie  BcoUatiqiu. 


qnfie  dans  la  phiiowphie  ^ropremenl 
ditft;  etpom  la  Eeconde,  il  eat  Tenn 
na  moment  ou  elle  se  farmait.  II  n'k 
pae  6i6  saus  inflasDoa  but  bb  lomM- 
tion,  mais  il  n'en  s  pas  prdaiB^ment 
d^termind  le  oaraatire.  H  ne  ten- 
dait  pas  i.  Is  faire  Molaatiqae,  maia 
philosopbiqae.  Q  votdaii  fondsi  la 
pliiloeophie  dn  dogme.'  IMmiuBt, 
St  Aaielm  de  Cimtor^irji,  p.  478. 


CHAPTER  I 


COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  UNrVERSITY  EKA, 


In  our  introductory  sketch  we  have  essayed  to  point  out  ^^p-  ^ 
some  of  the  more  important  data  on  which,  up  to  the  period 
when  the  University  of  Cambridge  first  greets  the  research 
of  the  historian,  our  estimate  of  the  culture,  the  philosophy, 
and  the  mental  characteristics  of  the  preceding  centuries 
must  rest.  Of  both  the  darkness  and  the  dawn  which  belong 
to  this  era  it  seems  fittest  to  speak  in  less  general  and  un- 
qualified language  than  has  often  been  employed.  The 
darkness,  great  as  it  undoubtedly  was,  had  still  its  illumina- 
tion; the  dawn  was  far  from  steady  and  continuous,  but 
rather  a  shifting,  capricious  light,  often  advancing  only,  again 
to  recede.  We  have  seen  how  imperfect  was  the  knowledge 
of  the  literature  of  antiquity  to  which  the  student,  in  those 
times,  was  able  to  attain,  and  how  limited  was  the  circle 
to  which  what  survived  of  that  literature  was  known ;  how, 
amid  the  fierce  shocks  and  dark  calamities  that  prevailed, 
the  conceptions  of  the  theologian  were  narrowed  and  over- 
shadowed by  one  dread  conviction :  how,  as  some  sense  of  Recftpitoht. 

•^  .  tion  of 

security  returned,  and  the  barbarian  acknowledged  a  stronger  {J^iSuS'^'^ 
arm,  learning  again  took  heart,  and  minds  began  once  more 
to  enquire,  to  speculate,  and  to  theorise ;  how  scepticism, 
with  weapons  snatched  from  the  armoury  of  paganism,  as- 
sailed the  doctrines  of  the  Church ;  how  the  study  of  law 
followed  upon  the  return  of  external  order;  how  the  political 
exigencies  of  Rome  led  her  to  impose  on  Europe  a  code 

5 


aiiji 


C6  EABLT  TRADmONS  KESPECTWO  CAMBBIDQE. 

-  fraught  witli  unscrupulous  fiction  i  how,  &s  the  spirit  of 
eii({uu7  awoke  and  reason  reasserted  its  claims,  authority 
sought  to  define  their  prerogative  hy  a  more  formal  and 
systematic  enunciation  of  traditional  dogma ;  while,  as  yet, 
the  philosopher  questioned  and  douhted,  scarcely  dreaming 
of  ultimate  divergence,  and  the  dogmatist  distinguished  and 
proscribed,  equally  unprescient  of  the  contest  that  was  yet 
to  be. 

It  is  at  this  stage  in  the  progress  of  Europe  that  the 
English  universities  pass  from  the  region  of  mere  tradition 

.  to  that  of  history.  Fable  indeed  long  beguiled  the  ears  of 
our  forefathers  with  the  story  of  the  ancient  renown  of  Cam- 
bridge, and  within  comparatively  recent  times  an  historian 
of  repute  could  unsuspectingly  retail  from  Peter  of  Blois,  as 
'  an  author  of  undoubted  credit ','  the  details  of  the  earliest 
instruction  given  within  her  precincts.  TUe  canons  of  a 
severer  criticism  however  have  swept  away  not  only  legends 
of  Spanish  founders  and  Athenian  teachers,  of  Sigebert  for  a 
royal  founder,  of  Bede  and  Alcuin  for  her  earliest  doctors  of 
divinity ',  but  have  also  pronounced  Ingulphus  and  his  con- 

'  tinuator  alike  undeserving  of  credit'.     We  are  accordingly 

^  compelled  to  abandon,  as  an  imaginary  scene,  the  not  un- 
pleasing  picture  which  represents  the  monks  sent  by  the 
abbat  of  Crowland  to  Cambridge,  expounding,  early  ia  the 
twelfth  century,  in  humble  bams  and  to  enthusiastic  au- 
diences, the  pages  of  Priscian,  Aristotle,  and  Quintiliao.  Our 
information  indeed  concerning  the  studies  of  both  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  continues  to  be  singularly  scanty  and  frag- 
mentary up  to  the  college  era;  conjecture  must,  on  many 
points,  supply  the  place  of  facts  ;  and  it  is  only  by  a  careM 


'  Henry, MiK.  o/F.ngland.iii  438. 

■  Cuter,  in  his  Hitory  of  the  Uni- 
rertity  of  Cambridgr,  p.  7,  gives  with- 
out «nj  apwent  doubt,  a  letter  from 
Alonm  to  tlie  SchoUra  of  Cambridge 
elhorting  them  to  diligence  in  their 
Etndieat  See  also  Lydf^te'B  Terses 
OD  the  Fonndatioa  of  the  IJitiTeraitT 
Appendix  (i). 

•  UaUun,  ID  the  later  editions  of 
his  Middit  Agt;  (>m  elerenUi  edit 
ni  «1)   retracted  the  crv.ifnis  be 


hajl  before  ^ven  to  these  aoconnta. 
Sir  FnmatB  PolgraTe  iaelhied  to  t)w 
belief  that  the  Chronicle  of  Ingol- 
phuB  was  not  ol  older  date  than  Um 
18th  01  first  haU  of  the  fonrteAntll 
century,  and  that  it  mnst  be  oon- 
sidered  '  as  little  better  than  a  monk- 
w  ^'?'i''"''"  ■"*"«  luBtoricalno™!;' 
Mr  Wnght  regaids  the  oontitinatiaB 
attributed  to  P«t«r  o(  BloiB  u  equal. 
ly  spanoaB. 


NORMAN  INFLUENCES  IN  ENGLAND.  67 

study  of  the  circumstantial  evidence  that  we  are  enabled  to   chap.  i. 
arrive  at  a  sufficiently  probable  induction.     The  character  of  Norman  in- 

.,        .,.  I'i*!'  •!  1-r.  fluenoes  prior 

the  induction  admits  ot  being  very  concisely  stated.  It  is  a  *»  ^«  con- 
fact  familiar  to  the  student  of  our  early  history  that  before 
the  Norman  victory  on  the  field  of  battle  at  Senlac,  a  gentler 
subjugation  had  already  been  imposed.  In  the  language  of 
Macaulay,  '  English  princes  received  their  education  in  Nor- 
mandy. English  sees  and  English  estates  were  bestowed  on 
Normana  The  French  of  Normandy  was  familiarly  spoken 
in  the  palace  of  Westminster.  The  court  of  Rouen  seems  to 
have  been  to  the  court  of  Edward  the  Confessor  what  the 
court  of  Versailles  long  afterwards  was  to  the  court  of  Charles 
the  Second*.*  To  such  an  extent  did  this  state  of  things 
prevail,  that  at  one  juncture  it  even  seemed  probable  that 
the  spread  of  Norman  influences  would  culminate  in  a  peace- 
ful establishment  of  Norman  dominion  *.     Such  a  sequel  was  Noni»n 

*■  influences 

only  prevented  by  a  great  national  reaction  ;  and  the  ques-  JJ  th?con- 
tion  then  fell  to  the  arbitration  of  the  sword.     But  when  *^"®^ 
a  foreign  dynasty  had  become  firmly  planted  in  our  midst,  it 
necessarily  followed  that  these  influences  were  still  further 
intensified.     To  imitate  the  refinement,  the  chivalry,  the 
culture  of  the  dominant  race,  became  the  ambition  of  every 
Englishman  who  sought  to  avoid  the  reproach  that  attached 
to  the  character  of  a  Saxon  boor.     Teachers  from  York  no 
longer  drew  the  outlines  of  education  at  Paris;  and  the  great 
university  which  now  rose  in  the  latter  city,  to  give  the  tone 
and  direction  to  European  thought,  became  the  school  whi- 
ther every  Englishman,  who  aimed  at  a  character  for  learn- 
ing, perforce  resorted.     The  examples  there  studied  and  the 
learning  there  acquired  were  reproduced  at  home.    The  con-  The  unirer- 
stitution  of  the   university  of  Paris  formed  the  model  on  {Jjj,"}^** 
which  that  of  Oxford  and  that  of  Cambridge  were  formed ;  oSJJridgJf 
the  course  of  study,  the  collegiate  system,  even  the  regula- 
tions of  the  Sorbonne,  were  imitated  with  scrupulous  fidelity. 
It  was  not  until  two   centuries  after  the  Conquest  that 
Englishmen   could   acknowledge   these  obligations  without 

*  Maoanlay,  HUt.  of  England,  i*         •  Freeman*B  Hist,  of  the  Norman 
12.  Conquest^  i|  515. 

5—2 


68 


UmVEBSITT  OF  PARIS. 


humiliation,  and  could  assert  that,  if  their  univeisities  owed 
their  constitution  to  Paris,  the  debt  had  been  more  than  re- 
paid in  tho  teachers  whom  Paris  had  received  from  England. 
It  is  thus  that,  while  the  destruction  of  most  of  the  early 
records  relating  to  the  mental  activity  of  Oxford,  and  a  yet 
greater  blank  in  relation  to  Cambridge,  present  considerable 
difficulties  when  ne  endeavour  to  trace  out  the  connecting 
links  between  these  universities  and  the  continent,  the  com- 
paratively ample  data  which  we  possess  concerning  Paris 
enable  us  to  some  extent  to  repair  the  loss,  and,  in  the 
absence  of  positive  information,  to  &11  back  upon  reasonable 
presumptive  evidence.  It  will  consequently  be  needless 
further  to  explain  why,  in  the  present  chapter,  we  stop  to 
examine  the  constitution,  early  fortunes,  and  intellectual 
experiences  of  the  university  of  Paris,  before  passing  on 
to  the  universities  of  our  own  country. 

An  important  question  meets  us  at  this  stnge  of  our 
enquiry,  which  it  is  not  within  our  province  to  investigate, 
but  which  cannot  be  passed  by  altogether  unnoticed.  If  we 
accept  the  representations  put  forward  by  one  particular 
school  of  writers,  the  rise  of  the  universities  would  appear 
to  have  directly  involved  the  downfal  of  the  episcopal  and 
monastic  schools;  and  the  period  from  Charlemagne  to  Philip 
Augustus  has  been  indicated  with  food  r^ret,  as  the  time 
when  the  Church  performed  her  fittiDg  function,  fashioning 
the  whole  couceptiou  of  education!  and  watching  with  ma- 
ternal care  over  each  detail  of  instnstion  *:  Without  e 


<  '  Parveang  su  ligne  de  Philippe- 

AusuBte,  uouH  touclionB  i  la  fin  de 
I'eiisteDce  glorieuiio  dea  toiloa  ^pi- 
BCopaleB  et  munimtiiiueB  pt  k  \'aT6ae- 
mC'ut  d'un  Donvel  ordre  d^s  chosen. 
Tone  eemlilo  des  lore  coUBpirei  coutre 
I'eilucation  claustrale,  pour  en  aic- 
eilirer  la  mine.  Les  pr^lats  habi- 
tuda  i.  la  Tie  tumultueuao  depuig  Ibb 
croteadee,  He  luisBent  absorber  par 
lea  prfoconpations  temporalles,  etbri- 
gUBut  riiouuenr  d'eulrer  doJiB  loB 
coiiacilfl  dca  princes  on  de  deveiiir 
leur  miniBtres  d'Ktat.  Lea  moinea 
a'pngourdiBBent  dana  la  reUchement 
el  I'oiaivcU  qu'aiu(ne  toujouta  vpiia 


eUe  li 


oe,et  II 


■  force  pour  latter  (M 
lea  uouveani:  ordrea  r«ligieux  qui  M 
sout  cmpu^a  des  cbaires  de  I'eD. 
stigupment.  11  n'eat  pna  jnsqn'  1 1* 
tronsfonuatioii  qui  s'op6rait  alon 
dauB  la  Bocidtd  f6r>dala  qui  n'ait  ea 
ion  influence  bui  oe  drinoiMinnt 
pr^ipit^.  Ce  n'eat  pas  que  le  xil» 
dea  dtiidjsuts  Be  Boit  retroidi,  au  eon- 
traire,  jamais  il  ne  fut  plus  ardant; 
nuuB  lea  fila  de  ceax  qui  »Taieni 
aeooud  le  joug  dea  aeignenrs.  poor 
a'driger  en  monicipallt^B  fnuoliet 
ae  trouT^reut  mal  li  I'aiae  miu 
la   discipline   du  cloitre,  et  voi^ 


INFLUENCE  OF  THE  FRENCH  TJNrTEBSITIES.  69 

into  the  abstract  merits  of  the  questioD,  it  is  sufficient  here  chap,  i 
to  point  out  that  the  facts,  as  pleaded  by  Tbeiner*  and  L^n  ni  inrmi 
Maitre,  have  met  with  a  distinct  and  specific  deniaL     Ifutnedbr' 
indeed  the  guidance  of  other  investigators  may  be  trusted,  iabiuu 
the  thread  that  connects  the  schools  of  Charlemagne  with  the 
university  of  Fans  is  to  be  traced  in  unbroken  continuity. 
'Alcuin,'  says  Monnier,  following  in  the  track  of  the  com- counter 
pilers  of  the  Histoire  Littdraire '  and  of  Mabillon, '  numbered  J^^ 
among  his   disciples  Rabanus  and  Haymo  of  Halberstadt. 
Rabanus  and  Haymo  of  Halberstadt  were  both  the  preceptors 
of  Lupus  Servatus';  Lupus  Servatus  had  for  a  pupil  Erie 
of  Auxerre';   Eric  of  Auxerre  was  the  master  of  Bemy  of 
Aujerre',  who  taught  in  turn  both  at  Rheims  and  at  Paris ; 
at  Rheims  Remy  of  Auxerre  numbered  among  his  pupils 
Hildebald  and  Blidulphus,  founders  of  the  schools  of  Lorraine, 
and  Sigulphus  and  Frodoard,  who  carried  on  the  school  at 
Rheims  and  prepared  the  way  for  Gerbert ;  while  at  Paris 
he   united  the   two   branches  of  the  Palatial  school, — the 
one  represeoting  the  tradition  of  Alcuin,  the  other  that  of 
Johannes  Scotus, — and  interpreted  to  them  the  logic  attri- 
buted to  Augustine  and  the  treatise  of  Capella.     His  pupil 
was  Odo  of  Cluny,  who  rekindled  the  monastic   zeal  and 
trained    numerous    scholars,— Aymer,    Baldwin,    Gottfried, 
Landric,  Wulfad,  Adhegrin,  Hildebald,  Eliziard,  and,  most 
distinguished  of  all,  John,  his  biographer.     These  were  the 
men  who,  in  conjunction  with  the  pupils  of  Gerbert',  sustained 
the   tradition    of  instruction   in   the  tenth  century,  whilst 
Hucbald  of  Lifege,  proceeding  from  St.  Gall,  instructed  the 
canons  of  St.  Genevieve  at  Paris,  and  taught  in  the  cathedral 
school     In  the  eleventh  century  Abbo  of  Fleury  and  'his 


not  renrirer  I'air  libte  dee  gnuidea 
tUIm.  Iioin  de  combHttre  cea  teo- 
d«iMM,  niilippe-AllKUBte  et  eee  suc- 
MMSDis  Im  eocomsgireiit  entondant 
dm  nniTnsiUa  et  en  combUut  ccb 
eorparatioiu  svec  priTil^gee.  Inea- 
pablea  de  ■onlenir  one  eonotureDce 
uun  redont&ble,  lea  jcoles  ^piscopa- 
In  et  monutiqneB  furent  rapidemeiit 
ddpoasMdea  dn  Meptie  qn'sUee  tenai. 
ent    AToo   homLeaj   depnls    qo&tre 


sidles  et  B'efFacirent  ootaplllement 
de  la  sc^ne  de  Thutoire.'  L^on 
Maitre,  Kcoiei  Epittnpalrt,  p.  170. 

1  II  itt.dnlratitationiS  Education 
EccUiiailiquf.  I  181—190. 

•  mil.LitlfTairedelaFTimcf,-n32. 
'  Loup  de  Fecriires,  t.  pp.  19 — 21. 
»  HeriooB  or  Ericns  of  Auierre,  fl. 

circ.  880.      Migne,  cun  1128. 
'  Rem;  of  Aoxerre,  d.  oixe.  B08> 

*  See  p.  44. 


70 


THE  QVBanON   IN  DISPDTE. 


CHAP.  L  pupils  Gozelin,  Haymo  the  historian,  Bernard,  Herveua, 
Odalric,  Girard,  and  Thierry,  imparted  vigour  to  the  culture 
of  their  time.  Drogo  taught  with  eminent  success  at  Paris; 
and  all  the  neighbouring  schools,  Chartres,  Tours,  and  Le 
Bee,  were  attracted  by  the  learning  of  that  city,  the  habitual 
residence  of  the  Capetian  dynasty.  The  fame  of  the  con- 
troversies there  carried  on  soon  drew  together  a  crowd  of 
teachers  aud  scholars.  Among  the  pupils  of  Drogo  was  John 
the  Deaf,  and  John  the  Deaf  had  Roscellinus  for  his  pupiL 
Boscellinus  was  from  the  school  of  Ivo  of  Chartres,  and  had 
for  his  disciples  Peter  of  Cluny,  Odo  of  Cambray,  William  of 
Champeaux,  aod  Abelard.  The  schools  of  Paris  thus  became 
a  real  federal  corporation ;  Vniversitas  magUtrorum  et  dit- 
dpulorum,  such  was  the  university :  and  thus,  in  the  times 
when  books  were  rare,  the  precious  legacy  of  learning  was 
transmitted  ft'om  hand  to  hand  across  the  fleeting  generar 
tions '.' 
PicifRM  Whatever  value  we  may  be  disposed  to  attach  to  this 

™'«"™^»^  representation,  as  a  statement  of  the  precise  mode  of  trans- 
mission,  it  Is  certain  that  unquestionable  authority  can  be 
quoted  to  prove  that  both  the  monastic  and  episcopal  schools 
continued  to  exist  long  after  the  rise  of  the  imivertdties  * ; 
but  it  is  obvious  that  if  the  former  represented  merely  the 
stationary  and  conservative  element,  while  the  latter  attracted 
to  itself  whatever  lay  beneath  the  ban  of  unreasoning  au- 
thority,— whatever,  feared  at  first  as  a  heresy,  was  soon  to  be 


'  iioimier,  Alcain  ct  loa  InSiunce, 
p.  189. 

*  'Enfin,  on  e'obstiue  !l  igDorer 
lee  profonda  travaui  d'un  Benedietin, 
du  T^D  Arable  fond  ate  ur  de  notre 
grando  Hiatoire  litt^ 


teat.  H 


IcB  icd\ea  dee  ^vAques  et  cellee  de 
moDOBtires  aTsieut  ooiitmnt  de  Aeu- 
rir  uvec  les  DOUTollee  Bocijt^a  d'^ta- 
doB.  II  taut,  pour  n'accuser  ainsi 
que  leg  autres,  ne  litiaser  (aire  illusion 
par  la  liAine  coutre  toute  loi  civile, 
coutre  toute  fducation  s6culi^re,  et 
raGme  centre  t«ut  ordre  religioui  qui 
ne  juge  point  ta  pi^W  incompatible 
Rvee  une  inBtmction  aolide  et  sinciie, 
ni  IhiBtoire  stm  la  v^rit*.'    V.  Le 


CUro,  Etal  det  Ltttret  nu  XIV  SUeU, 
1  303.  It  iehoweTeraudeiiiableUiBt 
tboiigh  both  the  Moiuwtia  ftnd  Epis- 
copal SchoolB  ma;  have  oontinned  to 
eiiBt,  ihey  had  BoSored  wofuldeterio- 
ratiou:  Heppe  quotes  anthoritjr  to 
the  effect  that,  in  the  year  1391,  in 
the  moDaBtery  ot  St  Oall  neithntha 
abbot  uor  an;  of  the  vaoakt  eonld 
write;  and  we  hate  it  on  the  itste- 
meut  of  a  Benedictine  himsslf  that  in 
the  13tfa  ceutni;  it  was  rare  even  in 
his  own  order  to  find  anyone  m- 
qoainted  with  grammar.  See  chapter 
entitled  Die  Klotter  und  Dtmucluiiai 
ifi'i  MiltrlaUen  in  Dr  Heppe's  Schid- 
icften  dri  MiuelalUn,  pp.  lS~2fi. 


vsirxBsiTJs,  71 

accepted  as  sound  philosophy, — all  that  widened  the  domain  chap,  l 
of  knowledge  or  enriched  the  limits  already  attained, — the 
comparative  importance  of  the  two  agencies  could  not  remain 
the  same.  The  former  must  decline  in  propoi-tion  as  the 
latter  increased  ;  and  it  needs  but  little  penetration  to  dia- 
cem  in  this  illogical  confusion  of  the  secondary  effects  of  the 
univemties  with  their  direct  action,  a  genuine  vexatioo  at 
the  results  that  necessarily  followed  upon  a  blind  and  suicidal 
adherence  to  the  traditions  of  a  bygone  age. 

At  nearly  the  same  era,  the  latter  part  of  the  twelfth  g^";. 
century,  the  historian  becomes  aware  of  the  recognised  exist-  8»i«mo, 
ence  of  three  great  schools  in  Europe, — Bologna,  Paris,  and 
Salerno.     Of  these  the  first  was  distinguished  as  the  school 
of  civil  law ;  the  second,  as  that  of  the  arts  and  theology; 
the  third,  as  that  of  medicine.     It  is  a  significant  proof  of 
the  non-relevancy  of  the  term   Univerntaa  to  the  rajige  q^£2!5jii» 
ttudieg  pursued  in  these  ancient  seats  of  learning,  that  while  §   '  " 
Paris  had  completed  the  circle  of  her  studies  long  before  the 
commencement  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  term  univer- 
nty  is  first  found  applied  to  her  in  the  year  1215,  in  the 
leign  of  PhiUp  Augustus';  while  Bologna,  whose  recognition 
as  a  university  is  of  at  least  equal  antiquity,  possessed  no 
chair  of  theology  before  the  latter  hall'  of  the  fourteenth 
century.     The   term   indeed   when   first  employed,   had   a 
different  meaning  from  that  which  it  now  conveys.     '  In  the 
langua^  of  the  civil  law,'  observes  one  writer,  '  all  corpo- 
rations' were  called  universitatee,  as  forming  one  whole  out  of 
many  individuals.     In  the  German  jurisconsults  universitaa 
is  the  word  for  a  corporate  town.     In  Italy  it  was  anplied  to 
the  incorporated  trades  in  the  cities.     In  ecclesiastical  Ian-    * 
gnage   the  term   was  sometimes  applied  to  a  number  of 
diurches  united  under  the  superintendence  of  one  archdeacon. 
Id  a  papal  rescript  of  the  year  688,  it  is  used  of  the  body  of 
the  canons  of  the  church  of  Pisa'.' 

If  however  we  agree  to  define  a  university  as  a  corpo- 
ration f9r  the   aUtivation  of  learning  formed  under  legal 


^  rsnuauTT  of  bologni. 

mtr.  L  joiK^MWi.  ve  shall  find  ouiselres  coiuiderably  embairaased,  in 
''~^  iaTestigmtiog  the  oomparative  antiquity  of  Paiis  and  Bologna, 
by  the  fact  that  long  before  either  received  a  fonnal  recog- 
nition it  possessed  a  Tigoroua  virtual  eziatence*.  With  the 
exception  of  the  university  of  Naples,  the  spontaneity  of 
gTowrh  in  these  bodies  fonos  indeed  one  of  the  moet  remark- 

2222^  able  feature?  of  the  age.  '  It  would,'  saya  Savigny,  '  be 
altogether  cnv>neous  to  compare  the  eaiiiest  universities  of 
the  luiddle  ai:os  with  the  learned  foundations  of  our  own 
times,  established  bv  a  monarch  or  a  corporation  for  the 
benefit  of  the  native  population,  the  admission  of  straogen 
being  acconled  as  a  favour.  A  teacher  inspired  by  a  love  of 
learning  gathorevl  round  him  a  circle  of  learners.  Other 
teachers  followeil,  the  circle  increased,  and  thus  by  a  purely 
natiiml  process  a  school  was  founded.  Hot  great  must  have 
been  the  reputation  and  influence  of  such  schools  at  a  time 
whoo  they  were  but  few  in  number,  and  when  oral  instruction 
wa'i  nearly  the  only  path  to  knowledge !  How  great  the 
noble  pride  of  the  professors  and  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
scholiti^,  when,  from  all  the  countries  of  Europe,  learners 
flocked  to  spend  long  years  in  Paris  and  Bologna  that  they 
might  share  in  this  instruction*!' 

If  we  look  therefore  rather  to  the  spontaneous  than  to 
the  formal  element,  Imerius  may  be  regarded  as  the  founder 

TniTmHy  of  of  the  university  of  Bologna,  and  the  movement  which  he 
initiated  is  seen  acquiring  a  fresh  developement  in  the  lectures 
on  the  Decretum  of  Gratian  instituted  by  Eugenius  in  the 
middle  of  the  same  century,  until  the  university  became 
officially  rocogiitsod  in  the  charter  of  privil^es  which  it 
received  from  the  emperor  Frederic  I,  in  the  year  1158*. 

iKchutirof  In  this  charter  we  find  provision  made  for  the  free  admission 
of  foreign  students ;  for  their  protection  from  legal  proceedings 

1  '  In  dcr  That  dqd  kann  der  An-  the  time,  the  irords  Vmveniu»  tvtlra 

faog  der  Univeraitiit  desffegen  nicht  meftnt  '  the  irAoi^  of  you.'    lutrod. 

eenau  bestimmt  werden,  weil  Bie  gar  to  Munimtnla  Acadrmica,  I  xnit. 

nirht  von  eiucr  willkiihrliclien  Stift-  '  G/ichirhte  dtt  Bantuehm  StckU, 

ling  flUHKieng,'  SaTignj,  o.  iii  ace.  9.  c.  i^i  eec.  CO,                   ^ 

Mr  AiiHtc;  remarkB  that 'in  Uie  thir-  'Bologna  is  not  named  ill   the 

(eenth     and    fourteenth    centnriea,  Charter,  but  Savigny  ehows  that  w- 

Btrsngo  as  it  may  appear  to  thoBe  lerence   could   have   been  intended 

unacquainted  with  patent  letters  of  only  to  Uiat  city,    JMil  xn  dS. 


ITS  CONSTITUTION.  73 

foucded  Upon  alleged  offeDces  or  debts  in  other  countries ;  chap,  l 
while  with  respect  to  misdemeanours  committed  within  the 
precincts  of  the  university,  it  is  enacted  that  any  lawsuit 
shall,  at  the  discretion  of  the  student,  be  brought  before  the 
master  under  whom  he  is  studying,  or  before  the  bishop  of 
the  diocese. 

At  first  only  a  school  of  law,  Bologna  successively  incor-  lusdMob 
porated  the  other  bi-anches  of  learning.     In  1316,  a  school  ^'*«<'- 
of  arts  and  medicine  was  formed ;  and  in  the  latter  half  of 
the   same  century  a  school  of  theology   was   founded    by 
Innocent  VI.'     It  is  to  be  noted   that   these   schools  were 
really  separate  universities  or  corporations.     Savigny  points 
out  that  the  schools  of  civil  and  canon  law  were  practically 
distinct ;  and  it  has  been  even  customary  with  some  writers 
to  regard  them,  together  with  the  schools  of  arts  and  theology, 
as   representing  four  distinct  universities.     Under  another 
aspect  a  certain  fusion  of  these  bodies  was  brought  about; 
all    students   being  further  distinguished   as    Citramontani  ciirvpm- 
and   UUramontani,  Italians  and  foreigners.     Thus  divided  varamai- 
thqr  constituted  the  electoral  body  of  the  university ;   the  nu  •loduiM 
ofGcers  being  elected  by  the  students  aod  masters,  while  the  uw*i«tomi 
Iffofessors  were  subject  to  the  officers.     It  is  a  noticeable 
feature  that  at  this  university,  the  professors  were,  for  the  vntruon. 
most  part,  maintained  at  the  public  expense,  and  were  not\ 
dependent  upon  the  contributions  of  the  students.    At  the 
head  of  the  officers  were  the  two  rectors,  one  for  each  body,  Reeton. 
and  representing  the  supreme  authority.     There  were  also 
two  chancellors;  'counsellors,'  who  represented  the  different  ci 
nations  into  which  the  Citramontani  and  UUramontani  were 
divided ;  a  syndic,  who   represented  the  university  in   its 
external  relations  to  the  state ;  a  notary,  a  treasurer,  and  two  o 
hiddli.    The  degree   of  doctor,   almost  as   ancient  as  the  t^«^  <' 
university  itself,  evidently  derives  its  origin  from  the  mere 
ezerciBe  of  the  office  of  teacher,  a  function  it  was  subsequently 
found  necessary  to  limit  to  those  whom  the  university  had 

I  •  ZijadiettHi   de   Bologne,'   re-  pomrait  la  comparer  i.  nne  Bj^fere 

nuks  M.   d'Aisailly  in  hi>   recent  dont  U  facolU  de  droit  tiendisit  la 

Inlliaiit    aketch,    'a'eet    coustiuite,  miliea.'    AOurt  U  Grand:  CAneitn 

past  aiaal  din,  pitoe  pw  pite«,  et  on  ilondi  dtvant  U  tlouvtau,  1 157. 


74  TJNirEBsnr  or  boloona. 

CHAP.  L  rect^ised  as  fitted  for  the  task.    The  doctors  at  Bologna, 

a]80  known    as   magistri,  domini,  or  judicee,  were  further 

^eind^i^-  distinguished    as  doctores  legentea  and   mm-UgenUB — those 

thiuim.      appointed   by  the  university  to  teach,  and  those  not   yet 

admitted  to  such  a  function,  or  who  no  longer  exercised  it : 

over  the  latter  the  city  appears  to  have  claimed  a  certain 

jurisdiction.     The  college  system  never  attained  to  much 

importance  at  Bologna.     There  were   colleges,  it   is  true, 

coiictn.      designed  like  our  own  early  foundations  for  the  as^staace  of 

poor  scholars,  but   we   have   no   evidence   that  these  ever 

exceeded  their  original  design  or  exercised  any  perceptible 

influence  over  the  university  at  large. 

Such  were  some  of  the  more  important  features  which 
characterise  the  only  school  of  learning  that,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  new  era,  might  seem  to  vie  with  the  great 
school  at  Paris.  But  the  interest  of  Englishmen  in  the 
hii^tory  of  the  university  of  Bologna  can  in  no  way  compare 
with  that  which  they  must  feel  in  the  earlier  annals  of  her 
illustrious  rival  If  we  except  the  impulse  communicated  to 
Europe  by  the  dissemination  of  one  particular  study,  the 
example  of  Bologna  would  appear  to  have  exercised  but  little 
umiuofHie  influence  north  of  Angers  and  Orleans.  She  formed  it  is  true 
BoiDgiu.  the  model  on  which  these,  and  most  of  the  other  minor  uni- 
versities were  constituted, — Toulouse,  Montpellier,  Grenoble, 
and  Avignon ;  she  gave  fashion  to  the  universities  of  Spain 
and  Italy;  but  her  example  obtained  no  further  than  the 
Danube  and  the  Seine'.  The  universities  of  the  rest  of 
Europe, — Oxford  and  Cambridge  in  England,  Prague,  Vienna, 
Heidelberg,  and  Cologne  in  Germany, — derived  their  formal 
constitution,  the  traditions  of  their  education,  and  their 
modes  of  instruction  from  Paris.  The  influence  of  thJB 
university  has  indeed  emboldened  some  writers  to  term  her 
the  '  Sinai  of  instruction,' — in  the  Middle  Ages'.  From  the 
foregoing  brief  survey  from  the  summits  of  the  Appennines, 
we  now  turn  therefore,  to  where,  amid  civic  strife  and  political 

'  'The  Sinai  of  the  Middle  AgM* 
woB  aleo  a  tenn  applied  b;  the  Be> 
nediotineB  to  Monte  Coasino. 


uwivEHsnr  of  paris. 


75 


agitation,  the  leading  minds  of  Europe  radiated  forth  their  < 
light,  and  the  law  was  given  from  the  chaire  of  the  Dominicans. 
The  points  of  resemblance  between  Paris  and  Bologna 
are  few;   those  of  contrast,  numerous  and  marked.     like 
Bologna,  Paris  finds  ber  earliest  legal  recognition  in  inde-  ' 
pendence  of  the  civic  authorities.     In  the  year  1200  Philip 
Augustus  passed  a  law,  that  students  or  professors,  charged  ■ 
with  any  criminal  offence,  might  be  arrested  by  the  provost, 
but  should  be  taken  for  trial  before  an  ecclesiastical  tribunal'. 
Ziike  Bologna,  too,  Paris  saw  its   university  rise  out  of  a 
aenes    of  entirely  spontaneous    efTorts.     But  with   cert^   ' 
general  features  sucb  as  these,  the  resemblance  ceases.  While 
the  associations  of  Bologna,  during  its  earlier  history,  were  ti 
almost  exclusively  secular,  those  of  Paris  were  &a  exclusively  u 
theo1<^cal.     The  teaching  of  the  former  grew  up  round  the 
Pandects ;  that  of  the  latter,  round  the  Sentences.    Tradition 
points  to  the  school  attached  to  the  church  of  St  Genevieve  ■ 
aa  the  germ  of  the   university.     It  is  certain,  that  in  the 
spirit  of  aatagonisra  which  Paris  evinced  towards  the  worldly 
lore  of  her  Italian  rival,  and  in  her  determination  to  guard 
her  more  aspiring  culture  from  the  withering  influences  of 
the  civil  and  canon  law,  we  must  look  for  the  causes  that,  at 
a  later  period,  still  repelled  those  studies  from  her  curriculum 
to  find  refuge  with  the  newly  created  provincial  universities' 


the 


'  Bnlani,  Hut.  Univ.  Paril. 
8.  A  decree  of  Innocent  iii.  ii 
early  put  ol  the  thirteenth  centnr;, 
preeents  the  euliest  hnovm  inelonce 
of  the  application  of  the  term  Vni- 
tenitai  to  thii  bodj.  Savignj,  c.  21. 
■ee.  137. 

■  ToaBanmer,  (it  4)  ssjn  'Diirfte 
doch  in  Paril  nor  das  von  der  Kirche 
fttugehende  canonische,  nicht  aber 
da*  Cinliecht  gelesen  werden ;  erat 
im  Jahre  1679,  ward  dies  Terbot  anf- 
■cboben.'  The  real  facts  appeac  to 
E«  aa  Io11owb:-(1)  The  Civil  or 
1>j!fnM»  Lav  was  aindied,  to  a  con- 
■derabla  extent  at  Paris,  in  the 
twelfth  aad  the  earl;  port  of  the 
Uibrteenth  centnneE,  a  fact  which 
Oa  nplicit  teetiimiD;  of  OiraldiiB 
Cambmuia  and  of  BiRordins  placea 
b^ond  donbt;  (3)  In  the  earlier  half 


ol  the  thitteenth  eentur;  the  study 
waa  probihited  bj  Honorina  cii.  and 
Innocent  it;  (3)  In  the  latter  half  o( 
tho  Bame  cenluiy  ve  find,  bj  tba 
testimony  of  Soger  Bacon,  that  it  waa 
eveiTwhers  in  liigh  favoor  with  tha 
eccleemBticBJ  aathorities,  (see  Com- 
ptndiim  Philotophia.  c.  4) ;  (4)  It  was 
not  until  the  year  1679  that,  after  a 
lengthened  banishment  it  was  again 
admitted  into  the  univeraityof  Paris. 
Bavigny  finds  considerable  difficult 
in  a  statute  of  that  oniversity  of  the 
year  1370.  permitting  students  to  go 
thronghtheir  oonrse  as  canoni  sts  with- 
out having  studied  the  cItiI  law;  for 
how.  he  aeliB,  could  they  study  the 
former  without  the  aid  of  the  latterT 
This  difficulty  however  applies  only  to 
a  more  advanced  period  is  the  historj 
of  the  two  stodiea.    It  iM  worthy  of 


76 


UNIVEBSlTr  OP  PABI8. 


CHAP.  L  and  atill  attracted  to  her  schools  the  speculation,  the  contro- 
'  '  '  versies,  and  the  religious  movements  of  the  age.  The 
university  of  Paris  again  was  distinguished  by  its  unity;  ' 
and  Savigny  attributes  no  small  portion  of  its  widely  extended 
influence  to  the  intimate  connexion  of  the  different  faculties, 
whereby  the  whole  body  became  participant  in  a  vast  variety 
of  scientific  and  theological  discussions.  Though  Bologna 
again  professed  chiefly  the  study  of  law,  her  discipline  was 
singularly  defective  ;  while  Paris,  though  she  gave  no  heed 
to  the  Paudects,  asserted  far  more  effectually  the  rights  of " 
authority'.  The  former  did  little  more  than  secure  for  the 
student  the  advantage  of  able  instructors,  and  a  liberty  that  , 
too  often  degenerated  into  licence ;  the  latter  forbade  faim  to 
-  exercise  any  power  in  her  assemblies,  and  required  that  he 
should  be  completely  subject  to  the  professors', — a  subjection 
which  her  statutes  permitted  to  be  enforced  by  that  corporal 
punishment  which  became  a  tradition  in  the  universities 
modelled  upon  her  example.  Another  point  of  contrast  is 
that  presented  by  the  early  developement  and  importance 
of  the  college  system.  Bulseus  indeed  inclines  to  the  belief 
that  the  system  is  coeval  with  the  university  itself;  we  shall 
hereafter  have  occasion  to  note  with  what  rapidity  these 
institutions  succeeded  each  other  in  the  fourteenth  century, 


note  that  the  perioil  ^lien  the  civil 
law  vsB  most  in  favour  at  Bome 
exactly  corrcspondB  vrith  the  time 
when  it  waB  regarded  with  most 
BnspicioD  at  PoriH,  and  this  is  in 
pertect  accord  with  the  general  tenaur 
of  feeling  at  that  oniversit;  during 
the  first  four  centories  of  its  eiiat- 

^  M.  d'AsBOillyhashappil;  touched 
upon  this  contrast: — 'IieB  deux  pre- 
mieres university  da  monde  se  sent 
propose,  di>B  le  xiii*  Bii^cle,  deux  ^pes 
de  constitution  BCDlaiie  devant  les- 
quels  dea  lora  la  chrdtientd  mddite, 
et  qui  tronvent  leur  rtelisation  com- 
plSte  dans  I'ordre  social  et  politique 
des  deux  peoples  qui  ont  voulu  cr^ei 
I'homme  k  leur  image,  confonix^ 
mentAl'exemploire  dea  choBCH  divines 
que  les  peuples  portent  en  eux,  elit 
peut-etre  hasordd  Flatou,    £t  vojei 


vone  a  qnellen  cons^nenees  pntiqnes 
et  demiorea  ponssent  forc^ment  des 
inclinations  si  diveroei.  A  Bologue, 
la  Ubre.l&yille  qui  regarde  par-deeme 
la  fiome  dea  pttpes  vers  Bnitus  et 
I'id^ol  antiqne,  quelle  faculty  tri- 
Oiophef  la  fafullfde Droit.  APftris, 
la  ville  de  I'antorit^,  celle  qui  penohe 
du  oati  de  C^sar  et  qoi  en  ittiTe  de 
tempa  en  temps  i  riotftiUihilit^  de 
BODveraina  pontifea  poui  aavoir  com- 
ment elle  doit  dMder,  d  oe  c'ert 
peneer,  quelle  faculty  domineT  la 
faculU  dc  TMologit.'  Albert  U  Orand 
I  402. 

'  BulaoB  has  endeavoond  to  proro 
that,  on  certain  occasions,  the  ttn- 
dents  were  admitted  to  vote;  an 
inference  which  Bavignj  holds  to  ba 
quite  unwarranted  b;  the  facta.  Ge- 
Khichu  da  R&mitehtn  Bechtt,  e.  ixi 
sec.  30. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  PARIS.  77 

when  their  utility  and  necessity   had  become  more  fully  chap.  i. 
recognized. 

We  have  quoted  the  observations  of  Savigny  on  the  g^J^/j"** 
spontaneous  character  of  the  growth  of  the  university;  it 
remains  to  trace  out  the  chief  outlines  of  its  formal  deve- 
lopement,  and  here  conjecture  must  to  some  extent  supply 
the  place  of  well-ascertained  data.  It  would  appear  to  be 
a  matter  beyond  doubt,  that  the  faculty  of  arts,  or  of  phi- 
losophy as  it  was  usually  then  designated,  was  the  first 
instituted  at  Paris.  It  is  not  however  to  this  faculty  that 
the  university  owes  its  eminence, — if  indeed  we  are  willing 
to  admit  that  the  university  can  be  held  to  have  existed  at 
that  period  when  the  trimum  and  quadrivium  of  antiquity 
embraced  its  whole  culture.  Its  celebrity  dates  from  the 
time  of  Peter  Lombard  rather  than  from  that  of  William  ' 
of  Champeaux^  and  the  audiences  who  gathered  round  the 
expounders  of  the  Sentences  must  be  regarded  as  the  true 
commencement  of  the  new  era.  These  audiences,  it  must 
be  noted,  were  not  composed  of  the  religious  orders;  and 
the  teachers  for  the  most  part,  in  singular  contrast  to  the 
intentions  of  the  compiler  of  their  celebrated  text  book, 
represented  the  speculative  tendencies  of  the  age,  and  it  was 
only  because  all  speculation  was  then  directly  concerned  with 
dogma,  or  in  professed  conformity  to  it,  that  they  found 
in  the  compilation  of  Peter  Lombard  sufficient  material  for 
their  powers.  As  the  audiences  increased,  the  teachers  also  < 
multiplied;  and  it  is  easy  to  understand  that  mere  pretenders 
to  learning  would  frequently  be  starting  up  whose  design  it 
was  to  impose  upon  their  enthusiastic  and  youthful  hearers. 
It  accordingly  became  necessary  to  protect  alike  the  learner  g^jij 
and  the  qualified  professor.  Out  of  such  a  necessity,  Conrin-  !>•?»«• 
gius  very  plausibly  conjectures,  grew  the  licence  to  teach*.  ^ 
But  such  a  formal  permission  could  not  justly  be  made  to 
depend  upon  the  vague  impressions  and  personal  prejudices 
of  the  electors, — who  were,  in  all  probability,  the  existing 

^  WiUiam  of  Champeanx  opened  lard,  who  thus  appears  to  represent 

a  school  of  logic  at  Paris  in  the  year  the  connecting  link  between  the  two 

1109 ;  Abelard  was  his  pupil,    and  faculties  of  philosophy  and  theology. 
Peter  Lombard  was  the  pupil  of  Abe-  *  Conringius,  De  Antiquit,  Acad, 


78 


ONrVEBSITT  OF  PABIS. 


professoriate  body ;  and  the  next  step— the  application  of 
a  definite  test  to  the  qualifications  of  the  aspirants  to  the 
dignity  of  doctor — followed  as  a  necessaiy  precaution.  Hence 
the  system  of  examinations.  The  possession  of  a  uaivereiiy 
degree  was  originally  nothing  else  than  the  possession  of  a 
diploma  to  exercise  the  function  of  teaching ;  a  right,  which, 
at  a  later  period,  was  equally  recognised  as  a  dut^.  The 
bachelors  expounded  the  Sentences  and  the  Scriptures ;  the 
doctors  and  masters  taught  systematically  in  the  schools  or 
preached  to  the  laity ;  but  all  those  who  gained  the  degree 
of  licentiate,  master,  or  doctor,  were  held  bound  to  devote 
a  certain  period  to  again  imparting  the  learning  they  had  ■ 
acquired '.  The  permission  to  teach,  consequent  upon  success 
in  such  examinations  as  were  then  instituted,  was  vested,  so 
far  as  the  university  was  concerned,  in  the  Chancellor ;  but 
the  Pope  alone  had  the  power  to  make  the  degree  of  doctor 
valid  throughout  Christendom.  '  It  may  be  worth  while  to 
mention,'  says  Professor  Maiden,  '  that  it  was  this  privilege 
of  catholic  degrees,  if  we  may  use  the  expression,  which  in 
somewhat  later  times  caused  the  confirmation  of  the  popes 
to  be  sought  whenever  a  new  university  was  founded.  It 
was  not  questioned  that  any  sovereign  might  erect  a  uni- 
versity in  his  own  dominions;  or  if  any  difficulty  were  rused, 
it  was  only  with  regard  to  a  theolc^cal  faculty  :  but  it  waa 
the  Pope  alone  who  could  make  degrees  valid  beyond  the  ' 
limits  of  the  university  in  which  they  were  conferred ".' 

The  division  that  obtained  at  Bologna  of  Cilra/monbmi 
and  UUramontani  was  represented  at  Paris  by  the  divisioii 
into ' nations.'    These  were  four  in  number: — (1)  theFrench    , 
nation,  including  in  addition  to  the  native  element,  Spaniards, 
Italians,  and  Greeks;    (2)   the  Picard  nation,  representing 


'  Cr^vier.  Hill,  de  VJJnivertild  de 
Parii,  HI  181.  M.  Le  Clerc  remorke, 
'C'dtait  nne  bonne  institntion  qno 
le  novlcUt  deq  baoheliers,  s'esBftjuit 
pendanttroiaonaanprofeaaorat  aon« 
la  direction  dee  maltrea,  qnoiqa'il 
n'e&t  point  Mlu  peut^Gtre  lear  im- 
poaer  quinze  ann^a  d'f prenvee,  ponr 
aniver,  en  tfa4ologie,  au  grade  da 
licenci^.    Mau  eet  exercice  tmnnaJ 


eat  it6  moina  stdrile  pom  em,  li. 
par  oette  manie  de  renfenner  too- 
joQTH  I'SBpiit  daoa  la  plaa  Mmite 
priaon,  ila  n'stusent  M  teniia,  poor 
faiie,  comma  on  disait,  leni  *pdB- 
cipe,'  de  commenter  nniqnement  Im 
lirraa  des  Bentancaa.'  £(dt  da  Zet- 
tra  au  SIV  SOett,  i  991. 

•  Maiden,   On^tii  of  UnivtniHa, 
p.  21. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  PARIS.  79 

the  students  from  the  north-east  and  from  the  Netherlands ;  chap.  i. 
(3)  the  Norman  nation;  (4)  the  English  nation*,  comprising, 
besides  students  from  the  provinces  under  English  rule,  those 
from  England,  Ireland,  Scotland,  and  Germany  *. 

It  may  at  first  appear   somewhat  anomalous  that  the 
great  centre  of  theological  instruction  in  Europe,  up  to  the 
fifteenth  century,  should  have  been  distinguished  rather  ^by 
its  allegiance  to  the  secular  than  to  the  spiritual  power,  by  ^ 
its  sympathy  with  the  kings  of  France  rather  than  with  the 
popes  of  Rome.    It  does  not  however  require  much  acquaint- 
ance with  these  centuries  to  be  aware  that  the  papal  policy 
was  systematically  dii'ected  to  the  discouragement  of  theo- 
logical controversy  and  speculation.     At  Paris  the  traditions  ewit  sym- 
of  Berengar  and  Roscellinus  were  still  fresh  in  the  memories  unirenuj 
of  men.     Even  the  excellent  designs  of  Peter  Lombard  ap- 
peared to  have  strangely  failed  of  their  avowed  object,  and 
to  have  fanned  the  flames  they  were  intended  to  allay.     We 
need   not  wonder,    therefore,   that    this    troublous   mental 
activity  and  unceasing  controversial  spirit  were  viewed  with 
disfavour  and  apprehension  at  Rome.     On  the  other  hand, 
long  before  the  time  of  William  of  Occam,  the  university 
had  evinced  its  sympathy  with  royalty  and  lent  its  aid  in 
repelling  the  arrogant  assertion  of  the  ecclesiastical  power.  ^ 
'  Notwithstanding/   observes   M.   Le  Clerc,   '  the  ties  that  Expiaiuttkm 
bound  it  to  the  pontiflfs  chair,  and  the  numbers  of  its  clergy  fe  ciac 
who  had  vowed  allegiance,  to  that  authority,  the  university 
had  never  been  wholly  an  ecclesiastical  body.    Though  bom 
under  the  shadow  of  the  cathedral  church,  it  took  form  and 
grew  up  under  the  protection  of  the  monarch  rather  than  the 
tutelage  of  the  bishop.     The  French  kings,  who  had  at  first 
accorded  it  but  dubious  and  precarious  aid,  as  soon  as  they 
perceived  the  accession  to  their  own  strength  to  be  derived 


^  Known  after  the  year  1430  as  oente  experiencia  legibns  bene  regi 

the  German  nation.  Universitatem  nostram  in  qoatuor 

'  A  corresponding    diTision    into  nationes  velut  ilia  distincta  est  licet 

four  nations  was  instituted  at  Prague,  alitor  nominatas,    ad    instar    illius 

Vienna,    Heidelberg    and    Leipzic.  doximos    dividendam.*    Statute    of 

*  Nos  adyertentes  Tenerabilem  Uni-  Univ.  of  Vienna,  Ranmer,  iv  16. 
versitatem  Parisiensem  pre  aliis  do- 


80  EXTENSION  OF  THE  UHIVEBSITY  MOVEMENT. 

.  from  the  new  alliance,- became  its  avowed  friends,  while  the 
popea,  its  first  and  most  ardent  promoters,  adopted  towards 
it  a  policy  of  mistrust,  coldness,  and  opposition;  and  the 
-  chancellor  of  the  cathedral,  on  whom  it  devolved,  as  the 
representative  of  the  pontifical  autliority,  to  admit  the  licen- 
tiates of  the  higher  faculty,  and  whose  claims  even  amounted 
to  a  kind  of  perpetual  presidency,  ceased  not,  so  long  as  his 
office  continued  to  exist,  to  persecute  the  university  to  which 
he  could  not  dictate','  The  force  of  this  criticism  will  be 
more  apparent  when  we  have  passed  under  review  the  new 
culture  and  the  tendencies  of  thought  that  riveted  the 
attention  of  Europe  upon  Paris  throughout  the  thirteenth 
century;  but,  before  proceeding  to  this  important  subject,  it 
will  be  well  to  mark  the  rapid  extension  of  the  movement 
of  which  the  two  moat  conspicuous  examples  have  already 
occupied  our  attention. 

The  only  other  universities  in  France  that  trace  back 
their  origin  to  the  thirteenth  century  are  those  of  Toulouse 
and  Montpellier ;  but  in  Italy  the  impetus  communicated  by 
.  the  study  of  the  civil  law  bore  fruit  in  every  direction.     In 
the  year  1222  the  civil  discords  that  prevailed  at  Bologna 
drove  a  large  body  of  students  and  professors  td  Padua,  where 
they  established  a  school  of  the  new  learning,  the  commence- 
ment of  that  illustrious  university.     A  similar  migration  in 
1204  had  already  given  birth  to  the  imiversity  of  Vicenza, 
rctiii.  Pisa,  Vercelli,  Arezzo,  and  Ferrara  rose  in  the  same  century ; 
while  in  our  own  country  Oxford  and  Cambridge   appear 
emerging  from  an  obscurity  which,  greatly  as  it  has  exercised 
the  imaginative  facility  of  some  eminent  antiquarians,  seems 
to  indicate  that  the  period  and  circumstances  of  these  founda- 
tions belong  to  a  field  of  enquiry  "which  the  seeker  for  real 
knowledge  will  most  prudently  forego.     It  may  however  be 
proh.Lio      observed  that  such  data  as  we  possess  would  appear  to  point 
"■"Xei^itci  to   an  origin  similar  to  that  assigned  to  the  university  of 
Jnd  l-Za-      Paris ;  the  school  in  connexion  with  the  priory  of  St  Fn- 
deswyde,  and  that  of  the  conventual  church  at  Ely,  being 

>  Eiat  del  Lettra  an  Quatorziimt  SilcU,  I  362. 


TRADITivyN  OF  LEARNING  IN  ENGLAND. 


81 


probably  the   institution   from  whence   the  universities   of  chap,  l 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  respectively  sprang  ^ 

The  scattered  links  which  serve  to  mark  the  connexion 
between  the  times  of  Bede  and  Alcuin  and  those  of  Robert 
Groeseteste  are  few  and  imperfect.  The  chain  of  continuity 
was  snapped  asunder  by  the  Danish  invasions,  and  it  would  ^nt  Danish 

1  ii/»'i  Invasion. 

here  be  of  small  profit  minutely  to  investigate  the  evidence  ^^  ^• 
for  a  tradition  which  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  existed. 
Learning,  to  use  the  expression  of  William  of  Malmesbury, 
was  buried  in  the  grave  of  Bede  for  four  centuries '.  The 
invader,  carrying  his  ravages  now  up  the  Thames  and  now  up 
the  Humber,  devastated  the  eastern  regions  with  fire  and 
Rword.  The  noble  libraries  which  Theodore  and  the  abbats 
Hadrian  and  Benedict  had  founded  were  given  to  the  flames'. 
In  the  year  870  the  town  of  Cambridge  was  totally  destroyed*. 
The  monasteries  of  the  Benedictines,  the  chief  guardians  of  nestmctioB 

'  *-*  ^      ^     of  the  Bene- 

learning,  appear  to  have  been  completely  broken  up;  *it  is 'jJj'^JJJJjg^^^ 

not  at  all  improbable/  says  Mr  Kemble,  '  that  in  the  middle 

of  the  tenth  century  there  was  not  a  genuine  Benedictine 

society  left  in  England'.'     The  exertions  of  King  Aelfred 

restored  the  schools  and  formed  new  libraries;  and,  under 

the  auspices  of  St.  Dunstan,  the  Benedictine  order,  renovated  ThcirRovirai 

at  its  sources  by  the  recent  establishment  of  the  Cluniac  ^^^ 

branch  on  the  continent,  was  again  established.     During  the 

reign  of  Eadgar,  when  the  land  had  rest  from  invasion,  no  ^a^^^ 

less  than  forty  convents  of  this  order  were  founded.     But 

once  again  the  Danes  swept  over  the  country  and  the  work 


1  '  While  we  cannot  doubt  that  a 
considerable  number  of  scholars 
studied  at  Oxford  in  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  centuries,  yet  the  fact 
that  no  tpeciea  of  pecuniary  tupport 
was  from  any  source,  that  we  know 
oi^  appointed  for  them,  and  that  no 
royal  charter  or  letter  has  ever  been 
prodiieed  hitherto,  though  Anthony 
Wood  speaks  of  their  lo$$^  of  an  ear- 
lier xeign  than  that  of  Henry  III, 
seems  to  raise  a  very  strong  suspicion 
ti^t  the  Uniyersity  did  not  exist  at 
all  before  the  Conquest,  and  that  as 
■oon  as  it  became  important  enough 
to  deserve  and  require  royal  recogni- 
tion, it  immediately  obtained  it,  and 


henceforth  begun  its  corporate  ex- 
istence, its  true  history  in  its  only 
recognizable  form.'  Anstey's  Introd. 
to  Miinimenta  Acadcmica^  i  xxxiv. 

'  '  Sepulta  est  cum  eo  gestorum 
onmis  pene  notitia  usque  ad  nostra 
tempora.'  Oesta  Rvgnm  Anglorumf  i 
sec.  02. 

*  See  Preface  to  Richard  of  Ciren- 
cester (Rolls  Series)  by  Rev.  J.  £.  B. 
Maj'or,  II  cx\i. 

*  Caius Hist.  Cantebrig.  Aead.-p. 89. 

*  Eomble's  Saxons  in  England,  ii 
452.  '  It  is  certain,*  says  Professor 
Stubbs,  *  that  in  942  there  were  no 
real  Benedictines  in  England/  In- 
trod. to  Ej^iitola  Cantuar,  p.  xviii. 

6 


82  BESTOEATION   OF  THE  BEMEDICTINE  OBDEB. 

L  of  devastation  was  repeated ;  Oxford  was  burnt  to  the  ground 
in  the  year  1009;  a  like  fate  overtook  Cambridge  in  the 
following  year;  the  library  at  Canterbury  perished  in  the 
same  visitation.  The  Benedictines  indeed  survived,  and, 
when  the  reign  of  Knut  restored  tranquillity,  notwithstanding 
the  traditional  jealousy  of  the  secular  clergy,  their  foundations 
rapidly  multiplied.  Under  the  patronage  of  Eadward  the 
Confessor  the  order  became  still  further  strengthened  and 
extended.  The  rival  foundations  of  St  Augustine  and  Christ 
Church  at  Canterbury,  those  of  Abingdon,  St  Alban's,  Bury, 
Ely,  Glastonbury,  Malmesbury,  Winchester,  Weatminater,  and 
Rochester,  all  professed  the  Benedictine  rule.  Odo,  the 
haughty  bishop  of  Bayeux,  refused  to  recognise  any  but  a 
Benedictine  as  a  true  monk.  But  though  the  monasteries 
once  more  flourished,  the  losses  to  literature  were  for  a  long 
time  irreparable.  With  the  second  Banish  invasion,  authors, 
whom  Alcuin  and  Aelfred  had  known  and  studied,  disappear 
for  centuries :  it  may  indeed  he  doubted  whether  the  flamea 
that  at  different  times  consumed  the  libraries  of  Borne, 
Alexandria,  and  Constantinople,  inflicted  a  more  appretnable 
loss  upon  the  progress  of  education  in  western  Europe.  At 
the  time  of  the  Conquest,  if  we  may  credit  the  testimony  of  a 
competent  though  somewhat  prejudiced  witness,  an  acquaint- 
ance with  grammar  marked  out  the  possessor  as  a  prodigy". 
Such,  in  briefest  narrative,  were  the  vicissitudes  through 
which  learning  in  England  had  passed  at  the  time  when  she 
once  more  bowed  before  the  conquering  sword,  and  other  and 
more  humanising  influences  began  to  give  fashion  to  her 
culture  and  her  institutions. 

Of  Vacarius,  and  his  lectures  at  Oxford  on  the  civil  law 
in  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  we  have  already  spoken; 
it  was  probably  about  twenty  years  before  that  an  English 
ecclesiastic  returning  from  Paris,  and  commiserating  the  low 

'  "  PeriiBBB  antem  iam  tnno  per  nan  pavci$  ante  advetitum  Iforman- 

DanicaB  aliaflqne  ernptionoe  omnem  norum  «nni».     CUrici  tileratura  («- 

priBcam  in  AnglU  eraditionem,  lu-  muftuario  contmti  vix  SaeTamento- 

culentnB  eat  teitis  GnilieliniiB  Mnl-  rum  verba   balbutiebant;  itvpcri  rt 

meBbaiiBnaig,CoiiqaaeBtoriBntoproi-  miraeulo  rrat  catterit,  qui  grammati- 

imos.  (Lib.  til.)  ' Literartim,'  iuquit  cam  niwKt.'"    Conringiiu,  Dt  Anli- 

ille,  '<[  religionu  itudia  obiolevtrani  quitatibut  Aeademicii,  p.  082. 


SCHOOLS  OP  OXFORD. 


83 


state  of  learning  among  his  countrymen,  essayed  to  rekindle   chap.  i. 
at  Oxford  some  acquaintance  with  Latin  and  a  love  for  letters. 
The  SentenPiarum  Lihri  Octo  of  Robert  PuUen  have  been  Robert 
supposed  to  have  suggested  the  Sentences  of  Peter  Lombard.  "*»  &•»*«?- 
They  are  however  characterised  by  strong  points  of  diflference ;  ^*^ 
an  absence  of  the  dialectical  element  and  the  elaborately 
^tablished  'distinction/  less  exclusive   regard  to  Fati-istic 
authority,  and  a  more  generally  scriptural  method  of  inter- 
pretation.    His  name  is  brought  forward  by  Anthony  Wood 
to  prove  that  Aristotle  was  studied  at  that  period  at  Oxford  \ 
The  same  writer,  on  the  authority  of  Leland,  infoims  us  that 
'PuUeyne  taught  daily  in  the  Schools,  and  left  no  stone 
unturned  whereby  the  British  youth  might  flourish  in  the 
learned  tongues.     Which  good  and  useful  labours  continuing 
several  years,  multitudes  canoe  to  hear  his  doctrine,  profiting 
thereby  so  exceedingly  that  in  a  short  space  the  University 
proceeded  in  their  old  method  of  Exercises,  which  were  the 
age  before  very  rarely  performed*.'     There  appears  to  be  no 
reason  why  the  general  fact  here  recorded  should  be  injected. 
Pulleyne,  according  to  the  consent  of  various  authorities,  S^Sil^ttw 
was  for  some  yeaI;^  a  student  at  Paris,  and  it  is  sufficiently  o^S^  ^th 
credible  that  what  he  had  there  learnt  he  shouki  teach  at  £y  oFpaiSi 
Oxford.    There  also  appears  to  be  good  reason  (or  believing 
that  long  before  the  thirteenth  century,  schools  existed  at 
Oxford  (tradition  points  to  the  Benedictines  as  their  foun^ 
ders)  and  that  these  were  presided  over  by  teachera  from 
Paris*.     Mr  Anstey,  who  has  devoted  considerable  attention 
to  the  subject,  regards  it  as  almost  beyond  dispute  that  the 
earliest  statutes  of  his  university  were  borrowed  from  the 
same  source.     'The  transition,'  he  says,  'from  mere  grammar 


1  Wood's  conolaBion  rests  on  a 
rather  narrow  indaotion: — *Bobert 
PnUeyue  who  flourished  an.  1146, 
did  before  that  time  read  at  Oxford 
optimarum  Ariium  disciplinat  which 
without  Aristotle  he  could  not  weU 
do.'  Annals,  i  280. 

>  ArmaU,  i  142. 

*  See  Mr  Anstey's  Introduction  to 
Munimenta  Academica^  i  xxix.  The 
foundation  of  the  Uniyersity  of  Ox* 


ford  by  King  Aelfred  must  be  claBsed 
with  the  other  historical  fictions 
with  which  the  earlier  pages  of 
Wood's  work  are  filled ;  an  infatua- 
tion which  in  so  generally  trustwor- 
thy an  antiquarian  is  almost  in- 
explicable, unless,  indeed,  we  regard 
these  pages,  as  some  have  done,  as 
intended  only  for  a  ponderous  and 
elaborate  joke. 

6—2 


84  UNn'EBSITT  OF  CAUBBIDOE. 

OHAP.  L  schools  to  a  studium  generaie,  or,  as  we  call  it,  an  university, 
cannot  be  traced ;  the  probability  however,  almost  amounting 
to  a  certainty,  is  that  it  was  effected  by  a  nearly  wholesale 
adoption  of  the  regulations  of  the  university  of  Paris'.' 
g^jjj^j  The   'earliest   authentic   legal   instrument,'   to   use  the 

vS^rwMjot  language  of  Cooper,  containing  any  recognition  of  Cambridge 
ombiUge.  ^  ^  university,  is  a  writ  of  the  second  year  of  Henry  in, 
addressed  to  the  sheriff  of  the  town,  commanding  all  clerks 
who  had  been  excommunicated  for  their  adhesion  to  Louis 
the  son  of  the  King  of  France,  and  who  had  not  been 
absolved,  to  depart  the  realm  before  the  middle  of  Lent; 
those  who  failed  to  yield  obedience  to  this  mandate  to  be 
arrested.  '  If,'  observes  Cooper,  '  (as  seems  very  probable) 
the  word  clerk  is  used  in  this  writ  as  denoting  a  scholar, 
this  appears  to  be  the  earliest  authentic  legal  instrument 
referring  to  the  existence  of  a  University  in  this  place'.'  Our 
university  history  would  accordingly  aeem  to  date  from  the 
commencement  of  our  true  national  history,  from  the  time 
when  the  Norman  element  having  become  fused  with  the 
Saxon  element,  and  the  invader  driven  from  our  shores,  the 
genius  of  the  people  found  comparatively  free  scope,  and  the 
national  character  began  to  assume  its  distinctive  form. 
Galling  evidence  of  the  Conquest  still  exhibited  itself,  it  is 
true,  in  the  Poitevin  who  ruled  in  the  royal  councils,  and 
the  Italian  who  monopolized  the  richest  benefices;  but  the 
isolation  from  the  Continent  which  followed  on  the  expulsion 
of  Prince  Louis  could  not  fail  to  develope  in  an  insular 
race  a  more  bold  and  independent  spirit  The  first  half  of 
the  thirteenth  century  in  England  has  been  not  inaptly 
^JS^„,^  designated  '  the  age  of  Kobert  Grosseteste.'  The  cold  com- 
Aiwl"'  mendation  with  which  Hallam  dismisses  the  memory  of 
that  eminent  reformer  must  appear  altogether  inadequate 
to  those  familiar  with  more  recent  investigations  of  the 
period.  The  encourager  of  Greek  learning,  the  interpreter 
of  Aristotle,  the  patron  of  the  mendicant  orders,  the  chastiser 
of  monastic  corruption,  the  fearless  champion  of  the  national 

1  MunimentaAcadrmica,  p.  iliv,  •  Annalt,  1 87. 


HISE  OF  THE  MENDICANT  ORDERS. 


85 


cause  against  Papal  aggression,  the  leader  of  thought  at  the  chap,  l 
sister  university,  deserves  a  foremost  place  in  the  history  of 
his  times.  *  Probably  no  one,'  remarks  his  most  recent 
editor,  '  has  had  a  greater  influence  upon  English  thought  nis  infiuenoo 
and  English  literature  for  the  two  centuries  which  followed 
his  age*.*  Those  familiar  with  the  literature  of  those  cen- 
turies will  bear  witness  how  often  the  name  of  Lincolniensis, 
the  bishop  par  excellence,  appears  as  that  of  an  independent 
authority*.  Grosseteste  died  in  the  year  1253;  and  the  half 
century  wherein  he  had  been  so  prominent  an  actor  had 
witnessed  those  two  great  events,  both  inseparably  associated 
with  his  name,  which  gave  a  new  aspect  to  learning  and  to 
the  institutions  of  the  Church, — the  introduction  of  the  new 
Aristotle  into  Christian  Europe,  and  the  rise  of  the  Franciscan 
and  the  Dominican  orders. 

The  evils  that  rarely  fail  to  accompany  the  growth  of  {J^^^j^^j^^ 
corporate  bodies  in  wealth  and  influence,  had  followed  upon  Jj, 
the  aggrandisement  of  the  Benedictines,  and  are  attested  by 
evidence  too  unanimous  to  be  gainsaid,  especially  by  the 
successive  institution  of  subordinate  orders,  which,  while 
adhering  to  the  same  rule,  initiated  or  restored  a  severer 
discipline*.  The  Cluniac  and  the  Cistercian  orders,  those 
of  the  Camuldules  and  the  Celestines,  of  Fontevrault  and 
Orandmont,  are  to  be  regarded  rather  as  reformed  than  as 
rival  societies, — attempts  to  do  away  with  grave  causes  of 


the  later 
Monastic 
Orders. 


^  Preface  to  Roberti  Grosse  teste  Epi  - 
ttoUe  by  Bey.  H.  B.  Lu&rd  (BoUb 
Series). 

*  Even  80  late  as  in  the  course  of 
studies  prescribed  for  the  University 
of  Tubingen  by  King  Ferdinand,  in 
1526,  the  name  of  'Lincouicus*  ap- 
pears with  those  of  Averroes,  Avi- 
cenna,  Albertus  Magnus,  Aquinas, 
Scotus  and  Occam.  See  Samvilung 
der  WUrttembergUcIien  Schul  Gesetze, 
dritte  Abtheiluug,  p.  91. 

'  Bespecting  the  origin  of  some  of 
the  minor  orders,  we  have  no  satis- 
factory information,  but  thofie  of 
Gluny  and  the  Cistercians  undoubt- 
edly took  their  rise  in  the  spirit 
indicated  in  the  text.  *The  refor- 
mation,* says  Tanner,  *of  some  things 
which  seemed  too  remiss  in  St  Be- 


nedict's rule,  begun  by  Bemon,  abbot 
of  Gigni  in  Burgundy,  but  increased 
and  perfected  by  Odo,  abbot  of  Cluni, 
about  A.D.  912,  gave  rise  to  the  Clu- 
nian  order;  which  was  the  first  and 
principal  branch  of  the  Benedictines ; 
for  they  lived  under  the  rule  of  St 
Benedict,  and  wore  a  black  habit; 
but  observing  a  different  discipline 
were  called  by  a  different  name.' 
See  Dugdale,  Monast.  v  iv.  With 
respect  to  the  Cistercians,  we  have 
the  testimony  of  Hugo,  the  Pope's 
legate,  in  his  letter  on  their  first  in- 
stitution,—*regul»  beatissimi  Bene- 
dicti  quam  illuc  tepide  ac  negligenter 
in  eodem  monasterio  tenuernnt,  arc- 
tius  deinceps  atqne  perfectius  inhffl- 
rcre  velle  professes  fuisse.'  Ibid,  v 
219. 


B6  RISE  OF  THE  MENDICANT  ORDEBS. 

CBAp.  L  scandal,  while  the  traditions  of  monasticism  remained.  Setf- 
peifection  nas  still  the  professed  aim  of  the  monk ;  devotion, 
humility,  seclusion  and  obedience,  his  cardinal  virtues ;  and  as 
be  illumined  the  scroll  or  chanted  the  intercessory  prayer, 
he  held  himself  well  absolved  from  the  duties  of  a  secular  life. 
The  isolation  prai^jised  by  the  followers  of  Facomius  and 
Antony  in  the  fifth,  widely  differed  however  from  that  of 
the  Benedictine  in  the  thirteenth  century.  The  former,  by 
shunning  intercourse  with  their  fellows,  sought  to  escape  the 
temptations  of  the  ilesh ;  the  latter,  while  they  jealously 
guarded  their  privileged  seclusion,  found  for  the  most  part  a 
S^jg^u^  solace  in  unmitigated  sensual  indulgence.  The  great  Beuedic- 
**'™'  tine  movement  in  Normandy  in  the  eleventh  century,  and  the 
great  Cistercian  movemmt  in  Elngland  in  the  twelfth,  had 
failed  to  effect  anything  more  than  a  partial  and  evanescent 
reform.  The  intense  selfishness  of  a  life  which  evaded  the 
social  duties  (mly  to  indulge,  with  less  restraint,  the  indi- 
vidual  appetites,  arrested  the  attention  even  of  that  gross 
and  uncritical  age',  and  a  striking  picture  of  the  actual  state 
of  affairs  at  the  latter  part  of  the  twelfth  century  has  been 
preserved  to  us  by  the  graphic  pen  of  Qiraldus  Cambreosis. 
In  the  year  1180,  when  a  young  man,  he  became  a  guest  on 
2^55^3^  his  return  from  the  Continent  to  London,  at  the  famous 
'  monastery  of  St.  Augustine  at  Canterbury.   He  was  hospitably 


'  Witness  npplicsition  l^  Giraldua 
Cambreiinis  of  the  compariaan  in- 
atituted  b;  Jerome  between  tlio  monk 
uid  the  eectilnr  priest  to  his  own 
times,  (iiraldna  was  bimaclf  an 
eccIeHiastia  anil  on  anpirant  to  the 
see  of  St  David's,  '  Monncbns  enim 
tHnquuu  uniUB  custou,  vel  singiilaria 
dictos.  Bid  BoliuH  cnram  agit.     Cleri- 

oitori  tonetur.  Est  itaqiie  monuchoa 
lanquam  granum  tritici  solum  ma- 
iiCDH;  eat  antem  clericua  tauquam 
gnuium  germinaiie,  et  in  horrea  rio- 
miiii  miiltDm  fructam  affctens.'  To- 
pagraphia  Ilibr.rnica,  Bk.  ill  c.  30, 
Tlie  brood  satire  of  the  friend  of 
(iiraUnii,  Walter  Map,  points  in  the 
same  Jircplion.  Map  was  archdea- 
con ol  Oxford  in  the  reiga  of  Richard 


I,  a  keen  wit.  ft  jovial  ploralist,  but 

a  niim  of  cnltoreand  true  eamestneaa. 
Ho  had  a  living  at  Westbnry-oit. 
Seiem,  Teiy  near  the  CisteieiMi 
alibe.v  in  the  forest  of  Dean.  En- 
crouohmont  b;  the  Cistercians  on 
liis  clerical  rights  may  have  added  to 
the  iudiguation  ot^is  satire,  ^rben 
on  his  rounds,  as  Justice  in  Zjn 
for  the  King,  he  was  wont  when 
taking  the  oath  that  he  would  do 
eqnol  jnatice  to  alt,  to  except  Jewi 
and  Cistercians,  as  men  to  whom 
equal  justice  was  an  abomination. 
His  Apocalypse  of  bishop  Golias  ia  ft 
fierce  satire  on  the  debauchery  and 
Benaualitj  of  the  order.  Bishop  Qo- 
lioH  is  represented  db  actaated  b<f 
the  fondest  hope  that  he  might  dis 
dnink  in  a,  tavern. 


RISE  OF  THE  MENDICANT  ORDERS.  87 

entertained,  but  his  astonishment  at  what  he  witnessed  was  chap.  i. 
intense.  The  conversation  and  manners  of  the  monks,  he 
afiSrms,  were  such  that  he  thought  himself  among  players 
and  jesters.  The  table  at  dinner  was  regularly  laid  with 
sixteen  covers.  Fish  and  flesh,  roast  and  boiled,  highly 
seasoned  dishes,  piquant  sauces,  and  exquisite  cookery, 
stimulated  the  flagging  appetite.  Though  the  ale  of  Kent 
was  of  the  best,  it  was  rarely  tasted  where  claret,  mead,  and 
mulberry  wine  were  constantly  flowing*.  There  is  ample 
evidence  that  his  is  no  exaggerated  description,  and  that  the 
monastery  at  Canterbury  was  far  from  exceptional  in  its 
character.  A  variety  of  causes,  it  would  seem,  had  combined  SSSSU  uS 
to  produce  this  laxity  of  discipline.  Lyttelton  in  his  History  ^^^""p'*^ 
of  the  Reign  of  Henry  II  attributes  to  the  civil  war  in  the 
preceding  reign  the  over-aggrandisement  of  the  monastic 
orders:  the  weak  and  the  timid  took  refuge  where  alone 
it  was  to  be  found;  while  those  who  participated  in  the 
struggle  often  committed  atrocities  for  which,  conscience- 
stricken,  they  sought  in  after  years  to  atone  by  founding  or 
enriching  religious  houses'.  In  some  instances,  the  wealthier 
and  more  powerful  foundations  had  obtained  exemption  from 
all  episcopal  control  and  were  responsible  only  to  the  Pope 
and  his  legate^. 

The  inevitable  effects  of  such  wide-spread  corruption  in  influence  of 

.    .  t  .  theCnisadec 

undennining  the  popular  faith,  were,  for  a  time,  to  some 
extent  counteracted  by  two  important  movements.  The  vast 
impulse  communicated  by  the  Crusades  to  Christian  Europe 
had  subserved  a  double  purpose, — it  had  rekindled  the  flame 
of  religious  enthusiasm,  and  had  afforded  to  the  more  reckless 
and  lawless  members  of  society  the  opportunity  of  reconcilia- 
tion to  the  Church, — not,  indeed,  by  the  alienation  of  worldly 
wealth,  but  by  appealing  to  those  very  instincts  wherein 
excess  and  criminality  took  their  rise, — the  love  of  adventure 
and  excitement*.     The  ultimate  effects  of  these  memorable 

^  De  Rehut  a  se  Oestit,  Bk.  ii  c.  5.  diBcipline,    appears    to   have    been 

*  HisU  of  the  Reign  of  King  Hen-  frequently  laid  aside  for  a  dress  of 
ry  II,  p.  880.  gay  colours.    See  Pearson,  Hist,  of 

*  Even  the  garb  of  the  monk,  that  England,  i  294. 

last  external  sign  of  compliance  with  ^  *  God,'  says  the  abbat  Guibert, 


88  BISE  OP  THE  HEITDICAKT  OBDEBS. 

■  e]cpe<litions  widely  difTurcd  however  from  thoee  originally 
contemplated  by  Urban  II.  Long  residence  in  an  enervating 
climate,  under  conditions  of  so  extraordinary  and  novel  a 
character,  could  scarcely  prove  favourable  to  the  habits  and 
morals  of  those  engaged.  Whatever  benefits  the  Crusades 
conferred  on  Christendom  were  probably  more  than  connter- 
balancod  by  results  of  a  different  nature.  If  invasion  was 
repelled  fmrn  Europe,  and  a  bond  of  anion  created  among 
the  nations  of  Christendom  in  the  place  of  internecine  strife, — 
if  chivalry  traces  back  its  origin  to  the  spirit  then  evoked, — it 
is  cqnally  certain  that  an  inlet  was  affordetl  to  many  baneful 
influences.  The  attempted  conversion  of  the  Saracen  not 
only  proved  fruitless,  but,  as  a  recent  writer  has  observed, 
it  seemed,  at  one  time,  much  more  likely  that  the  converters 
would  become  converted.  Tbe  Manicheistic  tendencies  which 
infected  the  Christianity  of  the  fourth  and  flfth  centuries 
reappeared;  the  belief  in  magic  and  the  practice  of  tbe 
magician's  arts  became  widely  extended;  the  Communistic 
excesses  of  these  times  have  been  attributed,  with  no  small 
probability,  to  the  indirect  influences  of  the  Crusades. 
Everywhere  might  be  discerned  the  workings  of  a  genuine 
but  ill-regulated  enthusiasm.  The  austerities  and  doctrines 
of  the  rival  sects  of  the  Patarins,  the  Cathari,  Bons  Homraes, 
Josephina,  Flagellants,  Publicani,  and  Waldcnses,  were 
regarded  by  the  orthodox  with  af^rehension  and  di^nay'. 

Scarcely  however  had  these  secondary  symptoms  become 
manifest,  when  another  movement  lent  new  prestige  to  the 
Church  and  revived  the  hopes  of  the  faithful.  Long  before 
St.  Louis  breathed  his  last  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  in  that  final 
expedition  on  belialf  of  the  beleaguered  Christian  settlements 


'invcDted  the  Cmsidcia  as  a  new 
wnj'  for  the  Init;  to  ntntie  for  thrir 
BitiB  nnd  to  merit  BulTution,'  qnotfd 
by  (ribbon,  c  58. 

i  ProfesBor  Brower'a   prefnce 


)  the  Mon 


I  Frail 


nx*ii;  nUo  Mr  LuonJ'a  I'reliice  to 
lifhrrli  Grottetnte  Epulolie.  Mr 
Ilri'wiT  regiitilii  the  doetrinen  of  llio 
Albisenucn,  which  sppenr  to  hnvo 
butD  a  form   ul  Muuiulieieui,   oud 


Ihone  of  the  '  BTerlasttng  Onspel'  aa 
attritiutable  to  the  a&me  inflaences. 
Tbo  CniBaden  appear  rather  to  have 
incrcHned  than  diminished  the  Hum- 
het  of  those  who  took  retnge  id  the 
monasteries.  See  MiclMud,  Hiit.  det 
Croitadfn,  iv  'i5&;  'aUo  Milmui, 
whose  view  of  their  cnlleotiTe  and 
Eiial  effpi^ts  is  Honienliat  more  favo. 
rablp.  Hilt.  Latin  ChrUtiaaitu,  Bk. 
VII  c.  0. 


RISE  OF  THE  MENDICANT  ORDERS. 


89 


in  Syria,  to  which  he  had  roused  the  flagging  enthusiasm  of  chap.  r. 
his  countrymen,  he  had  beheld  with  admiration  the  rise  and 
rapid  growth  of  those  two  great  orders  to  whose  untiring 
zeal  the  Church  of  Rome  was  so  largely  indebted  in  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries.  Within  less  than  ten 
years  of  each  other,  were  founded  the  order  of  St.  Dominic 
and  the  order  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi.  The  sagacious  glance 
of  Innocent  III  had  distinguished  between  the  genuine 
devotion  that  characterised  the  earlier  spirit  of  these  orders 
and  the  fanaticism  of  preceding  sects ;  he  had  discerned  the 
valuable  aid  thus  presented  to  the  Church ;  and  it  was 
nearly  his  last  act  to  bestow  upon  the  humble  followers  of  St. 
Francis  his  sanction  and  benediction. 

The  whole  spirit  in  which  the  institution  of  these  two  TheoonceiH 

\  tion  of  theso 

orders  was  conceived  stood  in  startling  contrast  to  the  ideas  ^'S^"*"^- 

o  tially  opposed 

then  associated  with  the  religious  life.     For  isolation  from  SonSli^'e? 
mankind  there  was  now  exemplified  a  spirit  of  evangelism 
worthy  of  the  apostolic  age ;  for  princely  edifices  the  renun- 
ciation of  a  settled  habitation ;  for  the  allurements  of  pagan 
learning  an  all-absorbing  devotion  to  theology ;  for  luxury  and 
Belf-indulgence  the  meanest  fare  and  the  coarsest  raiment; 
wherever  vice  and  misery  had  their  abode,  amid  the  squalor, 
poverty,  and  sufiering  of  the  most  wretched  quarters  of  the 
town,  the  Dominican  and  the  Franciscan  laboured  on  their  characterii- 
errand  of  mercy.     The  fiery  eloquence  of  the  former,  whose  i>omiRi«iM 
exemplar  was  St.  Paul,  drew  around   him   numerous   aii<l  SSS^SSS* 
enthusiastic  audiences ;  the  latter,  who  professed  to  imitate 
rather  the  spirit  of  the  '  beloved  disciple/  won  men  by  his 
devotion  and  the  spell  of  a  mystic  theology*.     The  contrast 


^  *  The  habits  of  the  two  orders, 
great  as  were  their  outward  resem- 
blances, were  essentially  and  radically 
difiPerent.  To  organize  and  systema- 
tize was  the  taste  and  business  of 
the  one.  To  bring  out  the  human, 
Bentimental,  individual  aspects  of 
theology  and  of  humanity  was  the 
characteristic  effort  of  the  other. 
The  Dominican  was  always  verging 
upon  the  hardest  intellectualism ; 
but  he  was  exempt  from  much  of 
the  BUperstitiou  to  which  the  Fran- 


ciscan yielded.  He  was  liable  to  all 
the  diseases  which  assault  men  of 
spiritual  aspirations,  to  much  of  the 
sensualism  into  which  they  fall, 
through  a  desire  of  finding  outward 
images  by  which  they  may  represent 
their  deeper  intuitions;  but  he  could 
not  be  withheld  by  mere  maxims  and 
formulas  from  tracing  the  windings 
of  a  thought,  or  from  following 
nature  into  her  hiding  places.  Both 
were  dangerous,  each  would  have  been 
terrible  without  the  other.    Together 


90 


BISE  OF  THE  KEXDICANT  OBDEttS. 


CHAP,  t  presented  by  both  orders  to  the  inactinty  of  the  Benedictines 
Decesaarily  appealed  with  singular  force  to  the  wants  and 
sympatliies  of  the  poor  amid  the  vidssitudes  of  that  tempes- 
»ffj^    tuoua  century.     The  two  orders  extended  themselves   with 
RnOrdui.  marvellouB  rapidity  over  Europe  and  yet  remoter  regions. 
Their  convents  multiplied  not  only  in  more  civilised  countries, 
hut  also  in  Kussia,  Poland,  and  Denmark  ;  their  miBsionaries 
penetrated   to   the   heart  of  Palestine,  to  the  inaccessible 
fastnesses    of   Abyssinia,    and  the  bleak  re^ons   of  Grim 
Tartary.     '  In  a  few  yean,'  says  Dean  Milman,  '  from  the 
sierras  of  Spain  to  the  steppes  of  Russia ;  irom  the  Tiber  to 
the  Thames,  the  Trent,  the  Baltic  sea ;  the  old  faith  in  its 
fullest  mediaeval,  imaginative,  inflexible  rigour,  was  preached 
in    almost    every    town    and    hamlet'.'      In    England   the 
Dominicans  met  with  less  success,  hut  this  was  fiilly  com- 
Tbeitudi-  peusated  by  the  rapid  progress  of  the  Franciscans.     Very 
uuo.  soon  after  the  establishment  of  the  latter  order,  they  had 

formed  a  settlement  at  Oxford  under  the  auspices  of  Qrosse- 
teste,  and  had  erected  their  first  rude  chapel  at  Cambridge. 
ESSFh"  ^it^iti  thirty  years  from  their  first  arrival  in  the  country, 
ih>p»iii«  they  numbered  considerably  more  than  a  thousand  and  had 
established  convents  in  most  of  the  more  important  towns. 
'  If  your  holiness,'  says  Grosaet«ate,  writing  to  Gregory  ix  in 
1238,  '  could  see  with  what  devotion  and  humility  the  people 
run  to  hear  the  word  of  life  from  them,  for  confession  and 
instruction  as  to  daily  life,  and  how  much  improvement  the 
cle^y  and  the  regulars  {dents  et  religio)  have  obtained  by 
imitating  them,  you  would  indeed  say  that  they  that  dwelt 
in  the  shadow  of  death  upon  them  hath  the  light  shined'.' 
Even  by  the  existing  religious  orders  they  and  their  work 
were  regarded,  in  the  first  instance,  with  far  from  unfriendly 
sentiments;  or,  if  jealousy  were  felt,  it  was  deemed  prudent 


the;  serrecl  to  shew  forth  the  connt- 
eracting  tendeucicB  of  a,  very  memo- 
rable periud.  II  eocb  held  domi 
some  trath,  each  brought  some  side 
of  tratb  into  hght  which  its  rival 
would  have  cnished.  If  tbey  left 
many  pemicioos  iufluenoeB  to  after 
agea,  they  awakened  a  spiiituol  and 


intellMtaal  euerg;,  withont  wbieh 
those  ages  would  have  been  vetj 
barren.'  Prof.  Maurioa,  Medinval 
Fhiloiophy,  pp.  165—166. 

'  Hilt.  Latin  ChrittiaitUy,  Bk.  a 
c.  9. 


THE  NEW  AKISTOTLE.  91 

to  repress  its  manifestation   while  the  current  of  popular  chap,  l 
feeling  flowed  so  strongly  in  their  favour.     Roger  of  Wend-  ^*"^^^^ 
over,  prior  of  the  Benedictine  convent  of  Bel  voir,  declares 
that  the  labours  of  the   new  missionaries   'brought   much 
fruit  to  the  Lord*.* 

With  the  activity  of  the  Dominicans  is  associated  the  instrumen- 
other  great  movement  of  this  century, — the  introduction  of  l^^g'jj'jjl, 
the  new  philosophy.     The  numerous  foundations  planted  by  SJ**!??!?*** 
them  in  the  East,  brought  about  an  increased  intercourse  ^'*^^*- 
between  those  regions  and  Western  Europe;  the  influence 
of  the  Crusades,  as  we  have  already  seen,  was  tending  to 
a  like  result ;   the  barriers  which,  in  the  time  of  Gerbert, 
interposed  between  Mahometan  and  Christian  thought,  were 
broken  down;  and,  simultaneously  with  these  changes,  the 
labours  of  Averroes,   who  died  at  Morocco  in  1198,  were 
spreading  among  the  Arabs  a  deference  for  the  authority 
of  Aristotle  such  as  no  preceding  commentator  or  translator 
had  inspired.     Another  widely  scattered  body  supplied  the 
link  that  brought  these  labours  home  to  Christendom.     The 
Jews  of  Syria,  and  those  who,  under  the  scornfully  tolerant 
rule  of  the  Saracens  in  Spain,  found  refuge  from  the  perse- 
cution and  insult  which  confronted  them  in  the  great  cities 
of  Christian  Europe,  were  distinguished  by  their  cultivation 
of  the  new  philosophy,    and   their  acquaintance  with  both 
Arabic  and  Latin  enabled  them  in  turn  to  render  the  works 
of  Averroes   accessible   to    the   scholars   of   the    Romance 
countries.     It  would  seem  to  be  a  well  established  conclusion  Arbtoue 
that  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle  was  first  made  known  to  «>  l??'"?®  ■■ 
the  West  mainly  through  these  versions.     The  rarity,  at  this  aSwc** 
period,  of  a  knowledge  of  Greek,  and  the  attractions  offered  ■®"'^*^ 
by  the  additional  aid  afforded  in  the  Arabic  commentaries, 
secured  for  these  sources  a  preference  over  whatever  had  as 
yet  appeared  that  was  founded  upon  an  immediate  acquaint- 

^  'Crerit  igitnr  in  brevi  hio  ordo  ales,  verbum  vitflB   proedicantes,   et 

fratram  praBdUctonim,    qui   Minores  turbis  agrestibos  virtutum  plantaria 

dicantnr,  per  orbem  uniyersum ;  qui  inserentes,  &uctum  plurimum  Domi- 

in  orbibus   babitantes   et  castelUs,  no  obtulerunt.*    Boger  of  Weudover, 

deni  et  septeni  exierunt  in  diebus  Flowers  of  Hi$t.  ed.  Wats,  p.  341. 
iUis,  per  yiUas  et  ecclesias  paroohi* 


98 


THE   ITEW  ABISTOTLC 


.  ance  with  the  Qreek  origioals'.  A  considerable  interral 
elapsed  before  translations  direct  from  the  Greek  appeared 
in  sufficient  number  to  rival  those  from  the  Arabic",  and 
here  it  will  be  well  before  wo  proceed  with  the  consideration 
of  the  interpretation  of  Aristotle  adopted  by  the  earliest 
teachers  of  our  uaiversitiea,  to  discriminate  the  sources 
from  whence  their  iuepiration  would  appear  to  have  been 
derived. 

^  We  have  already  had  occasion  to  notice  that  the  Aristotle 
of  the  schoolmen,  prior  to  the  twelfth  century,  was  nothing 
more  than  probably  two  of  his  treatises  on  Logic.^the 
Categories  and  the  De  Interpretattone ;  the  remaining  por- 
tion of  the  Organon,  as  translated  by  Boethius,  being  first 
made  known  at  the  beginning  of  that  century'.  It  remains 
to  explain  by  what  means  the  Middle  Age  translations  from 
the  Arabic  and  those  Irom  the  Greek  have  been  distinguished 
and  identified.  The  theories  of  different  scholars  on  this  ques- 
tion were  for  a  long  time  singularly  at  variance.  It  could 
not  be  doubted  that  the  source  from  whence  those  who  first 
introduced  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle  into  Christian  Europe 
derived  their  knowledge,  were  Latin  translations ;  but  in 
what  instances  these  translations  had  been  made  directly 
from  the  Greek,  and  in  what  instances  they  were  derived 
from  the  labours  of  the  Arabians,  was  in  considerable  dispute. 
Eruckor,  in  his  History  of  Philosophy,  put  forth  only  a 
confused  and  unsatisfactory  statement;  Keerea  inclined  to 
the   opinion  that  the   revival  might   be  traced  to  i 

>  'On  pnisait  plna  voiontiere  ft 
CPtte  Bonrce  qu'i  I'aiitrc,  puree  que 
lea  tnuliictiouB  de  I'li^Lreu  et  de 
Taiabe  ^taiciit  plus  litl^roles,  vi 
gu'ou  J  truavait  des  explicatioua 
que  I'o^curit^  du  lexte  coaiUit  trt's- 
udceHiMiirefl.'  Sourdain,  Rechcrchet 
Criliqiua,  etc.  p.  16. 

•  The  first  known  trannlftlion  di- 
rect Irom  the  Oreek  is  that  of  Jacqui  n 
de  VeQiee.  ll:iS.  ■  Jacobua,  cleriiua 
do  Vcnitia,  tranBtulit  de  grieco  in 
lutinam  quoedatn  UbroB  AriHtoteliB 
et  oommeiit&lua  est,  scilicet  Topica, 
AnaljtiooB  priores  et  poGteriores,  et 
Ijlonchoa,  quamvia  antiqua  traJulatio 
super   eoE   Lolieretiir.'     JIuidrIt    de 


Montr,  abbatii  S.  Michaelii,  Chronica, 
(quoted  by  Joordain,  p.  5B).  This 
however  would,  of  course,  odd  little 
to  tlie  actual  knowledge  of  Aristotle. 
*  Tbeee  portione  of  tbe  Organon, 
that  ie  to  any,  the  Prior  and  Postori- 
or  Analytics,  the  Topion,  »nd  the 
Elenchi  Sophislioi  becume  known 
OS  the  Nona  Logicn,  the  Catogoriea  . 
and  the  De  In  terp  relatione  aa  Veliu 
Logica.  See  Bnlajua,  ill  82.  Prantl 
ubserrea  that  in  Uuna  Bcotua  this 
diatinction  appears  to  have  been  that 
by  which  the  respeotiTe  treatises  were 
geuerally  known.  Ottehielue  der 
logik,  Ul  306. 


joubdain'b  reseabches.  93 

abnoet  entirely  independent  of  the  Arabic  translations:  Buhle  chap,  l 
and  Tjedemann  advocated  a  contrary  opinion  ;  Tenneraann 
attempted  to  reconcile  the  opposing  hypotheses ;  but  it  was 
reserved  for  M.  Jourdun,  in  his  essay  first  published  early  DruLA^Si* 
in  the  present  century,  to  arrive  by  a  series  of  lengthened 
and  laborious  investigations  at  those  conclusions  which 
have,  with  a  few  qualifications,  been  now  almost  universally 
accepted*. 

The  method  employed  by  Jourdain  was  to  take,  in  turn,  M«tbodof 
the  writings  of  each  of  the  schoolmen,  and  carefully  to  ''™*- 
compare  whatever  quotations  presented  themselves  &om 
Aristotle  with  the  earliest  Latin  versions  we  possess ;  he  was 
thus  enabled  not  only  satisfactorily  to  determine  the  period 
to  which  the  introduction  of  the  Aristotelian  philosophy 
mast  be  referred,  but  also  the  sources  to  which  each  writer 
was  indebted.  As  regarded  the  earlier  Aristotle,  the  trans- 
lations hy  Augustine  and  Boethiua  were,  of  course,  easily 
distinguishable  from  those  of  the  later  period ;  for,  besides  the 
evidence  afforded  by  the  character  of  the  writing  and  the 
abbreviations  employed,  the  former  translations  possessed  a 
certain  el^ance  and  freedom,  while  the  latter  were  character- 
ised by  extreme  literalness, — a  word  for  word  substitution  of 
Latm  for  Greek  which  often  greatly  added  to  the  obscurity 
of  the  original  Technical  terms,  moreover,  were  left  un- 
translated, being  merely  transcribed,  though  the  Latin 
mj^Ued  a  perfectly  satisfactory  equivalent.  An  equally 
trnatworthy  test  enabled  him  to  distinguish  the  versions 
from  the  Qreek  from  the  versions  from  the  Arabic ;  for,  in 
the  latter,  he  frequently  found  that  Greek  words  which,  in 
the  absence  of  an  Arabic  equivalent,  had  been  retained  in 
the  original  version,  were  incorrectly  spelt  in  the  Latin 
trsoslation ;  sometimes  too  the  translator  in  ignorance  of 
die  precise  meaning  of  an   Arabic  word,   left   it  standing 

)  Mr  HallMu'a  short  note  (LlUt<t-  hb  that  long  and  tcclioiiR  Inbour,  on 

tMWt  o/   EuTopt,    i' 69)  recognJBing  hia  own  part,  over  matcrislstowbioh 

Jaar^io'irewarclieg,  does  but  scuiit  tbe  fattitr  had  not  access,  hod  been 

Jiwlifw  to   theii   thoronghneEa    and  almoBt  entirely  destitute  of  any  re- 

tMitj,    Chailea    Jourdain,    in  hia  salt  catcnlated  to  modii;  the  original 

pnfice  to  tlie  edition  ol  1&13,  tella  conclagiouB. 


94  THB  NEW  AEUrrOTLE, 

tsRAP.  L  untranslated.  Id  many  cases  agun  considerable  collateral 
'  light  waa  afforded  by  the  divisions  of  the  chapters ;  in  the 
Metaphysics,  for  instaoce,  and  the  treatise  on  Meteors,  the 
division  of  the  Arabic  version  differed  from  that  of  the 
manuscript  employed  by  the  translator  from  the  Greek,  and 
the  discrepancy,  of  course,  reappeared  in  the  corresponding 
Latin  versions. 
5f^,?S'  The  concluaions  Jourdain  was  thus  enabled  to  establbh, 
'"•"'"  were,  in  substance,  chiefly  as  follow: — ^Up  to  the  com- 
mencement of  the  thirteenth  century  neither  the  philosophy 
of  Aristotle  nor  the  labours  of  hb  Arabian  commentators 
and  translators  appear  to  have  been  known  to  the  Schoolmen. 
There  were,  it  is  true,  translations  of  Avicenna  and  Alfarabi 
by  Gondisalvi,  coming  into  circulation  about  the  middle  of 
the  twelfth  century,  hut  they  failed  to  attract  the  attention 
of  the  learned  in  France  and  England.  Daneus  remarks 
that  the  name  of  Aristotle  never  once  occurs  in  the  Master 
of  the  Sentences'.  But  by  the  year  1272,  or  two  years 
before  the  death  of  Thomas  Aquinas,  the  whole  of  Aristotle's 
writings,  in  versions  either  from  the  Greek  or  the  Arabic, 
had  become  known  to  Western  Europe.  Within  a  period 
therefore  of  less  than  three  quarters  of  a  century,  this 
philosophy,  so  for  as  regards  Christendom,  passes  from  a  state 
of  almost  complete  obscuration  to  one  of  almost  perfect 
revelation.  A  further  attention  to  ascertained  facts  enables 
us  yet  more  accurately  to  determine  the  character  of  these 
translations  and  the  order  of  their  appearance,  and  adds 
considerable  illustration  to  the  whole  history  of  the  esta^ 
blishment  of  those  relations  of  the  Aristotehan  philosojdiy 
with  the  Church  which  constitute  so  important  a  feature 
in  the  developcment  of  this  age. 
Thduiuni         With  regard  to  the  sources  from  whence  the  respective 

phUoionhyof  ,         "  ,      .        ,     .  .       ,  ■   1  1 

tuSlintm-  translations  were  denved,  it  is  in  harmony  with  what  we 

aJ^^""    should   be   disposed   to  expect  from  the  attention  paid   by 

•ouRM.        jjjg  Arabians  to  natural  science,  that  we  find  it  was  chiefly 

the  natural  philosophy  of  Aristotle  that  was  made  known 

through  their  agency  to  Europe,  and  constituted  consequeolJy 

■  ProUgomtna  in  Pttri  Lamb.  Sentential,  Lib.  i  Geneva,  1C80. 


JOUBDAIH'ei  EESEABCHES.  95 

the  earlier  kabwa  portion  of  the  newly  imported  leaming.  citap.  i. 
The  Physics,  the  History  of  Animals,  the  De  Plants,  the  '  ' — ' 
treatise  on  Meteorology,  were  among  the  number;  the 
translation  by  Michael  Scot  of  the  De  Anima  must',  when 
considered  in  connexion  with  the  Arabic  interpretation  of 
the  theory  of  the  treatise,  be  added  to  the  list;  a  complete 
translation  of  the  Ethics  alone  representing  the  other  class 
of  Aristotle's  writings.  The  translations  Jrom  the  Qreek, 
on  the  other  hand,  included  the  earliest  version  of  the  Da 
Anima,  the  Metaphysics,  the  Moffna  Moralia,  the  first  four 
books  of  the  Ethics,  the  Politics,  the  Khetoric  and  the 
Puetics ;  among  the  scientific  treatises  were  the  Parva 
Ifaturalia  and  some  others  of  minor  importance. 

So  soon   however  as   the  translations  from  the  Qreek  sapniiiiitr 
became  more  generally  obtainable,  they  rapidly   displaced  g^°*?T'^ 
the  preceding  Tersions.     Of  this  the  reason  is  not  difficult  2^^,13^ 
to  perceive.    If  the  versions  from  the  Qreek  by  James  of    * 
Venice,  John   of  Basingstoke,  and   William   of  Moerbecke, 
were  punfiil  from  their  extreme  literalness',  those  from  tiie 
Arabic  by   Hermann   the   Qerman,  Adelard   of  Bath,  and 
Uicbael   Scot,  lay  under  the  still   more   serious  defect   of 
having  been  filtered  through  the  medium  of  some  half-dozen 
preceding  versions.    It  is  an  ascertained  fact  that  the  Arabic 
tzanslations   were  invariably  made  from  Hebrew  or  Syriac 
manascripts*.   Even  Averroes,  who  was  supposed  by  Jourdain 
to  have  translated  Aristotle  into  Arabic  directly  frem  the 
Greek,  has  been  shown  by  later  investigators  to  have  been 
entirely  ignorant  of  the  latter  language*.     The  statement  "f  „  _^. 
Benan  leaves  us  almost  bewildered  as  we  seek  to  realise  ™wiiigt 
the  labyrinth  which   the    thought    of   Aristotle   was   thus 
doomed  to    traverse : — '  Quant  k   la   barbarie  du    langage 
d'Averrogs,  peut-on   s'en   ^tonner  quand  on  songe  que  lea 

>  *  Oa  le  mot  latin  eontre  le  mot  mtbeii  snr  Am  TsreioiiB  bAnuqoM.* 

■ne,  de   mfime  qoe   le*   pibcet  de  Averroit  ft  VAvfTrSitnu,  p.  203. 
raehiqnitrE'sppUqneDt  EoxIeBCMei.'  ■  *Iba-Bo«ehd  n'a  In  Aiiitotequa 

Jootdain,  Seehmhtt  Criligu^i,  p.  19.  dans  lea  aDciemtes  TOraioDB  Iait«a  dq 

•  Bman  aajB,  'An  ui  et  an  nn  STriaqne  par  HoneiiiIbii-lBliak,Iahak 

■ftfiln.    lea  badaetions   m   faisaient  Mn-Honem,Iahjabeii.Adi,ete.'  Ibid. 

hwjowa  directemenl  de  Tarabe.     Ce  p.  60.     Bee  also  Monk,  MHanga  d« 

nt  fat  qne  txtanoonp  plna  tard  qa'on  Philoto^hU  Jvivt  el  Srabe,  pp.  481, 

M  mit   ft  tndniTB  lea   philoaophei  US. 


96  .    THE  NEW  ABI9T0TLE. 

ctTAP.  I.  Alitions  impritn^  de  ses  ceuvres  n'olilTent  qu'une  traduetion 
latine  dune  huductton  hebraXque  dune  commeittaire  fait  sur 
une  traduction  arabe  d'une  traduction  eyriaque  dun  texte 
grec;  quand  on  songe  surtout  au  g(!iiie  ei  different  des  langues 
B^mitiques  et  de  la  langiie  grecque,  et  i,  I'entrfime  subtitit^ 
du  texte  qu'il  s'agiesait  d'^laircir'?" 
th^iSS"  ^^  "^^  naturally  to  be  anticipated  that,  with  the  strong 
toTbtH?*  preposseseion  in  favour  of  Aristotle  which  his  traditional 
phiioMphj.  aHthgrity  as  a  logician  had  secured,  and  which,  as  Jourdain 
remarks,  had  created  a  disposition  to  regard  his  dicta  as 
well  nigh  infallible  in  every  field  of  knowledge*,  this  new 
literature  would  at  once  command  attention  and  form  an 
important  contribution  to  the  speculative  philosophy  of  the 
a^e.  When  we  remember  moreover  that  the  Arabians  in 
their  commentaries,  by  the  light  of  which,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  this  new  learning  was  first  studied,  extolled 
'  or  interpreted  the  Aristotelian  decisions  with  but  little  regard 
to  their  anti^onism  to  the  Christian  faith,  we  perceive  that 
there  was  far  greater  probability  that  those  decisions  would 
be  received  and  adopted  under  the  impulse  of  a  first  enthu- 
siasm rather  than  upon  such  reSexion  as  a  more  deliberate 
estimate  might  suggest.  It  must  also  be  remembered  that  the 
traditional  hostility  to  pagan  learning  inculcated  by  Gregory, 
Alcuin,  and  Lanfranc,  pointed  more  at  the  licentiousneas 
of  the  poets  than  at  the  dogmas  of  the  philosophers.  The 
bitter  invectives  of  Tertullian  against  Greek  philosophy 
would  have  seemed  well  nigh  unintelligible  to  an  age 
wherein  that  philosophy  had  almost  passed  froia  men's 
memories,  or  what  remained  of  it  had  been  received  into 
the  bosom  of  the  Church ;  wherein  Boethius  passed  for  a 
Christian  writer,  and  Plato  taught  sheltered  under  the 
authority  of  Augustine;  while  Seneca,  if  studied,  simply 
enforced  the  rules  of  a  virtuous  life  from  a  somewhat 
different  standpoint;  and  Cicero,  to  use  the  expression  of 
Niebuhr,  was   a  5eo«  oyiimffTtxi  whose  attributes  were  but 

'  AvfTToft  et  AverToiijnt,  p.  53.  qn'on  le  regorilait  oonune  on  aultra 

'  '  L&    r^pntation   dont    Aristote  infallible  en  toate  eefiae  de  Boienoe.' 

jouiasait,   oomme  logicien,  duminit  Rcehercha  Critiqw,  etc,  p.  S. 

uae  telle  eiteiuioii  i  bod  antoiiM 


DIFFICULTIES  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


97 


dimly  apprehended.  Here  however  like  Minerva  from  the  chap.  i. 
head  of  Jupiter,  had  suddenly  appeared  an  entire  and 
symmetrical  philosophy, — a  system  the  cimningly  contrived 
fabric  of  which  permitted  not  the  rejection  of  a  part  without 
danger  to  the  stability  of  the  whole ;  a  theory  of  ethics, 
harmonious  and  admirably  developed ;  a  psychology,  somewhat 
at  variance  with  the  schoolman's  notions,  but  coherent  and 
well  defined ;  conjectural  solutions  in  metaphysics,  far  less 
harmonious  and  intelligible,  but  full  of  attraction  for  the 
dialectician;  theories  of  government  for  the  statesman; 
treatises  on  nearly  every  class  of  natural  phenomena  for  the 
investigator  of  physical  science.  It  seemed  equally  perilous 
to  admit  and  to  repudiate  stores  of  learning  sanctioned  by 
such  authority  but  yet  opening  up  to  such  dangerous  specu- 
lation. The  ecclesiastic  and  the  scholar,  we  may  well 
understand,  were  torn  by  contending  emotions. 

It  is  due  to  the  intolerant  sagacity  of  the  Church  of  ^^riS^ 
Bome  to  acknowledge  that  she  soon  detected  the  hostile 
element  latent  in  the  new  philosophy.  Very  early  in  the 
century  her  denunciations  were  distinctly  pronounced.  In 
the  year  1210,  at  a  council  convened  at  Paris,  certain  por- 
tions of  the  scientific  treatises  were  condemned  \  and  it 
was  forbidden  either  to  teach  or  to  read  the  commentaries 
by  which  they  were  accompanied.  M.  Jourdain  has  shown 
that  these  were  undoubtedly  translations  from  the  Arabic, 
and  we  may  readily  admit  the  hypothesis  that  their  condemna- 
tion was  the  result  rather  of  the  pantheistic  interpretations 
of  the  commentators  than  of  the  opinions  of  Aristotle  himself*. 
It  is  evident  indeed  that  however  much  the  Crusades  may 
have  been  instrumental  in  bringing  about  that  intercoui*se 
which  led  to  the  introduction  of  the  new  learning,  the 
feelings  they  evoked  necessarily  disposed  the  Church  to 
regard  all  Saracenic  thought  as  hostile  to  the  faith.     Nor 


*  Latinoy  (see  De  Varia  ArUtoielit 
in  SchoU$  Protettantium  Fortuna^  o.  1) 
relying  on  the  antbority  of  Rigordns 
hM  asserted  that  it  was  the  Meta- 
physics that  were  condemned  on 
this  occasion;  but  Jourdain  has  ad- 
duced the  sentence  itself,  wherein  it 


is  expressly  stated  that  they  are 
lihri  Aristotelis  de  naiurali  philoto^ 
phia,  Recherches  Critiques^  p.  190. 
*  See  chapter  entitled  Commentairet 
$ur  Ariitote  in  La  Philosophie  de 
Saint  Thomas  d^Aquin,  by  Charles 
Jourdain,  i  83. 


98  THE  ITEW  ABlBtOTLB. 

;  vBS  the  patronage  of  the  emperor,  Frederic  u  likely  to 
win  much  &Tour  for  8uch  literature'.  He  was  himself 
accused,  at  a  somewhat  later  period,  of  having  written  a 
book  (now  known  never  to  have  existed)  which  coordinated, 
as  developements  of  a  like  spirit  of  imposture,  the  Mosaic, 
the  Christian,  and  the  Mahometan  religions';  the  difficulty 
with  which  he  had  been  induced  by  the  Pope  to  join  in  the 
Crusades,  was  notorious ;  and  his  sympathies  with  his  Moorish 
subjects,  who  were  numerous  in  the  two  Sicilies,  equally  so. 
Accordingly,  as  the  new  Aristotle  made  its  way,  the  anathemas 
of  the  Church  were  beard  following  upon  the  study.  In  1215, 
the  Pope's  legate  repeated  the  prohibition  of  1210.  In  1231, 
a  decree  of  Gregory  ix  forbade  the  use  of  the  treatises  on 
natural  science,  in  the  same  university,  until  they  should 
have  been  inspected  by  authority  and  '  paired  &om  all  sus- 
picion of  error'.'  We  learn  from  Boger  Bacon  that  this 
prohibition  expressly  pointed  at  the  commentaries  of  Avicenna 
and  Averroes.  On  the  same  authority  we  gather  that  it  was 
about  this  year  that  the  most  considerable  influx  of  the  new 
learning  took  place*. 


^  It  ns  probably  about  the  yeai 
1230  tbat  Frederia  n  sent  to  the 
tlniTenity  of  Bologna  translatiotui, 
partly  from  the  Greek,  parti;  from 
the  Arabia  of  Aristotle  and  '  other 
philosophen,'  ohiefly  Ptolemy;  quat 
adime.  Bays  Uie  royu  letter  ai 
Hying  them,  originalium  di 
ordinatiom  eoiuertat, 
vfttivm,  qiuu  lit  atat  prima  etmeet- 
lerat,  operimenlo  eonUctat,  vrl  homi- 
Rii  defectu*  out  operii  ad  Lalina 
tltufuic  notitiam  ntm  pcrtluztl.  Vo- 
UnUi  igititr,  u(  vcneronda  (anlomm 
openim  rivnU  avctoritat  ajiud  not,  non 
cAiqatcommodiacommttnUnaiVoeiior- 
gmui  tTodvee  itmotetcat;  taper  viToi 
Ueiot,  tt  in  utriiuque  Ungate  prvla- 
tione  ptritot,  inttanter  ptinmu*  per- 
iorum  jidtliitr  nrvata  virginitatt, 
traniferri,  Conringiiu,  Be  Antiq. 
Acad.  p.  101.  FranU  attaohea  con. 
■iderable  importance  to  the  Empe- 
ror's patrotukge :— '  Hin^egeo  iat  iiohl 
anmnehmen,  dais  leit  der  Aute- 
gODg,  welche  Friedrich  geseben  hatle, 
fortwitbrend  an  Terschiedenen  Oiten 


dnrch  Manohe,  Ton  welohm  wit  uicht 
einmal  die  Hamen  kennen,  neue 
Uebertragnngen  zn  Tage  gcdSrdsrt 
werden  konnten.'  Qeitkiehu  da-  I^o- 
gik.  III  G.  Among  the  tranalaton 
employed  by  the  emperor  was  the 
celebrated  Michael  Scott,  who  wal 
also  patroniaed  by  Honoriiu  IIL 

■  The  Bt  rribtu  Impoilorihii. 
'A  book  was  eoid  to  have  exiatcd  ftt 
this  time,  with  this  title ;  ithaaiMTer 
been  dieoovered.  I  hare  seen  »  TTtlgar 
prodaotioii  with  the  title,  of  modnii 
mannlaetore. '  Milman,  fTiti.  Jjotte 
Chmtiantljr,  Bk.  i  c.  1. 

'  'Ad  hno  jnbemna  at  madatri 
artimn  nnam  leDtionem  de  Priaaano, 
et  nnAm  pout  aliam  ordinarie  aampei 
l^ant,  et  librie  illis  DataraUbIU^  qnl 
in  oonoilio  provinciali  ex  oerte  eeien- 
tia  prohibiti  fnere  Fahaiiu,  non 
ntantor,  qaonsqne  eiaminati  fn^ 
rint,  et  ab  omni  erionun  mspiaiane 
pnrgatL'  LauDOy,  Dt  Yaria  ArittoU' 
JM  ForUma,  o.  1. 

*  Opta  Trrtium,  c.  9,  ed.  Brewor, 


THE  QUESTION  OF  THE  AGE.  .  99 

Here  then  was  a  grave  question  pressing  upon  the  leaders   <^^^- 1- 
of  the  age.     Was  this  massive  and  imposing  philosophy  toi%«4ue«tioa 
be  regarded  as  some  hostile  fortification  menacing  the  rights  gJhooSiS 
and  authority  of  the  Church,  or  might  it  not  be  possible  for 
the  Church  herself  to  garrison  it,  and  hold  it  as  some  strong 
outwork   against  the  foe?    Was  the  new  Aristotle  to  be 
repudiated  and  denounced,  even  as  Gregory  had  denounced 
all  pagan  literature,  or  was  it,  if  possible,  to  be  accepted  and 
reconciled  with  Christian  dogma?    The  degenerate  Bene- 
dictines, it  need  hardly  be  said,  evaded  the  difficulty  and  the 
responsibility  of  so  momentous  a  decision ;  upon  the  school- 
men, who,  as  representatives  of  the  progressive  spirit  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  were  to  be  found  among  the  mendicant 
orders  alone,  it  devolved  to  accept  the  nobler  alternative  and 
to  essay  a  perilous   and  arduous  task.     A  concurrence  of 
events  appears  to  have  largely  conduced  to  their  temporary 
success.     Apart  from  the  reverence  with  which  any  writings 
that  bore  the  name  of  Aristotle  were  then  regarded,  it  is 
evident  that  those  influences  to  which  we  have  already  re- 
ferred were  extending  the  arena  of  mental  activity.     TheThenewiite- 
dread  anticipations  of  preceding  centuries  no  longer  himgj^j^^^ 
gloomily  over  thought  and  action ;  and  the  impulse  generated  *^ 
by  the  Crusades  and  the  mendicant  orders  was  fully  shared 
by  the  new  and  fast  increasing  centres  of  education  and 
learning.    The  scanty  literature  of  the  age  failed  altogether 
to  satisfy  the  growing  appetite.     The  controversy  respecting 
Universals  could  not  last  for  ever:   even  the  Benedictines 
were  rousing  themselves  to  fresh  literary  efforts;   and  the 
rise  of  the  Rhyming  Chroniclers  in  England  and  that  of 
the  Troubadours  in  France  are  indications  of  a  very  general 
craving.    It  was  precisely  when  this  craving  was  at  its  height  ^ 
that  the  new  Aristotle  appeared,  and,  considered  in  the  light 
of  the  facts  which  we  have  brought  together  in  our  preceding 
tchapter,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  sacrifice  which  the 
Church  at  first  sought  to  impose  upon  the  orthodox,  in  de- 
manding -the   exclusion   of   such    important    accessions    to 
philosophy,  was  one  of  no  ordinary  magnitude. 

And  here,  before  we  pass  on  to  note  the  effects  produced 

7—2 


100 


THE  VEW  ABinOTLB. 


HAP.  L  b;  these  acceesionB,  and  tbe  new  literatare  to  which  they 
Kof^  gAve  birth,  it  will  be  well  to  turn  amde  for  a  moment  for 
Ik  jLBm  the  purpose  of  fonning  a  final  estimate  of  the  sources  from 
rtBT-  whence,  up  to  about  the  year  1230,  men  like  Anselm,  Johii 
of  SaliabuTy,  and  Giraldua,  derived  their  learning  and  their 
inspiration.  The  two  catalogues  here  annexed  will  serve  to 
furnish  a  sa6Sciently  just  conception  of  those  Btore&  They 
are  both  probably  of  the  twelfth  century,  —certainly  not  later 
than  the  eaily  part  of  the  thirteenUi, — the  one  representing 
tbe  library  of  the  Norman  monastery  at  Bee,  the  other,  that 
of  Christchurch,  Canterbury*;  the  former  a  purely  Bene- 
dictine foundation ;  the  latter,  at  Uie  period  to  which  the 
catalogue  belongs,  a  more  catholic  society,  where  cuions 
mingled  with  monks,  and  having  somewhat  the  relation  of 
a  mother  institution  to  other  foundatieu  throughout  the 
country*, — a  relation  which  probably  accounts  for  tbe  nume- 
rous copies  of  the  ordinary  text  books  in  its  posseeedon. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  literary  resources  of  these  two 
great  centres  of  monasticism  were  but  little  beyond  what 
our  preceding  investigations  would  lead  us  to  anticipate. 
The  meagre  literature  of  the  traditional  Trivivm  and  Quad' 
rivium.  is  of  course  there.  Martianus  Capella,  represented 
by  a  single  copy  at  Bee,  has  a  quadruple  existence  and  a 
commentator  at  Canterbury ;  but  Caasiodorus  and  Isidorus  at 
tbe  Norman  foundation,  and  wanting  to  the  other,  may  be 


I  The  fint  of  thew  c«t*]<^M  U 
taken  from  Baraiason,  Rapport  rur 
Ui  Bibliothiquei  de  VOuat.  Tbe 
editor  coQBiden  that  the  manOBcript 
maj'  possibly  be  of  the  thirteenth 
oentnrr  (p.  162  andAj^nd.  p.  37G); 
but  M.  lUmaaat  obwrvei  tbitt  the 
'  books  given  bj  the  Bishop  of  Bajenx 
ouold  not  have  been  given  later  than 
1164,  tbe  year  of  hie  death.  SaiM 
Antelme  dt  Cantorb^ry  (Pari*  186S), 
p.  457.  Tbe  Hoond  eatalogae,  now 
printed  tor  the  firat  time,  ii  (rom 
HS.  IL  3.  13,  in  the  Univereit; 
Library,  Cambridge.  Ur.  Bradahaw, 
to  whom  I  am  indebted  tor  my 
knowledge  of  it,  is  of  opinion  that 
the  Duuiaicript  belongs  to  tbe  end  of 
the  tvellth  or  tbe  beginning  ol  the 


thirteenth  oentory. 

■  <  The  oathedral  ehorob  of  Oimter- 
bnry  wa«  not  a  monattcry  in  the 
same  sense  as  that  of  St.  Angnittne'i 
in  the  same  city  ;  tbe  latter  wW 
foonded  tor  moiuatio  pnri>0Ma ;  tlM 
other  waa  the  mother  chomh  of  tlw 
whole  kingdom,  its  monaatie  oharxi- 
tet  being  klmoat  aoeidentaL  P<f""f| 
even  in  the  strioteat  di^  of  Tegular 
diaoipline,  it  had  oontained  nuuj 
olergy  who  were  not  moaki,  ana 
many  monks  who  wars  m  only  in 
name.  As  at  tbe  first  the  eMsntial 
character  of  its  imnatea  wai  priaatty, 
not  monattic,  ta  aa  time  went  aa, 
their  aaooeesors  inolnded  both  w*fwifc" 
and  priests.'  Prof.  Stnbba,  FreL  to 
EpitU  CantaarienMtt,  pp.  xzitU  zxiv. 


101 


I 


lif 


i-ilHi; 

llljlillil 


iii  111  iflrl 


f 


I 


i'i'iiJ'i'iiiy'! 

Ill,  il  illli  I  III  I  »"}  ! 


ill 

iii 


III  -  ^. 

ill  liiifiiiiiiii 


103 


•C    "    §    • 
^    C  ^    Q   Ja 

jj  6  g  -§  J  -9 

ssaso 


4 


•3 


III 


|5 

h9  »3 


Vf 


g 


I 


I. 


^  O 


s 


i 


•s 


0) 


s 


3 


^■i  2  S  a  s-i 


III  iiiiL|l|| 


el 


ao 


s 

el 


I 
I 


•3- 


I 


8  j8  :a  :g   § 

8  5*«  n  o 

*S     *    fli    «    08 
Q     m     g     O     «     ^     _ 

III  11   I  1    .    H 


S      •         * 

3  "la 
low.? 


i  i 


8  ^ 


3  *9 


«|  el  «i  el 

S  e?  5  o  ^  - 

!0  -^  -^  -^  -^  '43    0 

O  O  O  9  O  4)      " 


104 


THE  VEW  AXSBTOTLE. 


CHAP,  t  held  to  restore  the  balance^  The  educational  activity  of 
Chiistchurch  is  indicated  by  its  numerous  PriscianB-,  five 
copies,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  entire  work,  and,  for  those  who 
might  despair  of  traversing,  Uke  Odo  of  Cluny, '  go  vast  an 
ocean','  the  same  number  of  the  portion  on  Conatractions. 
Plato,  whose  name  appears  in  both  lists,  means  nothing  more 
than  the  translation  of  part  of  the  Timaene  by  CbaJmdiua. 
Boethius  the  philosopher  and  Boethius  the  theologian  stand 
side  by  side  as  one  personality.  Bee,  rejoicing  in  the  muni- 
ficence of  Philip,  the  bishop  of  Bayeui,  exhibits  a  noteworthy 
array  of  the  writings  of  Cicero,  for  which  Canterbury  can 
shew  only  the  Be  SeneetiUe  and  the  Ve  Amidtia,  but  boasts, 
on  the  other  hand,  eight  Sallusts,  three  Virgils,  four  Juveuals, 
and  nine  Persiuses, — names  wanting  iu  the  Norman  library, 
llacrobius,  endeared  to  the  Middle  Ages  by  his  gossip  and 
the  fragmentary  character  of  his  lore,  is  possessed  by  both 
foundations,  and  at  Christchurch  is  more  numerous  than  any 
other  author.  The  absence  from  the  English  catalogue  of 
any  of  Anselm's  writings  is  remarkable,  more  especially  when 
taken  in  conjunction  with  the  presence  of  his  disciple  and 
editor,  Richard,  abbat  of  Preaux*.  No  Greek  author  appears 
in  the  library  at  Bee,  a  fact  from  which  M.  R^musat  is  pro- 
bably justified  in  inferring  that  neither  Lanfranc  nor  Anselm 
possessed  any  acquaintance  with  the  language' ;  nor  will  the 
presence  of  a  Greek  grammar  {Donatua  grece)  at  Canterbury 
tend  much  to  modify  such  a  conclusion.  The  Nova  Logica* 
appears  in  the  English  catalogue  in  the  Topica  and  the 
Elenehi  Sopkistici,  but  is  wanting  in  the  Norman.  The 
Institutes  of  Justinian  appear  in  both,  but  the  single  Codex 
and  Lifortiatum  shew  that  the  study  of  the  civil  law  is  still 


^  '  Immpnanm  FriBciatii  transiit 
tranenataBdo  pelagos.'  iiibl.  Ciunij, 
eo\.  IS. 

*  BIcbardni,  abbat  of  Fnttellam  in 
ths  Provincia  Itotomagensia,  dipil 
llBl.  He  edited  Amtebn's  commen- 
taiiee,  and  bimitelf  ncote  aUegorital 
iaterpretatioDH  ot  tlie  propbets,  a, 
cnmnentarj  oa  Denteronomy,  etc. 
Bee  Oatlia  Chrutiaiui.  ii  637,  83S. 

'  '  On  dit  bien  que  Lanlrano  s&Tiut 
le  grec,  maia  on  n'  en  donne  anciuie 


prenve  ;  et  qnotqae,  alors,  on  pawtt 
pom  HRvoir  cette  tongue,  qnand  on 
en  Usait  les  coractirea,  Doua  na 
Tojona  Didle  raiBOn  de  iaire  d'An- 
selme  m^nte  le  pins  faible  dea  helldn- 
istei,  parce  qn'il  croit  qnelque  part 
qne  lalitu^  ee  dit  en  grec  nXdret,  et 
donDelemotalt^r^  d'anagogmooaaat 
Bfnonjme  de  eonirmplario.'  Amelmt 
de  Cantorbtry,  p.  467. 
*  See  p.  23,  and  p.  72  note  8. 


SCANTINESS  OF  THE  EXISTING  LITERATURE.  105 

in  its  infancy  at  Bee,  and  their  entire  absence  at  Canterbury  chap.  i. 
suggests  that  it  bad  not  yet  found  favour  in  this  country. 
The  absence  again  of  the  Decretum  of  Qratian  would  lead  us 
to  surmise  that  the  English  catalogues  could  not  have  been 
drawn  up  many  years  after  the  half  century. 

On  the  whole,  it  would  be  di£5cult  to  select  fairer  or  more 
favorable  specimens  of  the  literary  resources  of  western  Europe 
in  the  interval  from  between  the  earlier  part  of  the  eleventh  ' 
and  the  thirteenth  century ;  and  as  we  glance  through  the 
scanty  array  we  begin  to  realise  more  clearly  the  position 
of  the  scholar  at  that  period,  and  to  imderstand  how  little 
be  would  be  disposed  to  reject,  how  eagerly  he  would  wel- 
come, whatever  offered  itself  as  an  accession  to  these  slender 
stores,  especially  when  such  accessions  bore  the  name  of  the 
highest  authority  that  could  be  found  in  pagan  literature. 
The  catalogue  of  Christchurch,  again,  is  especially  worthy  of  Gataiogoeor 
note,  as  offering  a  striking  contrast  to  the  extensive  catalogue  teryofchrirt- 
consisting  of  no  less  than  698  volumes, — each  volume  com- ««*«»y  >»*«•• 
prising  on  the  average  some  ten  or  twelve  distinct  works, — 
which  we  find  representing  the  library  of  the  same  foundation 
little  more  than  a  hundred  years  later* ;  that  is  to  say,  after 
the  introduction  of  the  new  learning  which  we  have  already 
described,  and  the  consequent  awakening  of  that  literary 
activity  which  we  must  now  proceed  to  trace. 

The  increasing  desire  for  what  gratified  either  the  imagi-  Activity  or 
nation  or  the  understanding,  and  the  scantiness  of  the  existingr  cants  ^Tonr- 

i^e  to  the 

resources,  were  not  the  only  circumstances  that  favoured  the  newieMnin*. 
introduction  of  the  new  learning.  It  is  round  the  university 
of  Paris  that  the  earlier  history  both  of  the  mendicant  orders 
and  of  the  new  Aristotle  mainly  revolves,  and  it  was  but  two 
years  prior  to  the  prohibition  of  Gregory  ix  that  events, 
which  none  could  have  foreseen,  afforded,  the  Dominicans 
a  long  coveted  opportunity.  At.  Paris,  probably,  was  first 
exhibited  that  sudden  and  surprising  change  in  their  de- 
meanour to  which  we  shall  have  occasion  hereafter  more 

1  See  Edwards*  Memoirs  of  Libra-  are  to  be  recognised  in  this  catalogae, 

rie$t  1 122 — 185,  where  the  catalogue  but  the   greater  portion  haye  dis- 

fills  118  closely  printed  pages.  A  few  appeared. 
of  the  Tolomes  of  the  older  library 


106  THE  HEW  ASIBTOTLE. 

fiiUy  to  refer.  The  authorities  of  the  universit;  soon  became 
conscious  that  the  efforbi  of  the  Mendicants  were  being 
directed  quite  as  much  to  the  aggrandizement  of  their  order 
as  to  the  common  welfare.  The  spirit  which  had  led  St. 
Paul  to  term  himself  the  least  of  the  apoatles,  had  been 
imitated  by  the  Franciscans  in  styling  themselves  the  Friars 
Uinor,  but  their  conduct  already  began  to  belie  the  humility 
^  of  their  professioDS,  and  the  Dominicans  were  evidently  at 
least  equally  intent  upon  the  increase  of  their  own  authority 
and  power.  A  special  letter  on  their  behalf  was  addressed 
to  the  university  by  pope  Gregory  in  the  year  1227,  but 
with  small  aviuL  It  became  evident  that  a  conflict  was 
impending ;  when,  in  the  following  year,  an  unexpected  torn 
of  events  secured  to  the  Dominicans  an  easy  triumph. 

The  university,  like  all  the  other  universities  of  that 
age,  was  frequently  in  collision  with  the  cirizens  and  the 
civic  authorities.  Foreignera,  young,  arr<^ant,  wanton,  and 
imperious,  harmonised  ill  with  the  native  element,  ofteo 
cherishing  sullen  and  unreasoning  antipathies.  It  so  hap- 
pened that  a  body  of  the  students  in  a  drunken  outbreak  (^ 
more  than  ordinary  licence,  had  fallen  upon  some  of  the 
townsmen  and  severely  maltreated  them.  The  outcry  nused 
against  the  whole  university  was  loud  and  fierca  Queen 
Blanche,  herself,  appears  to  have  shared  the  general  feeling 
of  resentment  The  city  guard  were  authorised  to  take 
vengeance  on  the  offenders,  and  executed  their  instructions 
with  a  barbarity  which  we  may  well  believe  far  exceeded 
the  royal  intentions.  The  real  offenders  had  been  of  the 
Ficard  nation,  but  the  feeling  roused  was  far  too  fierce  to 
discriminate  in  its  revenge.  The  students  bad  assembled 
outside  the  city  walla  for  their  sports  when  they  were  sud- 
denly attacked  and  compelled  to  take  i-efage  in  the  city. 
They  were  pursued  through  the  streets,  the  citizens  joining 
in  the  chase ;  some  were  dragged  from  their  places  of  con- 
cealment, among  them  two  clerks  of  high  dignity  who  were 
stripped  and  murdered ;  others  were  left  for  dead.  The 
feelings  of  the  whole  university  were  roused  to  the  highest 
pitch.     A  deputation  waited  mi  the  Queen  demanding  im- 


THE  DOMINICANS  AT  PARIS.  107 

mediate  satisfaction.    They  were  met  by  a  haughty  refusal,   chap.  r. 
and  professors  and  scholars  alike,  stung  by  the   injustice,   ""'"^'^^ 
resolved  to  quit  the  city.     A  simultaneous  migration  took  Recfranent 
place  to  Rheims,  Angers,  and  Orleans ;  all  lectures  were  sus-  venttyfrom 
pended ;  the  assemblies  were  no  longer  convened  \    It  was 
at  this  juncture  that  Henry  III  issued  a  general  invitation 
to  the  students  to  come  and  settle  where  they  pleased  in 
England.   The  invitation  was  responded  to  by  large  numbers. 
Many  settled  at  Oxford,  many  at  Cambridge ;  and  from  the 
narrative  of  these  refugees  Matthew  Paris  learned  the  details 
which  we  have  briefly  reproduced*. 

The  Dominicans  saw  their  opportunity  and  hastened  toTheopportu- 
improve  it.     The  secession  of  the  students  was  resented  both  bTthe^mi- 

*  ...  nkana. 

by  the  Crown  and  the  ecclesiastical  authorities :  the  former 
indignant  that  the  newly  constituted  bodies  at  Orleans  and 
Angers  were  daring  to  confer  degrees  without  the  royal 
sanction ;  the  archbishop  aggrieved  that  the  university  should 
have  withdrawn  from  the  sphere  of  his  jurisdiction.  The 
Dominicans  were  warmly  welcomed  and  were  empowered  to 
open  two  schools  of  theology  where,  under  the  leadership  of 
Jordanus,  the  general  of  their  order,  a  man  eminent  alike 
for  his  virtues  and  his  talents,  their  numbers  rapidly  in- 


creased.  Such  were  the  circumstances  under  which  Albertus  mmJS^ 
Magnus  first  began  to  teach  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  dim 
street  that  still  bears  his  name'.  He  had  already  taught 
with  success  at  Cologne,  where  Thomas  Aquinas  had  been 
among  his  hearers,  and  his  fame,  as  an  expounder  of  Aristotle, 
soon  drew  around  him  numerous  audiences  at  Paris.  It  is 
only  when  we  consider  in  their  true  connexion  the  events 
that  combined  at  this  crisis, — the  general  craving  for  fresh 
learning,  the  simultaneous  introduction  of  the  new  philosophy 

^  *Scbolare8  dispersi  vagabantor,  oonsecntus  fait,  et   per   trienninm 

nulla  amplius  oomitia,  nullus  Magis-  pablice  docuit.*      Buiffiiis,    in  162. 

tnluB  in  Academiae  soils.'    Bolffius,  Considerable  difference  of  statement 

in  138.  is  to  be  found  respecting  tbe  date  of 

*  Ibid,  III  132.  tbe  arrival    of    Albertus    in    Paris. 

*  *Hocoe  tempore  Albertus  Magnus  Milman  and  Haur^au  placing  it  as 
snmma  oelebritate  docebat  in  platea  early  as  1228  ;  Ueberweg  and  tbe 
qoflB  hodie  etiam  M.  Albert!  nomen  autbor  of  tbe  life  of  Albertus  in  tbe 
prsBfert  (still  known  as  tbe  Rue  de  Nouvelle  Biographic  Q€n€rale,  as  late 
diaitre- Albert)  missus  quippe  Lute-  as  1245* 

tiam,  anno  12i36,  Dootoratus  apioem 


AqulDiL 


108  TEE  NEV  ABtSTOTLE. 

aod  the  installation  of  the  Domioicans  in  the  chain  of  the 
uoiverBity  of  Faris,~that  we  are  able  to  some  extent  to 
realise  the  force  of  the  current  on  which  the  thought  of  the 
Stagirite  was  irresistibly  borne  within  those  precincts  where 
it  was  destined  so  long  and  so  imperioasly  to  reign. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  the  chief  mental  phenomenon 
of  this  century, — the  Dominican  interpretation  of  Aristotle. 
Of  the  Franciscan  interpretation  the  earlier  history  is  com- 
paratively unimportant,  or  serves  only  to  illustrate  the  anti- 
pathies of  the  Church ;  it  was  condemned  by  authority,  and 
forsaken  by  the  Franciscans  of  a  later  period.  The  tradi- 
tional method  must  be  sought  in  the  writings  of  Albertus 
end  Aquinas.  While  Albertus  has  been  stigmatized  as  the 
'ape  of  Aristotle,'  Aquinas  has  been  reproached  with  equally 
servile  deference  to  the  authority  of  Albertus.  To  each 
indictment  a  large  exception  may  be  taken.  It  would  cer- 
tainly be  more  accurate  to  describe  the  former  as  the '  ape 
of  Avicenna,'  and  the  latter,  in  that  he  followed  AverrSeB 
rather  than  Avicenna,  widely  departed  from  the  example  of 
his  master'.  Their  method  too  was  different ;  while  Albertus 
composed  paraphrases  of  Aristotle,  Aquinas  was  the  first 
who,  in  imitation  of  the  great  commentary  of  Averroes, 
surrounded  the  text  with  an  elaborate  exegesis.  It  would 
perhaps  be  most  correct  to  regard  Albertus  as  the  laborious 
collector  of  materials  from  whence  succeeding  schoolmen  with 
distincter  conceptions  of  science  and  method  were  afterwards, 
to  draw', — Aquinas,  as  the  inaugurator  of  that  system  of 
scientific  theol<^  which  fonned  the  boast  of  the  Dominicaii 
school. 

The  philosophy  of  Thomas  Aquinas  can  only  be  satis- 
factorily discussed  by  considering  it  both  in  relation  to  the 


'  '  Avieenna  est  le  grand  tnaltra 
d' Albert-  Lft  forme  Ae  ton  coxnmeD- 
t^re  est  celled'Ariceiine;  Avicemie 
eet  ciW  A  ch&qne  page  de  aes  Cents, 
tandia  qn'AyerroeB  ue  Teat  qn'asBez 
rarement,  et  parioia  poiir  esanyer  le 
reproohe  d'avoir  OHiJ  coctredira  aon 
mattre... Albeit  doit  toot  k  Aviceane; 
saint  TliDiiiaa,  comma  philoBOpho, 
doit  preaqnetont  JLAverroiB.'  Benan, 


AverroU  rt  rAvtmntnu,    pp.    Ml, 
236. 

'  Prantl,  vfaoae  eatinukts  of  both 
AlbertuB  and  Aqninaa  inolitiM  to 
severity,  sternly  refnaes  to  allow  tlw 
former  any  other  merit  than  that  <rf 
an  indefatigabie  oompiler.  •  Er  lit 
nnrCompilator,  ondAUea,  dnrchwag 
Allen,  was  er  schreibt,  iat  fremdaa 
gut.'    GeichicMe  der  Logik,  m  IW. 


THE  SCHOLASTIC  PfllLOSOPHT. 


109 


genuine  thought  of  Aristotle  and  to  the  multiform  material,  ^^^p-  *• 
chiefly  Arabian,  which  offered  itself  to  the  consideration  of 
philosophers  in  that  age.  But  firet  it  may  be  worth  while 
to  notice  that  more  general  point  of  view  from  whence,  in 
contradistinction  to  thinkers  like  Gregoiy  and  Alcuin,  he 
professed  to  discern  the  grounds  of  reconciliation  between 
Christian  and  pagan  thought.  It  has  been  the  fashion  in  2^;^  ^ 
modem  times,  a  fashion  first  set  by  Erasmus,  to  illustrate  ******^ 
the  labours  of  the  schoolmen  by  bringing  forward  some  of 
the  most  profitless  and  frivolous  details  into  which,  owing  to 
their  peculiar  exhaustive  method  of  investigation,  they  were 
often  led^;  and,  having  selected  these  as  fair  specimens  of 
the  questions  whereon  the  scholastic  ingenuity  was  expended, 
to  dismiss,  as  unworthy  of  grave  discussion,  treatises  occupied 
with  such  fruitless  enquiries  as  those  that  concern  the  attri- 
butes and  capacities  of  angelic  natures.  It  was,  undoubtedly, 
much  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  schoolmen,  that  forgeries 
like  that  of  the  Pseudo-Dionysius, — wherein  no  less  than  Jto  ^wio- 
fifteen  lengthy  chapters  are  devoted  to  unfolding  the  func- 
tions, orders,  and  attributes  of  angels, — stood,  to  their  appre- 
hension, oa  the  same  level  as  the  Gospels  or  the  Apocalypse^ 


^  Articles  2  and  8  of  Qnestio  lii 
of  the  Secunda  Secunda  of  the  Summa, 
haye  been  favorite  UlostrationB : — 
2.  TJtmm  angelns  possit  esse  in 
ploribnB  locis  simoL  S.  Utmm  plures 
angeli  possint  esse  in  eodem  loco. 

*  *Tfi  docet  Dionysios'  is  an  oft 
xeonning  expression  in  Aquinas.  For 
a  lengthenea  period  the  book  appears 
to  have  frequently  supplanted  the 
Bible  as  the  basis  of  exposition  in 
English  churches.  Orooyn,  so  late 
aa  ite  year  1498,  selected  the  book 
aa  the  subject  of  a  series  of  lectures 
in  St.  Paul*s  Cathedral.  Its  genuine- 
ness had,  hoireyer^been  already  called 
in  question  ;  and  having  conunenced 
his  lectures  by  strongly  denouncing 
such  scepticism,  the  lecturer  found 
himself  compelled,  before  the  com- 
pletion of  his  course,  to  inform  his 
audience  that  internal  evidence  too 
conclusive  to  be  resisted  had  brought 
home  to  his  own  mind  the  fact  that 
the  book  was  undoubtedly  spurious. 
See  Wood-Bliss,  i  81.     Seebohm's 


OxfordRe/ormers,]p,^l.  «The*Celes- 
tiflJ  Hierarchy'  would  command  at 
once,  and  did  conmiand,  universal 
respect  for  its  authority,  and  uni- 
versal reverence  for  its  doctrines. 
Hie  'Hierarchy'  threw  upward  tiie 
Primal  Deity,  the  whole  Tnnity,  into 
the  most  awful,  unapproachable,  in- 
comprehensible distance,  but  it  filled 
the  vddening  intermediate  space  with 
a  regular  succession  of  superhuman 
Agents,  an  ascending  and  descending 
scale  of  Beings,  each  wit]^  his  rank, 
title,  office,  function,  superior  or 
subordinate.  The  vague  mddental 
notices  in  the  Old  and  New  Testa- 
ment and  in  St.  Paul  (and  to  St. 
Aral  doubtless  Jewish  trskdition  lent 
the  names),  were  wrought  out  into 
regular  orders,  who  have  each,  as  it 
were,  a  feudal  relation,  pay  their 
feudal  service  (here  it  struck  in  with 
the  Western  as  well  as  with  the 
Hierarchical  mind)  to  the  Supreme, 
and  have  feudal  superiority  or  sub- 
jection to  each  other.    This  theory 


110 


THE   KEW  ASISTOTLE. 


In  this  however  they  only  shared  the  delusions  of  their  age; 
nor  was  Dionyaius  the  only  forgery  that  commanded  uni- 
versal  deference.  The  most  influential  contribution  made  by 
Qrosseteste  to  literature,  was  the  translation  which  he  under- 
took, with  the  assistance  of  John  Baaing,  of  the  'Testaments 
of  the  Twelve  Patriarcha'  Basing,  who  belonged  to  the 
Benedictine  monasteiy  of  St.  Alban's,  had  discovered  the 
manuscript  at  Athens,  and  returned  with  it  to  England  in 
the  belief  that  he  was  bringing  an  inestimable  treasure.  No 
treatise  occupied  a  larger  share  of  the  attention  of  the  age, 
but  its  spuriousness  has  long  been  recognised'.  In  esti- 
mating, accordingly,  the  laboura  of  the  schoolmen,  it  is  only 
just  to  bear  also  in  mind  the  nature  of  the  subject  matter 
which  they  were  sometimes  called  to  interpret  and  eluci- 
date. 

True  wisdom,  said  Aquinas,  echoing  the  thought  of 
Aristotle,  is  to  know  the  end  or  rcXo;  of  things,  and  to  make 
one's  action  conducive  to  the  accomplishmetit  of  that  end. 
The  different  branches  of  knowledge  may  be  regarded  as 
ranking  in  dignity  according  as  they  are  concerned  with 
ends  of  greater  or  lees  importanoe;  but  all  these  ends  merge 
in  a  common  centre,  all  truth  is  harmonious.  The  tme  pM^ 
losopher  is  he,  who  rising  above  these  individual  ends,  seeks 
out  the  final  end,  the  attainment  of  ultimate  truth,  the  per- 
fection  of  the  understanding.  There  are  two  paths  whereby 
he  is  enabled  to  attain  to  this  absolute  truth, — reason  and 
faith'.  Some  truths,  such  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and 
that  of  the  Incarnation,  altogether  transcend  the  powers  of 


ere  loDg  became  almost  the  antboriBed 
theology;  it  became,  aa  far  lU  snch 
tranaaeiidaiit  Bnb)eatfl  could  be  lomi- 
liariBod  to  the  mind,  the  thI^at 
belief."  Milman'e  Hiit.  Latin  Chrii- 
(ioniW,  Bk.  iiT  c.  2. 

'  Tlie  work  has  recently  receiTel 
a  fnll  inTestigation  tA  the  bands  of 
Mr.  Sinker  of  Trinity  College,  Cam- 
bridge, in  the  NoniBian  Prize  Eway 
of  leSH.  Mr.  Sinker  enameretes  no 
leea  than  thirty-one  edeting  MSB.  of 
GroaBetegte'aierBion.  He  shevs  that 
the  original  vtu  known  to  Ori^n 
and  WAS  the  work    probablj  of   a 


Jevrish  Chrietian  who  lived  in  th* 
earlier  hall  of  the  Booond  oentnij. 
'  How  great  a  senflation  was  prodnoed 
by  the  pablication  of  this  worthlMi 
book  ii  shown  by  the  fact  of  ita 
being  mentioned  l^  amy  ohroiiiolei 
..  .It  U  lamentable  to  think  Uiat  (hoM 
two  wretched  forgeries  (the  '  TMte- 
tnentB'  and  the  Psendo-Dtonysiiu) 
were  the  Greek  books  that  malnlj 
oocnpied  OroBeeteste'a  attention.' 
Lna^'s  Preface  to  Ontiitale  EpU- 
tcla. 
■  Contra  Gentile;  ee.  8  and  i. 


THEORY  OF  THOMAS  AQUINAS. 


Ill 


the  human  understanding.  These  faith  only  can  arrive  at.  chap,  l 
There  are  others  which  reason  seems  enabled  to  grasp  un- 
aided by  revelation,  such  as  the  existence  and  unity  of  God\ 
This  distinction,  however,  constitutes  no  real  difference  in  the 
truths  themselves,  for  it  exists  only  in  relation  to  the  human 
intellect ;  with  God,  all  truth  is  one  and  simple.  That  reason 
was  never  intended  to  be  our  sole  guide  to  belief,  Aquinas 
pointed  out,  was  evident ;  its  insufficiency  for  that  purpose 
is  manifest.  In  the  first  place,  all  natural  knowledge  takes 
its  rise  in  experience,  or  the  evidence  of  the  senses ;  but  how 
can  sensible  objects  teach  us  to  comprehend  the  Creator? 
how  can  the  effect  explain  the  cause?  Again,  this  know- 
ledge differs  from  itself  in  degree  and  in  kind:  the  philo- 
sopher is  familiar  with  ideas  to  which  the  ploughman  is  a 
stranger;  the  knowledge  of  the  angel  transcends  by  a  yet 
greater  interval  that  of  the  philosopher.  And  again,  even 
in  the  province  that  the  natural  reason  calls  its  own, — the 
visible,  the  sensible, — how  incomplete,  obscure,  and  confused 
is  the  knowledge  it  can  acquire!  How  then  can  we  be 
surprised  that  it  should  fail  to  attain  to  the  mysteries  of  the 
divine,  the  invisible  nature  ?  If,  moreover,  reason  were  the 
only  path  whereby  mankind  could  attain  to  truth,  how  evil 
would  be  our  lot !  How  many,  by  sheer  indisposition  for  the 
task  of  investigation,  would  fail  to  pursue  it !  The  aversion 
to  serious  intellectual  effort,  the  pressing  cares  of  daily  life, 
native  indolence  and  social  claims,  call  away  the  many  to 
more  obvious  pursuits.  How  uncertain,  too,  are  the  results 
to  which  the  natural  reason  can  attain,  how  often  are  they 
contested  and  overthrown"  I  Properly  regarded,  therefore, 
natural  and  revealed  truth  will  appear  as  complementary  to 
each  other.  The  divine  knowledge  in  the  mind  of  Christ, 
said  Aquinas,  does  not  extinguish  that  in  the  human  soul. 


1  Summa  i  Qtiset.  u  art.  3. 

'  *  Ratio  enim  hnmana  in  rebas 
diTinifl  est  maltnm  defioiens.  Cujns 
■ignnm  est  quia  philosophia  de  rebus 
hnmanis  est  maltnm  defioiens.  Cujns 
signnm  est,  quia  philosophi  de  rebus 
hnmanis  natnrali  investigatione  per- 
semtantes  in  mnltis  erravemnt,  et 


sibi  ipsis  oontraria  senserunt.  Ut 
ergo  esset  indubitata  et  certa  cogni- 
tio  apud  homines  de  Deo  oportuit 
quod  divina  eis  per  modum  fidei  tra- 
derentur,  quasi  a  Deo  dicta,  qui 
mentiri  non  possit.'  Secunda  Se^ 
eund€Bt  Quiest.  ii  art.  4. 


I 


112 


THE  NEW  ABiSTOTLK. 


«M*p-  »■   but  iuveBts  it  with  a  new  brilliancy'.     The  natural  reason 
cannot  prove  the  truth  of  divine  knowledge,  but  may  be 
worthily  employed  in  illustrating  and  defending  it'. 
SJ^STta  Such,  in  general  terms,  is  the  theory  which  underlies  the 

jiSSFg,  teaching  of  Aquinas.  The  thought  may  fail  to  strike  us  ag 
original  or  novel,  but  that  it  should  thus  fail,  is  perhaps  the 
strongest  evidence  how  the  influence  of  the  Angelic  Doctor 
has  permeated  our  whole  theology ;  and  it  can  scarcely  be 
denied  that  it  presents  a  sober  and  dignified  estimate  of  the 
ground  whereon  rational  belief  may  take  its  stand.  It  long 
inspired  the  defenders  of  the  faith.  It  has  been  echoed  in 
every  variety  of  tone  by  those  whose  contempt  for  the 
schoolmen  has  only  been  equalled  by  their  ignorance  of  the 
scholBStic  litemture.  It  was,  after  Albertus,  the  first  serious 
and  systematic  effort  to  construct  a  general  formula  which 
should  anticipate  and  meet  ea<^  and  every  objection  which 
scepticism,  in  the  garb  of  the  philosopher,  might  urge  agunst 
the  Christian  &ith. 

The  true  test  of  every  such  general  formula  must  however 
be  sought  in  its  specific  application ;  and  it  is  when  the 
transition  has  been  made  from  the  broad  platform  of  com- 
prehensive principles  to  the  investigation  of  individual  cases, 
that  we  are  best  enabled  to  gauge  the  merit  of  the  dominant 
conception.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  only  just  to  remember 
that  errors  of  method  may  bring  discredit  upon  the  soundest 
hypothesis.     But  from  whichever  point  of  view  we  may  form 


'  SumTita,  III  QoiMt.  n  art.  I. 

■  There  ia  a  marked  reEembknco 
to  AqoiDsa  in  the  tbeor;  deTeloped 
by  DiydeD  in  the  Gret  for^  lines  of 
the  Seligio  Laid.  The  follo«iii){ 
ooincidence  ot  thonftht  would  Bn^geat 
that  the  poet  must  have  derived  the 
idea  either  diieotlj'  or  indirectly  from 
the  Bchoolman: — 'Sensibiliaaatem  ad 
hoc  duoere  intellectum  nostrom  non 
poBsunt,  nt  in  eis  divina  subBtantia 
Tideatni  qoid  sit,  oum  sint  effectuB 
oansm  virtu temn on  »quan tea.'  Contra 
Gentri,  i  o.S.  'How can  the  less  the 
greater  oomprehendr  |  Or  finite  rea. 
BOD  reach  infinityF  {  For  what  oonld 
fathom  Ood  were  mora  than  He  I' 


Compare  aluo  Setting  Steund*, 
Qnaat.  u  art.  4.  Diyden,  m  Johnam 
has  remarked,  was  far  Baperior  In 
learning  to  Pope,  andthonghheantar- 
ed  Trinity  during  the  Puritan  aaeend' 
ancy,  he  shared  in  those  soholaatia 
influsDcea  which  strongly  afleetod 
oni  Angliean  theoli^  in  the  mtcb- 
teenth  century.  Few  of  M«c»nl^i 
oritioiBms  are  more  onjiut  than  that 
wherein  he  afBrma  of  Uie  poet  >  that 
bis  knowledge  both  of  the  Chnroh 
which  he  qnitted  and  of  the  Chnreti 
which  he  entered  were  of  the  moit 
Buperfioial  kind.'  EUt,  England,  n* 
197. 


THOMAS  AQUINAS.  113 

our  estimate  of  the  maDDer  in  which  Aquinas  developed  his  ci'ap.  t. 
main  theory,  it  must  be  admitted  that  his  treatment  of  the  Difficulty  of 
Aristotelian  philosophy  can  scarcely  be  accepted  as  a  satis- Jn^JJaj'on  to 
factory  solution  of  a  great  difficulty.  To  reconcile,  indeed,  °'**^*«^ 
is  ever  a  harder  task  than  simply  to  proscribe,  and  it  is  but 
just  to  remember  that  it  was  the  fate  of  Aquinas  to  encounter 
in  their  first  impetuous  influx,  a  tide  of  theories,  dogmas,  and 
interpretations,  which  might  well  have  filled  with  despair  a 
less  masculine  and  sinewy  intellect.  There  is  much  in  the 
conflict  which  his  age  beheld  between  Oriental  and  Grecian 
habits  of  thought  and  the  widely  different  tendencies  of  the 
West,  that  very  forcibly  recalls  the  mental  phenomena  of  the 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries.  The  mere  geography  of  the  intel- 
lectual activity  of  these  times  is  suggestive  of  the  meeting  of 
strongly  opposed  currents,  a  glare  of  diflerently  coloured  lights, 
which  seem  in  some  instances  to  have  neutralized  each  other, 
in  others  merely  to  have  stood  out  in  strange  and  inharmoni- 
ous juxtaposition.  The  thinkers  who  at  the  commencement  JJlSS'ofSi 
of  the  century  most  strongly  influenced  Europe,  were  of  Se-  JSttil^Sf* 
mitic  race  and  pagan  faith  ;  while  those  who  rose  within  the  "^^p****^ 
Church  were  of  widely  separated  lands;  Albertus  was  a  native 
of  Swabia ;  Aquinas  studied  at  Naples,  his  family  was  Italian 
and  distinguished  in  the  service  of  the  house  of  HohenstoSffeFn; 
William  of  Moerbecke,  the  translator  of  Aristotle,  died  arch- 
bishop of  Corinth ;  Duns  Scotus  was  probably  a  Northum- 
brian ;  Bonaventura  was  a  Tuscan ;  Alexander  Hales,  an  Eng- 
lishman who  taught  at  Paris.  Amid  an  almost  chaotic  aggre- 
gation of  past  and  contemporary  thought  the  great  schoolman 
took  his  stand,  and  strove  to  evoke  order  out  of  confusion, 
harmony  out  of  discord.  The  dogmas  of  Rome  were  the 
Procrustean  measure  to  which  each  theory  had  to  be  stretched 
or  to  be  reduced ;  a  task  sufficiently  arduous  in  the  case  of 
Aristotle,  in  that  of  Averr5es  absolutely  impossible.  The 
strongly  Platonic  cast  of  thought  in  the  writings  of  Augustine 
added  another  element  of  difficulty,  and  the  influence  of 
Moses  Maimonides\  from  whose  Diuc  PerpUxorum  Aquinas 

^  On  the  influence  of  this  writer      Religiomtphilosophie,    von    Dr.    A. 
upon  Scholasticism  see  Studien  iiher      Schmiedl,  Wien,  1S69.    How  largely 

8 


114 


THE  NEW  AAISTOTLE. 


;  (as  recent  inveHtigation  has  shewn)  so  largely  drew,  con- 
tributed still  fiirther  to  the  complication.  If  we  add  to  these 
elements  his  frequent  but  capricious  employment  of  the 
Byzantine  logic,  which  afterwards  produced  such  important 
results  in  the  hands  of  Scotus  and  Occam,  the  Neo-Platonic 
tendencies  of  the  widely  circulated  De  Cbusu*,  we  must 
admit  that  the  task  essayed  by  Numenius  or  Clemens  was 
one  of  comparative  simplicity.  We  marvel  how  the  great 
schoolman  could  have  ever  ventured  to  essay  the  '^>a88age  of 
so  dark  a  current,  wherein,  as  round  the  hero  of  old, 

nwti|itfrii*  Iimtre  tSiia, 
SBh  I'  tr  rdmX  wltmm  fiivf  eiSi  rilttrv 

The  course  to  which  Aquinas  found  himself  ultimately 
impelled,  may  be  briefly  characterised  as  the  sacrifice  of 
Averrdes  to  save  Aristotle.  As  the  interpretations  of  the 
Arabic  commentators  became  more  fully  understood  their 
incompatibility  with  the  teaching  of  the  Church  grew  evident, 
and  in  1240  Guillaume  d'Auvergne,  the  archbishop  of  Paris, 
denounced  as  heretical  another  series  of  propositions  taken 
chiefly  From  the  De  Catists.  The  facts  presented  to  our 
observation  exhibit,  accordingly,  Aquinas  as,  on  the  one 
hand,  following  almost  imphcitly  the  method  of  AverriJes 
and  imbibing  many  of  his  tenets,  on  the  other  hand  as 
strenuously  opposing  him  whenever  his  teaching  threatened 
to  endanger  the  cause  of  ortboAoxy*.     M.  Benan  remarks 


Albertna  Hagnns  drew  from  hifl 
Kritinga  may  be  seen  in  tbe  treatlBe 
ol  M,  JoSl.  Brealaa,  1863. 

'  The  De  Cautii  wag  another 
popolor  forger;  in  theee  times ;  a 
tTBDBlation  bom  the  Anibio  of  a 
treatise  falselj  aaeribed  to  Aiiatotle. 
U.  Joordain  [Rec^erchtM  Cntiquei,  p. 
312)  oonsjderg  it  to  have  b*en  in 
Boarcel;  leu  EavotiT  than  the  Fseado- 
DionjBins.  '  It  DootainB,'  utfB  Ne- 
ander,  '  the  principles  of  the  Neo- 
Flatonio  tnoniam,  as  the  same  was 
reduced  to  form  and  sjietematia 
herence  by  Plotinoa, 
""       "  th.        . 

a  forth  the  whole 


id  ayatei 
I,— the  d 


ceeding  by  regular  gradatiotia,  tha 
idea  of  oreatioD  transformed  inba  tba 
doctrine  of  a  prooesa  of  erolutiaii 
gronnded  in  immanent  neoesai^.' 
Church  Hilt.  Tin  aOfl. 

*  It  is  not  onintereeting  to  note  in 
these  times  the  flnt  appearanM  of 
that  Bingolar  theory,  rariTed  uoid 
the  metaphysical  jugglery  of  tha 
present  oentoiy,  which  wonld  explain 
all  contradictions  by  anggesting  m  a 
Bolntion  that  what  is  tme  in  seienM 
may  be  faUe  in  theology,  and  vie* 
vena.  Boger  Bacon  (Oput  Tertnum, 
0.  33,  34)  indignantly  repndiatea  the 
sophism,  and  Hr.  Lewee  (Hut.  q/ 
Philmophy,  II  88]  has  noticed  hii 
disclaimer  with  oomplaoeni^.     It  i« 


PSTCHOLOOT  OF  THE  DE  ANDiA. 


115 


however  that  in  general  he  appears  to  have  regarded  his   chap,  l 
Arabian  teacher  rather  as  a  pagan  deserving  compassion  in 
his  ignorance,  than  as  a  blasphemer  to  be  execrated. 

The  details  of  the  system  pursued  by  Aquinas  obviously  SSISSS.''"' 
lie  beyond  the  range  of  our  enquiry,  but  in  pursuance  of  our 
endeavour  at  elucidating  the  peculiar  manner  in  which  the 
philosophy  of  these  times  entered  into  their  whole  spirit  of 
instruction,  we  propose  to  briefly  point  out  how,  on  one 
important  point,  the  method  of  the  schoolmen  failed  equally 
to  avert  the  censure  of  authority  and  the  reproach  of  the 
philosopher. 

The  theory  respecting  the  intellect  which  Aristotle  sets  Em^cuaiy 


forth,  in  the  third  book  of  the  De  Anima^,  is  familiar  to  all  ^  to, 

'  ^  '  Psychology. 

students  of  psychology.  He  regards  the  intellectual  faculty 
as  existing  under  a  twofold  form, — the  passive  principle  V*^j£^ 
and  the  active  principle.  This  theory  has  its  basis  in  a 
presumed  analogy ;  as,  throughout  nature,  we  are  conscious, 
on  the  one  hand,  of  matter,  representing  the  potential  exist- 
ence of  objects,  and  on  the  other  of  the  causative  principle, 
or  form,  which  gives  them  an  actual  existence,  so  we  are 
entitled  to  look  for  a  like  duality  in  the  human  intellect ; 
and  hence  the  Aristotelian  division  of  the  soul  into  two 
distinct  principles: — the  active  intelligence,  Av  ivreKex^iq^^ 
and  the  passive  inteUigence,  wv  SwdficL  Of  these  the  former 
is  the  superior,  and  to  it  we  ascribe  the  attributes  of  im- 
perishability and  impassibility ;  this  is  the  eternal  principle 
which  endures,  while  the  merely  passive  principle  is  the 
subject  of  change,  and,  separated  from  the  active  principle, 
perishes.  Such  is  the  theory  unfolded  in  the  Be  Anima, — a 
theory  scarcely  in  harmony,  it  is  true,  with  other  portions  of 
the  Peripatetic  philosophy,  being  a  reflex  apparently  of  the 
JW9  of  Anaxagoras,  but  where  recognised  almost  invariably 
interpreted  as  a  decisive  utterance  on  the  part  of  Aristotle 


/ 


however  bnt  fair  to  recognise  that 
the  eonBervative  party  were  eqnaUy 
load  in  their  denanciations  of  such 
miggeetionB.  'Dicunt  enim/  says 
Etienne  Tempier,  in  his  preamble  to 
the  articles  selected  for  condemnation 
in  1277,  'ea  esse  nota  et  vera  secun- 


dnm  Philosophiam,  sed  non  seonndom 
fidem  Catholicam,  quasi  sint  diue 
veritates  contrarise,  et  quasi  contra 
veritatem  Sacr»  Scripturo  sit  Veritas 
in  dictis  Gentilium  damnatomm.' 
Bulsus,  ui  433. 
^  De  Anima,  m  o.  5. 

8—2 


116  THE  NEW  ABJSTOTLE 

CHAP,  t  agfunst  the  belief  io  the  immortality  of  the  soul'.  Such 
teaching,  it  is  evident,  could  not  fail  to  encounter  the  cou- 
demnation  of  the  Church;  but  his  own  heterodoxy  was 
almost  lost  sight  of  in  the  stilt  less  ambiguous  theory 
maiatained  by  his  Arabian  commentator.  It  was  not  im- 
possible for  the  schoolmen  to  maintain,  as  later  interpreters 
have  done,  that  Aristotle  did  not  really  mean  to  deny  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  and  that  the  inferences  that  appear 
warranted  by  the  De  Anima  are  contradicted  by  the  teoour 
of  passages  in  his  other  writings ;  but  the  corollary  appended 
to  the  theory  by  AverrSes  admitted  of  no  dispute.  The 
active  principle,  said  this  philosopher,  if  alone  possessed  of 
immortality  must  necessarily  be  anterior  to  the  passive 
principle.  But  when  we  take  the  individual  man  we  find 
the  potential  principle  preceding  the  active,  and  it  is  con- 
sequently, evident  that  the  active  principle,  the  imperishable 
and  ever-esistent,  must  not  be  sought  for  in  the  individual. 
The  active  principle  is  devoid  of  personality,  is  one  and 
absolute.  It  was  thus  that  Averroes  deduced  the  doctrine 
of  the  Unity  of  the  Intellect,  known  in  the  time  of  Leibnitz 
as  Mouopsychism. 
EiMiuhni  How  far  this  reasoning  represents  a  legitimate  deduction 

Sw^byib.  from  Aristotle  we  are  not  here  called  upon  to  enquire,  but 
™^"-      it   is  well    known    that    his  Arabian    commentators   have 
frequently  brought  into  undue  prominence  questions  which 
he  has  but  very  briefly  indicated,  or  essayed  in  a  purely 
tentative  manner.     His  immediate  followers  had  certainly 

la  persowkUW  hajnttine,  de  «ette  per. 

BonaliM  buds  loqiielle  I'immortaliU 
de  rSme  D'est  qa'un  vain  mot  at 
im  leutre.'  Bartb^emy  Saint -Hilaiie, 
Psychologie  d' Ariitote,  Prebwe,  p. 
xuii.  '  L'opinion  da  philoBophe  a 
cet  dgard  ne  sani-ait  etre  donttiue, 
L'inteUMt  oniverBel  est  inoormpti- 
ble  et  separable  dn  corps;  Tintel. 
leet  individual  est  pf^rissable  et  flnit 
ayeo  le  corps.'  Renui,  Averrott  et 
rdveTToUme,  p.  1S3.  See  also  Mr. 
Qrote's  Essay  on  the  Psjoholocr  of 
Aristotle,  appended  to  the  Uiird 
edition  of  &Ir.  Bain's  SetUf§  and  tht 
Intellect. 


'  '  II  a  bien  dit  qne  rcntendement 
f'Uit  on  principe  divindaiiB  rhommp, 
IndeBtrnctible,  fitemel.  II  a  bien  dit 
aussi  que  ce  principe  6tait  en  nous 
une  Tdritable  eabtitaiice.  Maia  quelle 
substance?  Nous  I'avons  vu ;  dans 
ranlendement  lui-m£ma,  il  y  a  one 
partie  pfirissable,  conune  soct  p£ria- 
sftbles  rimagination,  la  eensibilit^, 
la  DOtritioQ  :  et  cette  partie,  c'aat  In 
partie  paasive,  celle  qoi  eat,  en  quel- 
qoe  Borte,  la  matiSre  de  Tintelligible. 
L' intelligence  active,  oelle  qui  fait 
llntelligible,  snrvit  ttemelleicent  an 
oorpa,  qni  aeul  doit  pgrir.  Mais  dans 
cette  Tie  uoavelle,  il  ne  rests  rien  de 


PSYCHOLOGY  OF  THE  DE  ilNIMA. 


117 


not  deduced  any  such  doctrine  from  his  teaching ;  Alexander  chap,  l 
of  Aphrodisias  having  been,  it  would  seem,  the  first  to  bring 
the  theory  into  notice.  Themistius,  who  lived  in  the  reign 
of  Theodosius,  informs  us  that  it  was  a  prolific  source  of 
controversy  in  his  day ;  it  ari'ested,  again,  the  searching 
glance  of  St.  Augustine ;  but  Averroes  was  the  first  to  give 
it  that  developement  which  constituted  it  the  leading 
heresy  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Such  was  the  theory  to  the 
refutation  of  which,  as  contravening  the  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection  and  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  Aquinas 
devoted  the  full  force  of  his  intellect,  and  in  his  indignation 
at  its  author  stigmatised  him  as  non  tarn  Peripateticus  quam 
FeripateticcB  philosophiw  depravator^. 

Other  and  not  unimportant  doctrines  maintained  by  the 
Arabian  commentators,  sometimes  in  conformity  with  the 
teaching  of  Aristotle,  though  more  frequently  in  excess  of 
the  earlier  Peripateticism,  encountered  the  censure  of  the 
Church*;  but  it  was  chiefly  against  the  theory  of  the  Unity  of 
the  Intellect  that  the  scholastic  artillery  was  directed,  and  in 
direct  connexion  therewith  arose  the  fierce  controversy  of  the 
next  generation,  respecting  the  principium  individuationis. 
It  has  already  been  observed  that  at  the  commencement  of  ^'^fy*  •?***"' 

•^  ^  ^  Bed  by  the 

the  controversies  to  which  the  new  Aristotle  gave  birth,  other  ^'^n****". 
views  than  those  of  Albertus  and  Aquinas  were  espoused  by 
the  Franciscans — of  comparatively  small  importance  however 
in  relation  to  the  progress  of  philosophic  opinion.     Foremost 
among  the  leaders  of  this  order  was  the  Englishman,  Alex-  Alexander 
ander  Hales,  who  taught  at  Paris  with  distinguished  success.  <*•  i«4. 
It  is  now  known  that  the  commentary  on  the  Metaphysics 
once  attributed  to  this  writer  is  by  a  different  hand,  but  in 
his  Summa  Theologies  we  have  ample  indications  that  he  ven- 
tured to  dangerous  lengths  under  the  guidance  of  AverrSes*. 


1  De  Unitate  InteUectns,  p.  267. 

'  Among  them  Benan  enumerates 
*  la  matidre  premiere  et  indetermin^e, 
la  hierarchie  des  premiers  principes, 
le  rdle  interm^diaire  de  la  premi6re 
intelligence  k  la  fois  ct64  et  ordatrice, 
la  negation  de  la  providence,  et  sor- 
tout  rimpoBsibilit^  de  la  oration.  Le 


commentaire  dn  vrii*  livre  de  la  Phy- 
sique,' he  observes,  'est  presque  tout 
entier  oonsacr^  k  r^futer  celui  d' Aver- 
roes.' Averrohs  et  VAverroUme^  p. 
238. 

'  <  On  pent  designer  comme  les 
deux  foyers  de  I'averroTsme,  au  xui* 
sidcle,  r6cole  franciscaine  et  sortout 


118 


THE  UOTVEBSITT  OF  PABIR. 


^^^■y  The  Irrefragable  Doctor,  for  bo  he  was  named,  died  in  the 
hjH^mS!    y^*^  1245,  and  his  followers  appear  to  have  adopted  yet  bolder 
SStKlf,  doctrines.     The  tendency  in  Averrdes  towards  investing  ab- 
stract notions  with  objective  reality  appears  to  have  exercifed 
a  strong  fascination  over  the  mysticism  that  characterised  the 
g'^JJ"'™*  earlier  Franciacan  school.     Bonaventnra,  indeed,  the  disciple 
''■  "'*■        of  Alexander  Hales,  presents  a  marked  exception :  but  in  him 
the  spirit  of  St.  Francis  glowed  with  an  ardour  that  bore  him 
ttnhASIf^  above  the  arena  of  human  philosophy  and  controversial  zeal. 
AiMMi*.      Even  now,  as  we  turn  the  mystic  pages  of  the  Itinerary  of 
the  Mind  towards  Qod,  we  rec<^nise  the  deeply  emotional 
nature,  the  fervour  of  soul,  that  belonged  to  the  great  orator 
who  thrilled  with  his  dying  eloquence  the  august  Council  of 
the  western  Church  at  Lyons;  we  are  conscious  of  the  aspira- 
tions of  the  pilgrim,  who,  with  but  a  languid  glance  for  the 
questions  that  divided  the  schools  and  surged  round  the 
papal  cbair,  pressed  on  to  where,  beyond  the  mists  of  time, 
and  the  wandering  gleams  of  philosophy,  he  seemed  to  dis- 
cern the  fihiaiDg  bulwarks  of  the  celestiaJ  city'. 
J2J™T  It  probably  marks  the  general  success  that  was  held  to 

t^iySSf"  have  attended  the  efforts  of  Aquinas  to  discriminate  between 
the  doctrines  of  the  Greek  philosopher  and  .his  Arabian 
commentators,  that  while  Roger  Bacon  writing  in  the  year 
1267,  was  able  to  say  that  the  Aristotelian  natural  philosophy 
and  metaphysics,  which  for  forty  years  bad  been  contemned 
and  vilified,  were  now  rect^ised  at  Paris  as  'sound  and 
useful  doctrine,'  we  find  Etienne  Tempier,  two  years  later, 
condemning  no  less  than  thirteen  of  the  most  notable  Aver- 
roistic  opinions;  and  we  may  well  understand  that  the  blow 
thus  given  to  the  Franciscan  party  considerably  diminished 


rUuiTeraiU  de  Paris.'  Jbid.  359. 
Boger  Bbcod  reproduces  this  tradition 
of  bis  order :  see  Opui  Majut,  pauim. 
According  to  Bulsne.  Halea  wm  the 
Qnt  to  comment  on  the  Sentences  : — 
'  Primus  antem  e  tbeologiH  noBtris 
M.  Petri  Lomb&rdi  S«Dtentias  oom. 
mentariis  illDetraHBe  dicitnr  Alexan- 
der Aleosie,  factns  delude  HiDorita, 
cnjnsexemplnmimitnti  AlbertnaMag- 
Diu   et  Thomas  Aquinas  tbeologiie 


scholastieie  regnom  longe  unplifiea- 
rnnt.'     iii  667. 

>  'Saint  BoDBTeutam  dMaignut 
Aristote  et  sa  cabale...iioni  mr^b 
pea  oorieoi  de  rechercher  quelle  opi- 
nion 11  lui  a  pin  d'eiprimer  inoidcm- 
ment,  aveo  le  laissez-aller  d«  1'in- 
diff^renoe,  snr  lea  granda  probUmw 
dn  peripat  jtisme. '  HaurSan,  PhiL 
SchoUutiqut,  n  219. 


THE  EARLY  FRANCISCANS. 


119 


their  prestige.     It  will  be  worth  while  to  note  how  the  uni-   chap,  l 
versity  had  fai*ed  since  the  time  of  its  memorable  secession. 
When  the  students  and   professora  returned  from   Angers  RecamortiM 
and  Rheims  they  found  the  chairs  of  instruction  occupied  P^CSi. 
by  the   Mendicants,  and  it  was   only  by  the   exertions  of 
Gr^ory  ix  on  their  behalf  that  they  were  reinstated  in  their 
privileges.     For  twenty  years  a  hollow  peace  was  preserved,  Rhr»iry 
during  which  the  jealousies  and  rivalry  thus  evoked  con-  gyg^jgff^ 
tinned  to  increase,  and  at  last  broke  out  into  open  hostility  **"** 
when,  one  of  the  students  having  been  killed  in  an  encounter 
with  the  citizens,  the  new  orders  refused  to  make  common 
cause  with  the  university  in  obtaining  redress.     The  uni- 
versity appealed  to  the  Pope,   and  Innocent  rv  published 
his  famous  bull  whereby  the  mendicant  orders  were  sub- 
jected  to  the  episcopal   authority ^     His   death,   occurring 
in  the  following  month,   was  attributed  to  the    prayers  of 
the  Dominicans.     His  policy  was  altogether  reversed  by  his 
successor,  Alexander  IV,  who,  to  use  the  expression  of  Crevier, 
was  intent  throughout  his  pontificate  upon  tormenting  the 
university  of  Paris.     The  Mendicants  were  restored  to  their 
former  privileges,   and   the  old  warfare  was  renewed  with 
increased  violence.     It  was  at  this  crisis  that  William  St.  ^2i?^** 
Amour,  standing  forth  as  the  champion  of  the  university,  **"  "^ 
assailed  the  new  orders  with  an  eloquence  rare  in  the  hostile 
camp.     In  his  Perils  of  the  Last  Times,  he  denounced  them  S^tS 
as  interlopers  into  the  Church,  unsanctioned  by  apostolic  ^** 
authority,  equally  wanting  in  honesty  of  purpose  and   in 
credentials  for  the  high  functions  they  assumed.     Aquinas 
replied  in  his  treatise  Contra  Impv^nantes  Dei    CuUum  et 
Bdigionem,  and  William  St.  Amour  was  finally  arraigned 
before  the  archbishop  of  Paris  on  the  charge  of  having  pub- 
lished a  libel  defamatory  of  the  Pope.    When  however  the 


^  *  It  is  a  characteristic  trait  of 
these  Paris  quarrels,  that  they  were 
mainly  caused  by  the  wilful  course  of 
the  Dominicans  in  the  great  secession 
of  1229.  This  measure  had  been  de- 
creed by  a  great  majority  of  the 
Masters,  but  the  Dominicans  dis- 
obeyed it,  in  order  to  get  scholastic 


affairs  into  their  own  hands  during 
the  absence  of  all  other  academicians. 
Naturally  this  was  resented  keenly, 
and  produced  deep  distrust.  Their 
submission  to  all  university  regula- 
tions was  now  exacted  with  increased 
severity.*  Huberts  EnglUh  Univer- 
sUieSt  by  Newman,  u  119. 


120 


THE  NEW  ARISTOTLR 


utKludin' 


intrepid  champion  of  the  university  appeared,  ready  to  attest 
his  innocence  by  solemn  oaths  over  the  relics  of  the  holy 
martyrs,  the  students  who  accompanied  him  made  eucb  an 
imposing  demonstration,  that  the  archbishop  deemed  it 
pnident  to  dismiss  the  chaise,  A  few  years  later  the  Domi- 
nicans attained  their  end.  The  Perils  of  the  Last  Times 
was  burnt  io  the  presence  of  the  Pope  at  Anagni,  and  William 
St  Amour  was  compelled  to  retire  into  exile, — a  retirement 
from  which,  notwithstanding  the  efforts  of  the  university  on 
his  behalf,  he  was  not  suffered  a^in  to  emerge'. 

But  while  the  cauwe  of  the  Mendicants  was  thus  triumph- 
ant, disunion  begun  to  spring  up  between  the  two  orders.  The 
fame  of  Albertus  and  Aquinas,  the  latter  the  chosen  coun- 
sellor of  royalty,  and  the  prestige  of  the  Dominicans,  aroused 
the  jealousy  of  the  Franciscans,  rankling  under  the  rebuke 
which  their  Averroistic  sympathies  had  incurred.  They 
begun,  not  unnaturally,  to  scan  with  critical  eye  the  armour 
of  the  great  Dominican  for  some  vulnerable'  point ;  nor  had 
they  long  to  seek ;  the  te-aching  of  the  Stagirtte  proved  but 
slippery  ground  from  whence  to  assail  the  heresies  of  the 
Arabians.  It  formed  one  of  the  most  notable  divergences 
from  Aristotle  in  the  philosophy  of  Averroes,  that  while  the 
latter  accepted  the  distinction  to  which  we  have  already 
adverted,  of  matter  and  form  aa  representative  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  potential  and  actual  existence,  he  differed  from  his 
teacher  in  regarding  form  as  the  individualwiiiff  principle. 
Aristotle  had  declared  It  to  be  matter,  and  in  this  he  was 
implicitly  followed  by  Aquinas.  The  individualising  ele- 
ments in  Sokrates  said  the  Dominican,  are  hcec  caro,  hcee 
088a;  if  these  be  dissolved  the  Universal,  Sokratitas,  alone 


>  'L'Un 


iftf-iii  regrettainfiDiment 
;,  et  elte  n'omit  rieu  de 
d^pendre  d'elle  pour 


ce  qui  pouT 

obtenir  aon  ratour  a  i-ana.  iieii- 
beralions  frequentes,  morti  Rent  ions 
procur^as  aui  MeDdianB  eimemis  de 
ce  doctenr,  deputations  an  v^e  :  tout 
tut  inutile.'  Crevier.  ii  27.  The  whole 
hiBtorj' of  the  conflict  between  WiUiun 
St.  Auioni  and  his  oppoueats,  nhicb 
we  eumot  further  follow,  forms  a 


signiGcant  episode.  Hia  genius  and 
eloquence  had  the  remarkable  effect 
of  Tinning  tbe  Bympatbies  of  the 
lower  orders  to  the  uniTersity  cause, 
and  ne  are  tbuH  presented  with  the 
somewbat  Hingular  oonjunction  ot 
tbe  Pope,  tbe  Crown,  aad  the  new 
Orders  on  the  one  side,  and  the 
nniTerBit?  in  league  with  the  eom- 
monalt;  on  the  otbei.     Bee  Bolani, 

111  817,  sea. 


OPPOSITION  TO  THE  MENDICANTS. 


121 


remaina  Theology,  as  with  Roscellinus,  here  again  supplied  chap,  l 
the  readiest  refutation,  and  from  thence  the  Franciscans  drew 
their  weapons.  If  matter,  they  asked,  be  indeed  the  princi" 
pium  individuationiSy  how  can  the  individual  exist  in  the  non- 
material  world  ?  Such  a  theory  would  limit  the  power  of  the 
Creator,  for  He  could  not  create  two  angelic  natures,  if  the 
individualising  element  were  lacking.  In  fact,  the  whole 
celestial  hierarchy  concerning  which  the  Pseudo-Dionysius 
expounded  so  elaborately,  threatened  to  vanish  from  appre-  JJSSw'Sr 
hension.  The  reply  of  the  Franciscans  was  eminently  suc-"*^*"** 
ce-ssfiil,  for  it  enlisted  the  sympathies  of  the  Church.  In  vain 
did  Albertus  hasten  from  Cologne  to  the  assistance  of  his 
illustrious  disciple ;  in  vain  did  iEgidius  at  Rome  bring  for- 
wai'd  fresh  arguments  in  support  of  the  Aristotelian  doctrine. 
The  teaching  of  Aquinas  had  been  found  in  alliance  with 
heterodoxy,  and  within  three  years  after  his  death  we  find  the 
doctrine  he  had  supported  selected  for  formal  condemnation. 
A  simultaneous  movement  took  place,  at  Paris  under  Etienne 
Tempier,  in  England  under  Kilwardby,  archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, having  for  its  object  the  repression  of  philosophic 
heresies ;  and  a  long  list  of  articles  summed  up  the  doctrines 
of  Averroes  for  renewed  condemnation;  the  "Franciscans 
however  found  no  little  consolation  in  the  fact  that  three  of 
the  articles  were  directed  contra  fratrem  Thomam^. 

Aquinas  had  died  in  the  year  1274,  and  contention,  atneiuhof 

*  "^  \  ThomM 

Paris,  was  for  a  brief  season  hushed  amid  the  general  sense  Aquinai. 
that  a  great  light  had  been  withdrawn  from  the  Church.  *  We 
are  not  ignorant,'  said  the  rector  of  the  university,  writing  in 
the  name  of  all  the  masters,  '  that  the  Creator,  having  as  a 
signal  proof  of  his  goodness  given  this  great  doctor  to  the 
world,  gave  him  but  for  a  time,  and  meanwhile  if  we  may 


1  M.  Benan  very  justly  observes 
that  the  majority  of  the  articles  con- 
demned represented  the  tenets  of 
scepticism;  and  that  this  incrodality 
is  evidently  associated  by  Etienne 
Tempier  with  the  study  of  the  Ara- 
bian philosophy,  but  he  has  failed  to 
note  the  rebuff  inflicted  upon  the 
Dominicans.    Of  the  three  condemn- 


ed articles,  the  principal  is  as  fol- 
lows: *Item,  quia  intelligentis  non 
habent  materiam,  Deus  non  potest 
plures  res  ejusdem  speciei  facere,  et 
quod  non  est  in  angelis,  contra  fra- 
trem Thomam,^  See  Haur^u,  Phih' 
Sophie  SchoUutiquey  ii  216.  Benan, 
Averrohs  et  VAverrolsmet  p.  278. 
Bulieug,  III  438. 


122  THOMAS  AQtriNAS. 

t«*y- 1-  trust  the  opioion  of  the  viae  of  old,  divine  wifidom  placed 
him  upoD  earth  that  be  might  explain  the  darkest  problems 
of  nature.'  The  Dominicans  were  as  sheep  having  no  shep- 
herd, and  when  the  teaching  of  their  leader  enconntered  the 
deliberate  condemnation  of  the  Church,  the  blow  was  felt  b; 
the  whole  order.  The  exultation  of  their  rivals  was  pro- 
portionably  great ;  the  name  of  the  Angelic  Doctor  began  to 
be  mentioned  in  terms  of  small  respect;  and  at  length,  in 
1278,  it  was  deemed  desirable  to  convene  a  Council  at  Milan 
^  for  the  purpose  of  re-establishing  his  reputation.  The  priors 
of  the  different  monasteries  were  invited  to  give  their  co- 
operation, and,  in  the  following  year,  a  resolution  passed  at 
Paris  pronounced  '  that  brother  Thomas  of  Aquino,  of  vene- 
rated and  happy  memory,  having  wrought  honour  to  his 
order  by  the  sanctity  of  his  life  and  by  his  works,  justice 
demanded  that  it  should  be  forbidden  to  speak  of  bjrn  with 
disrespect,  even  to  those  who  differed  in  opinion  from  his 
teaching'.'  This  movement  appears  to  have  had  the  designed 
effect.  From  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  centiuy  the  Domi- 
nicans, who  had  themselves  been  threatened  by  schism,  rallied 
unanimously  to  the  defence  of  their  illustrious  teacher.  His 
canonization,  in  the  year  1323,  placed  his  &me  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  detractor ;  and  years  before  that  event  his  great 
countryman  and  disciple  had  wtlh  raptured  eye  beheld  him, 
pre-eminent  in  that  bright  band, — 


which  ahone  with  surpassing  lustre  among  the  spirits  of  the 
blest*.  The  position  thus  assigned  him  among  the  teachers 
of  the  Cburcli  the  Angelic  Doctor  still  retains;  his  fame,  if 
temporarily  eclipsed  by  that  of  Duns  Scotus  and  Occam,  was 
more  extended  and  enduring  than  theirs ;  and  Erasmus, 
standing  half-way  between  the  schoolmen  and  the  Beformers, 
declared  that  Aquinas  was  surpassed  by  none  of  his  race,  ifi 


'  Hani^aa,  Philoiophie  Scholatti-.  lowing  passage,  is  iuterettiiig  u  an 

ijHf .  II  217.     BalsnB,  m  148.  illnBtration  of  the  oompaiBtiTG  esti- 

*  Dante,  ParodMo,  x  64.  The  vhole  maUon  in  wbicb  the  chief  doctors  of 

of  the  speech  of  Aqiiinu,  in  the  tol-  the  Ctanreh  veM  then  held. 


OBJBcrOBS  TO   HIS  TEACHIHQ.  123 

the  vastness  of  his  labouis,  in  soundiiess  of  UDderstanding,    chap.l 
and  in  extent  of  learning. 

Tbe  Summa  of  Aquinas  has  still  its  readers ;  but  his  Bntean^ 
oomntentaries  on  Aristotle  are  deservedly  neglected,  and  the  UMiddaf 
csmdeneag  of  the  reconciliation  which  he  sought  to  find  be- 
tween pagan  philosophy  and  Christian  dogma  startled  even 
tfae  orthodox  into  dissent  as  the  true  thought  of  the  Stagirite 
became  more  distinctly  comprehended.  The  devout  have  repu- 
diated his  dangerous  temerity;  the  sceptical,  his  indifference 
to  radical  inaffinities.  Even  in  the  Church  which  canonized 
him  there  have  been  not  a  few  who  have  seen,  in  the  fallacious 
alliance  which  he  essayed  to  bring  about,  the  commencement 
of  a  method  fraught  with  peril  to  the  faith  and  with  disquiet 
to  the  believer.  More  than  a  century  aft«r  his  death,  Gerson,  SSSj"" 
tbe  chancellor  of  the  university  of  Paris,  and  long  the  reputed 
author  of  the  Imitalio  Christi,  declared  that  Bonaventura,  as 
mm  itnmiscena  poxitiones  extraneaa  vel  doctrinas  ewcalares 
dialecticas  aut  phygicca  termints  theologids  obumbraiaa  more 
muitorttm,  was  a  far  safer  guide,  and  abjured  both  the 
Aristotelian  philosophy  and  the  attempted  reconciliation. 
Cardinal  Alliacus  stigmatized  the  teachers  of  the  new  learning  (kiOni 
as  false  sfaepherds,  and  Vincentius  Ferrerius  complacently 
called  to  recollection  the  saying  of  Hieronymus,  qttod  Aria- 
UAdes  et  Ftato  in  inferno  aunt  Hermann,  the  Protestant  bwbui^ 
editor  of  Launoy,  denounced  with  equsJ  severity,  at  the 
oommencement  of  the  eighteenth  century,  this  TruUe  saaum 
pltiJotophice  PeripatetuxB  Hudium,  and  declared  it  would  have 
been  welt  had  the  schools  confined  themselves  to  the  limits 
marked  out  by  Boethius  and  Damascenus,  since  they  had 
retained  scarcely  a  vestige  of  true  theology.   Immodicaa  Peri- 

J  pkilosopkicB  amor,  wrote  Bnicker  a  few  years  later,  Bmiv. 
t  htmc  miperstitioso  obsequio  phUosopho  odffvcfum  reduxit, 
vt  OteologicB  vtdneribus  ques  prwpostera  philosophic  commixtio 
infiixerat,  nova  adderet  vulnera,  aicque  sacram  doctrinam  vere 
faeer^  philoaophicam,  imm»  ffentilem^.  Still  heavier  falls  the 
censure  of  Carl  Frantl,  who  indeed  has  treated  both  Albertus  Pnoi^ 
and  Aquinas  with  unwonted  harshness,  even  denying  to  the 
'  Hat  Phil,  m  806. 


124 


THOMAS  AQinNAR. 


CHAP.  I.  latterall  merit  as  an  ori^aal  thiiiker,aiicl  affirming  that  itcould 
only  be  the  '  work  of  a  confused  understanding,'  '  to  Tetun 
the  Aristotelian  notion  of  sobstance  in  conjunction  with  the 
Christian  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  or  to  force  the  Aristotelian 
ethics  into  the  garments  of  Christian  moral  philosophy'.' 
DUMggf  It  is  howerer  scarcely  necessary  to  observe  that  censures 
J^J^i^^r'  ^^^^  **  these  are  strongly  opposed  to  the  prevtuliog  senti- 
•■**■  ment^  of  the  Church  before  the  Reformation,  and  it  is  ea^ 
to  understand  that,  contrasted  with  the  ultra  Nominalistic 
excesses  into  which  the  later  schoolmen  were  hurried,  the 
position  of  Aquinas  may  have  appeared  one  of  comparative 
safety, — the  true  Aristotelian  mean  between  unreasoning 
faith  and  unrestrained  speculation.  His  repudiation  of  Aver- 
roes  waB  not  improbably  the  salvation  of  his  own  authority, 
for  in  the  history  of  the  Italian  universities  we  have  ample 
evidence  that  the  apprehensions  of  the  Church  with  respect 
to  the  tendencies  of  the  Arabian  philosophy  were  justified 
by  the  sequel,  and  Petrarch  has  left  on  notable  record  some 
of  the  traits  of  that  coarsely  materialistic  spirit,  which,  taking 
itfi  rise  in  the  teaching  of  Avicenna  and  Averroes,  boldly 
flaunted  its  colours,  in  his  own  day,  at  Padua  and  at  Veuice*. 
If  E^in,  we  pass  from  the  rebuke  of  the  theologian  to  that 
of  the  philosopher,  it  is  but  just  to  remember  the  multiplicity 
of  the  material  that  Albertua  and  his  disciple  found  claiming 
their  attention  and  the  vastness  of  the  labours  they  thus 
incurred.  Theirs  was  the  novelty,  the  obscurity,  the  con- 
fusion ;  theirs  the  loose  connotation,  the  vague  nomenclature, 
the  mistiness  of  thought,  through  which  mainly  by  its  own 
exertions  scholasticism  was  to  arrive  at  firmer  ground.  On 
them  it  devolved  at  once  to  confront  the  infidel  and  to  ap- 


'  OeichichU  der  Logik,  III  108. 

*  Petrarob  even  iceat  bo  for  &b  to 
«ompoBe  a  trefttiae  entitled  Dt  tui 
tjwtut  c(  mvltoram  atiorumignorantia, 
liaiing  for  its  object  the  rebukiDg  of 
tbe  pert  BcepticiBm  wbicb  was  rife 
among  tbe  young  Venetians.  In  hii 
intercoaree  witb  them  he  teUs  na 
that  be  found  them  intelleotnall]'  and 
stadioDslf  inclined,  bnt  tbeir  devo- 
tion, nnder  the  teaching  of  ATeirosB, 


to  tbo  oatnral  scienoea,  and  the  open 
ridicule  with  which  thej  assailad  the 
Uoeaic  account  of  the  Creation,  efleo- 
toall;  cteolied  much  sjmpatbj  be- 
tween him  and  them.  He  was  wont 
to  tell  them  that  he  considered  it  of 
more  importance  to  explore  the  na- 
ture of  man  than  that  of  quadrapeda 
end  fishes.  See  Qingq  jnf,  Hiil.  Lit!. 
d'lialie,  Tom.  u  p.  US.    Tiraboschi, 


THOltAS  AQUINAa 


12S 


pease  the  bigot,  to  restore  philosophy  and  to  guard  the  -™*^_'- 
&itb ;  and  if  they  failed,  it  muat  be  admitted  that  their  very 
&ilure8  guided  the  thinkers  of  the  succeeding  age ;  that  the 
paths  they  tracked  out,  if  afterwards  deserted  fur  others,  still 
led  to  commanding  summits,  whence  amid  a  clearer  air  and 
from  a  loftier  standpoint  their  followers  might  survey  the 
unknown  land'. 

It  remains  to  say  a  few  words  respecting  the  develope- TKimtai 
ment  given  by  Aquinas  to  tbe  dialectical  method.  In  his  aiiuibu. 
commentaries  on  Aristotle,  he  followed,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  the  method  of  Averriies,  but  in  those  on  the  Sentences, 
and  in  the  Summa,  he  followed  that  of  Peter  Lombard.  It 
marks,  however,  the  controversial  tendency  of  the  period, 
that  while  Lombardus  authoritatively  enunciated  the  dis- 
tinctio,  Aquinas  propounded  each  logical  refinement  as  a 
qatBstio.  The  decisions  of  the  Master  were,  indeed,  as  judi- 
cially pronounced  as  before,  but  the  change  from  a  simple 
contrasting  and  comparing  of  different  authorities  to  a  form 
which  seemed  to  invite  the  enquirer  to  perpetual  search 
rather  than  to  a  definite  result,  was  obviously  another  ad- 
vance in  the  direction  of  dialectics.  The  objections  which, 
u  we  have  already  seen,  had  been  taken  by  the  Prior  of 
St.  Victoire  to  the  original  method,  became  more  than  ever 
applicable ;  for  though  the  treatment  of  Aquinas  might  seem 
exhaustive,  the  resources  of  the  objector  were  inexhaustible. 

We  have  already  epoken  of  the  character  of  the  trans-  ■ 
lations  from  the  Greek,  whereby,  with  the  advance  of  the  u 
century,  the  proper  thought  of  Aristotle  began  to  be  more 
(Nearly  distinguished  from  that  of  his  Arabian  commentators ; 
but  wherein  an  extreme  and  unintelligent  literalness  often 
veiled  the  meaning  and  obscured  the  aigument.     It  would 


t  Fnntl  (OtichichU  der  Logik.  it 
118 — 31)  enamer&tea  ChirtMndistiact 
^bmiat  of  ojiimOD  that  divided  the 
nhooU  from  the  time  o(  BoiicdliQus 
down  to  that  of  Aqninaa.  Few  who 
luT*  made  the  effort  to  grasp  the 
diatmctiODB  on  irhich  these  contro- 
mnM  tnnied,  wiU  fnit  to  feel  (be 
tone  of  BeDBii'a  obaervatiiut:  'II  est 
lort  diS^e,  an  miUea  dee  qaerellM 


qui  clCchiraient  it  cette  ripoqne  la 
monde  philosophiqne,  de  Baisir  ei- 
octemenC  In  nuance   dee    diff^renta 

Eartis.  Cette  nnance  mSme  «tut-el1e 
ien  air^l^f  N'est-il  pas  de«  joats 
de  chaoB  oit  lei  mots  perdent  lenr 
signification  primitiTe,  ofl  lea  amis 
ne  Be  retroavent  plaB.  od  lea  eonemis 
aemblent  ae  donnei  la  mainf  Avtr- 
r,p.33I(ed.l863). 


126  mnTEBSITT  OF  FABia. 

^  appear  that  Aquinas  hinuelf  towarda  the  close  of  his  life 
became  aware  of  the  aneatiB&ctoiy  character  of  these  ver- 
sions, for  within  three  years  of  hia  death  he  prevuled  upon 
William  of  Moerbecke  to  undertake  the  production  of  a  new 
Tcrsion  which,  known  as  Nova  Tratialatio,  was  long  regarded 
aa  the  standard  text,  and  still  bj  virtue  of  its  scrupulous 
verbal  accuracy  possesses  a  value  scarcely  inferior  to  that  of 
the  best  manuscripts*.  The  commentaries  of  Aquinas  bad, 
however,  appeared  nearly  ten  years  before,  and  were  conse- 
quently liable  to  any  error  which  might  arise  from  the  grosser 
defects  of  the  versions  to  which  he  had  recourse*. 

*  The  commencement  and  extension  of  the  collegiate  sys- 
tem constitutes  another  feature  in  the  university  of  Paris 
affording  valuable  illustration  of  the  corresponding  movement 
in  our  own  country.  In  France,  as  in  England,  the  fourteenth 
century  was  the  period  of  the  greatest  activity  of  this  move- 
ment, but  long  before  that  time  these  institutions  had  been 
subjected  to  an  adequate  test  in  Paris.  Crevier  indeed 
traces  back  the  foimdation  of  two  colleges,  that  of  St.  Thomas 
du  Louvre*  and  of  the  Danish  college  in  the  Bue  de  la 
Uontagne,  as  far  as  the  twelfth  century ;  while  he  enume- 
rates no  less  than  sixteen  as  founded  in  the  thirteenth 
century*.    Of  these  some  were  entirely  Bubservient  to  the 


' '  Saint  Thomsa  d'Aqoia  n'a  em- 

plo^dqnedeBTerBionad^m^esimme- 
dUtemect  in  greo,  Boit  qa'il  f ut  f aire 
de  DoaTelles,  Boit  qa'il  ait  obtenu  dee 
collatioiiE   '" 


I'oi 


D  Tocco,  dauB  la  vis 
qa'il  noDB  a  laise^  de  oe  grand  doc- 
teut,  dit  podtivement :  Scripiitetiam 
luper  philoiophicam  naOiraUm  it  mo- 
raUm  tt  taper  melaphyticam,  ^uoruin 
librorwn  jiroeuravit  ut  fiertt  Ttova 
trantlatio  qaa  tenlentiia  ArUtctelit 
tonttntret  cUtHu*  veritaUm.'  (Acta 
Sane.  Antveip,  i  665.)  Joordain, 
Sechfreha  Critig^ta,  p.  40. 

■  Ibid.  p.  SeS.  Prantl,  QacUcUt 
dtr  Logik,  m  6. 

*  'Dana  oet  ^tablisHment  ae  mani. 
feste  rori^ne  de  noB  banraiera,  qui 


bres  tonmit  la  logement  et  I»  lobBii- 
tanoe,  oa  da  moius  dei  Beooara  pou 
Babaiater  pendant  lean  ^todes.  Cett« 
isnvre  de  ch&ritd  n'dtait  pas  nouvelle, 
et  il  3r  sioit  d£jft  longtema  que  I«  roi 
Bobwt  en  avoit  donuj  rasempl«  en 
entretenont  de  paavrea  olaros,  o'eet- 
A-dire  de  paavreE  ^tadiana.  Nona 
avons  preava  qae  Louis  le  Jemw 
faisait  ansBi  diatribaer  dee  liberalitte 
A  de  paavres  ^liare  par  aon  grand 
Bumomer.  L'eiemple  de  la  mntiifl- 
cenoe  de  nos  rois  invita  les  prinoat, 
lee  granda,  et  lee  pi^lats  A  rimitel. 
Cette  bonne  <BQTre  prit  favenr,  at  M 
tnaltiplia  beaaoonp  pandant  lea  trel. 
ziime  et  qaatorKtSme  Bibales,  anx. 
qaela  Be  rapporie  lliutitntian  de  Ia 
plapart  des  booreiera  dani  notia 
Univerait^'    Crerier,  i  389. 

•  They  are  the  CoUdge  de  Conjtan- 
tinople,  dei  MatminE,  das  Bona  En- 


OOmCEKCOIEIlT  OF  THE  COLLEGE  KRA.  127 

reqairements  of  different  religious  orders,  wbile  others  were,  (^nxp.  t 
for  a  long  time,  little  more  than  lodgiDg-houses  for  poor 
students  in  the  receipt  of  a  scanty  allowance  for  their  sup- 
port {boursiers),  and  under  the  direction  of  a  master*.  The 
most  important,  both  tiom  its  subsequent  celebrity  and  from 
the  &ct  that  it  would  appear  to  be  the  earliest  example 
of  a  more  secular  foundation,  that  is  to  say  a  college  for 
the  aecnlar  clergy,  was  the  Sorbonne,  founded  about  theTiMBor- 
year  1250  by  Robert  de  Sorbonne*,  the  domestic  chaplain 
of  St.  Louis.  Originally  capable  of  supporting  only  sixteen 
poor  scholars,  four  of  whom  were  to  be  elected  from  each 
'nation,'  and  who  were  to  devote  themselves  to  the  study 
of  theology,  it  eventually  became  the  most  illustrious  founds^ 
tion  of  the  university,  and  formed,  in  many  respects,  the 
model  of  our  earliest  English  colleges'.  For  a  time,  how- 
ever, the  modest  merit  of  this  society  was  obscured  by  the 
qdendoor  of  a  later  foundation  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
In  the  year  1305,  Jeanne  of  Navarre,  the  consort  of  Philip  hkOddh* 
the  Fair,  founded  the  great  college  which  she  named  after 
the  country  of  her  birth.  In  wealth  and  external  import- 
ance the  college  of  Navarre  far  surpassed  the  Sorbonne.  It 
mm  endowed  with  revenues  sufficient  for  the  maintenance 
of  twenty  scholars  in  grammar,  thirty  in  l<^ic>  and  twenty 
in  theology,  and  the  ablest  teachers  were  retained  as  in- 


fuw,  da  St.  HonoN,  de  SI.  Nicholai 
te  LoDTM,  dea  Bemh&rdina,  dea 
Bona  Enbma  de  la  Bae  St.  Victor, 
d*  SortMBme,  de  CatTi,  des  AngoBtinfl, 
dw  Cazmea,  dea  Fi^mootrfg,  de 
Chgni,  du  Tr£aorier,  d'Harconrt,  and 
dM  Choleta.  The  circomstaiMieB  ol 
tb»  foundation  ol  the  College  de 
ConatantlDople  and  the  motives  in 
wliieh  Da  Bonlay  aonjeetniea  it  maj 
turn  taken  ita  riae,  are  somewhat 
dngnlar: — 'Po«t  eipiignatani  Gon- 
ttanttn'T"'''"  '  Fiaocis  et  Teuetie 
Msro  todere  jonotiB  Fhilippo  An- 
gaUo  rege  Latetue  conditom  eat 
wiHegiiiiii  CoDBtantinopolitannm  ad 
lipam  Seqnanv  prope  foram  Mal- 
*-— "lain,  nesoio  in  areano  imperii 
lie,  at  QTBoonun  liben  Lntetiam 

ntM  nut   oiun   tingoa  Latins 

rm"-*'*"  vetoa  illnd  et  patriom  in 


Latiuoa  odium  deponerenteonunqne 

humanitatem  et  bemgnitatem  expert! 
ad  BQOB  reverBi  non  Bine  ma^o  L^ 
tini  nominiB  incremento  virtntea  iUae 
pasgim  prffiditarent,  ao  «elat  obeidea 
babiti,  qui.  id  qnid  parentes  et  afflnea 
Qneca  levitati  adveratu  Latinoa  mo- 
lirentar.  ipBi  adoleBcentea  Lntetia 
ooncluai  fuerint.'    Bnlnua,  m  10. 

'  Crerier,  I,  271.  Le  aero,  Stat 
da  Letlra  au  XI V  Siitlt,  i  SSS. 

■  '  Homme  aimple  dam  aon  carao- 
Hre  et  dana  BeBmcenra.'     GreTier. 

■  '  Avattt  Bobert  de  Sorb<nme  nnl 
college  n'^tait  4tabli  A  PariB  poDz  lea 
p&olierB  ^tndiana  en  Thfologis,  H 
Toolnt  lenr  procurer  oet  avanta^... 
La  panvret^  ^tait  I'attribnt  propra 
da  la  maisoD  de  Borbocne.  EUe  en 
a  coDBerrd  longteme  la  rdaliW  areo 
le  Utre.'    Ibid,  i  IM,  4S6. 


128 


UNIVEBSITY  OF  PABIS. 


structora  in  each  faculty.  Throughout  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries  it  waa  the  foremost  foundation  of  the 
UDiTersitj,  nor  can  it  be  denied  that  many  eminent  men 
received  their  education  within  its  walls ;  among  them  was 
Nicolas  Oresme',  afterwards  master  of  the  college;  Ckmanges, 
no  unworthy  representative  of  the  school  of  Gasparin  and 
Aretino ;  Pierre  d'Ailly,  afterwards  bishop  of  Cambray ;  and 
the  celebrated  Gerson.  But  though  poverty  was  here,  as  at 
the  Sorbonne,  among  the  conditions  prescribed  by  the 
founders  as  essential  to  the  admission  of  a  scholar,  the 
associations  of  the  college  with  rank  and  wealth  soon  de- 
veloped an  ambitious,  worldly  spirit  that  little  harmonized 
with  the  aims  and  occupations  of  the  true  student.  High 
ofBce  in  the  State  or  iu  the  Church  were  the  prizes  to  which 
it  became  a  tradition  among  its  more  able  sons  to  aspire ; 
and  such  prizes  were  rarely  to  be  won  in  that  age  without 
a  corresponding  sacrifice  of  integrity  and  independence. 
The  influence  acquired  by  the  college  of  Navarre  was  un- 
happily made  subservient  to  the  designs  and  wishes  of  its 
patrons,  and  the  value  of  the  degrees  conferred  by  the 
university  and  the  e8Sciency  of  the  examinations  are  stated 
to  have  equally  sufTered  from  the  interference  and  the  fa- 
vouritism resulting  from  these  courtly  relations'.  In  the 
year  1308  was  founded  the  Collie  de  Bayeux  by  the 
bishop  of  that  see,  designed  especially  for  the  study  of  medi- 
cine and  the  civil  taw ;  and  the  College  de  Iaou,  in  1311, 


'  For  a  brief  acconnt  of  thii  re- 
markable man  Bee  Eggec,  LHeVia- 
itvu  en  France,  1 128—130.  Oresme 
was  one  of  the  euliest  political  ecouo. 
miats,  and  bis  treatisea  on  matbe- 
maticB  and  bis  linguistic  attainments 
constitnle  a  phenomenon  almost  aa 
Bingolar  vben  taken  in  conuexion 
with  the  age  in  whicb  tbej  appeared, 
as  the  culture  of  Bwei  Bacon  in  the 
previoQB  century.  Of  hia  acquaint- 
ance with  Greek  we  shal]  have  oc- 
casion to  apeak  in  another  place. 

'  'Ce  fut  nn  malbeni'  pour  une 
ODiporation  qni  aTait  besoin  d'indfi- 
pendanae,  de  s'Slre  laisser   dominer 


par  les  hommea  de  cette  tnusoa, 
Irop  aveontam^B  k  faire  la  volontd 
deB  roia  et  dea  princea  poor  €tr«  de 
bon  eoDseillera  dane  les  temps  diffi- 
ciles,  Onle  vit  bien  quand  ^Utfirent, 
deui  Bii^clea  aprga.  lea  guerres  de 
religions,  L'aacendajit  que  Navarre 
avait  pria  sur  le  corps  enseignant, 
loin  de  le  fortifier  contre  des  p^rili 
qn'il  laiUait  braver,  I'afhiblit  et 
r^Qerva,  en  lui  Atant  peu  k  pea,  de 
conniveace  avec  dee  proteotenrs  puia- 
Eauta,  la  liberty  de  aeB  lemons  et  la 
publicity  de  BeB  eiamens.'  Le  Clero, 
Etat  dei  LtUrt$  an  Qaatoriiimt  8ii- 
eU,  1  266, 367. 


DESCaiFTIOM  OF  H.  LE  CLEBC.  129 

represented  a  similar  deeign.  The  institution  of  the  CoU^  "ia"*-  '■ 
de  Flessis-Sorbonne,  for  forty  scholars,  in  1323 ;  of  the  Collie 
de  Bouij;ogiie,  for  twenty  students  of  philosophy,  in  1332; 
of  Ziisieuz,  for  twenty-four  poor  scholars,  in  1336, — are 
among  the  more  important  of  no  less  than  seventeen  founda- 
tiona  which  we  find  rising  into  existence  with  the  half 
century  that  followed  the  creation  of  the.  college  of  Navarre. 

'  Had  all  these  colleges  survived,'  observes  M.  Le  Clerc,  5'5^'jJ'" 
'or  had  they  all  received  their  full  complement  of  scholars,  •■'™' 
the  procession  headed  by  the  rector  of  the  university,  who, 
as  it  is  told,  was  wont  t«  enier  the  portals  of  St  Denis  when 
the  extreme  rear  was  -only  at  the  Mathurins,  would  have 
been  yet  more  imposing.  Many  however  contained  but 
five  or  six  scholars  who,  while  attending  the  regular  course 
<^  instruction  in  the  different  faculties,  met  in  general 
assembly  on  certain  days  for  their  disputations  and 
conferences;  while  athen,  founded  for  larger  numbers, 
nuntained  not  more  -than  two  or  three,  or  were  completely 
deserted,  their  revenues  having  been  lost,  or  the  buildings 
having  fallen  into  decay.  At  the  general  suppression  of  the 
small  colleges  in  1764,  some  had  already  ceased  to  esisL 

'Without  adding  .to  our  lengthened  enumeration  the 
great  episcopal  schools,  which  must  be  regarded  aa  distinct 
insUtations,  but  including  only  the  numerous  foimdations 
in  actual  connexion  with  the  corporation  of  the  university, — 
as,  for  instance,  the  colleges  of  the  different  religious  orders, 
the  colleges  founded  for  foreign  students,  the  elementary 
schools  or  pensions,  of  the  existence  of  which,  in  1392,  we 
have  inc<mtestable  evidence,  and  the  unattached  students, — 
we  are  presented  with  a  spectacle  which  historians  have 
scarcely  recognised  in  all  its  signilicance,  in  this  vast  multi- 
tude which,  undaunted  by  war,  pestilence,  and  all  manoer 
of  evils,  flocked  to  this  great  centre  for  study  and  increase 
of  knowlet^.  There  was  possibly  something  of  illusion  in 
all  this ;  but  notwithstanding,  even  the  most  able  and  most 
learned  would  have  held  that  their  education  was  defective 
bad  they  never  mingled  with  the  concourse  of  students  at 
Paris. 


oTiEnulB- 


&MnudB 


190  UNITEBSITT  OF  PASIS. 

'Towards  the  close  of  the  uxteenth  century,  notwith- 
standing the  disastrous  religious  wars,  a  Venetian  amhassador 
was  still  able  to  say,  "The  university  of  Paris  numbers  little 
less  than  thiily  thousand  students,  that  is  to  say  as  many 
OS  and  perhaps  more  than  all  the  universities  of  Italy  put 
together."  But  Bologna,  in  the  year  1262,  was  generally 
believed  to  number  over  twenty  thousand.  The  enquiry 
naturally  arises,  how  did  this  vast  body  of  students  subsist  ? 
• — an  enquiry  which  it  is  by  no  means  easy  to  answer,  for  the 
majority  had  no  resources  of  their  own,  and  the  laity  had, 
for  a  long  time,  been  contending  with  a  new  inroad  upon 
their  fortunes  resulting  from  the  rise  of  the  Meodicants. 
The  secular  clergy,  threatened  with  absolute  nun  by  the 
new  orders,  conceived  the  idea  of  themselves  assuming  in 
self-defence  the  pristine  poverty  of  the  evangelists.  There 
were  the  pooi  scholars  of  the  Sorbonne,  the  enfavis  pauvret 
of  St.  Thomas  du  Louvre  ;  the  election  of  the  rector  was  for 
a  long  time  at  Saint-Julien  le  Pauvre ;  the  College  d'Har- 
court  was  expressly  restricted  to  poor  students,  the  statutes 
given  to  this  foundation  in  the  year  1311  requiring  that  itn 
ponantur  duodecim  pauperes,  an  oft-recurring  expression: 
and  indeed  the  univeisity  was  entitled  to  proclaim  itself 
poor,  for  poor  it  undoubtedly  was, 

'  The  capites  of  Montaigne,  who  were  also,  and  not  without 
*'  reason,  known  as  a  community  of  poor  students,  were  how- 
ever not  the  most  to  be  pitied,  even  afler  the  harsh  reform 
which  limited  their  diet  to  bread  and  water;  there  wan 
a  yet  lower  grade  of  scholars  who  subsisted  only  on  charity, 
or  upon  what  they  might  gain  by  waitiug  on  fellow-studeotB 
somewhat  less  needy  than  themselves.  Of  Anchier  Panta- 
lion,  a  nephew  of  Pope  Urban  IV,  by  whom  he  was  after- 
wards raised  to  the  dignity  of  cardinal,  we  are  told  that  he 
began  his  student  life  by  carrying  from  the  provision  market 
the  meat  for  the  dintaers  of  the  scholars  with  whom  he 
studied.  This  same  humble  little  company,  which  formed 
a  kind  of  brotherhood  with  a  chieftain  or  kiug  at  its  head, 
included  in  its  ranks,  besides  other  poor  youths  destined  to 
become  eminent,  the  names  of  Ramus  and  Amyot. 


DESCKIPnON  OF  M.  LE  CLE:RC. 


131 


*  The  digtiDgaishiDg  traits  of  this  student  life,  tbe  memo-  ciiap.  l 
ties  of  which  survived  with  siogular  tenacity,  were  poverty,  ouischuac- 
ardent  application,  and  turbulence.  The  students  in  the 
Estculty  of  Arts,  "the  artists,"  whose  numbers  in  tbe  four- 
teenth century,  partly  owing  to  the  reputation  of  tbe  Parisian 
TWviutn  and  Quadrivium,  and  partly  in  consequence  of  tbe 
declining  ardour  of  tbe  theologians,  were  constantly  on  tbe 
increase,  were  by  no  means  the  most  ill-disciplindd.  Older 
students,  those  especially  in  tbe  theological  faculty,  with 
their  fifteen  or  sixteen  years'  course  of  study,  achieved  in 
this  respect  a  &r  greater  notoriety.  At  tbe  age  of  thirty 
or  forty  the  student  at  the  university  was  still  a  scholar. 
This  indeed  is  one  of  the  facts  which  best  explain  the 
infinence  then  exercised  by  a  body  of  students  and  their 
nusters  over  the  aSaiiB  of  religion  and  of  the  state. 

'  However  serious  the  inconvenience  and  the  risk  of  thus 
coDTerting  half  a  great  city  into  a  school,  we  have  abundant 
evidence  bow  great  was  tbe  attraction  exercised  by  this 
vast  seminary,  where  the  human  intellect  exhausted  itself 
in  efforts  which  perhaps  yielded  small  fruit  though  tbey 
promised  much.  To  seekers  for  knowledge  tbe  whole  of  the 
Ifontagne  Latine  was  a  second  fatherland.  The  narrow 
Btreets,  the  lofty  bouses,  with  their  low  archways,  their  damp 
and  gloomy  courts,  and  balls  strewn  with  straw',  were  never 
to  be  fbrgotteu ;  and  when  after  many  years  old  fellow-stu- 
dents met  again  at  Bome  or  at  Jerusalem,  or  on  the  fields 
of  battle  where  France  and  England  stood  arrayed  for  con- 
flict, they  said  to  themselves,  Nosfuimus  simiU  in  Oatiandia; 
or  they  remembered  how  tbey  had  once  shouted  in  tbe  ears 
of  the  watch  the  defiant  menace, — AUez  au  cloa  Bruneau, 
voua  trouverez  d  qui  parler*.' 


>  The  street  in  which  the  princi- 
|m1  •ehooli  were  (itaated.  was  called 
tbeRutdufouan-e,  ViemiStramitieut, 
cc   Straw    SlTtet,   from    the   straw 


a  of  the  leeture :  benahea  and 
Mat*  being  forbidden  by  an  exprms 
■Utate  of  Pope  Urban  V  in  ISEfi. 


'In  facilitate  artinm.qnoddicti  icho-  . 
htrea  andjentea  eius  lectionea  in 
diota  faeultate,  aedeant  in  terra  oorsm 
Ha^tra  et  non  in  scamiiiB  aut  sadi- 
bna  eleTBtis  a  terra.'  Sea  Peacock 
on  tht  SUxtattt,  App.  A.  p.  iIt. 

>  Le  Clero,  Etat  da    Ltttret  an 
XIV  SiixU,  I  269— 37L 


CHAPTER  IL 

RISE  OF  THE  ENOLISH  UNITERSITIES. 

L  Ih  the  preceding  chapter  our  atteDtion  has  heen  mainly 
directed  to  the  three  most  important  phases  io  the  develope- 
ment  of  the  great  continental  university  which  formed  to  so 
large  an  extent  the  model  for  Oxford  aad  Cambridge, — its 
general  oiganization,  the  culture  it  imparted,  and  the  com- 
mencement and  growth  of  its  collegiate  system.  We  shall 
now,  passing  by  for  the  present  many  interesting  detulft, 
endeavour  to  shew  the  intimate  connexion  existing  in  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  between  Paris  on  the 
one  hand  and  Oxford  and  Cambridge  on  the  other,  and  the 
fidelity  with  which  the  features  we  have  noted  were  repro- 
duced in  our  own  country.  The  materiak  that  Fuller  and 
Anthony  Wood  found  available  for  their  purpose,  when  they 
sought  to  explore  the  early  annals  of  their  universities,  are 
scanty  indeed  when  com{)ared  with  those  which  invited  the 
labours  of  Du  Boulay  and  Crevier.  The  university  of  Paris, 
throughout  the  thirteenth  century,  well-nigh  monopolised 
the  interest  of  the  learned  in  Europe.  Thither  thought  and 
speculation  appeared  irresistibly  attracted  ;  it  was  there  that 
the  new  orders  fought  the  decisive  battle  for  jdace  and 
power  j  that  new  forms  of  scepticism  rose  in  rapid  succession, 
and  heresies  of  varying  moment  riveted  the  watchful  eye  of 
Komei  that  anarchy  most  often  triumphed  and  flagrant  vices 
most  prevailed;  and  it  was  from  this  seething  centre  that 
those  influences  went  forth  which  predominated  in  the  con- 
temporary history  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge. 


BUS  OF  TUB  ENOLISH  0NIVEBS1TIES.  133 

The  glimpses  we  are  able  to  gain  of  our  own  universities  chap,  il 
at  this  period  are  rare  and  unsatisfactory,  but  they  suf- 
ficiently indicate  the  close  relations  existing  between  those 
bodies  and  the  gr^t  school  of  Faiis.  The  obscurity  which 
involves  their  early  aiuials  is  not  indeed  of  the  kind  that  fol- 
lows upon  an  inactive  or  a  peaceful  career, — 

Snoh  wboae  supine  felicity  bat  makes 
In  story  cHtiamt,  in  epochs  mutakes, — 

but  through  the  drifting  clouds  of  pestilence  and  famine,  of 
internal  strife  and  civil  war,  we  discern  enough  to  assure  us 
that  whatever  learning  then  acquired,  or  thought  evolved,  or 
professors  taught,  was  carried  on  under  conditions  singularly 
disadvantageous.  The  distractions  which  surrounded  student 
life  in  Paris  were  to  be  found  in  but  a  slightly  modified  form 
at  Oxford  and  at  Cambridge,  and  indeed  at  all  the  newly- 
fonned  centres  of  education.  The  restlessness  of  the  age 
was  little  likely  to  leave  undisturbed  the  resorts  of  the 
youthfiil,  the  enquiring,  and  the  adventurous.  Frequent  mi- 
grations sufficiently  attest  how  troublous  was  the  atmosphere. 
We  have  already  noticed  that  large  numbers  of  students,  in  Bmiiaita 
the  great  migration  from  Paris,  in  the  year  1229,  availed 
themselves  of  King  Henry's  iuvitation  to  settle  where  they 
pleased  in  this  country ;  and  the  element  thus  infused  at 
Oambridge  is,  in  all  probability,  to  be  recc^ised  in  one  of 
four  writs,  issued  in  the  year  1231,  for  the  better  regulation 
<tf  the  university,  in  which  the  presence  of  many  students 
'from  beyond  the  seas'  is  distinctly  adverted  lo'.  By  another 
of  Uiese  writs  it  is  expressly  provided  that  no  student  shall 
be  permitted  to  remain  in  the  university  unless  under  the 
tuition  of  some  master  of  arts, — the  earliest  trace,  perhaps, 
of  an  attempt  towards  the  introduction  of  some  organization 
among  the  ill-disciplined  and  motley  crowd  that  then  re- 
{HBsented  the  student  community.  An  equally  considerable 
immigmtion  from  Paris  had  also  taken  place  at  Oxford.  The 
intercourse  between  these  two  centres  was  indeed  surprisingly 
frequent  in  that  age.  It  was  not  uncommon  for  the  wealthier 
>  Coopei'i  Jnult,  1 43. 


134 


RISE  OF  THE  ENOUSH  UKITERSITIES. 


:  students  to  graduate  at  more  than  one  UDiversit;;  'Sundry 
schools '  were  held,  in  the  language  of  Chaucer,  to  '  make 
subtil  clerkes;'  and  Wood  enumerates  no  less  than  thirty-two 
eminent  Oxonians  who  had  also  studied  at  Paris.  Among 
the  names  are  those  of  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  Daniel  Merlac, 
Alexander  Hales,  Robert  Qrosseteste,  Robert  Pulleyne,  Roger 
Bacon,  Stephen  Langton,  .^IgidiuB,  Richard  of  Cornwall,  and 
Kilwardby ;  and  it  may  be  added  that  this  list  might  be 
considerably  extended.  '  Leiand,'  says  Wood,  *  in  the  lives 
of  divers  English  writers  that  flourished  in  these  times'  (tub 
anno  1230),  'tells  us  that  they  frequented  as  well  the  schools 
of  Paris  as  those  of  Oxford  de  more  illmtrium  Anglorum,  and 
for  accomplishment  sake  did  go  from  Oxford  to  Paris  and  so 
to  Oxford  again.  Nay,  there  was  so  great  familiarity  and 
commerce  between  the  s^d  universities,  that  what  one  knew 
the  other  straightway  did,  as  a  certain  poet  hath  it  thus : 


'  Tliis  familiarity,'  he  adds,  '  continued  constant  till  the  time 
of  John  Wycleve,  and  then  our  students  deserting  by  degrees 
Rcholastical  divinity,  scarce  followed  any  other  studies  but 
polemical,  being  wholly  bent  and  occupied  in  refuting  his 
opinions  and  crying  down  the  orders  of  Mendicant  Friars'.' 
We  can  hardly  doubt  that  some  quickening  of  thought  must 
have  resulted  both  from  this  habitual  intercourse  and  the 
sudden  influx  of  the  year  1229 ;  and  that,  though  the  foreign 
students  were  probably  chiefly  possessed  at  the  time  by  feel- 
ings of  angry  dissatisfaction  with  Queen  Blanche  and  William 
of  Auvergne,  and  full  of  invectives  against  the  obtrusive 
spirit  of  the  new  orders,  something  must  have  been  leamt  at 
Cambridge  respecting  that  new  learning  which  was  exciting 
such  intense  interest  on  the  continent,  and  which  the  autho- 
rities of  Paris  hail  been  vainly  endeavouring  to  stifle. 
J^uoni  Within  thirty  years  of  this  event  Cambridge  and  Oxford 

[^U^™*     in  their  turn  saw  their  sons  set  forth  in  search  of  quieter 
abodes.     The  division  into  '  nations '  in  the  continental  uni- 

'  Wood-Gtttch,  1  206—21*. 


INTERCOURSE  WITH  PARIS. 


135 


versities  was  to  some  extent  represented  in  England  by  that  chap,  il 
of  North  and  South,  and  was  a  special  source  of  discord  ^"^^^^^ 
among  the  students.     The  animosities  described  by  these 
factions  belonged  not  merely  to  the  younger  portion  of  the 
community,  but  pervaded  the  whole  university,  and  became 
productive  of  evils  against    which,  in  the  colleges,  it  long 
afterwards  became  necessary  to  provide  by  special  enactment. 
It  was  in  the  year  1261  that  an  encounter  at  Cambridge 
between  two  students,  representatives  of  the  opposing  par- 
ties, gave  rise  to  a  general  affray.     The  townsmen  took  part 
with  either  side,  and  a  sanguinary  and  brutal  struggle  en« 
sued.     Outrage  of  every  kind  was  committed;  the  houses 
were  plundered,  and  the  records  of  the  university  burnt     It 
was  in  consequence  of  these  disturbances  that  a  body  of  stu- 
dents betook  themselves  to  Northampton,  whither  a  like  Migmaon 
migration,  induced  by  similar  causes,  had  already  taken  place  JfJJSi^ 
from  Oxford.     The  royal  licence  was  even  obtained  for  the  ***"• 
establishment  of  another  sttulium  generale,  but  to  use  the  . 
expression  of  Fuller,  the  new  foundation  '  never  attained  full 
bachelor,*  for  in  the  year  1264  the  emigrants  were  ordered 
by  special  mandate  to  return  to  the  scenes  they  had  quitted. 
Within  three-quarters  of  a  century  from  this  event  a  like 
migration  took  place  from  Oxford  to  Stamford,  a  scheme  Higratkm 
which  to  judge  from  subsequent  enactments  was  persevered  tostwionL 
in  with  some  tenacity*.     It  would  be  surely  an  ignoble  esti- 


*  *  So  that  that  prophecy  of  old  by 
the  ancient  British  Apollo,  Merlin, 
was  come  to  pass,  which  runneth 
thus  : — Doctrin<t  studium  quod  nunc 
viget  ad  Vada  Bourn  \  Tempore  ven- 
turo  celebrahitur  ad  Vada  SaxV 
Wood-Gntch,  i  425.  Vada  Bourn  is 
here  for  Oxford ;  Vada  Saxi  for  Stone- 
ford  or  Stamford,  The  seer  however 
is  goilty  of  a  false  etymology;  the  root 
ox  being  of  Keltic  origin  and  signify- 
ing  water,  Stamford  was  distinguish- 
ed by  the  activity  of  the  Carmelites 
who  had  an  extensive  foundation 
there,  and  taught  with  considerable 
BuccesB.  Several  halls  and  colleges 
were  founded  and  the  remains  of  one  of 
these,  known  as  Brazen  Nose  College, 
e;dst  at  the  present  day.  '  Scholars 
continued  to  resort  to  Stamford  from 


the  old  universities  and  elsewhere, 
until  the  year  1333,  when  Edward 
III,  upon  the  urgent  complaint  and 
application  of  the  university  of  Ox- 
ford, ordered  all  such  students  to 
return  under  severe  penalties,  and 
that  efifectually  checked  the  progress 
of  a  third  university  in  this  king- 
dom ;  and  in  the  following  year  the 
university  of  Oxford,  and  most  pro- 
bably, likewise  at  the  same  time,  the 
university  of  Cambridge,  with  a 
view  to  the  exclusive  enjoyment  of 
their  own  privileges,  and  the  more 
complete  suppression  of  this  for- 
midable rival,  agreed  to  bind  their 
regents  by  an  oath,  neither  to  teach 
anywhere  themselves  as  in  a  univer- 
sity, except  in  Oxford  or  Cambridge, 
nor   to   acknowledge,  as  legitimate 


136  BI3E  or  THE  ENGLISH  UHITKBSITieS. 

CHAP.  iL  mate  of  the  spirit  tbat  actuated  these  little  bands  which 
'  '  '  would  surest  tfl  us  that  their  entbaaiasm  was  a  delusion, 
and  that,  as  £iu-  as  we  can  estimate  the  value  of  the  learning 
they  strove  to  oultivate,  their  text  books  might  as  well  have 
been  left  behind.  We  shall  rather  be  disposed  to  honour  the 
Btedfaatness  of  purpose  that  actuated  these  poor  students  in 
their  desponding  exodus.  Their  earnestness  and  devotion 
invest  with  a  certain  dignity  even  their  obscure  and  errant 
metaphysics,  their  interminable  logic,  their  artificial  theo- 
logy, and  their  purely  hypothetical  science ;  and  if  we  reflect 
that  it  is  far  from  improbable-  that  in  some  future  era  the 
studies  now  predominant  at  Ocford  and  Cambridge  may 
seem  for  the  greater  part  as  much  examples  of  misplaced 
energy  as  those  to  which  we  look  back  with  such  pitying 
contempt,  we  shall  perhaps  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  the 
centuries  bring  us  no  nearer  to  absolute  truth,  and  that  it  is 
the  pursuit  rather  than  the  prize,  the  subjective  discipline 
,  rather  than  the  objective  gain,  which  gives  to  all  cidture  its 
chief  meaning  and  worth. 

On  such  gi'ounds,  and  on  such  alone,  we  should  be  glad 
to  know  more  of  the  real  status  of  our  students  at  this  period 
and  the  conditions  under  which  their  work  was  carried  on; 
in  all  such  enquiries  however  we  find  ourselves  eucountered 
by  insuperable  difficulties  arising  from  the  destruction  of  our 
records.  Antiquarian  research  pauses  hopelessly  baffled  as  it 
arrives  at  the  barren  wastes  which  so  frequently  attest  the 
inroads  of  the  fiery  element  upon  the  archives  of  our  uni- 
versity. This  destruction  was  of  a  twofold  character, — de- 
signed and  accidental :  the  former  however  having  played 
by  far  the  more  important  part.  A.  blind  and  unreasoning 
hatred  of  a  culture  in  which  they  could  neither  share  nor 
sympathise,  has  frequently  characterised  the  lower  orders  in 
tbis  country,  and  Cambridge  certuuly  encountered  its  full 
share  of  such  mauifestations.  In  the  numerous  affrays  be- 
tween 'town'  and  'gown'  the  hostels  were  often  broken 
open  by  the  townsmen,  who  plundered  them  of  whatever 


LOSS  OF  EABLY  RECORDS.  137 

they  considered  of  any  value,  and  destroyed  everything  that  chap,  il 
bespoke  a  lettered  community.     In  1261  the  records  of  the 
university  were  committed  to  the  flames ;  the  year  1322  Jj^^"'^*" 
was  marked  by  a  similar  act  of  Vandalism ;  in  1381,  during  SSS^y'Sie. 
the  insurrections  then  prevalent  throughout  the  country,  JJ^T*^**^ 
the  populace  vented  their  animosity  in  destruction  on  a 
yet  larger  scale.    At  Corpus  Christi  all  the  books,  charters, 
and  writings  belonging  to  the  society  were  destroyed.     At 
St.  Mary's  the  university  chest  was  broken  open,  and  all  the 
documents  met  with  a  similar  fate.     The  masters  and  scho- 
lars, under  intimidation,  surrendered  all  their  charters,  muni- 
ments, and  ordinances,  and  a  grand  conflagration  ensued  in 
the  market  place ;  an  ancient  beldame  scattered  the  ashes 
in  the  air,  exclaiming  'thus  perish  the  skill  of  the  clerks M' 
Similar  though  less  serious  outrages  occurred  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  v.     Of  the  more  general  havoc  wrought  under  royal 
authority  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  we  shall  have  occa- 
sion to  speak  in  another  place.     The  conflagrations  resulting 
from  accident  were  also  numerous  and  destructive':  though 
Fuller  indeed  holds  it  a  matter  for  congratulation  that  far  PuiiertTiew 
greater  calamity  was  not  wrought  by  such  casualties :  '  Who- 
soever,' he  says,  'shall  consider  in  both  universities  the  ill- 
contrivance  of  many  chimneys,  hoUowness  of  hearths,  shal- 
lowness of  tunnels,  carelessness  of  coals  and  candles,  catching- 
ness  of  papers,  narrowness  of  studies,  late  reading,  and  long 
watching  of  scholars,  cannot  but  conclude  that  an  especial 
Providence  preserveth  those  places.'    The  result  of  these  dis-  ppportuni- 
asters  has  unfortunately  resulted  in  a  positive  as  well  as  roniedforUi« 
negative  evil.     It  is  not  simply  that  we  are  unable  to  deter-  of  fon{«rio«. 
mine  many  points  of  interest  in  the  antiquities  of  the  uni- 
versity, but  the  absence  of  definite   information   has   also 
afforded  scope  for  the  exercise  of  the  inventive  .faculty  to  an 
extent  which,  in  a  more  critical  age,  especially  when  pre- 
senting itself  in  connexion  with  a  centre  of  enquiry  and  men- 
tal activity,  seems  absolutely  astounding.     It  was  easy  for 

mia  Tertia  Anglicana^  Appendix  (B).  college  foundations  would  have  had 

^  Cooper,  AnnaJs^  i  48,  79,  121.  a  special  Talne,  were  lost  in  the  fire 

'  The  records  of  Glare  Hall,  which  of  1362,  when  the  whole  hoilding 

as  those  of  one  of  the  most  ancient  was  hmnt  to  the  ground. 


138  RISE  OF  THE  EN0U8H  tTKITEBSITIES. 

CBAP.  n.  antiquarians  like  Fuller,  when  the  sceptical  demanded  evi- 
dence respecting  charters  granted  by  King  Arthur  and  Cad- 
wallader,  and  rules  given  by  Sergius  and  Honorius,  gravely  to 
assert  that  such  documents  had  once  existed  but  had  perifhed 
in  the  various  conflagtations'. 
TMnpiiet  DC-  Another  and  not  infrequent  source  of  disquiet  to  both 
Mntnunnu.  Universities  was  the  celebration  of  toumameats  in  their 
vicinity.  'Many  sad  casualties,'  says  Fuller,  'were  caused  by 
these  meetings,  though  ordered  with  the  best  caution. 
Anns  and  legs  were  often  broken  as  well  as  spears.  Much 
lewd  people  waited  on  these  assemblies,  light  housewives  as 
well  as  light  horsemen  repaired  thereunto.  Yea,  such  was 
the  clashing  of  swords,  the  rattling  of  aims,  the  sounding  of 
trumpets,  the  neighing  of  horses,  the  shouting  of  men  all 
daytime,  with  the  roaring  of  riotous  revellers  all  the  night, 
that  the  scholars'  studies  were  disturbed,  safety  endangered, 
lodging  straightened,  charges  enlarged,  all  provisions  being 
unconscionably  enhanced.  In  a  word,  so  many  war  horses 
were  brought  hither,  that  Pegasus  was  likely  himself  to  be 
shut  out ;  for  where  Mars  keeps  his  terms  there  the  Muses 
may  even  make  their  vacation.' 
HfiWoiu  It  will  not  be  necessary  further  to  illustrate  the  presence 

outnuge.  of  those  disturbing  elements  in  which  Cambridge  shared 
scarcely  less  than  Paris  itself;  the  mingled  good  and  evil 
resulting  from  the  influence  of  the  Mendicants  were  also 
equally  her  heritage.  It  is  however  to  be  noted,  that 
while  at  Paris  the  Dorainicana  obtained  the  ascendancy, 
TheFnodi-  throughout  England  the  Franciscans  were  the  more  nume- 
rous and  influential  body.  At  Cambridge,  as  early  as  1224, 
the  latter  had  established  themselves  in  the  Old  Synagogue*, 
and  fifty  years  later  had  erected  on  the  present  site  of 
Sidney  a  spacious  edifice,  which  Ascham   long  afterwards 

'  '  We  hKTB  but  one  trae  u)4  mJ  the  fint  of  our  antiqukriuw  to  per- 

anaver  to  return  to  all  their  qnes-  ceive  their  real  value.     The  absuid 

tioDB,^"  Thaj  we  burnt. "'   (Fuller,  anftchronismBlhey  containaropoint- 

Hiit.  of  the   Uaiv.  p.  8i).     Theee  eilouibjDjeT,Privilfgti,i397—il6. 

fargeries  are  given  in  MSS.  Hare,  i  '  '  Casta Urigise   primo  recepemnt 

1—3.    What  opinion  Hare  bimBeU  fratree  bnrgenees  villte,  asBtguantes 

hod  of  their  gcnuinenesi  he  has  not  eia  veterum   ajroagogatn   qnsi    erat 

left  on  record.    Baker  WM  perhaps  oontigna  oarceri.     Cam  vera  intole- 


BELIGIOUS  ORDERS  AT  CAMBRIDGE.  139 

described  as  an  ornament  to  the  university,  and  the  pre-  chap,  il 
cinets  of  which  were  still,  in  the  time  of  Fuller,  to  be  traced 
in  the  college  grounds.     In  1274  the  Dominicans  settled  The  Domini, 
where   Emmanuel  now   stands.     About  the  middle  of  the 
century,    the   Carmelites,   who   had  originally  occupied   an  The  cmumi. 
extensive  foundation  at  Newnham,  but  were  driven  from 
thence  by  the  winter  inundations,  settled  near  the  present 
site  of  Queens' ;    towards    the  close   of  the    century,    the 


Augustinian  Friars,  the  fourth   mendicant  order,  took  upxiieA 


nian  ¥ 


lUgnati- 


their  residence  near  the  site  of  the  old  Botanic  Gardens; 
opposite  to  Peterhouse  were  the  White  Canons ;  Jesus  was 
represented  by  the  nunnery  of  St.  Rhadegund,  a  Benedictine 
foundation ;    St.  John  s  College   by   the    Hospital    of    the 
Brethren  of  St.  John ;  while  overshadowing  all  the  rest  in 
wealth  and  importance  there  rose  in  the  immediate  neigh- The  Angiuti- 
bourhood  the  priory  of  the  Augustinian  Canons  at  BamwelL  atBarnwdL 
The  general  organisation  of  both  Oxford  and  Cambridge  2S"?r2liri? 
was,  as  we  have  already  seen,  modelled  on  that  of  Paris,  and  j^^Si?    * 
it  will  here  be  well  to  point  out  what  appear  to  have  been  ^  ^•"***** 
the  main  outlines  of  that  organization  in  the  period  when 
the  colleges  either  did  not  exist  or  exercised  no  appreciable 
influence  on  the  university  at  large.    It  is  to  be  remembered 
that  at  a  time  when  the  Latin  tongue  was  the  medium  of 
communication  between  most  educated  men,  the  vehicle  of 
pulpit   oratory  and  of  formal  instruction,  the   language  of 
nearly  all   recognised  literature,  a  knowledge  of  it  was  as 
essential  to  a  student  entering  upon  a  prescribed  course  of 
academic  study,  as  would  be  the  ability  to  read  and  write 
his  mother  tongue  in  the  present  day.     Though  therefore 
the  term  grammatica,  as  the  first   stage   of  the   Trivium, 
denoted  an  acquaintance  with  the  Latin  language  generally, 
it  was  customary  in  the  earliest  times  to  delegate  to  a  non- 
academic  functionary  the  instruction  of  youth  in  the  elements 
of  the  language.     Such,  if  we  adopt  the  best  supported  con- 

rabilis  eseet  yicinia  carceris  fratribns,  pro  reditu  areaB,  et  sic  sBdificabant  ira- 

quod  eimdem    iogressum  habebant  ires  capeUam  ita  pauperrimam,  at 

carcerarii  et  fratrcs,  dedit  dominus  unus  carpentarios  in  una  die  faceret. 

Rex    decern  marcas    ad    emendum  et  erigeret  una  die  xiv  coplas  tigno- 

reditum  quod  satis  fieret  saccario  sao  rum.'  MofiumentaFranciscana^  p.  18. 


140 


RISE  OF  THE   ENGLISH   UKITEfiSITIES. 


tbdfwlT 
UnlTinlij  of 


jecture,  was  the  function  of  the  Magister  Qlomence,  an 
officer  whose  duties  have  been  the  subject  of  considerable 
controversy  among  those  who  have  occupied  themselves  with 
the  antiquities  of  our  university.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
infer  that  the  instruction  given  by  the  Magister  extended 
beyond  the  merest  rudiments, — an  escerpt  probably  from 
the  text  of  Friscian,  whose  treatise  formed  the  groundwork 
of  the  lecture  to  the  university  student.  The  Trivium  and 
Quadrivium  formed  the  ordinary  course  of  study,  culminating 
as  it  was  theoretically  assumed  in  theology,  but  often 
abandoned  on  the  completion  of  the  Trivium,  (which  repre- 
sented the  undergraduate  couise  of  study,)  for  tbe-superior 
attractions  of  the  civil  and  canon  law. 

If  we  now  proceed  to  consider  the  formal  organization  of 
the  university,  we  shall  scarcely  be  able  to  offer  a  more 
succinct  and  lucid  outline  than  that  contained  in  the  follow* 
ing  extract  from  the  treatise  by  dean  Peacock,  an  account 
resting  entirely  on  the  unquestionable  data  afforded  by  the 
Staluta  A  ntiqua'. 

The  university  of  Cambridge,  in  the  Middle  Ages, '  con- 
sisted of  a  chancellor,  and  of  the  two  houses  of  regents  imd 
non-regents'.  The  chancellor  was  chosen  biennially  by  tbe 
r^ents,  and  might,  upon  extraordinary  occasions,  be  continued 
in  offise  for  a  third  year.     He  summoned  convocations  or 


'  The  bod;  of  St&tutes  from  irhiob 
dean  Peacock's  outline  iB  derived  ia 
cot  arraoged  ia  order  of  time,  and  the 
dates  are,  as  be  himself  obfltirvea, '  in 
some  oasea  uncertain  to  the  extent  of 
nearly  a  cenlury.'  'It  is  not  surpri- 
sing therefore,'  he  adds,  '  that  Uiev 
should  present  eDactments  vMch 
are  sometimes  contradictor;  to  each 
other,  when  ve  are  thus  deprived  of 
the  means  of  distinguishing  the  hiw 
repealed,  from  thkt  b;  nhioh  it  waa 
replaced.  In  the  midst  however  of 
the  oonfnsioD  and  obscurity  which 
necessarily  arise  from  this  cause,  we 
experience  no  difficulty  in  recogoig. 
iug  the  permanent  and  more  strildag 
features  of  the  oonetitution  of  the 
university,  and  the  prindples  of  its 
•dnuuietration;  and  thougb  tbe  peat 


increase  of  the  number  of  ooUegea, 
the  changes  of  tbe  government,  and 
tbe  reformation  of  religion,  neoea- 
Barily  produced  great  changes  in  ths 
condition,  cboraoter,  and  views,  ol 
tbe  great  body  of  students,  and  in 
the  relation  of  teachers  to  those  who 
were  taoght.  yet  we  cau  discover  no 
attempt  to  disturb  the  diatribntioQ  of 
the  powers  exercised  by  tbe  chancel- 
lor and  the  booses  o(  regents  and 
non-regents,  or  even  to  change  mate- 
rially tbe  caatomary  melbods  of 
teaching,  or  tbe  forms  and  periods  of 
graduation. '  Mtrmationi,  pp.  26, 27. 
■  Btgtre  like  Ugert  (see  p.  It)  was 
to  teach :  tbe  regents  were  those 
engaged  in  teaching,  tbe  non-regents 
those  who  bad  exercised  that  function 
but  no  longer  continued  to  do  so. 


UBLT  CONSnTUnON  OP  CAKBBIDGE.  141 

congregations  of  regents  upon  idl  occasions  of  the  solemn  cnxp.  it 
resumption  or  reception  of  the  regency,  and  likewise  of  hoth 
houses  of  regents  and  non-regents  to  consult  concerning 
a&irs  affecting  the  common  utility,  public  quiet,  and  general 
interests  of  the  university.  No  graces,  as  the  name  in  some 
d^ree  implies,  could  be  proposed  or  passed  without  his 
assent.  He  presided  in  his  own  court,  to  hear  and  decide  all  |^'"^J^<' 
causes  in  which  a  scholar  was  concerned,  unless  facti  atrocitas  """"• 
rrf  pubUca  quietis  perturbatio  required  the  assent  or  cog- 
nizance of  the  public  magistrates  or  justices  of  the  realm. 
He  was  not  allowed  to  be  absent  from  the  university  for 
more  than  one  month  during  the  continuance  of  the  readings 
of  the  masters:  and  though  a  vice-chancellor,  or  president, 
might  be  appointed  by  the  regents  from  year  to  year,  to 
relieve  him  from  some  portion  of  his  duties,  yet  he  was  not 
allowed  to  intrust  to  him  the  cognizance  of  the  causes  of  the 
regents  or  non-regents,  ex  parte  rea,  of  those  which  related 
to  the  valuation  and  taxation  of  houses  or  hostels,  or  of 
those  which  involved  as  ttieir  punishment  either  expulsion 
from  the  university  or  imprisonment.  A  later  statute,  ex- 
pressive of  the  jealous  feeling  with  which  the  uuivcrsity 
began  to  r^ard  the  claim  of  the  bishop  of  Ely  to  viaitatorial 
power  and  confirmation,  forbids  the  election  of  that  bishop's 
official  to  the  office  of  chancellor. 

*  The  powers  of  the  chancellor,  though   confirmed   and  |] 

amplified  by  royal  charters,  were  unquestionably  ecclesiastical,  ^^ 
both  in  their  nature  and  origin :  the  court,  over  which  he 
prended,  was  governed  by  the  principles  of  the  canon  as 
well  as  of  the  civil  law ;  and  the  power  of  excommuDication 
and  absolution,  derived  in  the  first  instance  from  the  bishop 
of  Ely,  and  subsequently  &om  the  pope,  became  the  most 
prompt  and  formidable  instrument  for  extending  his  authority ; 
the  form,  likewise,  of  conferring  degrees,  and  the  kneeling 
posture  of  the  person  admitted,  are  indicative  both  of  the 
act  and  of  the  authority  of  an  ecclesiastical  superior.' 

'It  is  very  necessary,'  adds  dean  Peacock,  'in  considering 
the  distribution  of  authority  in  the  ancient  constitution 
irf  the  university,  to  separate  the  powers  of  the  chancellor 


142  BISB  OF  THE  EHOUSH  UHIVEBSmES. 

csAP.  iL  &om  those  of  the  regenta  or  noD-regeots ;  for  th^  authority 
m^'^X^  of  the  chancellor  had  an  origin  independent  of  the  regents, 
hoBthw  of  and  his  previous  concurrence  was  necessary  to  give  validity 
udm-  to  their  acts :  lie  constituted,  in  fact,  a  distinct  estate  in  the 
academical  commonwealth :  and  though  he  owed  his  appoint- 
ment, in  the  first  instance,  to  the  regents,  he  was  not 
necessarily  a  member  of  their  body,  and  represented  an 
authority  and  exercised  powers  which  were  derived  from 
external  sources.  The  ancient*  statutes  recognise  the  ex- 
istence of  two  great  divisions  of  the  members  of  the  second 
estate  of  our  commonwealth,  the  homes  of  regents  and  non- 
regents,  which  have  continued  to  prevail  to  the  present  time, 
though  with  great  modification  of  their  relative  powers, 
igw^  The  enactments  of  these  statutes  would  lead  us  to  conclude, 
rTJaini"/  ^^^  ^  ^^  earliest  ages  of  the  university,  the  regents  alone, 
bSu!^  "•>  forming  the  acting  body  of  academical  teachers  and  readers, 
were  authorised  to  form  rules  for  the  regulation  of  the  terms 
of  admission  to  the  regency,  as  well  as  for  the  general 
conduct  of  the  system  of  education  pursued,  and  for  the 
election  of  the  various  officers  who  were  necessary  for  the 
proper  administration  of  their  affairs.  We  consequently 
find,  that  if  a  regent  ceased  to  read,  he  immediately  became 
an  alien  to  the  governing  body,  and  could  only  be  permitted 
to  resume  the  functions  and  exercise  the  privileges  of  the 
regency,  aft^er  a  solemn  act  of  resumption,  according  to 
prescribed  forms,  and  under  the  joint  sanction  of  the  chan- 
cellor of  the  university  and  of  the  house  of  regents.  The 
foundation  however  of  colleges  and  halls  towards  the  close  of 
the  thirteenth  and  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
as  well  as  the  establishment  of  numerous  monasteries  within 
the  limits  of  the  university  with  a  view  to  a  participation  of 
its  franchises  and  advantages,  increased  veiy  greatly  the 
number  of  pennaueiit  residents  in  the  university,  who  had 
either  ceased  to  participate  in  the  labours  of  the  regency,  or 
who  were  otherwise  occupied  with  the  di^harge  of  the 
peculiar  duties  imposed  upon  them  by  the  statutes  of  their 
own  societies.  The  operation  of  these  causes  produced 
a  body  of  non-rogents,  continually  increasing  in  number  and 


EABLT  CONsriTimON  OF  CAHBBIDOE.  143 

importance,  who  claimed  and  exercised  a  considerable  in-  chap,  il 
flnence  in  the  conduct  of  those  afCaire  of  ths  university  which  Powm 
were  not  immediately  connected  with  the  proper  functioas  Dnu-n««M 
of  the  regency ;  and  we  consequently  find  that  at  the  period  ''**'• 
when  oar  earliest  existing  statutes  were  framed,  the  non- 
regents  were  recognized  as  forming  an  integrant  body  in  the 
constitution  of  the  university,  as  the  house  of  iton-regenta, 
excTciung  a  concurrent  jurisdiction  with  the  house  of  regents 
in  all  questions  relating  to  the  property,  revenues,  puhhc 
rights,    privileges,   and   common    good   of   the    university. 
Under  certain  circumstances  also  they  participated  with  the 
r^ents  in  the  elections;  they  were  admitted  likewise  to  the 
congregations  of  the  regents,  though  not  allowed  to  vote ; 
and,  in  some  cases,  the  two  houses  were  formed   into  one 
assembly,  who  deliberated  in  common  upon  affairs  which 
were  of  great  public  moment 

'When  graces  were  submitted  by  the  chancellor  to  the 
approbation  of  the  senate,  the  proctors  collected  the  votes 
uid  announced  the  decision  in  the  house  of  regents,  and  the 
scrutators  in  that  of  the  non-regents ;  and  when  the  two 
houses  acted  as  one  body,  their  votes  were  collected  by  the 
piuctors.  It  does  not  appear,  &om  the  earlier  statutes,  that 
the  chancellor  was  controlled  in  the  sanction  of  graces,  by 
any  other  authority ;  but,  in  later  times,  such  graces,  before 
they  were  proposed  to  the  senate,  were  submitted  to  the 
discuasion  and  approbation  of  a  council  or  copuf,  which  was 
mually  appointed  at  the  beginning  of  each  congregation. 
Under  very  peculiar  circumstances,  the  chancellor  might  be 
superseded  in  the  exercise  of  his  distinctive:  privilege,  when 
be  obstinately  refused  the  sanction  of  his  authority  for 
taking  measures  for  the  punishment  of  those  who  had 
injured  or  insulted  a  regent  or  a  community;  for,  in  such  a 
case,  as  appears  by  a  very  remarkable  statute',  the  proctors 
were  empowered,  by  their  sole  authority,  to  call  a  congregation 
of  regents  only,  or  of  both  regents  and  non-regents,  notwith- 
standing any  customs  which  might  be  contrary  to  so  violent 
and  unusual  a  mode  of  proceeding. 

*  But.  Autiq.  67.     De  poteitate  prociimtonm  in  dtfecta  caneiUariL 


144  RISE  OF  THE  KNOUSH   UNtTEBSlTIES. 

CHAP.  n.  •  The  two  proctors,  called  also  rectors,  after  chancellor  and 
fmtan.  Tice- chancellor,  were  the  moBt  important  admuustratire 
ofiScera  in  the  university.  They  were  chosen  annually,  on 
the  tenth  of  October,  by  the  regents,  the  master  of  glomeiy 
and  two  junior  regents  standing  in  scrutiny  and  collecting 
the  votes ;  they  regulated  absolutely  the  times  and  modes  of 
reading,  disputations,  and  inceptions  in  the  public  schools, 
and  the  public  ceremonies  of  the  university ;  they  superin- 
tended the  markets,  with  a  view  to  the  supply  of  win^ 
bread,  and  other  necessaries  for  the  scholars,  and  to  the  sup- 
pression of  monopolies  and  foreatallings  and  those  other 
frauds,  in  the  daily  transactions  of  buyers  and  sellers,  which 
furnished  to  our  ancestors  the  occasions  of  such  frequent  and 
extraordiiujy  I^slation ;  they  managed  the  pecuniary 
affairs  and  finances  of  the  university ;  they  possessed  the 
power  of  suspending  a  gremial  from  his  vote,  and  a  non- 
gremial  from  his  degrees,  for  disobeying  their  regulations  or 
resisting  their  lawful  authority ;  they  collected  the  votes  and 
announced  the  decisions  of  the  house  of  regents,  whose 
peculiar  officers  they  were  ;  they  examined  the  questionista 
by  themselves  or  by  their  deputies ;  they  superintended  or 
controlled  all  public  disputations  and  exercises,  either  by 
themselves  or  by  their  officers  the  bedels  ;  they  administered 
the  oaths  of  admission  to  all  degrees,  and  they  alone  were 
competent  to  confer  the  important  privileges  of  the  regency '. 
Baieifc  i-fhg   other   officers  of  the  university   were  the  bedels, 

scrutators,  and  taxors.  The  bedels  were  originally  two  in 
number,  who  were  elected  by  grace  by  the  concurrent 
authority  of  the  regents  and  non-regents  in  their  respective 
housea  The  first  was  called  the  bedel  of  theology  and 
canon  law,  and  the  other  of  arts,  from  their  attending  the 
schools  of  those   faculties.     They   were  required   to  be  in 

''TheproctoTSwere  BlaoanthoiUed  which  oonld  not  be  leolised,  inoua 

in  thoBe  days   of  poverty,   to  take  tba  pledges  were  cot  redeemed.    By 

pledges  for  the  payment  of  fees,  which  a  Ute  Statate   (see  SCatuta  Antiqva 

were  naiially  jewels  or  maiiQSOiipte ;  No.   182)  no  manuEcript  written  or 

thSBS   books    or    manDBcripts   were  book  printed,  on  paper  instead  ol 

Tallied  by  Uie  nniveraity  ttotionani  vellnm,  was  altowed  to  be  recsiTed  in 

(thebookMUerB),vbo  were  not  nnfre-  pledge.'     Peacock's  Obtaxalioiu  on 

qneotly  bribed  to  cheat  the  oniver-  the  SlaitUti,  p.  26. 
si^  by  patting  a  price  npon  them 


EABLT  OOMgriTUTIOS  OF  CAUBRIDGE.  1*5 

ilmost  perpetual  atteodance  upon  the  chancellor,  proctors,  < 
ind  at  the  disputatioDs  id  the  public  schools. 

'The  two  scrutators  were  elected  by  the  non-iegents  ats- 
each  congregation,  to  collect  the  votes  and  announce  the 
dednona  of  their  house,  in  the  same  maoaer  as  was  done  bj 
the  two  procton  in  the  house  of  regents. 

•The  two  taxors  were  regents  appointed  by  the  house  of  tmo™. 
legeots,  who  were  empowered,  in  conjunction  with  two 
bugesses  (liegemen),  to  tax  or  fix  the  rent  of  the  hosteU 
ud  bouses  occupied  by  students,  in  conformity  with  the 
letten  patent  of  Henry  III.  They  also  assisted  the  proctors 
IB  making  the  assize  of  bread  and  beer,  and  in  the  affnirs 
tekting  to  the  regiilation  of  the  markets.' 

It  will  easily  be  seen,  from  the  above  outline,  that  the 
eumple  of  the  university  of  Paris  was  not  less  influential  in 
the  organisation  of  Cambridge  than  in  that  of  Oxford ;  but  a 
t*tX.  of  much  deeper  interest  also  offers  itself  for  our  consider- 
•tion, — the  fact  that  it  was  in  those  actually  engaged  iu  the  JJj.^IJ^i™ 
voik  of  education  in  the  university  and  in  no  one  else,  that  if,.','';;^'' 
the  management  of  the  university  was  vested.  The  diffi- 
^tiea  of  intercommunication  in  those  days  of  course  pre- 
luded the  existence  of  a  body  with  powers  like  those  of 
**  present  senate ;  but  when  "wl'  find  thjit  not  even  residents, 
nea  they  had  ceased  to  take  part  in  the  work  of  instruction, 
*We  permitted  to  retain  the  same  control  over  the  direction 
of  the  university,  it  is  desirable  to  recognise  the  fact  tliat 
u  is  in  no  way  a  tradition  in  the  constitution  of  the  uni- 
'eraty,  but  a  comparatively  modem  anomaly,  which  still 
ntkes  the  efforts  of  those  who  are  active  Labourers  in  her 
midst  dependent  for  the  sanction  of  whatever  plans  they 
may  devise  to  render  her  discipline  and  instruction  more 
e^tive,  upon  those  who  are  neither  residents  nor  teacla-rs. 

It  was  not  until  the  year  1318  that  Cambridge  received  [^i;|j[j,^ 
from  Pope  John  xxii  a  formal  recognition  as  a  Stadimii  ^^'^^^ 
GtneraU  or  Univtnitas\  whereby  the  masters  and  scholars  """'^ 

■Brian    Tuyne,    with   his   usual  cotisi.lpreil  a  university : — 'qoip   w- 

I,  endeBTooTH  to  vrcst  thiH  eont  uilnindiun  ridicnln,  si  sut?  illad 

■TiileQce  that  Cambri'lse,  lempiiH    Cuitnbritdit    aut    Etoitiiiiu 

•  time,  had  nu  clilim  tu  Iw  ^eiienile,  upt  tluivenitao  halrila  tn- 


146 


BIUE  or  THE  ENGLISH   nNITERSITIES. 


CHAP.  n.  became  ioveeted  with  all  the  rights  beloi^Dg  to  such  a  cor- 
FKTUi«n     poratioD.     Among  other  privileges  resulting  from  this  sanc- 
fromtiw       tion,  doctors  of  the  university,  before  restricted  to  their  own 
™™.         schools,  obtained  the  right  of  tecturing  throughout  Chriaten- 
dom;  but  tlie  most  important  was  undoubtedly  that  which 
conferred  full  exemption  from  the  ecclesiastical  and  spiritual 
power  of  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  aod  of  the  archbishop  of 
the   province, — these    powers,   so   far   as   members   of    the 
university  were,  concerned,  being  vested  in  the  chancellor. 
It  appears  however  that  the  immunity  thus  conferred  was 
not  admitted  by  all  the  subsequent  biuhops  of  the  diocese ; 
the   right   of  interference  was  claimed  or  renounced  very 
much  according  to  the  individual  temper  and  policy  of  the 
bishop  for  the  time  being ;  until  the  controversy  was  finally 
set  at   rest,   in   the  year   1430,   by   the   famous  Barnwell 
Process. 
TbtHtiidi-  If  we  now  turn  to   consider  the   character  of  the  in- 

tellectual activity  which  chiefly  distinguished  our  universities 
at  this  period,  we  shall  hnd  that,  as  at  Paris,  it  was  the 
Mendicants  who-  assumed  the  leadership  of  thought,  and 
also,  for  a  time  at  least,  bore  the  brunt  of  that  unpopularity 
which  papal  extortion  and  ambition  called  up  among  the 
laity  at  large. 
incRucoT  Tltere  is,  perhaps,  no  instance  iu  English  history,  of  any 

wdnipM  '  religious  body  undergoing  so  suddi'n  and  complete  a  change 
jj^popu-  in  popular  esteem,  as  that  afforded  in  this  century  by  the 
new  orders.  They  entered  and  established  themselves  in 
the  countiy  amid  a  tide  of  popularity  that  overbore  all 
opposition ;  before  less  than  thirty  years  had  passed  their 
warmest  supporters  were  disavowing  them.  The  first  symp- 
toms of  a  change  are  observable  in  the  alarm  and  hostility 


it  privilegia  gab  nomine  Uni- 
LB,  onqusiD  uite  id  tempns, 
■  RonmniB  pontificibag  obtimiiijiiet, ' 
(Antiq.  Aead.  Ozon.  Apologia,  p.  111. ) 
It  ia  of  ooune  trne  that  in  the  cobs 
of  the  toajorit;  of  the  uniTtisitiaa 
created  prior  to  the  Belortnation,  the 
granting  of  the  Papal  Bnll  was  coin- 
cident with  their  first  foundaition. 
(See  Voa  Bkoiner,  aneMchttder  Pd- 


danotlik,  ir  11.)  But  this  fact  plOTCB 
nothing  with  respect  to  Paris  and 
Bologna,  Oxford  and  Cambridge. 
The  orit^n  and  formation  of  these 
nniversitiea  is  lost  in  obBcority. 
'Dbb  gilt,'  Bays  Von  Baumer,  '  tou 
keiner  deutBchen  UniTersitilt,  man 
kennt  bei  alien  die  QeBohichte  ihrer 
EnUtehnng.'  iv  fl. 


THE  MENDICANT  ORDERS. 


147 


which  the  regular  orders  found  themselves  unable  any  chap.  il 
longer  to  disguise.  It  soon  became  apparent  that  the  friar 
80  far  from  representing  merely  the  humble  missionary 
to  whom  the  task  of  instructing  the  multitudes  might  be 
complacently  resigned,  was  likely  to  prove  a  formidable  and 
unscrupulous  rival  in  the  race  for  influence  and  wealth. 
Among  the  first  to  criticise  their  conduct  in  less  favourable  dS^riSSd*^ 
language,  is  the  historian  Matthew  Paris,  a  Benedictine,  f!^^ 
familiar  by  official  experience  with  the  defects  and  scandals 
of  his  own  order,  and  distinguished  by  the  energy  with  which 
he  sought  to  bring  about  a  general  and  real  reform.  Writing 
of  the  year  1235,  he  thus  describes  the  conduct  of  the  new 
orders : — '  In  this  year  certain  of  the  brothers  Minor,  to- 
gether with  some  of  the  order  of  Preachers,  did  with  extreme 
impudence  and  in  forgetfulness  of  the  professions  of  their 
order,  secretly  make  their  way  into  certain  noble  monasteries, 
under  the  pretext  of  the  performance  of  their  duties  and  as 
though  intending  to  depart  after  they  had  preached  on  the 
morrow  {post  crastinam  proBdicationem).  Under  the  pretence 
however  of  illness  or  of  some  other  reason,  they  prolonged 
their  stay;  and  having  constructed  a  wooden  altar  and  placed 
thereon  a  small  consecrated  altar  of  stone  which  they  carried 
with  them,  they  performed  in  low  tones  a  secret  mass,  and 
confessed  many  of  the  parishioners,  to  the  prejudice  of  the 
priests  (in  prcejudicium  Pi*eshyterorum).  For  they  asserted 
that  they  had  received  authority  so  to  do;  in  order,  forsooth, 
that  the  faithful  might  confess  to  them  matters  which  they 
would  blush  to  reveal  to  their  own  priest,  whom  they  might 
disdain  as  one  involved  in  like  sin,  or  fear,  as  one  given  to 
intemperance;  to  such  it  was  the  duty  of  the  brothers  Minor 
to  prescribe  penance  and  grant  absolution  \' 

As  at  Paris,  again,  the  two  orders  were  unable  to  repress 


*  Hittoria  Major^  ed.  Wats,  p. 
419.  MS.  Cott.  Nero.  D.V.  fol.  257 
b.  1  have  generally  referred  to  this 
numnscript  when  using  the  Historia 
Major  of  Matthew  Paris.  It  was 
given  by  John  Stow,  the  antiqnary, 
to  Archbishop  Parker,  and  the  second 
part  (ann.  1189—1250)  was,  in  the 


opinion  of  Sir  F.  Madden, '  completed 
and  corrected  under  the  eye  of  Mat- 
thew Paris  himself.'  It  is,  at  any 
rate,  free  from  the  liberties  taken  by 
Archbishop  Parker  with  the  text  of 
the  edition  by  Wats,  1640.  See  Sir 
F.  Maddeu's  Preface  to  the  HUtaria 
Anglanant  p.  bdi. 

10—2 


148  EISE  OF  THE  EKGLISH  UNIVEBSITIES. 

,  the  signs  of  a  growing  jealousy  of  each  other's  influence  and 
reputation,  and  their  rivalry  before  long  broke  out  into  open 

, warfare.     The  Benedictine  historian  does  not  fail  to  turn  to 

SMieftiw  account  so  grave  a  scandal  and  descants  thereon  with  well- 
gjjnth««wo aEFected  constematiou : — 'And  as  though,'  he  says,  'no  part 
of  the  horizon  might  appear  unvisited  by  storms,'  (he  is 
writing  of  the  year  1 243)  '  a  controversy  now  arose  between 
the  brothers  Minor  and  the  Preachers,  which  excited  the 
aatoniahment  of  not  a  few,  inasmuch  as  these  orders  appeared 
to  have  chosen  the  path  of  perfection, — to  wit,  that  of  poverty 
and  patience.  For  while  the  Preachers  asserted  that,  as  the 
older  order,  they  were  the  more  worthy,  that  they  were  more 
decent  in  their  apparel,  had  worthily  merited  their  name  and 
office  by  their  preaching,  and  were  more  truly  distinguished 
by  the  apostolic  dignity ;  the  brothers  Minor  replied,  that  they 
had  embraced  in  God's  service  a  yet  more  ascetic  and  humble 
life,  and  one  which  as  of  greater  humility  was  of  greater 
worth,  and  that  brethren  both  might  and  ought  freely  to 
pass  over  from  the  Preachers  to  themselves,  as  from  an 
inferior  order  to  one  more  austere  and  of  higher  dignity. 
This  the  Preachers  flatly  denied,  affirming  that  though  the 
brothers  Minor  went  barefoot,  coarsely  clad  {viriliter  tunicatC) 
and  girded  with  a  rope,  the  pennission  to  eat  flesh  and  even 
yet  more  luxurious  diet,  and  that  too  in  public,  was  not 
refused  to  them, — a  thing  forbidden  in  their  own  order :  so 
far  therefore  from  the  Preachers  being  called  upon  to  enter 
the  order  of  the  brothers  Minor,  as  one  more  austere  and 
worthy  than  their  own,  the  direct  contrary  wa3  to  be  main- 
tained. Therefore  between  these  two  bodies,  as  between  the 
Templars  and  Hospitallers  in  the  Holy  Land,  the  enemy  of 
the  human  mce  having  sown  his  tares,  a  great  and  scandalous 
strife  arose ;  one  too,  all  the  more  fraught  with  peril  to  the 
entire  Church  inasmuch  as  it  was  between  men  of  learning 
and  scholars  {wiri  literati  et  scholares)  and  seemed  to  forbode 
some  great  judgement  imminent.  It  is  a  terrible,  an  awful 
presage,  that  in  three  or  four  hundred  years  or  more,  the 
monastic  orders  have  not  so  hurried  to  degeneracy,  as  have 
these  new  orders,  who,  within   less    than    four-and-twenty 


THE  MENDICANT  ORDEKS.  149 

years,  have  reared  in  England  mansions  as  lofty  as  the  palaces  of  chap,  il 
Kings.  These  are  now  they  who,  enlarging  day  by  day  their 
sumptuous  edifices  and  lofty  walls,  display  their  countless 
wealth,  transgressing  without  shame,  even  as  the  German 
Hildegard  foretold,  the  limits  of  the  poverty  that  forms  the 
basis  of  their  profession;  who,  impelled  by  the  love  of  gain, 
force  themselves  upon  the  great  and  wealthy  in  the  hour  of 
death,  to  the  wrong  and  contempt  of  the  ordinary  priests, 
80  that  they  may  seize  upon  emoluments,  extort  confessions 
and  secret  wills,  extolling  themselves  and  their  order  above 
all  the  rest.  Insomuch  that  none  of  the  faithful  now  believe 
that  they  can  secure  salvation  unless  guided  by  the  counsels 
of  the  Preachers  and  the  Minorites.  Eager  in  the  pursuit 
of  privileges  they  are  found  acting  as  counsellors  in  the 
palaces  of  Kings  and  nobles,  as  chamberlains,  treasurers, 
bridesmen,  or  notaries  of  marriages  {nuptiarum  prceloquutores), 
and  as  instruments  of  papal  extortion.  In  their  preaching 
they  are  now  flatterers,  now  censurers  of  most  biting  tongue, 
now  revealers  of  confessions,  now  reckless  accusers.  As  for 
the  legitimate  orders  whom  the  holy  fathers  instituted,  to 
wit  those  of  St.  Benedict  and  St.  Augustine,  on  these  they 
pour  contempt  while  they  magnify  their  own  fraternity  above 
alL  The  Cistercians  they  regard  as  rude  and  simple,  half 
laics  or  rather  rustics;  the  Black  Monks  as  proud  Epicureans^' 

It  was  not  long  before  this  arrogance  brought  about  an  contentioiw 
open  trial  of  strength  between  the  old  and  the  new  orders.  MendSmu 
Among  the  wealthiest  religious  houses  throughout  the  country  o«i«»- 
was  the  monastery  at  the  ancient  town  of  Bury  St.  Edmund's; 
originally  a  society  of  canons,  it  had,  for  reasons  which  we 
can  only  surmise,  and  contrary  to  the  ti'adition  of  the  Danish 
monarchs,  been  converted  by  Cnut  into  a  Benedictine  found- 
ation,   and  its  revenues    had   been   largely   augmented   by 
successive  benefactors.     In  defiance  of  the  prohibitions   of 
the   abbat,   and   backed   by  some   influential    laymen,   the 
Franciscans  endeavoured  in  the  year  1258  to  establish  them-  me  Fmnci«- 
selves  at  Bury.     A  struggle   ensued  which  lasted  for  five  *^*^*    ^^' 
years.     The  friars  erected  buildings,  which  the  monks  de- 

1  Wats,  p.  ei2.    MS.  Cott.  Nero.  D. V.  fol.  324  a. 


150 


BISE  OF  THE  ENQLISH  CMYEBSITIES. 


auF.  iL  molbbed.  The  dispute  was  carried  by  tbe  latter  to  Borne, 
but  their  efforts  in  that  direction  proved  of  but  email  avail 
while  Alexander  IV  filled  the  papal  chair.  lu  the  year 
1261  that  pontiff  died,  and  his  successor  Urban  iv  issued  a 
mandate  requiring  the  Franciscans  to  quit  tbe  town;  they 
succeeded  in  avoiding  actual  expulsion  by  an  unconditional 
BubmissioQ  to  the  authority  of  the  abbat;  but  not  before  their 
protracted  resistance  to  the  jurisdictioa  of  a  foundation  of 
such  acknowledged  dignity  and  antiquity,  had,  according  to 
Matthew  Paris,  'greatly  scandalised  the  world'.' 

In  other  quarters,  where  they  managed  to  enlist  on  their 
side  the  sympathies  of  the  laity,  the  new  comers  proved  too 
powerful  for  their  antagonista  In  1259  the  Dominicans 
established  themselves  at  Dunstable,  to  the  no  small  injury 
TwDomiid-  of  the  priory  in  that  town'.  In  the  year  1276  tbe  same 
cuwrbuT.  order  at  Canterbury,  acting  in  conjunction  with  the  towns- 
people, nearly  succeeded  in  driving  the  monks  of  Christchurch 
from  the  city,  and  Kilwardby,  the  archbishop,  with  difficulty 
allayed  the  strife.  But  a  policy  thus  aggressive  could  not 
long  be  popular,  and  it  would  seem  that  even  during  tbe 
lifetime  of  Qrosseteste  the  enthusiasm  which  first  greeted 
9  tbe  Mendicants  had  begun  to  ebb.  Foremost  among  the 
,  causes  of  this  change  must  be  placed  the  fact  that  they 
consented  to  subserve  the  purposes  of  gagal-cxioitiao.  It 
was  in  the  year  1249  that  two  messengers  belonging  to  the 
Franciscan  order  arrived  iu  England,  armed  with  authority 
from  Innocent  iv  to  extort  whatever  money  they  could  from 
the  different  dioceses,  for  the  use  of  'their  lord  the  Pope.' 
The  king,  the  historian  tells  us,  was  conciliated  by  their 
humble  demeanour,  the  missives  tbey  presented,  and  their 
bland  address.     He  gave   them   permission   to   proceed  on 


Papal  ulor- 


■  Matthew  Puis,  ed.  Wata,  pp.  967 
— B,  mad  970;  JUgiiler  WerktUnu, 
Harleian  MB.  638;  Dngdftle,  3fo- 
niuticaa.  III  106. 

'  'Qui  ds  die  ia  diem  sdiflcantea, 
ooUatU  sibi  a  qoamplorimia  looiB  oii- 
oninjaoentibiiB  de  qnibna  Prior  st  con- 
Tentua  redditna  debent  peroipeis,  in 
magnnm  ejnidem  domoa  detrimen- 
tnm,  in  bMtl  utAgont  vnpUare.   Et 


qnantnm  ipd  in  ndiflciii  et  apatiiE 
latioribaB  angmeDtnntilr,  tu>to  Prior 
et  ooDventua  in  bonis  aaia  et  jimbiui 
angoBtiantur  1  qnia  redditus  qnos  a 
meBBQagiiH  tratribtiB  coUatia  re«epe- 
rant,  sibi  nunc  pereant ;  et  oblationea, 
qan  eia  dari  conBneverant,  tratrea 
jam  noriter  veoienteB,  predicatit>. 
nibni  ania  nrgentiboB,  fnnditna  nsiir- 
pant.'    Matthew  Faria,  p.  986. 


THE  MENDICANT  OBDERS.  151 

their  errand,  stipulating  only  that  they  should  ask  for  money  cmap.  ir. 
as  a  free  offering  and  resort  to  no  intimidation.  They  accord- 
ingly set  forth  on  their  mission;  they  were  richly  attired, 
booted  and  spurred,  mounted  on  noble  palfreys,  their^^^addles 
ornamenterwith  gold.  In  such  guise  they  presented  them-  JJlSS^n^he 
selves  to  Grosseteste  at  Lincoln.  He  had  been  a  warm  ^^iS^J^ 
supporter  of  their  order,  having  even  at  one  time  intended  oUueiMte. 
to  enrol  himself  among  their  number,  won  by  their  devotion, 
earnestness  and  missionary  zeaL  It  must  accordingly  have 
been  a  sad  disenchantment  for  the  good  bishop,  and  his  heart 
must  have  sunk  within  him,  as  he  looked  on  the  two  mes- 
sengers and  listened  to  their  demands.  Of  what  avail  were 
his  efforts  on  behalf  of  church  reform,  his  stem  dealings  with 
the  degenerate  Benedictines,  when  those  in  whom  his  hopes 
centered  were  thus  falling  away  from  their  profession  ? 
Their  demand  was  the  sum  of  six  thousand  marks,  an  ex- 
orbitant amount  even  though  levied  through  the  length  and 
breadth  of  his  wide  bishopric.  It  would  be  equally  impossible 
and  dishonorable,  he  declared,  to  pay  it ;  nor  would  he  even 
entertain  their  application  until  he  had  consulted  the  rulers 
of  the  state.  Disconcerted  and  repulsed  they  remounted 
their  horses  and  rode  away.  It  was  not  however  the  only 
time  that  the  Mendicants  appeared  before  him  on  such  an 
errand;  on  his  death -bed  he  lamented  the  manner  in  which 
they  had  lent  themselves  to  the  extortionate  policy  of  Rome, 
though  he  still  strove  to  believe  that  they  were  only  its  # 
unwilling  accomplices.  But  such  charitable  views  could  not 
long  be  shared  by  the  world  at  large.  The  virtues  of  the 
Mendicants,  it  soon  became  apparent,  were  not  destined  to 
be  more  enduring  than  those  of  the  Cistercians  or  the 
Camuldules;  as  the  morning  cloud  and  as  the  early  dew 
that  quickly  goeth  away,  so  passed  the  fair  promise  of  the 
followers  of  St.  Dominic  and  St.  Francis  of  Assisi. 

It  would  perhaps  be  unjust  not  to  recognise  the  fact,  that 
the  Mendicants  lay  under  a  special  disadvantage  in  that  they 
encountered  to  a  far  greater  extent  than  any  preceding  order 
the  hostility  of  the  older  societies.  Their  system  of  propa- 
gandism,  again,  directly  clashed  with  the  functions  of  the 


152  RISE  OF  THE  ENQLISH  UNirEBSITIES. 

CHAP.  n.  parochial  clergy.     Everywhere  the  parish  priest  found  his 
iU[i4d<k.     authority  coDtemned,  hia  sphere  of  action  invaded,  hie  mode 
Shhw'      of  hfe  censured  and   decried,  by   their  unscrupulous  zeaL 
For  a  time,  by  talents  of  an  essentially  popular  order,  they 
managed  to  ret^n  their  hold  on  the  affections  of  the  common 
people,  among  whom   indeed   their   example  of  mendicity 
proved  at  one  time  so  attractive  that  it  is  almost  surprising 
that  all  England  did  not  turn  able-bodied  be^ars.     But  with 
the  fourteenth  centtu-y  their  character  and  popularity  rapidly 
declined,  and  even  before  the  close  of  the  thirteenth,  it  had 
become  manifest  that  the  new  movement  which  had  enlisted 
the  warm  sympathies  of  the  most  pious   of  monarchs,  the 
most  sagacious    of   popes,    and    the    most   highminded   of 
English   ecclesiastics,   was    destined,    like    so   many    other 
efforts  commencing  in  reform,  to  terminate  only  in  yet  deeper 
5jS?ftio'^  degenei-acy.      Cormderemus    religwsos,    says   R<^r    Bacon, 
^^^^   writing  in  the  year  1271,  himself  a  Franciscan  friar,  ntdlum 
ihinjbkiiu  ordinem  exdudo.     VideaTnus  qitantitm  ceciderunt  siv/pdi  a 
iW.  statu  debito,  et  novt  ordines  jam  horribiliter  labefacti  sunt  a 

pristina  dignitate.  Totus  clerus  vacat  swperbiw,  Uixuriee,  et 
avariticB';  and,  recalling  tUe  enormous  vices  which  had 
recently  rendered  the  university  of  Paris  a  scandal  to  Europe, 
he  solemnly  declares,  homo  deditus  peccatia  non  potest  pro- 
ficere  in  sapientia*.  The  literature  of  England  during  the 
Middle  Ages,  says  Hallam,  consisted  mainly  of  'artillery 
»  directed  against  the  clergy,'  and  of  this  artillery  the  Men- 
dicants undoubtedly  bore  the  brunt.  Whether  we  turn  to 
tbe  homely  satire  of  the  Vision  of  Piers  the  Ploughuum,  the 
composition  of  a  Londoner  of  the  middle  class, — or  to  the 
ma^iterly  delineations  of  the  different  phases  of  contemporary 
society  by  Chaucer,  the  courtier  and  man  of  the  world, — or 
to  the  indignant  invectives  of  Wyclif,  foremost  among  the 
schoolmen  of  his  time, — we  equally  discern  the  inheritance 
of  hatred  and  contempt  which  followed  upon  the  apostasy  of 

'  Corap.  StuAii  Philotophia,  e.  1.  Conirqueni   PhUoiopkia,  written  m 

This  trentiBe,  writteo  in  1371.  mnst  1292. 

be  oarefull;  ^itingaished   from  the  ■  Ibid.  e.  6. 
Compendial^  Sludii  Theologia  et  per 


OROSSETESTE.  153 

the  new  orders  from  their  high  professions,  until  it  culminates  chap.  ti. 
¥dth  the  sixteenth  century,  in  the  polished  sarcasms  of  the 
Encomium  Morice  and  the  burning  hexameters  of  the  Fran- 
ciscanus  of  George  Buchanan. 

Qrosseteste  died  in  1253,  within  five  years  of  the  dayp«a*h^ 
when  the  Franciscan  emissaries  knocked  at  his  door.  It 
marks  the  reputation  which  he  had  even  in  his  lifetime 
achieved,  that  though  his  closing  years  were  vexed  by  ar- 
duous contention,  though  the  Pope  appeared  to  him  as  Anti- 
christ, and  his  dauntless  spirit  as  a  reformer  had  called  up 
unnumbered  enemies  at  home,  it  was  yet  believed  that  at 
the  hour  of  his  death  celestial  music  was  heard  in  the  air, 
and  bells  of  more  than  earthly  melody  chimed  untouched  by 
human  hand\  Legend  has  surely  often  graced  a  far  less 
deserving  name.  His  friend  Simon  de  Montfort  wrought 
not  a  greater  work  in  the  world  politic,  than  did  Qrosseteste 
in  that  of  literature  and  in  the  Church.  He  had  stimulated  2  uTSJjSJL- 
education ;  he  had  revived  learning ;  he  had  enriched  the  **^ 
stores  of  the  theologian ;  he  had  brought  back  discipline  and 
suppressed  abuses  among  the  older  religious  orders,  he  had 
been  a  father  to  the  new;  he  had  confronted  the  extortion 
of  the  Roman  pontiff,  in  the  noonday  of  the  papal  power, 
with  a  courage  which  still  endears  his  memory  to  English- 
men ;  and,  though  his  hand  had  been  heavy  on  the  Bene- 
dictines', the  contemporary  historian,  notwithstanding  the 
ties  that  bound  him  to  that  order,  has  left  it  on  record, 
in  pregnant  if  not  classic  phrase,  that  he  was  prcelatorum  Jjjg^^^y  **' 
correptor,  monachorum  corrector,  preshyterorum  director,  ^SSu^  "* 
clericorum  instructor,  scholarium  sustentator,  populi  proe- 
dicdtor,  incontinentium  persecutor,  scripturarum  sedulus  per^ 
scrutator  diversarum,  Romanorum  maUeus  et  contemptor. 

During  the  latter  part  of  his  life  Grosseteste's  attention  SJj^Jf  oTuf" 
appears  to  have  been  given  to  the  new  learning  scarcely  less  °®^  *«•">*»•• 
than  to  the  new  orders,  and  he  had  sought  to  promote  the 

^  Matthew  Paris,  pp.  876,  877.  geverus  sed  potiuB  ansterns  et  in- 

'   *  In  qua,  si  quis  omnes  tyran-      humanna  censeretur.'    Ibid,  p.  815. 
nides    quas  exercuit  rccitaret,  non 


154  BISB  OF  THE  ENOLIBH   UNIVEBSITIES. 

CHAP,  a  study  of  Greek  by  mvitiog  Greek  scholars  over  to  this 
""^  country,  whom  he  appears  to  have  placed  on  the  fouDdation 
at  St.  Alban's.     His  own  scholaiship  did  not  eoahle  him  to 
translate  from  the  original  unaided,  hut  as  soon  as  he  had 
gained  the  aesistance  of  others,  he  at  once  perceived  that  by 
far  the  greater  number  of  the  difficulties  that  obstructed  the 
comprehension  of  Aristotelian  thought  were  to  be  attributed 
to  the  wretched  character  of  the  existing  translations  and  the 
mechanical  spirit  in  which  the  translators  had    performed 
their  task.     To  this  conviction  we  may  refer  the  fact,  which 
gjgjg*"  there  seems  ao  good  reason  for  calling  in  question,  that  he 
himself  caused  to  be  prepared,  and  superintended  the  pro- 
duction  of,   a  new   translation  of  the   Ethics*.      Of   such 
Sumowm  i™iiBlations  as  were  already  in  use  he  utterly  despaired,  and 
^^ShS  asserted   that   those  who   wished   to   understand   Aristotle 
must  study  him  in  the  original     His  views  were  fully  shared 
BMrBHOD.  ^y  his  disciple  and  admirer,  Roger  Bacon.     '  Sure  am  I,'  says 
*  "*        the  latter, '  that  it  would  have  been  better  for  the  Latins  had 
the  wisdom  of  Aristotle  remained  untranslated,  than  that  it 
should  be  handed  down  amid  such  obscurity  and  perversity, 
.  as  it  now  is  by  those  who  expend  thereon  the  labours  of 
thirty  or  forty  years ;  and  who  the  more  they  toil  the  leas 
they  know ;  as  I  have  ascertained  to  be  the  case  with  those 
who  have  adhered  to  the  writings  of  Aristotle.     On  which 
account  my  lord  Robert,  formerly  bishop  of  Lincoln  of  holy 
memory,  entirely  neglected  the  hooks  of  Aristotle  and  their 

modes  of  reasoning Had  I  the  power,  I  would  have  all 

the  books  of  Aristotle  burnt,  as  it  is  but  waste  time  and  the 
cause  of  error  to  study  them.'  Of  the  practical  inconve- 
niences resulting  from  the  use  of  such  translations,  he  had, 
indeed,  himself  had  some  experience,  for  when  lecturing  on 
Aristotle  in  the  schools  at  Oxford,  he  bad  on  one  occasion 
alighted  on  some  Lombard  or  Spanish  words  inserted  by 
the  translator  to  supply  the  place  of  the  unknown  Latin 

■  The  faet  has  been  called  in  qnee-  (PariB,  1861),  p.  SSS :  bat  me  Jonrdain, 
tion  by  M.  fimile  CharlsB,  Jiooer  Rtchfrebei  Criliqtut.  p.  69,  and  Mr 
Bacon,   ta   VU,  «t    Ouvrage;   etc.      huMti'a  Bntux  to  tha  EpUlola, 


BOOEE  BACON.  165 

eqoiraleDts,  and  on  hia  atumbliag  over  the  strange  difficulty,  chap.  n. 
his  scholars,  with  the  rudeness  characteristic  of  the  times, 
had  openly  derided  his  perplexity'.  The  efforts  of  Aquinas 
towards  remedying  defects  like  those,  do  not  appear  to  have 
eli<nted  any  eulogium  from  the  Oxford  Franciscau,  while  Wil- 
liam of  Uoerbecke  is  singled  out  by  him  for  special  attack  ; 
and  the  following  verdict,  delivered  in  hia  Compendium 
Studii  TheologuB,  shortly  before  his  death,  may  probably  be 
regarded  as  rftpreaenting  his  deliberate  opinion  : — '  Though  ^,If""^ 
we  have  numerous  translations  of  all  the  sciences  by  Gerard  iiSS^'^ 
of  Cremona,  Michael  Scot,  Alfred  the  Englishman,  Hermann 
the  German,  there  is  such  an  utter  falsity  in  all  their  writings 
that  none  can  sufficiently  wonder  at  it.  For  a  translation  to 
be  true,  it  is  necessary  that  a  translator  should  know  the 
language  &om  which  he  is  tmnslating,  the  language  into 
which  he  translates,  and  the  science  he  wishes  to  translate. 
But  who  is  he  '>.  and  I  will  praise  him,  for  he  has  done  mar- 
vellous things.  Certainly  none  of  the  above  named  had  any 
true  knowledge  of  the  tongues  or  the  sciences,  as  is  clear, 
not  from  their  translations  only,  but  their  condition  of  life. 

Hermann  the  German,  who   was  very   intimate   with 

Gerard,  is  still  alive,  and  a  bishop.  When  I  questioned  him 
about  certain  books  of  logic  which  he  had  to  translate  from 
the  Arabic,  he  roundly  told  me  he  knew  uothing  of  logic 
and  therefore  did  not  dare  to  translate  them  ;  and  ceitainly 
if  he  was  unacquainted  with  logic  he  could  know  nothing  of 
toy  other  science  aa  he  ought.  Nor  did  be  understand 
Arabic,  as  he  confessed,  because  he  was  rather  an  assistant 
in  the  translations  than  the  real  translator.  For  he  kept 
Saracens  about  him  in  Spain  who  had  a  principal  hand  in 
his  translations.  In  the  same  way  Michael  the  Scot  claimed 
the  merit  of  numerous  translations.  But  it'  is  certain  that 
Andrew,  a  Jew,  laboured  at  them  more  than  he  did.  And 
even  Idichael,  as  Hermann  reported,  did  nnt  understand 
either  the  sciences  or  the  tongues.  And  so  of  the  rest,  espe- 
cially the  notorious  William  Fleming  who  is  now  in  such 
reputation.  Whereas  it  is  well  known  to  all  the  literati  of 
'  Comp.  Studii  ThfOlogia,  qnoled  in  Wood-Gutob,  p.  387, 


15G  BISE  OF  THE  ENaLISH  UNITEBSITIES. 

P.  II.  Paris,  that  he  is  ignorant  of  the  sciences  in  the  original 
Greek,  to  which  he  makes  such  pretensions;  and  therefore 
he  translates  falsely,  and  corrupts  the  philosophy  of  the 
Latins.  For  BoethiuB  alone  was  well  acquainted  with  the 
tongues  and  their  interpretation.  My  lord  Robert,  by  reason 
of  his  long  life  and  the  wonderful  methods  he  employed, 
knew  the  sciences  better  than  any  other  man ;  for  though  he 
did  not  understand  Greek  or  Hebrew  he  had  many  assist- 
ants'.' 
at  Roger  Bacon  was  of  the  Franciscan  order,  and  the  per- 
secution he  underwent  at  the  hands  of  that  community  at 
Oxford  when  he  essayed  to  prosecute  his  scientific  researches, 
is  a  familiar  tale.  While  Albertus  and  Aquinas  were  the 
guests  of  royalty  and  expounded  their  interpretation  of 
Aristotle  to  admiring  throngs  at  Cologne  and  Paris,  the  poor 
Eoglisb  friar,  as  far  as  we  can  trace  out  the  obscure  records 
of  his  life,  was  atoning  for  a  mental  activity  in  no  wise  less 
honorable,  by  isolation,  disgrace,  and  banishment ;  and  while 
Aquinas  was  trusting  to  such  aid  as  he  could  find  in  men 
like  William  of  Moerhecke  for  a  clearer  insight  into  the 
thought  of  Aristotle,  the  occupant  of  the  humble  cell  at 
Oxford  had,  by  his  almost  unaided  efforts,  raised  himself  to 
be  the  first  scholar  of  his  age. 
Sjiediiniiu  ^he  writings  of  Roger  Bacon  have  a  value  of  an  almost 
"■*"**■  unique  kind.  They  not  only  give  us  an  insight  into  the 
learning  of  the  age,  such  as  is  afforded  by  the  writings  of  no 
other  Englishman  in  the  thirteenth  or  the  succeeding  cen- 
tury, but  they  also  supply  us  with  that  most  assuring  of  all 
corroborations  in  our  estimate  of  a  remote  and  obsolete 
culture, — the  concurring  verdict  of  a  contemporary  observer. 
When  the  Oxford  friar  denounces  the  extravagance,  the  fri- 
volity, and  the  shortcomings  of  his  time,  we  feel  less  diffident 
lest  our  own  impressiuns  may  be  chiefly  those  of  mere  preju- 
dice and  association;  and,  in  bringing  to  a  termination  our 
sketch  of  thb  era,  we  can  scarcely  do  better  than  record  the 
conclusions  wherein  his  penetrating  intellect  has  summed  up 


BOQEH  BACON.  157 

its  stem  mdictment,  as  hia  eagle  glance  ranged  over  the  f 
domain  of  knowledge,  and  noted  with  what  caprice,  what 
perrersity,  what  blindness,  the  labourers  yet  tilled,  planteil, 
and  essayed  to  gather  fruit  on  an  ungiatefnl  soil,  while  all 
around  them  broad  and  fertile  acres  stretched  far  and  wide 
or  Jaded  from  the  gaze  on  the  dim  and  distant  horizon.*  It  ni 
was  in  the  year  1267  that  Bacon  completed  those  three  trea-  5^ 
tises  which  he  had,  in  obedience  to  the  wishes  of  his  patron 
Pope  Clement  rv,  drawn  up  in  illustration  of  bis  views,  and 
which,  known  as  the  Opus  Majns,  the  Opus  Minus,  and  the 
Opus  Tertium',  are  still  extant,  and  constitute  so  remarkable  a 
monument  of  his  genius.  It  is  from  these  writings,  together  m 
with  two  other  treatises  written  at  a  later  period,  that  we  m 
gun  an  insight  into  the  actual  education  of  the  time,  such 
as  we  should  vainly  seek  elsewhere ;  and  as  the  writer  reviews 
with  scornful  impartiality  the  errors  and  defects  of  the  pre- 
vailing methods,  we  seem  rather  to  hear  the  voice  of  his 
great  namesake,  speaking  from  the  vantage  ground  of  three 
additional  centuries,  than  that  of  a  humble  friar  of  the  days 
of  Henry  III.  His  censure  falls  alike  upon  Dominican 
and  Franciscan ;  upon  Aquinas  and  his  method, — wherein  he 
can  only  see  philosophy  aspiring  to  usurp  the  province  of 
theology", — and  upon  Alexander  Hales,  to  whom  tho  true 
thought  of  Aristotle  hail  never  been  known,  and  whose  writings, 
he  notes  with  satisfaction,  are  alreaity  falling  into  neglect' ; 
Dpon  the  superstitious  reverence  yielded  to  the  Sentences 
while  the  Scriptures  were  neglected  and  set  a^ide* ;  on  the 


I  It  iDft7  be  of  eeirice  here  to 
ennmeTute  the  diOcrent  tri'atisEn  b; 
BseoD  to  •hieh  retorenco  will  fre- 
qoentl;  be  niitde,  vitb  the  axxumtd 
dattsot  ILrir  Fompoiiition  : — (a)  llput 
Uajtu  (edited  hj  Dr  Jebb,  17311] ; 
*(A  Optu  iliniit  (eitont  only  aa  a 
bagment):  '(7)  0]mi  Tfrlium  (ui- 
tendod  BB  a  preface  to  the  two  tur- 
oiet),  compoeed  1360—67  in  00m- 
plikDce  with  the  reqnent  ot  Pope 
Clement  it;  '(i't  CompcnJiitm  Studii 
Philotiphia,  1271;  (r)  Cumpmdiam 
SltuUi  Thfologia  (still  in  mauu- 
ftcript),  1393.  The  UBteriBk  denotes 
"--  ■ — '---a  inolnded  in   ProfeBBor 


Brew« 


I  edition  for  the  Itolja  a 


'  Opiii  Mitmi,  ed.  BTeicer,  p.  322. 

•  Ibid.  p.  3a5— 327. 

*  '  Knm  ibi  est  tola  gloriiv  theoloRO- 
nun,  quffi  facit  onnii  uuiun  eqni.  Et 
poftquam  illuin  Irgerit  qoii,  jnm 
pricBQinit  Be  de  mft|:;i«tra  tlieoicigiff, 
iinamTU  noii  aoJiat  tricefliniam  par- 
tem Hiii  textuB.  Et  bacuhiriaB  qai 
lejfit  ttxtuiii  snecambit  lectori  Scn- 
tentinnira  PsriHinH.  Et  ubiquo  et  in 
omnibua  honorntnr  et  prn'fertar. 
Kani  ille  qui  legit  Sentcatias  babet 
principoltim  horam  Icgendi  Braondnm 
Htiiim   vulnntatem,  babet  et  Bocinm 


158 


mSE  OF  THE  ENQLIHH   UMTEKSITIES. 


fawwlli^l*  of  1 


<SAP.  n.  eiToiB  of  the  Vulgate',  the  false  Aristotle,  the  neglect  of 
Bcience",  the  youth  and  inexperience  of  those  from  whom  the 
ministers  of  the  Church  were  recruited',  the  overweening 
attentioQ  given  to  the  study  of  the  civil  law  as  the  path  to 
honour  and  emolument*. 
JJjJJJJJj*  But  Bacon  was  no  mere  iconoclast ;  and  while  he  severely 
scrutinised  existing  defects  he  was  not  less  explicit  in  the 
remedies  he  advocated.  Logic  was,  indeed,  to  be  dethroned, 
but  its  place  was  to  he  tilled  by  two  other  studies,  which  he 
regarded  as  the  portals  to  all  knowledge,  the  study  of  language 
and  the  study  of  mathematics.  To  the  prevailing  ignorance 
of  the  original  tongues  he  ascribes  the  confusion  then  so  rife 
^f  in  theology  and  philosophy.  The  earliest  revelation  to  man 
JJ?[  had  been  handed  down  in  the  Hebrew  tongue  ;  the  thought 
of  Aristotle  was  enshrined  in  Greek ;  that  of  Avicenna,  in 
Arabic*.  How  important  then  that  these  languages  should  be 
thoroughly  known !  And  yet,  he  affirms,  though  there  are 
many  who  can  speak  these  languages,  there  is  an  almost 
utter  ignorance  of  them  in  their  grammatical  structure. 
'  There  are  not  four  men  among  all  the  Latins,'  he  writes, 
'  who  know  the  Hebrew,  the  Greek,  and  the  Arabic  tongues 
grammatically;  I  know  what  I  say,  for  I  have  instituted 
rigorous  inquiry,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  and  have  gone  to 
considerable  pains  in  the  matter*.'  Of  the  great  work,  which 
amid  all  the  puerilities  and  extravagancies  of  dialectics  was 
really  being  performed  by  the  schoolmen,  the  subtlety,  pre- 
cision, and  vastly  extended  nomenclature  that  they  were 
imparting  to  the  Romance  languages,  he  seems  to  have  had 
no  conception. 

It  is  to  Mathematics  however  that  he  assigns  the  foremost 

cam  et  tbeologiani,  qnam  uiidb  m*- 
giater  in  theologia,  et  citins  cligitor 
nd  eccleBiBBticaa  digiiitates.'  Opal 
Ttrtiiim,  ed.  Brewer,  p.  84. 

>  Ihid,  p.  32. 

'  '  Nam  Drii  Bant  qastnor  Latini, 
qui  Bciant  grrmmaticam  Hehreonun, 
et  Qrfficorum,  et  Anbnm  :  bene  eoim 
cognosoo  eoB,  quift  et  citra  tnore  et 
ultra  diligenter  feci  inqoiii,  et  mid. 
tmn  in  his  laboraTi.'    Jbid.  p.  S8. 


1  apad  religioao*.  Sed 
qni  legit  Bibliain,  caret  his  et  men. 
dioat  horara  leg^ndi,  BeouDdum  quod 
placet  lectoii  ^tentianim.'  Ibid.  p. 
839. 

'  Ibid.  p.  330. 

>  J5<il.  p.  933,  868. 

*  Comptndium  StudU  PhiU)tophi<r, 
p.  428. 

*  'Nam  pins  Uudatur  in  ecclegia 
Dd  DDUB  jnriita  dvilis,  licet  Bolnm 
edat  jpa  dTJle  et  ignoret  jtu  oknoni- 


BOOEK  BACOK.  159 

placet  Divine  Mathesis,  and  she  alone,  can  purge  the  intel-  ■ 
lectual  viaion,  and  fit  the  learner  for  the  acquirement  of  all  vi 
knowledge'.  As  for  the  implied  non-approval  of  the  study,  ^^ 
which,  as  Bome  would  have  it,  had  been  conveyed  in  the  " 
nlence  of  the  fathers,  he  urges  that  in  the  early  days  of  the 
Church  mathematics  were  almost  unknown,  and  consequently 
conld  scarcely  have  been  either  condemned  or  approved; 
bnt,  so  far  as  any  evideuce  exinted  to  shew,  had  not  Isidonis 
carefully  discriminated  between  the  use  and  abuse  of  the 
•deuce,  in  the  distinction  he  had  drawn  lietween  the  study 
of  astronomy,  and  that  of  astrology  or  magic*  ?  The  uses  of 
k^c  cannot,  he  insists,  compare  with  those  of  mathematical 
or  linguistic  studies,  for  though  its  terminology  is  a  matter 
of  acquirement  in  the  langu^e  which  we  speak,  tlic 
reasoning  faculty  is  itself  innate,  and,  as  Aristotle  had  him- 
self admitted,  even  the  uneducated  syllogise'.  Amid  the 
many  disappointments  which  befel  him  in  his  troublous 
cueer,  Bacon  was  yet  spared  &om  foreseeing  bow  completely 
bis  estimate  would,  in  a  few  years,  be  set  aside  at  t>xford, 
and  faow  long  language  and  mathematics  would  be  doomed 
to  wait  without  her  gates  while  logic  reigned  supreme 
within. 

And  yet  there  were  grounds  for  hope  in  the  events  that 
were  going  on  around  him ;  for  at  the  time  that  these  three 
treatises  were  written,  there  had  already  been  founded  at 
Oxford  an  institution,  to  which  indeed  we  find  no  reference  in 
his  writings*,  but  which  we  cannot  but  suppoite  must  have 
nggested  to  him  a  coming  age  when  learning  should  be  set 
free  from  petty  obstructions  and  vexations  like  those  that 


I  'Nm  niirnni  n  otnniA  sciantnr 

par  inathemBtiwiii, qnia  omneH 

twimi*iff  iiuit  ooimexB  {ut  eupuriiu 
dixi)  liMt  quelibet  Bimnl  cnm  hoc 
habckt  num  propiietatem.'  Ibid.  p. 
87. 


mmlmlA  logiok  in  lingua,  qua  utimnr, 
ODNrimiia  pw  doabuum.'   Ibid.  p. 


'  Ur  PprciTal,  Id  bit  edition  of  the 
Fonudation  Statuteii  ot  MertoD  Col- 
leiw  (Oiford,  1847),  had  aUted  in 
Lin  iDtrodilction,  tbat  ■  BoRpr  Bacon 


the  BdioolH 
which  appea™.  hardly  reconcilablo 
with  whnt  ve  Imow  of  Bacon's  life; 
aod  I  mav  a^Id.  on  the  anthorit]' of  M r 
Coxe  of  the  Bodleian,  that  no  known 
existing  nooroeg  of  ioformation  ttuov 
any  light  oi 


160  BISE  OF  THE   ENQLISH  UNIVERSITIES. 

■  haunted  his  Franciscan  cell.  The  walls  of  Merton  College 
I  were  already  reared ',  and  though  his  aoul  would  have  heen 
hut  little  gladdeued  could  it  have  descried,  in  the  future. 
Duns  Scotus  descanting  to  hreathless  audiences  on  tlie 
mysteriea  of  the  intentio  eecunda,  he  might  have  derived  some 
solace  could  be  have  foreseen  the  work  of  Occam  and  Wyclif. 
The  schools  of  Oxford  had  been  rising  rapidly  in  import- 
ance ever  since  the  arrival  of  the  Franciscans  in  England. 
Under  the  auspices  of  Oroaseteste,  first  in  his  capacity  of 
rector  ackolarum  and  subsequently  as  diocesan',  and  under 
the  teaching  of  Adam  deMarisco  and  others  of  the  Franciscan 
order,  the  university  began  to  attain  to  that  celebrity  which 
culminated  in  the  early  part  of  the  following  century.  It 
would  not  appear  however  that  either  Groasetcste,  or  Adam  de 
Marisco,  or  even  Roger  Bacon,  though  all  more  or  less  keenly 
alive  to  the  evils  resulting  from  the  abuse  of  the  papal  power 
and  the  laxity  of  monastic  discipline,  had  ever  seriously 
contemplated  the  severance  of  the  work  of  education  from 
its  traditional  associations.  They  looked  for  reform  from 
within  rather  than  from  without.  The  developement  of  the 
new  conception  must  be  sought  for  in  another  and  in  many 
respects  a  widely  different  school. 

So  far  back  as  the  time  of  Cnut  and  Harold,  the  idea  of 
?■  founding  colleges  which  should  not  be  monasteries,  and  of 
training  clergymen  rather  than  monks,  had  found  occasional 
expression.  It  is  one  of  the  early  indications  of  the  struggle 
between  Teutonic  and  Latin  Christianity;  for  Harold  un- 
doubtedly borrowed  his  conception  from  what  he  had  seen  in 
Germany,  and  the  system  of  secular  colleges  appears  to  have 
been  first  established  in  Lorraine  under  Chrodegang  bishop 


1  The  eu-lioat  collego  tonuclatioD 
ftt  Oltonl  appears  really  to  have  been 
Uni'erfiitr  College,  founded  by  Wil- 
liiun  of  Ihirbam  who,  dying  in  1249, 
bequeathed  310  marks  for  (ho  Riip- 
port  of  pofir  BchoLirB.  Bis  bequest 
remained  anapplied  for  man?  years, 
dnring  whioh  interval  Merton  Collefte 
was  founded.  Mi  Anstey  consideri 
that  Anthony  Wood  is  gnilty  of  some 
diflingeanonsnesB  in  olaimiDg,  nnder 


these  circtitn stances,  the  priority  for 
Merton ; — '  before  Merton  CoUege  was 
filially  established  William  of  Dnr- 
ham's  bequsBt  bad  been  all  applied 
by  the  university  in  the  purchase  of 
houses,  and  statutes  given  for  the 
halls  founded  therewith.'  Intiod.  to 
Hwiimmta  Acadrmica,  p.  nil. 

*   Luard,    Introd.    to    GroatUite 
Epiitoln,  pp.  Txiiii.  and  il. 


SBCDIAB  FOIINDATIOK& 


161 


of  Metz'.  The  preTailing  fystem  in  England  during  the  cnAp.  it. 
■apremacy  of  the  family  of  Eadgar  hod  been  adverse  to  tho 
caoona,  who  liad  been  displaced  from  the  colleges  and  cathe- 
dral churches  to  make  room  for  the  Benedictines ;  but  the 
Danish  monaicbs  not  unnaturally  Bympathised  witli  the 
party  that  Ethelred  and  his  followers  had  oppressed,  and 
under  their  rule  coU^ea  for  canons  rose  in  rapid  succession. 
OiQi  indeed  appears  t«)  have  been  guided  more  by  local  f>™t- 
consideiationfl  than  by  any  abstract  theory,  and  favoured 
the  two  parties  alternately* ;  hut  Harold,  the  noble-heart^ 
■od  wide-minded  Harold,  was  throughout  distinguished  as 
(OBOnuxs  reffuiiB  ttreauus  institutor*,  and  bis  foundation  at  g^ 
Waltbam  has  been  recently,  and  for  the  first  time,  brought  "^' 

■  Prof.  Stnbln,  Introd.  to  De  In- 
ttatiame  SaaeM  Crueit,  etc.  pp.  viii. 
h;  and  Inlrod.  to  £putala  Canlua- 

*  Tumer-Niamith,  pp.  M,  307, 
HH.  See  mUo  Mr  C.  U.  FeuaoDs 
Jli  iitiiiiill  in  HitUtrical  itaju  of 
EaglMd,  p.  M.  'It  wa«,'  utb  Fni- 
Imar  Stnbbi,  •  Dnfortimatflf  the 
pobc;  of  the  monks  &nd  their  adTo. 
ttttm  to  dftiiD  ui  OTigiiu]  right  to  all 
■MMlIri  cbnielieii,  knd  to  aggron- 
<!■  IbemiclTea  wheaever  the?  oould 
■ilh  the  oecnpatioD  of  tb<me  to  vhioh 
lk(7  had  Dot  the  oriRuial  cUiin,  on 
Ae  groond  ot  (heir  xtuictity.  In  this 
^9  no  prescriptioD  fttwinBt  them 
VM  ancnred  to  defeat  theii  existing 
duBI,  Uld  the  diortest  prew^ription 
h  (bar  &VOIU  tbb  pressed  against 
tfa*  BkMt  jnst  claim  ol  the  Recalara. 
To  tnin  K  ehnreh  ot  derkii  into  a 
Maastny  «m  ■  merit  of  ffreat  effi- 
OMmej  for  the  reaiiwion  of  fins,  but 
to  torn  a  monaxteiy  into  a  secular 
Aanti  «u  an  miheard-ol  impicl].' 
bbod.  lo  Epht.  Cant.  p.  xiv. 

*  He  i>  BO  deBcribed  in  the 
ckHtcr  of  Waltbam.  '  We  can  ima- 
linc,'  mn  Protensor  Stiibbn.  'the 
KMona  uiat  made  him  no :  the  fn- 
Mlgn  predilectionB  of  the  monks, 
biroand  h?  the  simple  mnnarch  on 
tbt  throns;  the  decay  of  lentniug 
■liieh  wai  begiuning  to  be  ftlt  in 
the  inclitntiona  which  ha'l  the  mo- 
Bopo^  of  it,  and  which  it  was  re. 
Mrred  for  Ibe  energy  of  Luiirnsltr 

■ ;  and  the  danget  which 


power,  Bepnratcd  in  ideas 
and  BympatliieB  from  the  people  and 
wielded  by  worlilly  men.  always  en- 
tails on  the  lelitiion  anil  haniiness 
of  a  nation.  The  monks,  like  the 
friars  in  later  times,  were  always  in 
extremes;  sometimes  before,  some- 
times behind  the  age.  The  heroic 
patriotiam  displayed  by  some  of  their 
fratemitieB  at  the  moment  of  the 
Conquest  and  shortly  after  it,  wonld, 
if  anything  could,  disprove  this  state- 
ment :  but  the  effiirt  was  short  nnd 
Npasmodic,  and  served  hut  lu  rivet 
the  feltora  ou  the  peoiile,  who  wonld 
have  made  it  BoeccKiiriil  if  it  had 
been  attempttHl  a  few  years  earlier. 
The  mnltiplicatioD  ot  secnlai  colleges 
wan  one  of  tlie  uiotit  likely  means  of 
raising  np  a  clergy  whose  knowledge 
of  mankind,  general  tenniing.  Mid 
Ihorongh  sympathy  with  Eui^ish- 
men,  might  improve  the  eharaeter 
and  help  to  save  the  bouIs  of  the 
people  Harold  loved.  Alfred  and 
Kadwanl  the  Elder,  Athelstan  and 
Ciiul,  had  shown  their  seui*e  ol  tliia 
hv  frrutar  fiiitHdolioiii ;  the  herooa 
of  the  monks  were  Etlielwulf.  Ea- 
dred,  and  Eudgar:  tho  contrast  is 
a  speaking  one.  Kor  was  the  lesmn 
lost  on  Km:Iish  utatesmen  who  fol- 
lowed them,  nnch  an  were  the  (treat 
hixhops  of  the  family  of  Ueck,  arch- 
biBbups  Thombv  and  Chicheley, 
tt:ill,r  d'  M.TI..II.  ami  William  irf 
Wykihani.'      lulroil.  to  Df   Inttn- 


162  RISE  OF  THE  ENGLISH   UNIVERSITIES. 

CHAP.  iL  before  the  student  of  this  period,  in  its  true  relatiou  to  the 
majority  of  the  fouudations  of  the  time.     'Every  writer  of 
^w!«ror English  history,'  says  Mr  Freeman,  'as  far  as  I  know,  has 
iiouichit     wholly  misrepresented  its  nature.     It  is  constantly  spoken 
Kof'"^  aa  an  abbey,  and  its  inhabitants  as  monks.     Waltham 
and  its  founder  thus  gets  mixed  up  with  the  vulgar  crowd  of 
monastic  foundations,  the  creations  in  many  cases  of  a  real 
and   enlightened   piety,   but   in   many  cases  also  of  mere 
superstition  or  mere  fashion.     The  great  ecclesiastical  foun- 
dation   of   earl    Harold    was    something  widely  different. 
Blarold  did  not  found  an  abbey ;  Waltham  did  not  become  a 
religious  house  till  Henry  the  Second,  liberal  of  another 
man's  purse,  destroyed  Harold's  foundation  by  way  of  doing 
honour  to  the  new  martyr  of  Canterbury.     Harold  founded 
a  Dean  and  Secular  Cuions  ;  them  King  Henry  drove  out, 

and  put  in  an  Abbot  and  Austin  Canons  in  their  place 

The  clei^  whom  Harold  placed  in  his  newly  founded  minster 
were  not  monks,  but  secular  priests,  each  man  living  on  his 

own  prebend,  and  some  of  them,  it  would  seem,  married 

It  is  not  unlikely  that  Haiold's  preference  for  the  secular 
clergy  may  have  had  some  share  in  bringing  upon  him  the 
obloquy  which  he  undergoes  at  the  hands  of  so  many  eccle- 
siastical writers.  It  was  not  only  the  perjurer,  the  usurper, 
but  the  man  whose  band  was  closed  against  the  monk  and 
open  to  the  married  priest,  who  won  the  hatred  of  Norman 
and  monastic  writers.  With  the  coming  of  the  Normans 
the  monks  finally  triumphed.  Monasticism,  in  one  form  or 
another,  was  triumphant  for  some  ages,  Harold's  own  foun- 
dation was  perverted  from  bis  original  design;  his  secular 
priests  were  expelled  to  make  room  for  those  whom  the 
fashion  of  the  age  looked  on  as  holier  than  they.  At  last 
the  tide  turned ;  men  of  piety  and  munificence  learned  that 
the  monks  had  got  enough,  and  from  the  fourteenth  century 
onwards  the  bounty  of  founders  took  the  same  direction 
which  it  bad  taken  under  ^thelstao  and  Harold.  Colleges, 
educational  and  otherwise,  in  the  universities  and  out  of 
them,  now  ^ain  rose  alongside  of  the  monastic  institutions 
which  had  now  thoroughly  fallen  from  their  first  love.     In 


SECULAJt  FOUKDATIOXS. 


163 


short,  the  foandatioD  of  Waltbam,  instead  of  being  simply  < 
slurred  over  as  a  monastic  foundation  of  the  ordiaarj  kind, 
well  deserves  to  be  dwelt  upon,  both  as  marking  an  era  in 
our  ecclesiastical  history.aud  also  as  bcaiing  the  most  speaking 
witness   to   the   real   character  of  its  illustrious  founder'.' 
Such  was  the  conception  which  Roger  Bacon  saw  revived  in  ^ 
his  own  day,  sad  which  is  still  to  be  studied  in  the  brief  ^ 
and  simple  statutes  of  the  most  ancient  of  our  English  col-  " 
levies;  the  outcome  of  a  mature  and  sagacious  estimate  of 
Ute  wants  and  evils  of  the  time,  not  unworthy  of  one  whose 
experience  combined  that  of  a  chancellor  of  the  State  and  a 
iHshop  of  the  Church ;  of  one  who  in  his  youth  bad  sat  at 
the  feet  of  Adam  dc  Marisco*,  but  whose  ripened  judgement 
comprehended   in   all   their   bearings   the   evils   that   must 
necessarily  ensue  when  the  work  of  education  is  monopolised 


•  HUt.  of  Iht  Xonnan  Conqutut,  II 
440,  412,  444-5.  I  mav  peilinps 
Tmtaie  to  state  that  I  had  ori^n- 
aQj  been  inclined  somewhat  to  dis- 
wnt  (mm  the  view  here  enforced  by 
Hi  Freeman,  but  a  GommunicatioD 
«itfa  vhich  he  has  very  courteotisly 
&Toured  me  on  the  subjwt,  and  a 
cveful  perusal  of  Profexaor  Stubbs'a 
FrefaccH,  have  placed  the  matter  in 
another  tisht.  At  the  same  time  it 
ma;,  I  tliink,  lie  questioned  vliether 
Harold'*  conception  was  of  quite  ejo 
DDique  and  anIi-Noimaii  a  clytractcr 
u  Mr  freeman's  language  might  lead 


infer,  and  ij 


suppoi 


of  this 


I  I  would  enlimit  the  fottuo 
big  lactB:— <I)  In  the  year  1092, 
Pieot,  the  Horiaan  sheriS  of  Cam- 
bridgeshire, a  man  notorious  fur  his 
miarole  and  rapacity  in  bia  baili- 
wick, instituted  Sefnlur  Ciiiwn*  at 
SI.  iiilea  in  Cambridf^;  the  fonn- 
dation  beinn  afterwards  ehauKed  by 
Pain  Teverell,  tlie  stanilard-beurer  uf 
Bobert,  doke  iil  Ntinnunily,  into  one 
for  thirty  Anj^sliiiiun  Canons,  and 
removed  to  Barnwell,  where  it  form- 
ed the  piiory,  (Cooper,  AnBuli.t  20. 
Uitt.  0/  Barntrcll  Abbi-t,,  S,  10,  1I.| 
(2j  Lanfranc,  who  had  been  educated 
at  the  monasteo'  ol  Bee.  oslablit^bed 
StctilarCanoni  at  St.Gregorj's,  whom 
archbiabop  Corboil  afterwards  re- 
moved,  putting  Begnlar  or  Augna- 


tinian  Canone  in  their  place.  (Lo- 
Lind,  Colleclanea.  I  Ofl.)  (3)  The  Secu- 
lar Canons  on  Harold's  foundation, 
liioiy;b  certainly  treated  with  some 
Heverity  by  the  Conqueror,  remained 
utidii^lurbcd  fur  more  than  a  oentwy 
o(  Norman  rule,  i.e.  Irom  1066  to 
1177;  and  even  then,  il  any  credence 
ij  to  be  given  to  the  reason  assigned 
in  the  royal  letter  for  their  removal, 
it  was  on  account  of  their  having 
become  a  scandal  to  their  neighbours 
from  their  laxity  of  discipline,  not 
from  hostility  to  their  rule.     '  Cum 

riiipiose  et  camaliter  viiissent,  ita 
quod  infamiu  conversatiouis  illunun 
modum  oxceileus  multos  acandali- 
ziuisut.'  DuRdale,  J/oiinWiron,  VI  63: 
or,  in  the  lauj.Tiage  of  Ihe  acooont 
quotetl  by  DuKdule,  'quia...mundanis 
(iperibns,  et  illecebris  illicitia  magis 
quam  diviuo  aervitio  iutendebaut.' 
V.  57. 

'  Such  at  least  is  the  opinion  of 
hii  bioi^apher,  who  founds  hix  beliel 
upon  llio  fact  that  Walter  de  Mertou 
was  the  ijearer  of  an  introductory 
letter  from  Ailam  de  Mariiica,  when 
he  presented  himself  to  GroBseteotii 
for  subJeacon'a  orders.  See  SktUh 
of  f/w  life  of  ffaller  dt  ilrrlon,  by 
Edmund,  Bishop  of  Kelson,  pp.  3 
and  19;  also ilonameiita Francucaiui, 
letter  243. 

11—2 


164 


RISE  OF  THE  ESGUSH   UKIVERSITIES. 


by  those  with  whom  the  interests  of  an  order  are  likely  to 
outweigh  the  interests  of  their  disciples.  To  raise  up  an 
institution  which  should  baffle  that  encroaching  spirit  of 
Rome  which  had  startled  Grosseteste  frOm  his  allegiance,  and 
to  give  an  impulse  to  education  that  should  diminish  its 
subservience  to  purely  ecclesiastical  ideas,  such  was  the 
design  of  Walter  de  Merton' ;  when  we  add  that  his  statutes 
became  the  model  on  which  those  of  the  earlier  colleges 
both  at  Oxford  and  at  Cambridge  were  framed,  we  shall 
need  no  excuse  for  dwelling  at  some  length  on  their  scope 
and  character*. 

The  first  broad  fact  that  challenges  our  attention  in  these 
statutes  is  the  restriction  whereby  'no  religious  person,' 
nemo  religiosm,  is  to  be  admitted  on  the  foundation ;  a  pro- 
vision which  it  may  be  well  to  place  beyond  all  possible 
misapprehension.  In  those  times,  it  is  to  be  remembered, 
there  existed  only  two  professions, — the  Church  and  the 
military  life;  the  religious  life,  whether  that  of  the  monk 
or  the  friar,  was  a  renunciation  of  the  world;  the  former 
withdrawing  from  all  intercourse  with  society,  the  latter 
disavowing  any  share  in  worldly  wealth;  and  both  merging, 
as  it  were,  their  individual  existence  in  their  corporate  life. 
Such  were  the  two  classes  whom  Walter  de  Merton  sought 
to  exclude.     It  was  his  design  to  create  a  seminary  for  the 


'  'Ever  n  warm  advocate  o(  tie 
libeit}'  of  tlie  Biibjecl,  and  a  atauDch 
patron  of  education,  Merton  muat 
have  viewed  vrith  a  jealoae  eye  tbe 
advaoces  of  Rome  and  the  iucreosin); 

eoimtrj.  While  fiUinj;  the  high  ofiice 
of  ohimoallor  of  England,  he  Lad 
learned  b;  experience  how  vain  was 
the  attempt  to  straggle  with  the  mi- 
nistera  of  Rome  when  once  wealth 
and  podtion  had  given  them  au  over- 
vlielming  nothoritj'  in  Church  and 
Btate.  He  therefore  directed  bis 
attention  to  the  principal  ferA  of 
edncation,  and  endeavoured  to  raise 
in  tbe  eecnlai'  schools  a  power  which 
might,  by  cmshing  the  strength  of 
the  monanteriee.  check  tbe  erowth  of 
the    papal   influence   in   Uie   bad.' 


Percival,  Introd.  to  Stat 


•fMrrUm 


Bishop  of  Nelson,  as  a  proof  of  tbe 
liiKh  cBtimation  in  which  Walter  de 
Merton  wag  held  by  the  royal  family, 
that  all  its  members  contributed  in 
some  way  to  the  founilation  of  bia 
college.  [Liff,  p.  7.)  He  waa  ohan- 
eellor  in  tbe  years  1361-2,  a  time 
when  the  tronblea  of  Heniy  III. 
were  at  their  height,  and  he  not  im- 
probably earned  the  gratitude  of  tbe 
royal  family  by  his  able  administra- 
tion dnring  the  monarch's  absence 
from  tbe  kingdom. 

*  The  statntes  here  referred  to  are 
those  of  l*.i70,  and  may  b 
as  erabodyioR  the   final  views   i 
intentions  of  Ibe  founder. 


H£RTON  COLLEOEL  165 

Church,  aod  he  accordiogly  determined  to  place  it  beyond  chap.  n. 
the  power  of  either  monks  or  friare  to  monopolize  bis  foun- 
dation and  convert  it  to  their  exclusive  puqwees.  All  around 
him,  at  Oxford,  were  to  be  seen  the  outward  signs  of  their 
successful  ambition :  the  Benedictine  priory  of  St  Frideswide, 
the  Augustinian  Canons  at  Oseney,  the  Franciscans  in  St. 
Ebbe's,  the  Dominicans  in  the  Jewry,  St.  John's  Hospital 
where  Ma^alea  College  waa  one  day  to  stand,  the  Augus- 
tiniaD  Friars  on  the  future  site  of  Wadham,  the  Carmelites, 
and  the  Friars  de  Foeoiteatia.  He  might  well  think  that 
enough  had  been  done  for  the  recluse  and  the  mendicant, 
and  that  something  might  now  he  attempted  ou  behalf  of 
those  who  were  destined  to  return  again  into  the  world,  to 
mingle  with  its  affairs  as  fellow-citizens,  and  to  influence  its 
thought  and  action  by  their  acquired  learning.  On  the  other 
band  it  would  be  erroneous  to  infer  that  Mertou  College  was 
originally  any  thing  more  than  a  seminary  for  the  Church, 
though  such  a  limitation  loses  all  its  apparent  narrowness 
when  we  consider  that  the  clerical  profession  at  this  period  vum  pur- 
included  all  vocations  that  involved  a  lettered  and  technical « 
preparation.  The  civil  law,  as  we  know  from  Bacon's  testi-  ^ 
mony,  was  already  an  ordinary  study  with  ecclesiastics;  so 
also  was  medicine,  though  professed  chiefly  by  the  Men- 
dicants; while  chancellors  of  the  realm  and  amba.ssadors  at 
foreign  courts,  like  William  Shyreawood  and  Richard  of  Bury 
or  Walter  de  Merton  himself,  were  selected  chiefly  from  the 
clerical  ranks;  and  even  so  late  as  the  reign  of  Richard  II, 
churchmen,  like  the  warlike  bishop  of  Norwich,  might  ride 
forth  to  battle,  clad  in  complete  armour,  brandishing  a  two- 
handed  sword,  and  escorted  by  a  chosen  body  of  lancers'. 
When  such  were  the  customary  and  rect^uised  associations 
of  the  clerical  life,  it  obviously  becomes  an  unmeaning 
reproach  to  speak  rf  the  Church  as  usurping  the  functions 
of  laymen;  the  truth  would  rather  appear  to  be,  as  has  been 
recently  observed,  "that  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
centuries  statesmen  aud  lawyers  uaurpud  the  preferments  of 
the  Church  than  that  ambitious  churchiuoa  obtruded  on 
1  Blomefield,  HUt.  of  Norfolk,  m  109. 


166  EISE  OP  THE  ENGLISH  UNIVERSITIES. 

CHAP.  n.  civil  aDd  l^al  offices'.'  The  restriction  of  Merton  College  to 
Tiwcoiiva  the  clergy  cannot  coDscquently  be  held  to  have  excluded  any 
i«T*"°  of  those  professions  that  possess  a  curriculum  at  either 
Oxford  or  Cambridge  at  the  present  day.  Considerable  stress 
has  indeed  been  laid  on  the  extent  to  which  the  monastic 
node  of  life  was  reproduced  in  the  discipline  imposed  upon 
our  colleges,  but  a  very  slight  examination  of  the  early 
statutes  is  sufficient  to  show  that  such  an  approximation  was 
simply  for  the  purposes  of  organisation  and  economy :  the 
essential  conception  of  the  college  was  really  anti-monastic, 
and  its  limitation  to  those  designed  for  the  clerical  profession 
was  simply  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  fact  that  the  acti- 
vity of  the  Church  embraced  nearly  all  the  culture  of  the  age*. 


1  Dean  Hook,  Lxvet  of  Ihe  Areh- 
biihop;  IT  7S.  The  ezpretiBion  used 
b;  Uiigh  BitlBham  {k.d.  1276)  in  bU 
decision  as  arbitrator  botween  liin 
own  archdeacon  and  the  Master  iif 
Olomer;,  tirt  tcholarea  iii<«  laid, 
ihoyiis  how  entirely  ecclBBiaBticBl  was 
the  character  of  the  UDiversitieB  at 
UiiB  time.  Laymf)i  and  cirrkt,  aa  Mr 
AnBtey  oTjHerveB,  were  the  uparest 
ei^iiivaleuta  to  IJie  modem  '  town  ' 
and  'gown,'  iliminicnia  Acad,  i  vi. 
At  the  Game  time  the  very  yaried 
character  of  the  activity  of  church- 
mon  in  the  Middle  AgeB  haa  iudnctd 
many  to  maintain  that  the  nniversl. 
ties  were  as  much  Becular  as  ecclesi- 
aatical.  'L'importanteqnestioni'Bays 
M.  Thnrot,  in  his  very  ahle  treatise, 
'  de  aaroir  si  rUuivereitd  6tait  un 
corps  Ifilc  fa  ecclfaiastique  a  616  toi> 
joura  coutrovert6e...EUe  lut  toajours 
traiteecomme  un  corps  ecd^iastique 
aoiiii"  au  xiv*  et  aa  it  BiMe...EllB 
fut  memo  g^ufralcmeut  traitfc  com- 
me  UD  corps  laic  fm  ivii'  ot  au  xviii* 
Bifeele',  J)e  VOrijaniiaiion  de  VKii- 
leigwiiKitl  dam  I'Uniceriilt  de  P^irii 
au  Motjea-Age.  Par  Chaxles  Thurot. 
Paris.  1850,  pp.  29-31, 

'  'It  is  customary  with  the  igno- 
rant lo  Bpeiik  of  our  colleses  as  mo- 
nastic iustiCutiouB,  Liut,  as  every  one 
knows  who  is  acquainted  willi  the 
history  of  the  country,  the  colleges 
with  very  lew  exceptions  were  intro- 
duced to  supplant  the  munasteiieB. 
Early  in  the  1 2th  century  the  opinion 
bi-gaii  to  prevail,  that  the  monaste- 


ries were  no  longer  competent  to 
supply  the  education  which  the  iiu- 
proved  state  of  society  demande.f. 
The  primary  object  of  the  moniiatery 
was,  to  train  men  tor  what  was  tech- 
nically called  "the  religioaa  life," 
—the  life  of  a  monk.  Thoae  who 
did  not  become  monks  availed  theni- 
selTGB  of  the  advantages  offered  in 
the  monastic  schoals;  but  still,  a 
monastic  school  was  aa  mach  de- 
signed to  make  men  monka,  ns  a 
training  school,  at  the  present  time, 
IB  designed  to  make  men  school- 
masters, although  some  who  ore  to 
trained  betake  tbemselvea  to  other 
professions.'  Dean  Hook,  Live  of 
tlie  Arclibislwpi,  in  339.  'Onr  foun- 
der's object,'  remarks  the  bishop  o[ 
Nelson,  *  I  conceive  to  have  been  lo 
secure  for  his  own  order  in  tba 
Church,  for  the  secular  prieathood, 
the  academical  benefits  which  the 
religious  orders  were  so  largely  eu- 

Soyiog.  and  to  this  eud  1  think  all 
lis  provisions  are  fouud  to  be  con- 
Bistently  framed.  Ue  borrowed  from 
the  monastic  histitutioiiB  the  idea  of 
an  aggregate  body  liviiiR  by  common 
rule,  muler  a  common  head,  pro- 
vided with  all  things  needful  for  a 
corporate  and  perpetoal  life,  fed  by 
its  secured  ondomuenta,  fenced  from 
all  oitomal  interference,  except  that 
of  its  lawful  patron;  bat  after  bor- 
rowing thns  mach,  he  differenced  bis 
institution  by  giving  his  beneficiaries 
qnile  a  distinct  employment,  and 
keeping  them   free   from   atl  those 


MEHTON  COLLEGE. 


167 


The  next  important  feature  is  the  character  of  the  culture  ™_}^_  ^ 
which  the  founder  designed  should  predominate  among  the  nmnonBt 
scholars'.     It  was  his  aim  to  establish  a  'constant  succession  MHotim. 
of  scholars  deroted  to  the  pursuits  of  literature,' '  bound  to 
employ  themselves  in  the  study  of  arts  or  philosophy,  theology 
or  the  canon  law^   'the  majority   to   continue   engaged   in 
the  liberal  arts  and  philosophy  until  passed  on  to  the  study 
of  theolf^y,  by  the  decision  of  the  warden  and  fellows,  and 
as  the  reauU  of  meritorious  proficiency  in  the  first-named  sub- 
jecU'.'     The  order  in  which  the  different  branches  are  here 
enumerated  may  be  r^arded,  as  is  the  case  with  all  the 
earlj  coll^;e  statutes,  as  significant  of  the  relative  importance 
attached    by    the    founder   to    the   different  studies.     The  ^^'^I,'^ 
canon  law  is  recognised,  but  the  students  in  that  faculty  ai-c  SniJlillaii. 
expressly  Umited  to  four  or  five ;  to  the  civil  law  even  less  XT'JJm!? 
favour  is   shewn,   for  the   study  is  permitted  only   to  thenn^um"' 
canonists,  and  as  ancillary  to  their  special  study,  pro  utilitate 
eeelesiaetici  regiminis,  and  the  time  to  be  devoted  to  it  is 
made  dependent  on  the  discretion  of  the  warden.     A  judi- 
dons  remedy  for  the  prevailing  ignorance  of  grammar  which 
Bacon  so  emphatically  lamented',  is  provided  by  a  clause 
requiring  that  one  of  the  fellows,  known  as  the  grammaticus, 
•hall  devote  himself  expressly  to  the  study,  and  directing 


I  obligatiODB  which  conati- 
tne  BBBence  of  the  reliRi"'!'' 
...The  proofs  of  bis  design  to 
it  the  Church  throngh  a  better- 
tad  Eecnlar  priesthood,  &ni  tu 
ba  found,  not  in  the  letter  of  their 
■bttatM,  but  in  the  tenonr  of  their 

rniiong,  eEpeciall;  on  to  studies, 
ths  direct  avemientB  of  some  of 
the  nibaidiai7  ductuueutti.  in  thu 
but  of  his  providing  Church  patron- 
age as  pnrt  of  his  system,  &nd  in 
the  resdineBS  of  prelates  aud  cbap- 
lan  to  grant  him  impropriations  of 
the  rectorial  endow  menta  of  the 
Chnrch.'  Bp.  of  Nu^lsou's  Li/e  of 
Waller  de  ilerUm.  p.  22. 

'  The  term  '  scholar '  may  be  re. 
garded  as  nearly  equivalent  to  '  fel- 
low,' la  oar  early  college  statnles, 
indioatine  a  stndcnt  ontiroly  sup- 
ported by  the  revennoB  of  the  foun- 


dation and  participating  in  the  gene- 
ral government.  Wherever  the  term 
appears  to  be  used  in  its  mora 
moileru  sense,  attention  will  bo  drawn 
to  the  fact. 

'  '  While  he  proviilea  for  a  good 
liberal  education,  and  general  ground, 
ing  iu  all  subsidiary  knowledge,  he 
jealously  guards  Llk  main  objent  of 
thonlogical  study  both  from  being 
attempted  too  early  by  the  hall-edu- 
cated buy,  and  from  being  abandoned 
too  aeon  lor  the  teinptationB  of  some- 
thing more  profitable.  It  should  be 
rem^mliercd  that  while  the  warden 
is  diargeJ  with  the  duty  of  koepiug 
an  illiterate  youth  from  commencing 
the  crowning  study,  he  has  no  au- 
thority for  dispensing  with  it  in  any 
one  caie.'    Ibid.  p.  27. 

>  Cimpeadiain  Philoiophia,  od. 
Brewer,  p.  419. 


168  BISE  OF  THE  ENQUSH  UNtVEBSITIES. 

n-  that  he  shall  be  provided  with  all  the  necesBary  books,  and 
shall  regularly  instruct  the  younger  students,  while  the  more 
aidvaoced  students  are  to  have  the  benefit  of  hts  assistance 
when  occasion  may  require.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  English 
as  well  as  Latin  enters  into  his  province  of  in»tnictioa. 
'in°~  ^^  ^  significant  of  the  founder's  intention  that  only  real 
"^  students  should  find  a  home  within  the  walls  of  Merton, 
*"'  that  another  statute  provides  that  all  students  absenting 
themselves  from  the  schools  on  insufficient  grounds  shall 
be  liable  to  corresponding  deductions  in  respect  of  their 
scholarships,  and  even  in  cases  where  proper  diligence  in 
study  is  not  shewn,  the  authorities  are  empowered  to  with- 
hold the  payments  of  the  usual  stipends.  There  is  also 
another  regulation,  perhaps  the  only  one  of  any  importance 
which  may  not,  in  some  form  or  other,  be  found  embodied  in 
the  rule  of  subsequent  foundations,  providing  that  a  year  of 
probation  is  to  precede  the  admission  of  each  scholar  as  a 
permanent  member  of  the  society'.  With  this  somewhat 
remarkable  exception,  we  find  that  the  statutes  of  Merton 
became  for  the  most  part  the  model  of  our  English  coU^es; 
and  it  will  be  difficult  for  an  unprejudiced  mind  to  deny  the 
tolerant  spirit,  the  wisdom,  and  the  thoughtfulness  by  which 
they  are  characterised  throughout.  In  the  construction  of 
the  carriculum,  were  it  not  for  the  absence  of  natural  science 
from  the  prescribed  order  of  studies,  we  might  almost  infer 
that  the  counsels  of  Bc^er  Bacon  had  aided  the  deliberations 
of  Walter  de  Uerton.  It  appears  indeed  that,  a  few  years 
after,  an  attempt  was  made  to  remedy  this  deficiency  by 
establishing  a  faculty  of  medicine  in  connexion  with  the 
college ;  an  innovation  which  archbishop  Peckhara,  in  12S4>, 
decided  was  contrary  to  the  tenour  of  the  statutes,  and  con- 
sequently abolished.  '  We  do  not  conceive,'  says  Walter  de 
Merton's  biographer',  in  summing  up  bis  estimate  of  these 
statutes, '  that  there  need  remain  any  doubt  that  the  par- 

'   StaluUi,  ed.  Percivol,  p.  20.  caDtariefl,  uid  in  b  capitnl&r  order  of 

*  Ibid.  p.   56.     'Hodicine   nevor-  IIi04  ie  rucogiiined  as  ft  ptuloaophia*! 

thelesB  alterwarda  become  a  floiuiab-  act.'    Bp.  of  Nolsou's  Lift  of  WiUttr 

ing  atudf  in  the  college  during  tbe  de  iltrton,  p.  26,  note. 
loniteeuth,  fllleenth,  ftnd  siiteenth 


DUHS  8C0TDS.  169 

ticolar  benefit  whi<A  the  fouoder  designed  to  confer  on  the  chap,  tl 
Omrch  was  the  improvement  of  his  own  order,  the  secular 
prietitbood,  by  giving  them  first  a  good  elementary,  and  then 
a  good  theological  education,  in  close  connexion  with  a 
nniveraty,  and  with  the  moral  and  religious  training  of  a 
Bcholar-family  living  under  rules  of  piety  and  discipline. 
And  this  design  was,  we  have  good  reason  to  believe,  in  the 
main  achieved  Whilst  the  Visitor  of  1284<  brings  to  light 
the  fitct  that  worldliness  and  selfishness  were  in  some  degree 
mazring  the  original  design,  there  are  abundant  witnesses  to 
its  general  success.  During  the  first  eighty  years  of  the  life 
of  the  institution,  a  brilUaDt  succession  of  names,  divines  who 
were  also  scholars  and  philosophers,  shone  forth,  and  kindled 
other  founders  to  devote  their  substance  to  the  creation  of 
Bmilar  nurseries  of  learned  clergy.  The  earlier  statutes  of 
BaJliot,  University,  Oriel,  Peterbouse  (Cambridge),  all  bor- 
rowed with  more  or  less  closeness  and  avowal,  the  Begvla 
Mtrtonen*iB,  and  thus  justified  the  assertion  which  the  royal 
fconder  of  Eton  afterwards  used,  that  the  later  colleges  bore 
a  childlike  resembhmce  to  their  conmion  parent,  velwt  imago 
parentis  in  prole  rduceid*. 

We  can  certtunly  have  little  hesitation  in  asserting  that  if  EJJUSS^ 
the  number  of  eminent  men  who  pi'oceeded  from  the  new 
foundation  may  be  r^arded  as  evidence  of  the  wisdom  and 
discernment  of  the  founder,  no  collc^  can  be  held  to  have 
more  amply  justified  the  motives  that  dictated  its  creation. 
Within  the  walls  of  Merton  were  trained  the  minds  that 
chiefly  infiueuced  the  thought  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
It  was  there  that  Duns  Scotus  was  educated;  it  was  there 
that  he  first  taught.  Thence  too  came  William  of  Occam, 
tte  revolutioniser  of  the  philosophy  of  his  age,  and  Thomas 
Bradwardine,  known  throughout  Oliristendom  as  the  Doctor 
Profundus,  whose  influence  might  vie  even  with  that  of  the 
Doctor  Invincible;  Richard  Fitzralph,  the  precursor  of  Wyclif; 
Walter  Burley,  Robert  Holcot,  and  a  host  of  inferior  names, 
but  men  notable  in  their  own  day.  In  attempting  to 
illustrate  the  culture  and  mental  tendencies  of  this  period 
>  ibid.  p.  39. 


170 


RI3E  OF  THE  ENGLISH   UNIVERSITIES. 


P.  iL  we  can  do  no  better  than  turn  briefly  to  consider  the  special  cha- 
racteristic)) of  the  three  most  eminent  Mertooians  of  the  tima 
Hitherto,  the  chief  representative  of  progressive  thought 
at  Oxford  has  been  found  in  one  solitary  Franciscan  friar, 
whose  superiority  to  the  superstition,  the  mental  servility, 
and  the  ignorance  of  his  age,  seems  rather  to  bring  out  into 
stronger  contrast  the  prevailing  characteristics  than  to  redeem 
them  from  one  general  censure.  It  has  indeed  been  asserted 
on  high  authority,  that  the  insight  shown  by  Bacon  into 
questions  like  those  discussed  in  bis  Opus  Majue,  taken  in 
conjunction  with  the  time  in  which  he  wrote,  is  itself  an 
inexplicable  phenomenon';  but  the  additions  that  have  been 
made  by  recent  research  to  our  acquaintance  with  the  Arabic 
literature  of  that  period,  have  revealed  the  sources  from 
whence  he  drew,  and  a£ford  an  adequate  solution  of  the 
difficulty.  In  fact,  although  in  his  preference  for  physical 
researches,  and  his  distrust  of  the  current  Aristotelianism, 
Bacon  undoubtedly  presents  strong  points  of  difiference  from 
the  schoolmen,  there  are  other  points  in  which  an  equally 
strong  resemblance  may  be  discerned  ;  and  in  estimating  the 

ootu  genius  of  Duns  Scotus,  who  next  occupies  the  foreground  in 
the  academical  life  of  England,  it  will  be  important  to  note 
the  similarity  not  less  than  the  dissimilarity  of  their  views 
and  ^ms> 

The  spectacle  presented  by  Oxford  at  the  beginning  of 


>  -It  ii  difficult  I 
BUch  B  charaotcT  oonld  then  enst. 
Tbat  he  received  much  ot  bis  know- 
ledge from  Arabic  writers  there  is  no 
doubt;  foi  the;  nere  in  his  time  the 
repoaitorioB  ol  all  traditional  know- 
ledge. But  that  be  derived  fri>m 
them  his  disposition  to  shake  off  the 
Kuthorit;  of  Aristotle,  to  maintain 
the  impoiianoe  of  experiment,  and 
to  look  upon  knowledge  as  in  ita  in- 
fancy, I  oamiot  bcheve.'  (Whewell, 
Hilt,  of  thr  Inductive  Scieiicee.i  268. 1 
It  may  be  doubted  whether  any  p»a- 
gages  in  Bacon's  writings  con  be  coa- 
Btmed  into  impatieiics  of  the  aatho- 
ritj  of  Aristotle  himself :  a  oarelul 
eiamination  wiU  ihew  that  bis  cen- 
enrea  are  always  directed  at  the  Latin 


translations,  whiob  certainly  appear 
to  have  merited  all  his  seTerity.  OC 
both  Avioenna  and  ArerroeB  he 
speaks  with  invariable  respect.  Mr 
Lewea  reniarks,  '  I  am  myself  but 
very  raperfioially  acquainted  with 
these  (the  Arabian)  writings,  yet  I 
have  discovered  evidence  enough  to 
make  the  position  ol  Boger  Bacon 
quite  explicable  without  in  the  least 
denying  him  extraordinary  merit.' 
nut.  of  Phil,  n  Hi.  Mr  Shirley,  in 
the  Introduction  to  the  Faiciculi 
ZUaniuiiua,  p.  1.  has  even  gone  so 
far  as  to  assert  that  we  have  in 
Soger  Bacon  '  the  normal  type  of  an 
English  philosopher'  of  the  thir- 
teenth oentoiy. 


DUNS  SCOTUS. 


171 


tlie  fourteenth  centuty  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  afforded  ciiap.  n. 
by  any  oniverBity  since  the  commencemeDt  of  the  new  era, —  oifuni  «i  un 
tbe  earliest  developement,  in  our  own  country,  of  that  singular  nuni  «i  \m 
and  almost  feverish  activity  of  thought  which  stands  in  such  "oiury. 
marked  cootraat  to  the  generally  low  culture  of  the  period, 
and  which  becomes  intelligible  only  when  we  bear  in  miud 
all  tbe  circumstances  that,  in  the  preceding  chapter,  we 
have  endeavoured  to  bring  together  in  their  mutual  trae 
relations.  At  a  time  when  learning  had  fewest  followers 
minds  are  to  be  found  most  excited  and  most  enquiring.  In 
a  century  during  which  Greek  scholarship  in  England  is 
represented  by  a  single  name,  and  wherein  the  comparatively 
correct  Latinity  of  the  twelfth  century,  such  as  characterised 
writers  like  Qiraldus  and  John  of  Salisbury,  was  supplanted 
by  a  barbarous  jargon ',  Oxford  appears  as  the  centre  of  a 
purely  philosophic  ferment  to  which  the  subsequent  ajinals 
of  neither  university  present  a  parallel.  A  young  Francus- 
can,  originally  a  student  at  Merton,  rises  up ;  disputes  with 
a  subtlety  never  before  exhibited  the  conclusions  of  hia  pre- 
decessors ;  gathers  round  him  vast  and  enthusiastic  audiences 
as  he  successively  expounds  his  doctrines  at  Oxford,  Paris, 
and  Cologne;  and  is  carried  off  at  the  early  age  of  thirty- 
four,  while  in  the  zenith  of  his  fame,  leaving  behind  a  rcputa- 
tioa  unsurpassed  both  for  sanctity  and  for  learning.  His 
treatises  become  the  text-books  of  English  education  up  to 
the  time  of  the  Reformation;  and  his  theories  form  the  germ 
of  that  dialectic  freedom  of  discussion  which  ultimately  snapt 
asunder  the  links  wherewith  Albertus  and  Aquinas  had 
laboured  to  unite  philosophy  and  faith.     The  leadership  of 


*  'Down  to  the  thirteenth  century 
it  wonld  not  be  eoB.y  tt>  find  tuuonR  tlie 
dironklen  or  miBccUaneouH  vnitcni 
of  Latin  in  the  Sliddle  Ages  Tery 
gnm  departures  from  tho  ordinury 
rvie>  ol  Latin  syntax.  The  nivtties 
ot  the  lanf^aRe  had  beeii  Innt  ten 
eentnries  before;  but  the  dilleri-nco 
of  the  Latimty  of  tbe  aau  eittnding 
bom  Bede  to  Giralduti.  tlint  \«,  of  tbo 
WTButh  to  the  thirteenth  c«ntury,[rom 
Tertnllianor  AuBoniui,  U  not  greater 
than  tbe  decUne  of  tho  latter  fnim 
the  porer  latinity  of  the  Bopublic. 
After  the  thirteenUi  oentniy,  the  oor- 


raption  became  rapid  and  marked  in 
all  dircctioDB.  The  style  of  GiTiUdni 
ia  not  purer  than  that  of  MaliuvK- 
bury;  nut  bo  pure  an  that  of  his  con- 
temporary, John  of  Salisbury.  Yet 
it  wuuld  not  be  euxy  to  find  in  (ii- 
raiduH  any  violent  tranKKmwiotm  of 
the  mlea  of  Latin  cougtruction ; 
perhaps  none  for  which  RuBic-ient 
authority  uiiKht  not  ho  proiluL'ed  in 
tbe  wide  range  of  Latin  literature, 
from  the  ear^eat  period  to  the  fall 
of  theempiro.'  Prol. Brewer, iYe/a«e 
to  Oiratdia  Cambrttui$,  ii.  xr. 


173  BISB  OF  THE  ENOLISH   UNIVERSmES. 

OHAP.  n.  the  age  had  pa8se<1  from  the  DomiaicanB  to  the  Franciscans, 
"""^■"^  nor  can  it  be  denied  that  to  the  latter  order  EDgland  was 
m^nly  indebted  for  such  profundity  of  thought  and  vigour  of 
speculation  as  the  fourteenth  century  beheld'. 

The  causes  of  that  onesided  developement  of  mental 
activity  that  is  now  presented  to  us  are  not  difficult  to  assign. 

,  The  languid  culture  of  the  Benedictines  had  been  thrust 
aside  by  the  fervid  intellectualism  of  the  Mendicaata  But 
in  the  very  character  of  that  activity  the  observer  of  the 
fashions  and  rcvolutioas  that  succeed  each  otlier  in  the 
evolution  of  human  thought,  will  discern  a  significant  illustra- 
tion of  the  interval  that  separates  us  from  the  mind  of  the 
scholastic  era.  Precisely  that  contempt  with  which  the 
ordinary  scholar  now  regards  the  metaphysical  researobes  of 
the  schoolmen,  was  felt  by  the  schoolman  of  the  fourteenth 
century  for  researches  such  as  have  mainly  occupied  many  of 
the  learned  of  our  own  time.  Discussions  on  Greek  metres 
and  disquisitions  on  Etruscan  pottery  would  have  appeared, 
to  the  Oxonian  of  the  days  of  Edward  I,  but  solemn  trifling, 
while  the  distinction  between  the  prima  and  secunda  intentio 
still  remained  uninvestigated  and  the  principium  individva- 
tionia  undetenmned ;  and  students  who  could  not  have 
written  a  Latin  verse  or  a  page  of  Latin  prose  without  sole- 
cisms that  would  now  excite  the  laughter  of  an  average 
English  public  schoolboy,  listened  with  rapt  attention  to 
series  upon  series  of  argumentative  subtleties  such  as  have 
taxed  the  patience  and  the  powers  of  some  of  our  acutest 
modem  metaphysicians. 

The  name  of  the  oracle  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries,  to  whom  Coleridge  has  assigned  the  praise  of  being 
the  only  Englishman  (if  such  he  were)  possessed  of  '  high 
metaphysical  subtlety*,'  has  paused,  by  a  strange  caprice  of 

t  fortune,  into  an  epithet  for  the  grossest  ignorance ;  and  as  we 
turn  the  leaves  of  the  ponderous  tomes  which  enshrine  the 
thought  once  deemed  the  quintessence  of  human  wisdom,  we 

'  The  prosperity  and  aatliorit;  of  uniTerai^  io  this  century  as  a  '  heavy 

the  DominiaanB  appear  to  have  been  blow'  to  the  order.    See  Fatcicuit 

Teiy  otoeely  aseoointed  with  the  pro-  Ziiamorvm,  p.  li. 

eperity  of  the  nuiverait;  of  Pang.  ■   Coleridge's   Literary    Bemaint, 

Mi  Shirley  notes  the  decline  of  that  in  31. 


DUNS  SCOTUS.  173 

feel  how  vain  mtut  be  the  effort  to  realise  the  conditioos  < 
under  which  that  thought  was  conceived.  The  materialB  and 
the  iiympathies  that  should  enable  ub  to  recover  some  adequate 
impression  of  thoite  days  have  alike  vanished.  It  would  con- 
sequently be  hopeless  to  seek  to  depict  the  Oxford  of  the 
beginoiDg  of  the  fourteenth  century,  or  to  give  colour  and 
life  to  the  career  of  the  greatest  of  the  Englinh  schoolmen'. 
We  must  pass  by  even  the  fragmentary  data  wo  possess 
coDcemiDg  that  career;  its  early  triumph  and  its  sudden 
close;  the  fierce  controversy  concerning  the  Immaculate 
Conception  which  he  was  summoaed  to  Paris  to  allay;  the 
peremptory  mandate  in  obedience  to  which  he  repaired  so 
promptly  to  Cologne,  from  the  green  fields  near  Paris  where 
he  was  seeking  a  breathing  space  of  repose,  his  manuscripts 
left  behind,  bis  foi^wells  to  his  friends  unsaid ;  his  mysteri- 
ous death,  and  the  dark  rumours  that  gathered  round  the 
termination  of  that  short  but  eventful  life*.  Whatever  at- 
tention we  may  venture  to  clfum  for  Duns  Scotus  must  be 
restricted  to  a  brief  consideration  of  his  philosophy  and  his 
influence  as  an  authority  in  our  universities. 

We  have  already  adverted  to  the  arduous  character  of 
the  task  which  devolved  upon  the  schoolmen  of  the  preccd- 
ti^  century;  the  vastness,  the  novelty,  and  the  heterogene- 
ous nature  of  the  thought  they  were  called  upon  to  interpret ; 
and  we  have  shewn  that,  however  meritorious  the  spirit  in 
which  they  essayed  to  grapple  with  overwhelming  difficulties, 
the  verdict  of  posterity  has  failed  to  ratify  their  decisions  or 
their  method.  With  the  dawn  of  anotlier  century,  when 
the  waters,  turbid  with  their  fiist  inrush,  had  h{:come  com- 


*  Thronjth  the  conrtcfiy  of  Pro- 
leMor  StabbB  of  Oiford,  I  un  alile 
to  lUte,  botli  on  hia  own  autliorily 
tad  ihaX  of  Ur  Cote,  libiariim  of 
tLe  Bodltjian,  that  no  mnteriuia  now 
nut  »t  Oxford  likely  to  throw  any 
lifllit  on  Ibe  penoool  hintory  of  Diuut 
Scotus  kt  that  luiiversity.  The  fate 
that  behl  bit  writingB  tliere  will 
come  nndei  oar  uutice  in  a  luture 


man's  productivcneaB,  is  perhaps  the 
must  Tonileriul  fuct  in  the  iutelliic- 
tual  hiatory  of  uur  Tsue.  He  in  witl 
to  httTB  (Uecl  at  tlie  aRo  of  tLirty- 
four,  a  period  at  which  moBt  minda 
are  Iianll]'  at  their  fullest  BtreiiKUi> 
ImviuK  written  thirtetn  clusely- print- 
ed folio  Toliime*,  without  an  imaK*, 
porhaps  withuat  a  iiU|icrlluou«  word, 
except  tha  eternal  lugii-iil  formnlariea 
aitil  amplificaCioDH.'  Milmun,  Latin 
Chriiliattilij,  Uk.  Iiv.  e.  it. 


174 


HISE   OF   THE   ENGLISH  UNIVERSITIES. 


CHAP.  n.  parativel;  tranquil  and  clear,  we  naturally  IcKik  for  the 
manifestations  of  a  more  critical  spirit  and  a  more  deliberate 
estimate.  Nor  shall  we  be  disappointed.  Tbe  deci-sions 
delivered  at  Paris,  if  not  altogether  reversed  at  Oxford,  re- 
appeared only  with  numerous  and  important  modifications. 
An  improved  canon  and  the  accession  of  new  mateiial  eciually 
conduced  to  such  a  result. 

There  is,  indeed,  no  graver  error  with  respect  to  the 
schoolmen  than  that  which  would  lead  us  to  regard  them  as 
expending  their  efforts  in  one  uniform  direction,  their  argii- 
mente  revolving  in  one  vicious  circle  and  around  the  same 
hopeless  points  of  discussion;  and,  so  long  as  metaphysics 
hold  their  place  in  the  domain  of  speculative  enquiry,  the 
thinker  who  anticipated  Hegel  on  the  one  hand,  and  Spinoza 
on  the  other,  would  seem  entitled  to  some  recognition  in  the 
Jj™***  history  of  human  thought.  Nearly  half  a  century  £^o  arch- 
***""■  hishop  Whately  called  attention  to  the  want  of  a  treatise  on 
the  literature  and  antiquities  of  the  science  of  Logic,  and 
while  he  insisted  emphatically  on  the  high  qualitications 
requisite  in  the  writer  of  such  a  work,  fully  recognised  the 
interest  and  value  that  its  efficient  performance  would  possess 
for  a  select,  though  somewhat  limited,  circle  of  students'. 


'  '  The  eitensiTe  research  vhich 
ivonld  form  one  indiapenBable  quati- 
fioatiou  for  euch  r  task,  would  be  oaij 
one  out  of  many,  even  less  common, 
qaalifiaationa,  without  which  encb  a 
work  would  be  norse  tlian  uaelesB. 
The  author  ehould  be  oue  tborougbly 
on  bia  guard  af^nst  the  common 
error  of  confoouding  toRether,  or 
leodiug  his  readers  to  coufouud,  an 
iiitimate  acquaintance  with  man; 
books  on  a  given  aobject,  and  a 
clear  insigbt  into  tho  subjict  its:elf. 
With  ability  and  industry  for  inTcs- 
tigating  a  multitude  of  miuute  parti - 
cuJarB,  be  should  poseesB  the  power 
of  rightly  estimating  each  aucurding 
to  itB  intriiieic  importance,  and  not 
fas  ig  very  commonly  done)  accord- 
ing to  the  degree  of  iaboriimt  re- 
tearch  it  may  have  coat  him,  or  the 
tarity  of  tbe  knowledge  he  may  in 
any  case  have  acquired.  Aud  he 
aliould   be   careful,  while  recording 


the  opinions  and  eipresBions  of  va- 
riouH  autbora  on  points  of  science, 
to  guard  both  himself  and  his  readers 
at^ainat  the  mistake  of  taking  any- 
thing on  authority  that  ought  to  be 
evinced  by  scientific  reasoning.' 
Whately's  Logic  (cd,  1862),  p.  3. 
In  striking  contrast  to  the  view 
above  indicated.  Dean  Maoael  con- 
aidcra  that  'a  historical  accooot  of 
the  Scholastic  Logic  ought  to  con- 
fine itself  to  commentariea  and  tr«a- 
tises  eiprusslj  on  tbe  science ;  and 
the  BCbolnetic  contributions  to  the 
matter  of  Logic  slioulil  be  confined 
to  such  additions  to  the  Aristote- 
lian teit  HB  have  been  incorporated 
into  the  Logiea  doeem,'  (Introd.  to 
Arlii  Log.  Rud.  p.  81.}  Bat  in 
treating  a  time  when  the  apphcation 
of  thia  Logxca  doctru  underlay  almost 
every  treatise  of  a  didactic  character, 
it  is  evideut  that  to  restrict  the  his- 
torical survey  to   the  abstract  art 


D1JH3  SCOTUS. 


175 


This  want,  at  least  up  to  the  conclusion  of  the  Bcholastic  era,  ^ 
bas  DOW  been  to  a  great  exteot  supplied  by  the  labours  of 
FniDtl,  to  whose  lesearcbes,  tt^ther  with  those  of  Haur^u 
and  Charles  JourdaiD,  we  have  been  so  far  indebted  that  it  is 
necessary  to  state  that,  without  the  aid  of  these  writers,  many 
pages  of  this  volume  must  have  remained  unwritten.  To  the 
fitst  named  we  are  especially  indebted  for  an  investigation  into 
the  progress  of  that  new  element,  the  teriium  to  the  new  Aris- 
totle and  the  Arabian  commentators,  which  hitherto  appear- 
ing only. at  intervals  and  exercising  but  little  influence  on 
die  philosophy  of  the  schoolmen,  now  assumed  in  the  writings 
of  Duns  Scotus  such  considerable  and  significant  proportions. 
The  Byzantine  logic  bas  a  peculiar  interest,  inasmuch  as  it  1° 
anodates  the  learning  of  the  Latins  with  that  of  the  Greek  i^ 
empire,  and  may  be  regarded  as  a  stray  fn^ment  of  those 
literary  treasures  which,  two  centuries  later,  rolled  in  such 
prolusion  from  Hellas  into  western  Europe. 

In  the  eleventh  century  the  seat  of  the  Caesars  of  the  f^ 
East,  which  had  so  often  defied  the  fiercest  assaults  of  the  ^ 
infidel,  and  had  not  yet  been  subjugated  to  the  rule  of  an  illlte-  te 
rate  Latin  dynasty,  still  preserved  some  traces  of  that  literary 
siHiit  that  in  the  West  was  almost  solely  represented  by  the 
victorious   Saracens.     The  masterpieces  of  Grecian  genius 
were  still  studied  and  appreciated;  the  Greek  langut^  was 
■till  written  with  a  purity  that  strongly  contrasted  with  the 
fate  that  had  overtaken  the  tongue  of  Cicero  and  Virgil ' ;  and 


would  be  to  duninUb,  very  male- 
tiaHj,  both  the  valne  and  the  inte- 
rest ol  the  vbole  work. 

>  If  weaccepttheacoountof  Philel. 
phns,  this  contFaBt  was  slill  to  be 
duoemed  even  no  late  ea  tbe  period 
immediately  preceding  the  full  of 
Coaitvitinople  beloro  the  Turks  in 
14fi3.  '  Hince  the  barriura  of  the 
motuTcbj.  aud  even  at  the  capital, 
bad  been  trampled  under  foot,  tbe 
Tkriona  bajbariana  had  doubtleHH  cor- 
mpted  tbe  form  and  tfubntance  of 
the  national  dialect ;  and  ample 
(^oaaaries  have  been  composed,  to 
interpret  a  multitude  of  wordu,  of 
Aiabio,  Ttukish,  Sclavoiiian,  Latin, 
or  French  origin.   But  a  purer  idiom 


nae  Rpoken  in  the  oonrt  and  taught 
in  the  college,  and  the  flourishing 
state  ol  the  language  is  described, 
and  perhaps  embetllBbed.b; a  learned 
Italian,  who,  by  a  long  residence 
and  noble  loarriage,  was  nataralised 
at  Constantinople  about  thirty  years 
before  the  Tiukish  conqueat.  "  The 
vulgar  npoccb,"Ba;iiPbi!e!phas,''haa 
lieen  depraved  bj  tbe  people,  and 
infected  by  the  multitude  of  stran- 
gers and  merchanta,  who  erery  day 
Hock  to  tbe  city  and  mingle  wilji  tbo 
inhabitants.  It  ia  from  the  disciples 
of  such  a  Rcbool  that  tbe  Latin  lan- 
guage received  tbe  versions  of  Aria- 
totle  and  Plato,  ao  obscure  in  sense, 
and  iu  spirit  so  poor,  llat  the  Oreelu, 


176 


BISE  OF  THE  KHGLIBH  UNIVERSITIES. 


SmS"*" 


Miinawiiod. 


works  of  eztenuve  erudition  and  much  critical  acumen  at- 
tested, from  time  to  time,  that  tliough  the  age  of  poetic  genius 
and  original  conception  was  past,  scholarship  and  learning 
were  still  represented  by  no  unworthy  successors  of  Strabo 
and  AristarchuB.  Among  such  writers  the  name  of  Michael 
Constantine  Psellus,  a  learned  professor  at  Constantinople 
towards  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century,  deserves  a  foremost 
place;  and  to  his  treatise  on  logic,  Ivixn^K  els  t^p  'Aptoro- 
TeXow  XoYifC^v  huarfifitiv,  we  must  refer  those  influences 
upon  the  method  of  the  schoolmen  which  now  offer  them- 
selves for  ourconsideratioQ.  This  manual,  though  represent- 
ipg,  according  to  Prantl,  little  more  than  '  the  content  of  the 
school  logic  received  up  to  the  close  of  antiquity','  and  there- 
fore in  no  way  comparable  for  originality  with  the  works  of 
Avicenna  and  Averroes,  would,  notwithstanding,  seem  to  have 
affected  the  developement  of  logic  in  the  West  to  an  extent 
singularly  in  excess  of  its  real  value.  Among  the  contem- 
poraries of  Aquinas  was  the  once  famous  Petrus  Hispanus,  a 
native  of  Lisbon,  who  after  a  brilliant  career  as  a  student 
and  teacher  at  Paris,  was  ultimately  raised  to  the  papal 
chair  under  the  title  of  pope  John  XXI.  Bis  literary  activity, 
which  might  compare  with  that  of  Gerbert  himself,  extended 
to  science,  theoi<^,  and  philosophy,  and  he  was,  until  re- 
cently, regarded  as  the  earliest  translator  of  the  treatise  by 
Fsellus*.  This  supposition  however  has  been  altogether 
disproved  by  the  researches  of  Prantl,  who  has  shewn  that 
Petnis  Hispanus  was  forestalled,  by  at  least  twenty  years,  by 
an  eminent  Oxonian,  William  Shy  res  wood,  whose  name, 
though  it  has  now  passed  from  memory,  was  long  identified 


wbo  baTe  escaped  the  conta^on,  are 
thoee  whom  we  follow,  and  theji 
alone  are  north;  of  oar  imitatioii. 
In  familiar  disoourse  they  etill  speak 
tbe  tongne  of  Arietophanes  and 
Euripides,  of  tbe  historiaos  and  phi- 
losophers of  Athens ;  and  tbe  style 
of  theit  writii^  is  etil!  more  elabo- 
rate and  eocreot.'"  Oibbon,  o.  £6. 
VIII  105.  See  also  Hallam,  Middle 
Aga,  III  466—8. 

1  Oeieh.  d.  Log.  u  3G5.  Anm.  6. 

*  Dean  Mansel,  in  the  Introdao- 


tion  to  bis  AHii  Logira  liudimrnUi, 
has  eipcesxed  hi  a  belief,  in  which  ha 
iofonns  ns  be  is  napported  bj  the  ao- 
tbority  of  Sir  William  Hamiltoii, 
that  the  work  attributed  to  PneUus 
is,  in  reality,  a  tranBlation  into  Greek 
of  tbe  work  ot  Petrae  Hispanus  I 
In  the  later  editions  of  tbe  aborfl 
work  he  has  however  omitted  to 
notice  tbe  most  recent  oontribation 
bj  Prantl  to  the  literatere  of  the 
whole  subject.  See  sixth  edition  ol 
Arlii  Logita  Budimenta,  p.  33. 


THE  BTZANTINE  LOOIC. 


177 


at  Oxford  vith  the  introductioD  of  the  new  element.  William 
Shyreswood  was  a  native  of  Durham,  who,  after  having 
studied  both  at  Oxford  and  Paris,  succeeded  to  the  dignity  of 
the  chancellorship  at  LincolD*;  where  he  died  in  the  year  1249. 
As  a  writer  on  logic  he  exercised  a  potent  influence  on  the 
derelopement  of  that  study  in  England.  Internal  evidence, 
indeed,  favours  the  supposition  that  there  existed  a  version 
of  portions  of  the  treatise  by  Fsellus  in  circulation  prior  even 
to  that  of  Shyreswood,  but  on  this  point  we  have  no  certain 
information;  and  the  method  of  Duns  Scotus,  which  was 
fonnded,  in  no  small  d^ree,  upon  the  Byzantine  logic,  does 
not  appear  to  have  traced  back  its  inspiration  further  than 
to  this  writer.  In  Shjrreswood  we  first  meet  with  the  fami- 
liar mnemonic  verses  of  the  Moods  of  the  Four  Figures,  still 
{H'eserved  in  every  treatise  on  formal  logic*;  and  it  would 
i^pear,  that  from  the  time  of  Roger  Bacon  down  to  that  of 
Ben  Jonson'  his  reputation  as  a  logician  was  iindiminished 
in  the  university  which  he  adorned. 

As  regards  Fetrus  Hispanus,  it  would  seem,  if  we  accept 
the  conclusions  of  Prantl,  that  he  was  not  only  not  the  first 
translator  of  Paellus,  but  that  his  performance  was  in  every 
way  inferior  to  that  of  our  own  countrj'inan  :  the  work  of  the 
one  being  spiritless  and  servile,  while  that  of  the  other  shews .  _ 
indications  of  a  genuine  effort  at  intelligently  appreciating  m 
the  meaning  of  the  orjgioal,  characteristics  which  we  may 
mippoee  contributed  not  a  little  to  procure  for  him  the  warm 
enlogium  of  Bacon*,  whoso  severest  contempt  was  always 
reserved  for  a  mechanical  spirit  of  interpretation,  whether  in 
teacher  or  learner.  The  historian  iias,  indeed,  even  ventured 
to  conjecture  that  Pope  John  may  merely  have  transcri))ed  a 


'  For  dDlies  of  the  chaiicellor  of  a 
Mifaedral  lee  Dncange,  n.  v. 

•  ThuB  given  by  Pranll !  Bnrbnra. 
Ctlamt,  Darii,  Ferio,  Baralipton,  j 
Cttantrt,  Dabitii,  Fapftmo,  Fritao- 
MonoR,  I  Cfiarf,Campf$lrti,Ftltino, 
Barceo,  Varapli,  |  Frlaptim,  Dita- 
kU,  Datiii,  Bocardo,  Frriton. 

Gtteh.  d.  Log.  iii  16. 

■  *  Hmv  tl  to  the  fruit  of  Pern, 
Oimfted  upon  Stab  his  ntem, 


With  the  peakinli  niwtv 
Of  old  Sherwood'B  vi™iy.' 
lien  Johbuq,  Undfraomlt. 
*  'Quod  probare  polestig  per  sa- 
pieutea  famonioren  inter  ChriatianoK, 
quirain  unas  est  frater  Albertiu,  da 
nrdiue  rnrdicatoruin ,  aliuH  rnt  On- 
lidmuB  de   Shjrwode    tbesaurarina 
Iiincolniennis    ecelesilp    in    Anglia, 
longe  aapientior  Alberto.     Nam   in 
philonophia  eommuni  Dnllnii  major 
Mt  eo.'     Opvi  TfTlhim.  i>.  3. 

12 


17s  RISE  OF  THE  ENGLISH   UKIVERSITJES. 

CHAP.  n.  Latin  version  that  he  found  ready  to  hia  hand'.     But,  how- 
'  '  '      ever  this  may  have  been,  it  is  certain  that  the  prestige  which 
necessarily  invested  the  labours  of  the  head  of  the  Church 
BDOU  cast  into  the  shade  those  of  the  English  ecclesiastic,  and 
though  the  name  of  Wflliam  Shyreswood  was  long  remembered 
at  Oxford,  his  reputation  in  Europe  could  not  compare  with 
SMmtiTt     that  of  Petriis  Hispanus.     For  two  centuries  and  a  half  the 
to  Pat™"**  Summula  Logicales  of  the  latter  writer  reigned  supreme  in 
uiipuiu.     jjjg  schools,  and  during  the  liundred  and  thirty  years  that 
followed  upon  the  invention  of  printing,  no  less  than  forty- 
eight  editions  are  enumerated  by  Frantl  as  issuing  from  the 
presses  of  Cologne,  Leipsic,  Leyden,  Venice,  and  Vienna; 
while  already,  with   the  commencement   of  the  fourteenth 
century,  the  importance  of  this  new  element  had  become  so 
generally  recognized,  that  to  reconcile  the  same  with  the 
previously  accepted  dicta  of  authority  had  become  a  task 
which  no  one  who  aspired  to  be  regarded  as  a  teacher  of  tho 
age  found  it  possible  to  decline.    Just  therefore  as  it  had  de- 
volved upon  Albertus  and  Aquinas  to  decide  ho\K  far  the 
Arabian  commentators  could  be  reconciled  with  the  orthodox 
interpretation  of  Aristotle,  so  did  it  devolve  upon  Duns  Scotus 
to   incorporate   or  to   shew  reasons   for  rejecting  the  new 
["■"0^0'  thought  presented   in  the  Byzantine  logic.      The  element, 
ii£^^i^    accordingly,  which  in  Albertus,  Aquinas,  and  Grosseteste,  is 
JSS^''  but  an  exceptional  phenomenoQ  [ver^nzeUen  Eracheinungen), 
now  becomes  in  the  great  schoolman  of  Oxford  a  predominant 
feature;   a  feature  wliich   Frantl  in  his  almost   exhaustive 
treatment  of  the  subject  has  fully  investigated;  and  though  it 
is  neither  practicable  nor  4esirablefor  us  to  attempt  to  follow 
him  into  those  technical  details  which  belong  to  the  special 
province  of  his  work,  it  is,  on  the  other  hand,  essential  to  our 
main  purpose  to  make  some  attempt  at  explaining  the  con- 

*  'Jedeufalls  ist  unler  den  iihiiU-  den  PseUne  xa  (tbersetzei),  oder  ob 

chen   ErzeugniBwn  jener   Zeit    dae  er  nnr^s  Abechreiber  einer  b^eita 

CompeDdiam  des  Fetnu  Hiepanus  Torhaudeneii  getreuen  Uebersetzimg 

das  geistlOBeBte,   iDBoIerae  es  obne  slab    Beinen    „  veltgeschichtlichen " 

iigend      einea     einzigea     eigenen  Eiafluss  emmgen  babe,   Ustt  aieb 

Oedtm^eD  nur  den   OruDdteit   der  nicbt  enUcbeiden ;    der   „SoIiweiM 

nea     eingefUbrteD     byzantiniBcben  dei  AngeaiabteB "  kum  in  keinem  der 

Logik  ^ederbolt.    Ob  der  VerfSHBer  beiden  Fklla  groas   gewesen    sein.' 

dm  OrieduBcbea  mitcbtig  war,  nm  iii  34. 


THE  BYZANTINE   LOGIC.  179 

ntniction  placed  upon  the  Byzantine  logic  and  the  direction  chap.  n. 
in  which  it  operated.  '  One  might  easily  be  inclined  to  sup- 
poee,'  observes  our  authority,  'that  its  influence  belonged 
purely  to  the  literature  of  the  schools,  and  had  nothing  at  all 
to  do  with  the  Arabian  Aristotelian  ism  and  the  controversies 
springing  from  thence,  but  the  sequel  shews  that  this  Byzan- 
tine weed-growth  sent  its  offshoots  deep  into  the  logical  party 
contentions,  and  hence  into  the  so-called  philosophy  of  that 
time,  and  that  (since  Occam  and  his  followers)  a  knowledge 
of  the  Byzantine  material  is  the  only  key  to  the  solution  of 
the  oft-lamented  un intelligibility  of  many  entire  writings  as 
well  as  of  isolated  pass^es.' 

It  will  here  be  necessary,  in  order  to  gain  a  correct  impres-  'n»«  'gu- 
sion  of  the  precise  position  of  Duns  Scotus  in  relation  to  the  J^^^^ 
philosophy  of  the   time,   briefly  to   recall  those   important  ^^JS3w 
moditications  of  theory  that  had  already  resulted  from  the  ^"on 
events  of  the  preceding  century.     The  first  effects  of  the  new  i<W 
Aristotle  upon  the  schools  would  seem,  as  may  be  naturally 
supposed,  to  have  tended  towards  some  diminution  of  that  ex- 
cessive estimation  in  which  logic  had  hitherto  been  held.    So 
long  as  the  Isagoge,  the  Categories,  and  the  De  Interpretatione 
represented  the  sum  of  the  known  thought  of  the  Stagirite, 
the  importance  of  logical  science  had  been  unduly  exalted  and 
the  study  had  commanded  exclusive  attention.     But  as  soon 
as  it  was  discovered  that  Aristotle  himself  had  recognised 
such  branches  of  philosophy  as  physics,  metaphysics,  ethics, 
and  that  it  was  dilScult  to  say  how  far  it  could  be  proved 
that  he  had  regarded  Ic^c  as  anything  more  than  an  instru- 
ment of  enquiry,  while  the  Aristotelian  tradition  had  un- 
doubtedly been  that  it  was  an  art  and  not  a  science, — that  is, 
that  it  had  for  its  subject-matter  no  fundamental  laws  of 
thought,  but  was  merely  an  arbitrary  process  constructed  for 
the  better  iuvestigatioD  of  real  knowledge ', — the  prestige  of 

'  Tb«(liatinctioiibetweeiia8cience  Sir  William  BomillOD  {see   Artiole 

uid  ftn  Art,  that  the  former  baa  for  iu  £ifin.  Rrv.  Vol.  lvii.  p.  'J03)  aa;a, 

It*  object-matter  that  which  is  neceg-  'The   Stoles   In    general  Tieoed   it 

■U7  or  invoriahle.  the  latter  that  (l^ei")  ^^  ^  Science.     The  Aiabian 

which   is    contingenC  and  variable,  and  liatia  schoolmen  did  the  auna. 

dfttM  back  w  (or  se  Aristotle.     See  In  thia  opinion  Tbomist  and  Sootist, 

Art  Pott.  I,  ii.   Topiea,  ri,  liii.  1.  Boalist  and  Nominalist  conourredi 

12—2 


180  BIHE  OF  THE   ENOLISU   UNIVERSITIES. 

CHAP.  iL  tbe  dialectic  art  became  correspondingly  lessened.  Aquinas 
and  Koger  Bacon,  little  as  they  agreed  in  other  respects, 
seemed  in  some  sense  at  unison  on  this  point.  'The  subject- 
matter  of  logic,'  said  the  former,  '  is  not  an  object  of  investi- 
gation on  its  own  account,  but  rather  as  a  kind  of  scaffolding 
to  other  sciences;  and  hence  l<^tc  is  not  included  in  specula- 
tive philosophy  as  a  leading  division,  but  rather  in  subser- 
viency thereto,  inasmuch  as  it  supplies  the  method  of  enquiry, 
whence  it  ia  not  so  mtich  a  scietice  as  an  iTtstrument'.'  llie 
view  of  Bacon,  according  to  which  he  regarded  the  logica 
vtens  as  a  natural  inborn  faculty,  and  the  logica  docens  as 
merely  ancillary  to  other  sciences,  has  already  come  under  our 
notice.  That  such  views  fiailed  to  find  expression  in  a  cor- 
responding modification  of  practice,  and  that,  notwithstanding 
the  more  intelligent  estimate  of  science  that  now  undoubt- 
edly began  to  prevail,  logic  continued  for  more  than  two 
centuries  to  occupy  the  same  'bad  eminence'  both  at  Oxford 
and  at  Cambridge,  must  be  attributed  to  the  Byzantine  logic, 
to  Petrus  HiapanuB,  and  to  Duns  Scotua 
^^^^  '  The  logic  of  Duns  Scotus,'  says  Frantl,  '  which  gave 

D^*!^!^  birth  to  an  abundant  crop  of  Scotistic  literature,  does  not 
indeed  proceed  in  entirely  new  paths  which  he  had  opened 
up  for  himself, — he  is,  on  the  contrary,  as  regards  the  tra- 
ditional materia],  just  as  dependent  and  confined  (abhdngig 
und  bedingt)  as  all  the  other  authors  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
But  he  is  distinguished,  in  the  first  J)lace,  by  a  peculiarly 
copious  infusion  of  Byzantine  logic,  and  secondly,  by  the 
comprehensive  precision  and  consistency  with  which  he  incor- 
porates the  Aristotelian,  Arabian,  and  Byzantine  material,  so 
that  by  this  means  many  new  views  are,  in  fact,  drawn  from 
the  old  sources,  and,  in  spite  of  all  opposition,  the  transitiou 
to  Occam  effected'.'  The  treatise  of  Fsellus,  as  translated  by 
Fetrus  Hispanus,  thus  enunciates  the  theory  which  Duns 
Scotus  developed; — Dyalectica  est  ars  artium,  sdentia  scim- 

HDOpinioDMlopted.KlmoBttoaiiiaD,  >  Ad   Boeth.    de   Trittitale,   (Vol. 

I^  the  Jeeoit,  Dontimoaii,  aud  Fran-  zvn  3)  p.  131.  quoted  b;  Praatl,  iti 

oiBcan  CunQKliatB.'    Mora  Koonrate  108. 

euquiry  has  shewn  tbia  to  be  by  fat  <  Gfthichtt  drr  liogik.  Hi  303. 

too  Bweeping  ■ 


THE  BYZANTINE  LOGIC.  181 

Uarum,  ad  omnium  methodorum  princtpia  viam  hahem.     Sola  chap-  it. 
mum   dyafectica  probabiliter  disputat  de  prineipiis  omnium 
aUamm  acientiarum.      Et  idea  in   acquiaitiorte  adentiarum 
dyalectica  debet  esse  prior '.'     '  Physics,  mathematics,  meta- 
phyrics,'  said  Albertus  Magnus,  'are  the  three  speculative 
Miences,  and  there  are  no  more, — logic  is  not  concerned  with 
being  or  any  part  of  being,  but  with  second  intentions'.'    It  J^^,*"" 
was  in  connexion  with  this  doctrine  of  the  intentio  secunda  *«""*^ 
that  Dims  Scotiis  sought  to  find  that '  consistency '  of  which 
Prantl  speaks,   and  to  retain  or  even  to  augment  the  old 
supremacy  of  logic. 

It  may  be  desirable  briefly  to  restate  the  question  as  ^^^l^ 
it  presented  itself  before  the  enunciation  of  this  theory,  JlJ^smui 
Logic,  said  the  Thomist,  is  an  art  and  not  a  science;  a  science 
is  concerned  with  real  facts,  with  veritable  entities,  not  with 
artificial  processes  or  arbitrary  laws.  Metaphysics  are  a 
science,  astronomy  is  a  science,  but  logic,  a^  concerned  only 
with  those  secondary  processes  of  the  mind  which  it  seeks  to 
define  and  regulate,  ha^  no  pretentions  to  rank  as  such. 
While  therefore  tbey  accepted,  as  Albertus  has  done,  the  ^l^in. 
Arabian  theory  of  the  intentio  aecuTida,  by  far  the  most 
important  contribution  to  metaphysici  since  the  time  of 
Aristotle*,  they  stopped  short  precisely  at  the  point  where 
that  theory  touched  upon  the  question  of  the  right  of  logic 
to  be  included  among  the  sciences.  That  theory  admits  of 
being  stated  in  a  few  worda  The  intellect  as  it  directs  itself 
fyttendens  se)  towards  external  objects,  discerns,  for  example, 

*   Prantl   remarks,    'dieser  Satz  Becundan.'  Metnph.  i  I,  1,     The  onlj 

Uilt  in  tmserein  Teite  des  PaelliiB;  eense  in  which  Albertna  appeam  to 

•r  ist  wohl  atiB  der  gewdhnlichen  bo-  have  been  able  to  recognize  logic  ai 

MUuiiNhen    Troditioa    aufgenom-  a  acieoce  was  aa  Logics   Ultnt :  see 

men.'  iii  41.     In  the  edition  of  the  quotations  in  Prantl,  in  92. 

Synopaia  by  Aiinger  we  have,  how-  '  '  The  principal  material  added  by 

ever,  the  original  Greek:  AiaXciTiif  the  ArabianB  to  the  text  of  Aristotle 

i^i  rix"!  rexi"^  oal  ^vumi^iT)    in-  Is  ths  celebrated  diatinotion  between 

minuir  rpot  lii  rfraffSr  twf  ntSUvt  firit  and  ttcond  inttntiont.     This  ii 

ifX^  ^'  fx«va.  Hoi  tii.  touto  h  rg  fonad  in  the  epitome  of  the  Catago- 

Kr^au  Tuw  ^MTtg^ui'  wfiuiritt  tlnu  rtfr  riee  by  ATerroes.     tt  has  also  been 

liaXfTTuri]*  x/ni-    1  1,  p.  1,  qnotea  by  traced  to  Aviceima.    To  the  Arabians 

Pnotl.  also  are  probably  owing  some  of  the 

~     ~     9  iptOT  iiiDt  tres  tcieDtia  distingiuBhing  featnres,  thongh  eer- 

m,  et  non  annt  plnres.    Sei-  tainly  not  the  origin ,  of  the  Btfholastie 

nnua  lo^^  non  ooniiderant  ens  et  Bealism.'    Dean  Mansel,  Introd.   to 

Iwit«aieoti«BUqiuun,iediDteDttoiiet  Artit  Log.  Rml.  p.  iiii. 


182  RISE  OF  THE   ENGLISH  UNn'EBSlTIES. 

■  Socrates  id  biB  pure  individuality,  aod  the  impreasion  thus 
received  is  to  be  distinguished  as  the  intentio  prima.  But 
when  the  ezistence  of  Socrates  has  thus  been  apprehended, 
the  reflective  feculty  comes  into  play;  Socrates,  by  a  se- 
condary process,  is  recognized  as  a  pliilosopber  or  as  an 
animal;  he  is  assigned  to  genus  and  species.  The  concep- 
tion thus  formed  constitutes  the  inteiitio  aecunda.  But  the 
intentio  secunda  exists  only  in  relation  to  the  human  intellect, 
and  hence  cannot  be  ranked  among  real  existences ;  while 
the  objects  of  the  estemal  world,  and  Universals  which  have 
their  esistence  in  the  Divine  Mind,  would  exist  even  if  man 
were  not.     It  waa  in  respect  of  this  theory  of  the  non-reality 

"'  of  the  inteniionee  aecundw,  that  Duns  Scotus  Joined  issue 
with  the  Thomista  It  is  trae,  he  replied,  that  existence 
must  of  necessity  be  first  conceded  to  the  objects  which 
correspond  to  the  primary  intention,  but  it  by  no  means  fol- 
lows that  it  is  therefore  to  be  denied  to  the  conceptions 
which  answer  to  the  intentio  aecwnda,  that  these  are  nothing 
more  than  creations  of  the  intellect,  and  have  consequently 
only  a  subjective  existence.  They  are  equally  real,  and 
though  the  recognition  of  their  existence  is  posterior  to  that 
of  the  phenomena  of  the  external  world,  '  man '  and  '  animal ' 
are  not  less  true  entities  than  Socrates  himself.  Hence  we 
may  affirm  that  logic  equally  with  physical  science  is  con- 
cerned with  necessary  not  contingent  subject-matter,  and  is  a 
i  not  less  than  an  art'. 


senech&ft  sei,  im  AuBBchlaBse  an  Mt- 
arabi  dabin,  daas  die  Logik  eioerseits 
als  doctni  wiikJioL  eine  WiaseDSabaft 
ist  uud  BudreTBeits  ola  ultm  den 
modiit  fiiT  alle  iibrigen  enthalt.  ao  dasa 
wir  hier..,d«n  Begrifl  einer  "angs- 
wandten  Logii"  trefleo.'  Freatl, 
Gttchichte  dtr  Lagik,  tu  304-6. 
Acoording.  tberefora,  to  this  view  we 
hnve,  Logioa  DoceiiB=iPure  Lagio=B 
ScicDoej  LogLoa  Utei)B=Applied  Logio 
=  aii  Art.  TbiB  appears  almoat 
identical  witb  the  view  Bubaeqaentlj 
CBpouBed  b;  Wolf,  and  b;  Kant,  who, 
in  defining  the  Logics  Doeent  u 
'  The  Science  of  the  NeceBeaty  LawB 
of  Thongbt,'  aniied,  though  by  • 
vet7  difleient  procoBB,  at  Uw  aanw 


'  '  Auoh  den  UnterBchied,  welcher 
iwiachen  Logik  nnd  Metapbyaik 
neben  maucben  BertthrongBpniiitell 
dooh  ala  ein  weaentlicher  bcBtebt, 
erblickt  Scotna  ebenao  nie  all  seine 
olteren  uod  jiiogeien  Zeitgenossen  in 
jener  ittttiitio  lecunda,  welcher  wir 
nun  aeit  den  Aiabem  eteta  Bchon  be- 
gegneten,  nnd  er  spricht  in  mannig- 
faltigenWendungenwicderholteaauB, 
daaa  die  Logik  jene  Momente,  welclie 
voD  ratio  Oder  von  inttUrclui  oder  von 
contepiui  aUBgehen,  knrz  aiao  der^ub- 
jectiven  Werkstiitte  angeboren,  auf 
daa  objeotiTe  Weaen  der  Dinge  "  an- 
wende,"  applicare.  Ebeo  Wedurch 
eotacheidet  er  anoh  jeoe  Frage,  ob  die 
Logik  ala  modtu  (cifFuJitelbBt  eine  Wis- 


THE  BYZANTINE  LOGIC.  1S3 

This  concei^ioD  of  l<^c  formed  the  basis  of  the  Realism  chap,  il 
of  Duos  Scotus,  and  the  inferences  he  derived  therefrom 
strock  deeply  at  the  foundation  of  all  theories  concerning 
education.  The  Cartesian  dogma  was  both  forestalled  and 
exceeded ;  for  it  is  evident  that  in  postulating  for  all  the 
arbitrary  divisions  and  distinctions  marked  out  by  the  intel- 
lect a  reality  as  complete  as  that  of  all  external  individual 
existences,  the  theory  which  claimed  for  every  distinct  con- 
ception of  the  mind  a  corresponding  objective  reality,  was  at 
once  involved  and  still  further  extended.  With  Scotus  the 
conception  was  itself  the  reality;  and  hence,  as  an  inevitable 
corollary,  there  was  deduced  an  exaggerated  representation  of 
the  functions  of  logic  altogether  incompatible  with  a  just 
r^srd  to  those  sciences  which  depend  so  largely  for  their 
developement  upon  experience  and  observation.  Logic,  no  Logic  ute 
longer  the  handmaiden,  became  the  mistress, — the  '  science  idEiKa. 
of  sciences;'  men  were  taught  to  believe  that  the  logical  con- 
cept might  take  the  place  of  the  verified  definition,  and 
that  A  priori  reasoning  might  supply  that  knowledge  which 
can  only  be  acquired  by  a  patient  study  of  each  separate 
science*.  Mathematics  and  language,  which  Bacon  had  re- 
garded as  the  two  portals  to  all  learning,  were  to  give 
place  to  that  science  where  atone  could  be  found  the  perfect 
circle,  and  the  remedy  for  the  inaccuracy  and  vagueness  of 
□omenclature  and  diction.  The  reproach  which  Cousin  so 
unjustly  cast  upon  Locke, — in  reply  to  the  almost  equally 


coDclniion  aa  8cotiu.  See  Dean  Man- 
Mi's  iKtraduetiott,  pp.  xIt  Bud  ilvii. 
While  1  wish  to  speak  iritb  all  re- 
■peet  o(  a  work  like  Dean  Milman'a 
Catin  Ckriilianily.  I  may  venture  to 
obsorre  that  in  his  atutement  of 
Dniii  SootuB's  philosophy  be  has  ex- 
aatly  inTerted  tlie  order  ol  the  Scotiau 
Mgnment.  A  cotnpariBon  of  hia  ac- 
eonnt  (Bk.  iiv  o.  3)  with  that  given  by 
BanrteD  and  Prantl  will  prove  this. 

1  Fnntl  remarkB  that  both  A]- 
tMrtOJ  and  Dons  Scotus  attempted 
to  prove  the  existence  of  Universals 
(nna  oar  sabjective  conception  of 
them:  'veil  es  ja  von  dem  Nicht- 
8«ieudeD    keine  ErkenntnuB  geben 


kijnne  nnd  Bomil  dem  0niveTHale 
Etvaa  auBserhalb  "  entaprechen " 
{eorrttponitrre)  milsse,  was  eben  bei 
bloBS  FinKirtem  oicht  der  Fall  sei.' 
Ill  207.  Indeed  it  was  only  by  each 
jeaaoning  that  ScotuB  redeemed  hia 
theory  of  logic  boax  the  impatation 
of  mukmg  it,  not  simplj'tbe  mistress 
of  the  Bciences,  but  the  one  and  only 


Vnir, 


It  Jtcti- 


on«  inltUatiu;  time  enim  nunquam 
in  quid  prirdicarentuT  de  re  iztra 
nee  ad  definitionem  perfinerent,  nee 
jnetaphytica  diftnel  a  logica,  immli 
omnia  Kttntia  met  togiea,  quia  dt 
uttivenaU.  Theorem.  4  m  269  i, 
qaoted  by  Praatl,  tn  207. 


184  KISE  OP  THE  ENGLISH   UNIVERSITIES. 

r«*p.  II.  uDJust  assertioD  of  the  latter,  that  theol-^cal  and  scieutific 
disputes  are  generally  little  more  than  mere  logomachies, — 
that  he  regarded  science  as  nothing  more,  to  use  the  aphorism 
ofCondillac,  thanune  lavgue  bten/aite',  may,  with  the  change 
of  a  single  word,  be  applied  with  perfect  propriety  to  the 
Subtle  Doctor.  '  Cela  pos^,'  says  Haur&u,  aft«r  an  able  ex- 
position of  the  Scotian  theory,  '  cela  poa^,  il  va  sans  dire  qu'i 
toutea  les  pens^a  correspondent  autant  de  choses,  qu'on  peut 
iBdiff^remment  etudier  la  nature  en  observant  les  faits  de 
conscience  ou  en  observant  les  ph^nomfenes  du  moode  ob- 
jectif,  et  qu'une  logique  bten  faite  peut  supplier  h.  toiite 
physique,  k  toute  m^taphysique'.' 
nndM^tiH  ^'  *'!'  **°*  "^P^y  "^  ^  follow  our  laborious  guide  through 
rfJtaS!"  those  minute  and  subtle  enquiries  whereby  he  has  demon- 
strated the  presence  of  the  new  element  in  the  applied  logic 
of  ScotuB, — our  object  being  not  to  resuscitate  the  pedantry  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  but  to  trace,  if  possible,  the  direc- 
tion of  the  activity  that  then  prevailed,  and  its  influence 
upon  subsequent  education.  Nor  will  the  foregoing  outline 
appear  irrelevant  to  such  a  design  if  we  remember  that  in 
this  Byzantine  logic  are  to  be  discerned  not  only  the  influ- 
ences that  raised  the  logician's  art  to  so  oppressive  a  supre- 
macy in  the  schools,  but  also  the  germs  of  the  ultra-nomi- 
nalism developed  by  William  of  Occam, — the  rock  on  which 
the  method  of  scholasticism  went  to  pieces  in  our  own 
country;  though  in  the  obscurity  that  enveloped  alike  dogma, 
philosophy,  and  language,  men  failed  at  first  to  perceive  the 
significance  of  the  new  movement.  But  before  we  pass  from 
Duds  Scotus  to  his  pupU  and  successor,  it  is  but  just  that  we 
should  give  some  recognition  to  that  phase  of  hia  genius 
which  honorably  distinguishes  him  from  Albertus  and  Aqui- 
^^  ^d""  °^"  "^^^  logician  who  riveted  thus  closely  the  fetters  of 
moMbeob-  jj^g  gchools,  was  slso  the  theologian  who  broke  through  the 
ttei^i^  barriers  which  his  predecessors  had  so  complacently  con- 
initiL  structed  ;  and  it  must  be  regarded  as  an  important  advance 

I  PbihiopkU  lU  Locke,  Elh  edit., 

p.  333;  Cf.  Looke.  Etiay  on  Ihi  Hu- 

•  Binn   Undmlanding,   iii  2,  -t;   Hill, 


LOGIC  OF  DUNS  SCOTUS. 


185 


in  philosophic  apprehension,  that  Scotus  could,  admit  the  < 
fact,  that  there  were  in  the  province  of  faith  not  merely 
truths  to  which  the  human  reason  could  never  have  attained 
unaided,  but  also  mysteries  which  even  when  revealed  tran- 
acended  its  analysis.  It  is  true  that  in  the  theory  of  the 
principiitm  individaaiionia  which  he  maintained,  he  sought 
to  eecape  from  the  perilous  position  of  Aquinas  by  a  solution 
satisfactory  to  the  comprehension ;  but  there  were  also  many 
other  points  in  relation  to  which  he  could  say  with  Ter- 
tullian  and  Augustine,  Credo  quia  abevrdum^.  The  strain 
beneath  which  the  formulas  that  Albertus  and  Aquinas  bad 
constructed  were  before  long  to  give  way,  grew  heavy  under 
the  supremacy  of  the  Subtle  Doctor.  He  saw,  too,  far  more 
clearly  than  they,  the  real  tendency  of  Aristotelian  thought, 
and  that  the  theory  of  the  vital  principle  pointed  unmistake* 
ably  to  a  renunciation  of  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life*.  And, 
while  he  rect^nised  in  all  its  force  that  desire  for  Unity', 
which  has  proved  both  the  polar  star  and  the  ignis  fatuus 
of  philosophy,  he  avoided  with  equal  insight  that  theory  of 
reabsorptioD,  towards  which  the  mysticism  of  Bonaventura 
bad  advanced  so  closely,  and  preferred  simply  to  regard  the 
belief  in  human  immortality  as  a  revealed  truth. 

1(,    accordingly,    we    compare    Duns    Scotus  with  Roger  ^ 
Bacon,  there  will  be  found,  as  we  have  already  remarked,  p. 
consent  as  well  as  contrast  in  their  views.     Both  were  dis- 
tinguished by  their  devotion  to  the  mathematics  of  their 
time;  both  sajd  that  knowledge  must  have  its  beginnings  in 
experience*, — and  in  Duns  Scotus  we  perhaps  discern   the 


*  '  Audi  bedtzt  Scotos  dsriii  un- 
Mn  Sjinpathie,  dais  er  (—am  mit 
modemen  Worteu  zu  sprechen^]  aul 
dar  Unerkeimbarkeit  dea  Abaolutea 
■tahl,  dara  er  &U  iDdetenuiuiat  die 
thomisticbe  Uuterordiinng  dee  Prak- 
tiiehen  nnter  das  Tbeoretincbe  ent- 
■eliieden  bekampFt,  mid  dasa  er  der 
Theologie  uiu  eine  praktisclie  Wirk- 
■amkeit  im  Oebiele  des  praktiHchen 
QlanbenasDweiBt.'  Praiiil,GeiebiehU 
dcr  Logik,  m  W2. 

■  '  BniTant  Dtms-Soot.  cetle  *^riM 
Ds  se  pronve  pas ;  "Animametiae  im. 
nortalem  probori  non  potest;"  ot, 


pour  la  eonnaitre.  il  eut  falla  qn' 
A-ristote  rot  Miuri  des  radons  de  la 
grdce.'  Uanr^ii,  Phil.  Scolattique, 
II  369. 

'  '  Omnia  qun  snnt,  aecnndom 
modnm  sibi  eoDvenieatem  et  posai- 
bilem  nnitatem  ftppetont.'  DeSfTun 
Priaeipia,  Qiueat,  ill  1.  For  expla- 
nation of  tluB  doctrine  ot  the  leeun- 
dum  modum,  see  Hanrtao,  ii  355. 

•  Prof.  Maurice  aoneiden  that  a 
eertUD  inducitr;  tendencj.  m  op- 
posed to  tbtf  deductive  method  of 
Aquinas,  chaiacterised  the  whole 
Franciuoan  order ; — '  The  eiperimeii- 


186 


BISE  OF  TUB  ENGLISH  TJNIVEBSITIES. 


[■  first  signs  of  the  gravitation  of  controversy  towards  the  ques- 
tion with  which,  since  the  commencement  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  it  haa  been  mainly  occupied ;  both  regarded  logic  as 
essential  to  the  right  acquirement  of  knowledge',  though 
differing  widely  with  respect  to  its  relative  importance ; 
both  rel^atcd  to  theology  those  deeper  mysteries  which 
the  thinkers  of  the  preceding  century  sought  to  determine 
by  dialectics'. 

The  reputation  of  Duns  Scotua   in   our   universities   is 

a  rivalled  by  that  of  Aquinas  alone,  and  in  all  but  theological 
questions  the  influence  of  the  former  was  probably  far  the 
greater.  His  realism,  it  is  true,  was  displaced  by  the  nomi- 
nalism of  Occam,  but  his  authority  as  a  logician  and  a  theo- 
logian remained  unimpaired.  The  literature  to  which  his 
theories  with  respect  to  isolated  questions  gave  birth,  would 
alone  form  a  considerable  library.  Even  so  late  as  the 
seventeenth  century,  almost  a  hundred  years  after  he  had 
been  dragged  80  ignominiously  from  his  pedestal  at  Oxford, 

i*  an  edition  of  his  entire  works  appeared  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Irish  Franciscans  at  Lyons,  unsurpassed  by  any  edition 
of  the  schoolmen  for  beauty  of  typography  and  accuracy  of 
execution ;  while  in  the  dedication  of  the  work  to  Philip  iv 
of  Spain,   John  Baptists  a  Campanea,  the  general  of  the 

■  order,  unhesitatingly  claims  for  his  author  the  fame  that 
belongs  to  ingentis  familiw  notiaaimus  prmceptor,  amplisaimtB 
acholce  nohilis  antesig nanus'. 

Among  the  most  distinguished  schoolmen  in  the  genera- 
tion that  succeeded  Duns  Scotus  were  Mayronius,  Petrus 
Aureohis,  bishop  of  Aix,  and  Durand  de  Saint-Por9ain ;  of 
these  the  first  was  long  a  text-book  in  our  universities ;  the 


tal  tendencies  of  Roger  Bacon  ei- 

G eased  the  method  which  be  hod 
uned  from  the  Btrictty  individanl. 
iBing  mind  of  his  foander.  Francis 
of  AssiBi  conld  look  only  at  indivi- 
duals, could  onlj  riee  to  the  univerHo] 
through  individuala.  Thence  came 
his  genial  Bjmpath;,  thence  came  his 
snperstitiou.  What  Bacon  trana- 
ferted  to  pb; bJcb  at  the  peril  of  his 
ciuitaoter  and  liberty.  Duns  Bcotas 


carried  into  metaphysics  and  theo- 
logy, and  BO  became  the  foander  ol 
the  great  Middle  Age  sect  whioh  bears 
bis  name.'     Motai  Phil.  p.  S. 

'  'Etcerte  silogicamneBciTit,  non 
potuit  alias  scire  BcienCias,  siont 
decet.'      Camp.  Stiidii,  e.  S. 

'  Opui  ilnjui,  cc.  *,  48. 

•  Optra  Omnia,  cnra  liooaai  Wad- 
diugii,  Lagdani,  1639. 


OF  DUNS  SCOTOS. 


187 


second  is  credited  by  Haur&u  with  having  been  the  leader  chap.  n. 
of  the  attack  on  the  theory  of  Universals ;  while  the  third 
acquired  distinction  by  hie  denial  of  eome  of  the  chief 
doctrines  of  the  Tbomiats, — among  them  that  of  the  'first 
intelligible'  and  that  of  representative  ideas*.  Both  ap- 
proached the  confines  of  that  border  land  where  the  phantasiee 
of  realism  were  to  be  seen  fleeing  before  the  approaching 
light  It  is  impossible  indeed  to  follow  the  reasoning  of  the 
most  eminent  logicians  from  the  time  of  Aquinas  without 
perceiving  that  clearer  and  juster  metaphysical  thought  was 
being  evolved  from  the  long  discussion.  It  needed  but  a  few 
bold  strides,  and  the  regions  of  realism,  so  far  at  least  as 
the  theory  of  Universals  was  concerned,  would  be  left  be- 
hiod.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  such  an  advance 
was  soon  to  be  made,  and  that  it  was  to  be  made  by  William 
of  Occam. 

'  The  demagt^e  of  scholasticism '   is   no  inappropriate  muka  it 
title  for  one  who,  at  little  more  than  twenty  years  of  B§e,  d.  an. 
defied  the  authority  of  Bonitace  Vlll,  in  a  treatise  against  the 
spiritual  power  of  the  Pope*;  who,  in  mature  life,  stood  forth 
in  defence  of  the  vow  of  poverty  and  of  his  order  against 
ichn  xzil';  and  who  so  far  reversed  the  tradition  of  the 


■  Haorten,  Phil.  Scolattiqut,  ti 
110—416.  Piastl,  GtfhichU  der 
LofiL  m  293. 

*  Th»t  the  Diipuiatio  taper  PoUt- 
tatt  «u  vnlten  during  the  lifetime 
of  Bcaiilkee  BeeiD9  ceitoin.  (Seetiol- 
4utiu,  Dt  ilonanhia  S.  Romani  Im- 
prrii,  ed.  1613,  p.  13).  Oceam  could 
Iharefoie,  il  bora  in  1280,  have  been 
little  more  than  one  or  two  and 
tmaatj,  tor  Boniface  died  Oct.  II. 
1308.  The  Ditpulalio  is  in  the  form 
of  »  dulogae  betveen  a  soldier  and 
•  pri«at,  and  it  is  certainl;  some- 
what BtMtling  to  find  senlim 
tba  following  proceeding  b 
pen  of  a  FrancUcan  of  the  foi 
Mtttmy.  'ClericuB,    Immoc' 


qnidTOcatis jns.    Clericnn,    Job 

dccreta  patmm  et  statala  Roma- 
nonini  pontificnm.  Miles.  Qiue  illi 
■tatDont,  ai  de  tempoialibue  stktaoat. 


vobia  poemnt  jura  esee,  nobis  vero 
non  Buut.  Nullus  eoim  potest  de  iia 
statnere,  saper  qiue  constat  ipstun 
dominium  non  habere.  Sic  neo 
Francorura  rei  potest  stutnere  auper 
imperium :  doc  Imperator  super 
regnum  Francis.  Et  qaemodmo- 
dnm  teireni  principes  non  possont 
aliqitid  statuere  de  Testria  Bpirilnali- 
buB,  Huj>er  qum  non  accepenmt 
potentatem:  sic  nee  tos  de  tempora- 
libos  eorum,  super  qnte  non  habetis 
auctorilatem.  Undo  friTotmn  est, 
qaicqnid  statnistia  de  temporalibna, 
super  qun  potestatem  Don  accepiatia 
a  Deo.  Uode  nuper  niilii  risus 
magnus  fuit,  cum  audisBem  no  viler 
statutam  esse  a  Bonifacio  octavo, 
qnod  "  ipse  est  et  esse  debet  super 
omnes  prindputus  et  Tegna,"  et  sia 
facile  potest  sibi  jus  aequirere  Bnpei 
rem  qaamUbet.'    Ibid.  p.  13. 

■  Milman,  Lalin  Chritlianily,  m 
377.  Bk.  lu  c.  6. 


188  RISE  OF  THE  EKQLISH   UNIVEBSITIES. 

CHAP.  n.  schools,  that  from  hie  time  nominalism  obtained  the  suf- 
frages of  the  learned,  while  realiBm,  in  some  instances,  was 
AHDdun  even  regarded  aa  a  heterodox  doctriDe.     The  triumph  of  do- 
ue^Kiitui  miaalism  as  opposed  to  the  realism  of  this  period,  was  hut 
■*«*■       the  victory  of  more  sober  sense  over  the  verbal  subtleties  and 
subjective  phantasies  that  had  hitherto  dazzled  the  other- 
wise acute  vision  of  the  schoolmen ;  and  the  brief  sentences 
in  which  William  of  Occam  sweeps  away  the  elaborate  web- 
spinning  of  his  predecessors  have  their  brevity  as  well  as 
their  logic  reflected  in  the  pages  of  Hobbes,  of  Locke,  and 
of  Milt     Lb  caractire  propre  du  nominalisme  cent  la  sim- 
pUcit^,  says  Uaur^au,  in  apology  for  his  own  brevity  in  ex- 
pounding the  doctrines  of  Occam ;  and  though  the  application 
of  the  method  is  modified  with  each  separate  thesis  of  realism, 
the  point  of  departure  is  the  same,  and  the  residt  is  easily 
anticipated, 
oMgDiK  The  nominalistic   philosophy,  therefore,  as  representing 

not  an  obsolete  system  but  conclusions  which  have  won  the 
suffrages  of  succeeding  thinkers,  requires  no  exposition  at 
our  hands,  but  it  will  be  necessary,  having  followed  Frantl 
thus  far,  to  explain  in  what  manner,  according  to  his  view, 
iDduBMor   the  Byzantine  logic  exercised  such  important  influence  on  so 
STcoS"™  fundamental  a  controversy, — an  influence  in  the  absence  of 
JJ^SSig     which  he  even  ventures  to  assert  Nominalism  would  not  have 
made  its  appearance  at  this  era'.     As  the  chief  contribution 
of  the  Arabian  philosophy  to  the  metaphysics  of  the  age  had 
been  the  theory  of  the  intentio  secunda,  so  that  of  the  Byzan- 
J^jjjo^i"  tine  logic  was  the  theory  of  the  suppositio,  a  conception  of 
which  no  trace  appears  in  Duns  Scotus,  notwithstanding  the 
very  appreciable  influence  of  the  Byzantine  element  on  his 
writings.     According  to  this  theory  neither  the  intentio  priTna 
nor  the  intentio  secunda  is  a  real  entity ;  the  intentio  prima 
is  but  the  name  designating  the  external  object,  while  the 
intentio  secunda  is  a  generalisation  from  the  intentiones  prima. 
Both  are  but  types  of  the  reality,  the  former  a  sign  of  the 

'   'Aber  gevisB  ist dasB  ohiie 

die  bjzantiDiBohe  Logik  jene  Blob- 
tang,  wetobe  man  spktcr  ale  Nomi- 


WILLIAM  OF  OCCAH.  189 

objective  entity,  the  latter  the  collective  sign  of  aigna     And,  ' 
•0  far  was  Occam  from  claiming  for  the  intenlto  secunda  a 
real  and  distinct  existence,  as  Duns  Scotus  had  done,  and 
inferring  thereiVom   the  high  prerogative  of  logic,  that  he 
appears  to  have  regarded  this  as  a  question  in  which  Ic^c 
had  no  concern'.   But  while  Occam  struck  thus  boldly  at  the  n 
finmdation  of  realism,  he  clearly  discerned  that  individuals,  ^^ 
as  such,  could  afford  no  real  knowledge,  and  hence  Universals  % 
■aBumed  for  him  their  true  value  as  the  lum  of  all  scientific  * 
induction.     This,  then,  was  the  chief  service  which  Occam 
rendered  to  philosophy.    He  brought  again  to  light,  from  the 
darkness  to  which  preceding  l<^cians  had  consigned  it,  the 
true  value  of  the  inductive  method,  as  auxiliary  to  the  deduc- 
tive,— the  great  truth  which  Aristotle  had  indicated  and  the 
■choolmen  had  shut  out.   After  a  lapse  of  eighteen  centuries, 
the  proper  function  of  Byllogiam,  as  the  bridge  constructed  by 
mdaction  for  deduction  to  pass  over,  seemed  likely  at  last  to 
be  recognised.     That  the  position  Occam  thus  took  up  was 
notsabsequently  recognised  in  ail  its  importance  as  the  equi- 
Utffinm  between  philosophy  and  science,  must  be  referred  to 
the   errors  of  yet  greater  reputations,   who,  in  the   strong 
teaction  from  scholasticism  which  set  in  with  the  sixteenth 
century,  visited  with  indiscriminate  censure  its  real  sen-icea 
aa  well  as  its  follies  and  mistakes.     '  In  short,'  says  Frantl, 
.  'we  find  ouiBelves  in  Occam  on  the  basis  of  an  Aristotelian 


I  '  UtraiD  matem  talis  Bint  renliter 
ct  ral^flctiye  in  anima  an  nbj««tive 
Untmn,  Don  retert  ail  propositum 
BM  boe  ipectat  determinare  ad  lo- 
peuiD,  qni  tamen  principaliter  dia- 


mdn 


Dtentioi 


I  habct  c 


a  logicua  precise  bab«t  di- 
Mxa,  qaod  in  iata  propositione ' '  homo 
Mt  ipedea"  mbjectum  Bupponit  pio 

niflfl>ttr    mo;    ntram    aatem    illud 

tdlnl  ad  earn,  md  ad  matapbyaicum.' 
8«nL  I  Dist.  23.  Qoffist.  1.  (qnoted 
lifPniiU.iiiSiaj.  Ttie  two  great  phi- 
toaopbieal  distinctiocB  which  chief- 
ly angMged  the  attention  of  the 
'     '  — thatbrtvc^miialterRnJ 


fonn.  and  that  inrolTed  in  tbe  tbeoi; 
of  the  inlenlio  ireanda,—tre  thoM 
on  which  lli  Bhadworth  Eodggou 
has  built  np  the  theorj  of  his  essay 
Tim*  and  Spare.  If  I  rightly  on- 
derBtond  his  profound  eipoaitioD  ot 
Grat  and  secoud  iatentiona  (see  pp. 
S3— 45),  his  view,  making  dne  allow- 
ance for  the  additional  light  thrown 
upon  the  quealion  by  recent  diBoiu- 
Bian,  is  esaeutially  the  Bome  as  that 
of  the  Oxford  schoolman  of  the  four- 
teenth centary.  '  First  intentions,' 
he  says,  'may  be  defined  as  objecbi 
in  relation  to  conscionaness  alone; 
second  intentions,  as  objecle  in  re- 
lation to  other  objeeta 
nenfl.'  p.  39. 


190 


RISE  OF  THE  ENGLISH   UNIVERSITIES. 


9"^^- ";  empiricism,  which,  along  with  the  admission  that  all  human 
knowledge  begins  with  the  perception  of  sense  and  of  the 
individual  object,  combines  the  claim  that  every  science,  as 
such,  can  treat  only  of  Universals :  a  fundamental  conception 
which  appears  clothed  in  Byzantine  terminology,  when  he 
says  that  the  component  parts  of  judgements  in  every  case 
occupy  the  place  of  singular  individuals  by  means  of  suppo- 
sition but  for  science  only  tertnini  universales  are  of  much 
worth \'  According  to  this  view  the  universal,  it  is  hardly 
necessary  to  point  out,  is  represented  in  Occam  by  the  infen- 
tio  secunda',  and  in  this  amount  of  consent  between  the  para- 


*  *Knrz,  wir  befinden  tins  bei 
Occam  auf  der  Basis  eiues  aristote- 
lischen  Empirismus,  wclcher  mit 
dem  Zugestandnisse,  dass  alles  men- 
schliche  Wissen  von  der  Sinnes- 
wahmehmuDg  and  Ton  den  Einzeln- 
Objecten  anhebt,  zagleicb  die  For- 
derung  Terkniipft,  dass  jede  Wis- 
senohaft  als  solche  nor  von  Univer- 
sellem  handle,  eine  gmndsatzliche 
AnfFassung,  welcbe  in  byzantinische 
Terminologie  eingekleidet  ist,  wenn 
Occam  sagt,  dass  allerdings  die  Be- 
standtbeile  der  Urtheile  mittelst  sup- 
positio  an  Stellc  singiilarer  Indivi- 
dnen  steheu,  aber  fiir  die  Wissen- 
Bchaft  doch  nur  die  termini  univer- 
sales wertbvoU  sind.'    iii  332. 

'  The  foUowing  quotations  from 
the  Qtiodlibeta  and  the  Summa  To- 
tius  LogiciBf  indicate  with  such 
remarkable  clearness  the  views  of 
Occam  in  conformity  with  the  By- 
zantine element,  that  I  have  thought 
it  worth  while  to  give  them  in  full  as 
printed  by  Prantl  in  illustration  of 
his  own  criticism : — 'Large  dicitur  in- 
tentio  prima  esse  signum  intensibile 
existens  in  anima,  quod  non  significat 
intentionem  vel  conceptus  in  ani- 
ma  vel  alia  signa  prsecise ;  {pracise 
in   scholastic  terminology =omnino, 

prorsus.  See  Ducange,  s.v.) et  isto 

modo  non  solum  categoreumata  men- 
talia,  quae  significant  res,  quienon  sunt 
significativsB,  sed  etiam  syncatego- 
reumata  mentalia  et  verba  et  con- 
jtmctiones    et    hujusmodi    dicuntur 

primaB  intentiones Sed  stricte 

dicitur  prima  intentio  nomen  men- 
tale  prsecise  natum  esse  extremum 
propositionis  et  snpponere   pro  re. 


quae    non    est    signum Similiter 

large  accipiendo  dicitur  intentio 
secunda  animoe  conceptus,  qui  sunt 
naturalia  signa  rerum,  cujusmodi 
sunt  intentiones  primse  stricte  ac- 
ceptae,  sed  etiam  prout  Bigna  men- 
talia ad  placitum  significantia  signa 
syncategoreumatica  mentalia ;  et  isto 
modo  forte  non  habemus  nisi  vocale 
correspondens  intentioni  secnndie. 
Stricte  autem  accipiendo  dicitur  in- 
tentio secunda  conceptus,  qui  prae- 
else  significat  intentiones  naturaliter 
significativas,  cujusmodi  sunt  genus, 
species,  differentia  et  alia  hujusmodi 

Ita  de  iiitentionibus  primis,  qusB 

supponunt  pro  rebus,  praedicatur 
nnus  conceptus  communis,  qui  est 
intentio  secunda.  In  the  Summa  we 
have  the  following  equally  explicit 
exposition : — 'sufficiat,  quod  intentio 
est  quoddam  in  anima,  quod  est  sig- 
num naturaliter  signiiQcanB  aliquid, 
pro  quo  potest  supponere,  vel  quod 
potest  esse  pars  propositionis  men- 
talis.  Tale  autem  duplex  est.  U- 
num,  quod  est  signum  alicujuB  rei, 

quae  non  est  tale  signum et  iUnd 

vocatur  intentio   prima Large 

dicitur  intentio  prima  omne  signum 
intentionale  existens  in  anima,  quod 
non  significat  intentiones  vel  signa 

praecise, et    illo    modo    verba 

mentalia  et  syncategoreumata  men- 
talia, adverbia,  conjunctiones,  et 
hujusmodi  possunt  dici  intentiones 
primal.  Stricte  autem  vocatur  in- 
tentio prima  nomen  mentale  natum 
pro  suo  significato  supponere.  In- 
tentio autem  secunda  est  ilia,  quae 
est  signum  talium  intentionum  pri- 
marum,    cujusmodi   sunt   tales    in- 


VILLIAM  OF  OCCAH. 


191 


dox  of  the  master*  aod  the  true  diecemmeDt  of  the  pupil,  we  c<nAP.  n. 
have  a  strikiog  illustration  of  the  relevauey  to  true  philoso- 
phy, which,  notwithstaodiDg  their  many  vf^ries,  the  con- 
troversies of  scholasticism  in  relation  to  this  veirata  quasbio 
may  uudoubtedly  claim*. 

The  works  of  the  Bchoolmen  have  often  been  compared  to 
the  pyramids;  vast^  indeed,  in  their  aggregate,  but  tediously 
minute  and  monotonous  in  detail ;  and  even  as  Egyptian 
travellers  who  have  venturously  essayed  the  labyrinths  of 
those  ancient  structures,  have  described  their  feelings  of 
inexpressible  relief  on  regaining  the  light  of  day,  so,  we  can- 
not hut  conceive,  notwithstanding  the  enthusiasm  from  time 
to  time  evoked,  the  men  of  the  fourteenth  century  must  have 
rejoiced  as  they  saw  some  promise  of  escape  from  endless 
perplexity  and  toil.  It  is  inspiriting  to  not«  the  ease  where-  JJ"]^^* 
with  this  English  schoolman  disentangles  himself  from  the  JS^Jn'^ 
toils  of  theological  dogmas  by  his  prompt  disavowal  of  the  iuf^ZSj 
ambitious  all-sufficiency  of  Aquinas,  a  feature  in  which  the 
influence  of  his  teacher  Scotus  is  probably  to  be  discerned. 
Did  the  theologian  seek  to  be  informed  whether  the  divine 
intelligence  were  the  first  effective  cause  of  ail  existence  \ 
*\  know  not,'  replied  Occam;  'experience  tells  me  nothing  of 
the  Cause  of  all  causes,  the  reason  has  neither  the  right  nor 
the  power  to  penetrate  the  sanctuary  of  the  Divine.'     Was 

nnr    anmittelbaT    yorstfiUimgBweUe 
iobjfclh'f]  •nftrete.'  m  208. 

'  Bee  Prantl.  m  861—379.  MUI's 
Logic,  Bk.  li  oc.  1,  2,  and  3.  Bain, 
Menial  and  Moral  Science,  Appendii 
B.  Dean  Uansel  obBCrvea  that '  Oc- 
cata,  like  Petras  HUpanQB,  depaita 
from  the  ordinary  arraDgemsnt  of 
treating^  consecutivel;  the  laagoge  ol 
Poiphyiy  and  the  aeTsral  books  of 
the  Oif^uion.  Ee  CDnun^noea  with 
the  diflprent  diiiBionB  of  terms,  of 
which  his  account  is  loneli  more 
oompleto  than  that  of  the  StimmuUi 
Logkalei.'  (Introd.  to  Artii  Logien 
Sudiirunta,  p,  ravi)  Prantl  ahom 
that  Occam  exercisea  a  perfectly  in. 

, .„  dependent  jadgement  in  bis  employ- 

i  mid  daher  anch  im  ment  of  the  technical  method  of 
Dcnken  nicht  mit  concreter  Gegen-  that  treatise:  see  Oetehiehu  iter 
keit(n(frjn;No<)soQdemeben      Lagik,  ni  382,  391,  394. 


"genna,"  "apeciea,"  et 
hmiumodi.'  See  Prantl,  in  312.  343. 
*  That  sach  waa  the  view  of  Seotna 
Pnntl  points  ont  vith  conaiderable 
deuiMBB : — '  So  nimmt  aach  ScotoE 
for  Allem  die  allgemein  recipirte 
■rabiache  Unterscheidnng  einer  dop- 
ullai  intentio  in  dem  Sinne  atif, 
daaa  die  tteuada  intmlio,  d.  h.  die 
•igentlich  logische,  ein  uachfulgen. 
daa  Enengniaa  dor  Uenk-Opeiation 
•ei  nnd  so  als  Unirereale  b^eichuet 
wde,  wiihrend  die  prima  inUntio 
fclu  nnpriinglich  unbedingtea  Er- 
bnen  anf  die  objective  Qniddltiit 
pbe,  welehe  wobl  gleichfalls  Uni- 
Toaale  genannt  werde.  aber  an  0Lcb 
;Ultig  gegen  AJIgemeinheit  oder 


192  RISE  OF  THE   ENGLISH   UNIVERSITIES. 

CHAP.  II.  that  Cause  of  causes  omnipotent?  asked  the  theologian. 
*  According  to  logic,*  was  the  reply, '  the  mode  of  existence  is 
the  same  in  the  cause  as  in  the  eflfects :  but  the  eflfects  of  the 
First  Cause  are  finite,  the  Cause  itself  is  infinite,  and  is  there- 
fore removed  from  the  province  of  my  logic/  Such  manly 
sense  finds  an  echo  in  our  hearts.  We  are  ready  to  surrender 
to  Luke  Wadding  his  adored  Scotus  as  a  compatriot,  in  our 
gratification  at  finding  in  this  indubitable  Englishman  the 
earliest  discernment  of  the  limits  which  more  modern  thought 
has  so  distinctly  recognised. 

It  would  require  very  extended  research  in  his  writings 
to  enable  us  to  affirm  that  Occam  in  no  case  recognised  the 
existence  of  an  ultimate  major  premise,  that  is  to  say,  a 
major  premise  which  could  not,  in  conformity  with  the 
nominalistic  philosophy,  be  shown  to  be  resolvable  into 
an  induction  from  observed  facts.  But  it  is  to  be  remem- 
bered that  the  question  of  innate  ideas'  was  not  familiar  to 
the  schoolman.  The  belief  in  their  existence  had  been 
roughly  rejected  by  the  chief  teachers  of  the  early  Latin 
Church ;  and  it  was  not  until  Plato  had  again  become  known 
to  western  Europe,  that  the  theory  began  to  advance 
towards  that  position  which  it  has  since  assumed  in  the 
arena  of  philosophic  controversy.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
peculiar  direction  of  the  prejudices  which  characterise  the 
age  in  which  Occam  lived,  to  suggest  that  he  might  not 
have  employed,  with  perfect  impunity,  the  reasoning  used 
by  Locke  against  an  innate  belief  in  the  divine  existence ; 
but  when  we  consider  that  Locke  himself  undoubtedly  failed 
to  grasp  the  true  bearings  of  nominalism  upon  the  whole 
theory  of  innate  ideas,  we  may  well  hold  his  predecessor 
by  more  than  three  centuries  exonerated  from  reproach  in 
his  corresponding  lack  of  apprehension.  On  more  perilous 
ground  it  proved,  in  all  probability,  of  eminent  service  to 
the  progress  of  speculation  that  Occam  so  definitely  refused 
upon  to  render  his  method  subservient  to  the  test  of  theoloffical 

til*  ■Hf-^iT  ^ 

^mtoram  dogma.     It  might  seem  a  bold  step  for  a  Franciscan  friar 

controwray.  thus  to  proclaim  the  severance  of  logic  from  theology ;  but 

the  impossibility  of  that  alliance  which  Aquinas  had   en- 


WILLIAM  OF  OCCAH.  19S 

deavoured  to  effect,  was  becoming  increasingly  apparent,  chap.  il 
and  the  path  pursued  by  Occam  seemed  at  least  to  relieve 
him  from  the  arduous  task  of  reconciling  what  both  Bacon 
and  the  Church  had  declared  could  not  really  be  at  variance. 
To  some  he  may  indeed  appear  only  to  have  evaded  the 
difficulty,  but  in  the  restrictions  he  thus  imposed  on  logic 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  he  narrowed  the  field  of  controversy 
with  the  happiest  results.  The  dogma  had  hitherto  been 
the  rallying  point  for  the  fiercest  controversies.  The  Real 
Presence,  the  Incarnation,  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  the 
existence  of  angelic  natures,  the  Immaculate  Conception, 
such  had  been  the  questions  which  drew  round  each  great 
doctor  the  excited  audiences  of  those  centuries.  The  earn- 
estness with  which  men  then  sought  to  approve  to  the  reason 
that  which  it  was  not  given  to  the  reason  to  explain,  is 
among  the  most  remarkable,  perhaps  the  most  painful, 
features  of  these  times.  With  William  of  Occam  we  see 
.these  feverish  efforts  sinking  for  a  time  into  comparative 
repose.  ■  Universals  thenceforth,  at  least  in  the  English  uni- 
versities, ceased  to  invite  the  ingenuity  of  the  logical  dis- 
putant ;  (md  each  new  comer,  relieved  from  the  necessity 
of  shewing  how  his  doctrines  might  be  reconciled  with 
dogma,  cast  his  metaphysical  theories  into  the  arena  of 
the  schools  to  be  tossed  from  one  disputant  to  another,  in 
comparative  freedom  from  apprehension  concerning  their 
bearing  upon  theological  controversy.  An  immense  acces- 
sion had  been  gained  to  the  cause  of  freedom  in  thought, 
and  few  will  be  disposed  to  call  in  question  the  justice  of 
the  comment  of  Hallam,  that  'J.his  metaphysical  contention 
typifies  the  great  religious  convulsion'  of  a  later  time. 

We  have   already  alluded   to  those  writings  of  Occam  nHPsp*u 
wherein  he  appeared  as  the  confronter  of  the  papal  assump-  jjjj'^d^ 
tions;    and    the  whole   controversy  between   the  pope   at  Fnn*™ni 
Avignon  and  the  English  Franciscans  is  so  pertinent  to  the 
history  of  English  thought  at  tbb  period,  that  we  shall  need 
no  excuse  for  pausing  for  a  while  to  note  the  main  features 
of  this  remarkable    episode.      We   have  adverted   in   the 
preceding  chapter  to  the  rapid  degeneracy  of  the  Mendicants, 

Vi 


194 


BISE  OF  THE  ENQLISH  UNIVERSITIES. 


EmfaMnt 
EE«Ush 


BubMnrlency 
of  tho  court 


CHAP,  n.  and  it  is  undoubtedly  somewhat  diflScult,  at  first  sight,  to  re- 
concile those  general  characteristics  which  drew  from  Wyclif, 
the  master  of  Balliol,  such  stern  rebuke,  and  from  Gower, 
Chaucer,  and  Langlande  such  trenchant  sarcasm,  with  the 
merits  of  that  order  which  could  trace  from  Adam  de 
Marisco  so  illustrious  a  succession  as  is  presented,  in  England 
alone,  by  the  names  of  Richard  of  Coventry,  John  Wallis, 
Thomas  Dockyng,  Thomas  Bungay,  Peccham,  Richard  Mid- 
dleton,  Duns  Scotus,  Occam,  and  Burley.  It  is  not  less 
singular  to  find  the  order  which  sacrificed  the  sympathy  of 
Qrosseteste  by  its  subserviency  to  papal  aggression,  now 
foremost  in  the  resistance  to  the  papal  power. 

Of  the  latter   phenomenon  a  sufficient   explanation   is 

toFnS£°  afforded  in  the  policy  of  Boniface  viii,  and  the  subsequent 
removal  of  the  pontifical  court  to  Avignon.  The  rapacity 
of  Boniface  had  effectually  alienated  the  sympathies  of  the 
English  Franciscans^;  the  subserviency  of  the  court  of 
Avignon  to  French  interests  roused  the  indignation  of  all 
true  Englishmen.  For  seventy  years,  after  the  conclusion 
of  the  struggle  between  the  crafty  and  able  pontiff  and  the 
equally  crafty  and  able  Philip  the  Fair,  the  pope  was  the 
humble  vassal  of  France;  and  when  at  length  he  again 
resumed  his  residence  under  the  shelter  of  the  Vatican,  it 
was  soon  discovered  that,  in  that  long  humiliation,  much  of 
the  awe  and  reverence  that  once  waited  on  his  authority  had 
passed  away,  and  that  his  mandates,  his  menaces,  and  his 
anathemas  were  but  feeble  echoes  of  the  thunder  that 
Hildebrand  and  Innocent  ill  had  wielded.  .The  effects  of 
that  long  exile  were  indeed  such  as  we  may  well  suppose 
none  of  the  French  monarchs  had  foreseen.  The  power  of 
France,  at  the  opening  of  the  century  and  up  to  the  days 
of  Cr&y  and  Poitiers,  was  a  menace  to  all  Europe,  and 


^  For  an  aceonnt  of  the  extraordi- 
nary f»nd,  a  transaction  resembling 
that  of  the  veriest  modem  sharper, 
practised  by  Boniface  on  the  Francis- 
cans  of  England,  see  Milman*s  Latin 
Chrittianity,  Book  xi  c.  9.  '  It  was/ 
remarks  that  author,  *a  bold  and 
desperate  meaBiire^  even  in  a  Pope, 


a  Pope  with  the  power  and  authority 
of  Boniface,  to  estrange  the  loyalty 
of  the  Minorites,  dispersed,  but  in 
strict  union,  throughout  the  world, 
and  now  in  command  not  merely  of 
the  popular  tnind,  but  of  the  pro- 
foundest  theology  of  the  age.' 


WILLIAM  OF  OCCAH.  195 

it  was  with  unfeignod  dismay  that  the  Burrounding  nations  chaf.  n. 
beheld  the  unscrupulous  spirit  and  immoderate  pretensions 
of  Philip  enlisting  in  their  support  the  servile  cooperation 
of  the  Papacy.  In  Itaty  the  prevailing  sentiment  was  that  S!J^JJJ|;l 
of  angry  dissatisfaction.  Petrarch,  himself  a  spectator  of  the 
shameless  profligacy  that  gathered  round  the  court  at  Avig- 
non, sarcastically  compared  the  exile  of  the  pontiflf  to  the 
Bahylonish  captivity.  Kienzi,  during  his  brief  tenure  of 
the  tribuneship,  summoned  Clement  V  to  return  to  Rome. 
But  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  indignation  of  Italy  was 
not  surpassed  by  that  of  England.  In  our  own  country  the  Jj^Jj 
national  feeling  was  called  forth  as  it  had  never  been  before. 
The  resentment  felt  in  the  preceding  century  at  the  mono- 
poly of  the  richest  benefices  by  Italian  priests,  was  trifling 
compared  with  that  evoked  by  the  same  monopoly  when 
claimed  by  the  nominees  of  a  foreign  foe.  The  national 
character  was  now  fully  formed ;  the  two  nations  bad 
blended  into  one ;  and  the  strong  purpose  of  the  Saxon  and 
the  high  spirit  of  the  Norman  alike  found  expression  in  the 
Statute  of  Provisors  sanctioned  by  the  most  court^eoua  of 
English  monarchs,  and  the  denial  of  the  papal  pretensions 
to  temporal  power  asserted  by  the  boldest  of  the  English 
schoolmen. 

It  can  consequently  excite  but  little  surprise  that,  when  JoSi?" 
the  opponent  of  the  Papacy  appeai'ed  as  the  author  of  a  aitlSS 
new  philosophy,  his  doctrines  fell,  at  Paris,  under  the  ec-*"*™ 
clesiastical   censure.     The   wrath  of  pope  John   zzil   was 
fierce    i^unst    the    whole    Franciscan   order;    against  the 
Spiritual  Franciscans  who  inveighed  against  the  corruptions 
of  Avignon,  and  against  the  partisans  of  Occam  who  denied 
his  claims  to  temporal  power.     The  writings  of  the  English 
Franciscan  were  committed  to  the  flames,  and  masters  of 
arts  were  forbidden  to  teach  his  doctrines.     Occam  himself  ^^^ 
was  a  prisoner  at  Avignon,  and  only  escaped  death  by  secret  JS^^, 
flight  and  taking  refuge  at  Munich  with  Louis  of  Bavaria,  ^*'»^ 
who  supported  the  cause  of  the  rival  claimant  to  the  ponti- 
ficate.    From  Munich  he  waged  a  further  controversy  with 
his  antagoniBts  upon  the  question  of  the  papal  power,  his 

13—2 


196 


BIflE  OF  THE   EN0LI8B   DNITEBSniES. 


CHAP.  iL  manifest  superiority  over  his  aotagOQUts  extorting  the  ad- 
'"'  miratioa  even  of  the  hostile  pontiff,  who  styled  him  the  Doc- 
tor Invincibilis.  In  England,  where  the  Franciscan  order  was 
most  powerful  and  the  feelii^  excited  by  the  usurpations  of 
the  Papacy  most  intense,  the  sympathy  evoked  on  his  be- 
tiSn^  ^^  *"•*  proportionably  strong.  From  the  time  of  Grosse- 
pj^*"'  teste  there  appears  to  have  been  growing  up  a  distinctive 
school  of  English  thought,  separated  by  strong  points  of 
contrast  from  that  developed  under  the  influence  of  the 
Dominicans  at  Paris ;  and  not  a  few  of  our  countrymen 
legsrded  with  exultation  the  vigour  and  freshness  of  specu- 
lation at  home  when  compared  with  the  conservatism  that 
prevailed  at  the  great  continental  university'.  Traces  of 
this  contrast  of  feeling  are  to  be  discerned  long  after  the 
,  time  of  Occam.  Even  so  late  as  the  latter  jwrt  of  the 
fifteenth  century  we  find  that  at  Paris,  when  the  ban  under 
which  Louis  XI  had  placed  the  nominalistic.  doctrines  was 
removed,  and  the  chains  which  hound  the  forbidden  volumes 
were  loosened,  the  German  nation,  originally  known  as  the 
English  nation,  alone  received  with  any  manifestations  of 
joy  the  withdrawal  of  the  prohibition*. 


■  '  The  Bchool  of  philoBopherg 
which  then  (m  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tor;)  oroBS  ia  this  country  was  die- 
tingaished,  in  the  judgement  of  con- 
temporaries, b;  a  lnininoua  acnte- 
nesa,  bj  a  subtle  iiwhiieBS  of  Bpeco- 
lation.  from  the  more  grave  and  solid 
leaming  of  the  continent.' -~Prol. 
Bbiiley,  Introd.  to  Faicicali  Ziza- 

'  •  On  TOit,  en  1173,  lea  livrea  Aet 
nominani,  par  lea  ordres  de  Louis 
XI,  eatena&a  sous  d£s  chaines  ou  mis 
ftu  fers,  comme  dit  Robert  Gagiiin, 
poor  n'etre  "dfelou^  et  d^ferm^s," 
qui  bait  ana  aprBs,  axL  nom  du  meme 
Toi,  par  le  pi^T6t  de  Taris,  qui  d£- 
olare  qn'ft  ravenir,  "  ohacnn  y  Ma- 
diera qui  Tondra."  Sanle  dana  Tnni- 
verait^  la  oatioti  d'AUemagne  legut 
Bvse  one  giande  joie  cette  aatorisa- 
tion  de  les  liie.'  Hittcire  Littiraire  lU 
la  France  ou  Quatoriihru  Siiclt,  par 
Victor  L«  Clero,  i  SG9.  The  English 
nation  at  the  nniversity  of  Paris  be- 
OHDe  kuowa  w  ths  Oennan  nation 


In  the  year  143a  The  historian  o( 
the  aniveraity  of  Basle,  Dr  Visoher, 
observea  that  at  it<  first  foundation 
in  the  year  HOO  the  still  raging  oon^ 
troTersy  introdoced  an  element  of 
diauord.  Of  the  different  phases  of 
nominalism  in  that  oentnty,  he  ob- 
servea : — '  Der  Nominaliamos  verei- 
nigt  jetzt  am  sich  die  ganze  gegen 
die  kijchlichen  Miasbranche  ankamp- 
fende,  neucmde  Partei,  welche  in 
don  Concilien  einen  Weg  znr  Varbes- 
semng  der  Sirche  sndit,  and,  eo 
anffallend  ea  auch  aaf  den  ersten 
Btiok  iat,  erscheint  er  in  bedeutenden 
Vertretem  aogar  mit  dem  Myaticia- 
mus  Tsrbunden.  Er  fand  trotz  dem 
Wideratande  del  mit  der  rdmisohen 
Eiiche  Terbundanen  Bealismas  im- 
mer  mehi  Yerbreltong  anf  den  Uni- 
veraitaten,  und  vmrde  am  Ende  dea 
vierzehnten  nod  im  Anfang  dea  tiinf- 
zehntenJahrhunderta  Torherrsohen  d, 
selbat  auf  der  Pariaer  Unirersitat.' 
aeichiehu    der    UnivenitSt    Batel, 


NOMINALISIL 


197 


At  Oxford  however  the  doctrines  of  Occam  obttuned  chj 
a  decided,  though  by  do  means  an  undisputed,  superiority',  popui 
Occasionally,   indeed,  supporters   of  the    older   philosophy  uoi 
avowed  their  dissent  from  his  teaching ;  of  whom  the  most 
eminent  was   perhaps  Walter   Burleigh,   a  pupil   of  Duna 
Scotus,  whose  Expositio  super  artem  Velerem  long  continued 
a  text-hook  in  the  university,  and  whose  Liber  de  Vita  ao 
Moribus  I'hiloaophorum  is  interesting  as  perhaps  the  earliest 
attempt  at   a  connected   view   of  the   history   of   ancient 
thought.     But  by  far  the  greater  number  followed  in  the 
new  track.     Among  them  were  John  Bacanthorpe,  Adam 
Goddam,  and  Armand  de  Beauvois  ;  while  some  even  sought 
to  press  the  arguments  of  their  teacher  to  yet  more  extreme 
conclusions.     Such  was  Richard  Holcot,  who  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  insist  upon  that  distinction  between  scientific  and 
theological  truth  which,  as  we  have  seen,  both  the  Church 
and  Bacon  declared  to  be  impossible,  and  at  which  Occam 
himself  appears  to  have  stopped  short'.     If  we  accept  the 
views  of  certain  writers  we  shall  be  disposed  to  look  upon 
the   distinguishing   feature    of  scholasticism  as   well   nigh 
obliterated  with  the  progress  and  diffusion  of  nominalistic 
doctrines.     '  The  triumph  of  Nominalism,'  says  Dean  Mansel,  ^^ 
'  involved  the  downfall  of  the  principal  applications  of  the  JfSh 
scholastic  method.'     But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  facte  shew  uhbh 
us  that  method  as   not   less  rigorously  pursued  by  Brad- 
wardine  and  Wyclif  than  by  Albertus  and  Aquinas.     Pro- 
fessor Shirley,  whose  views  on  such  a  subject  must  cany 
considerable  weight,  inclined  to  the  opinion  that  a  modified 


■  Wood  Mjt,  tub  anno  1343,  '  the 
divisiaDB  between  the  Northern  and 
the  Southern  clerks  were  now  u 
great,  if  not  more,  aa  thoea  before. 
I^o«e  of  the  north  held,  as  'tis  said 
with  Scotns,  and  those  of  the  Eonth 
with  Ockham,  and  in  all  their  diipa- 
tationa  were  so  violent  that  the  peace 
of  the  aniieraitj  was  thereby  not 
a  Lttle  diBtorbed.'  Wood-Ontoh,  i 
439. 

*  '  Neqne  dicss,  com  Roberto  Hol- 
ooet  in  iVint.  StnUnt.  philoiophomm 
ratione*  venu  eaw  poeae  aeoimdqm 


ntloiiem  natoralem,  artionloB  toto 
tfaeologiooa  veritatem  aibi  Tindiears 
Beoimctani  rationem  rapamatonlem. 
Nam  tat  ait  B.  Thomas)  nnUo  paeta 
Terom  alteri  vero  repugnare  potest 

Qnapropter   Thomaa,  tn   Oom< 

ment  ad  Lib.  Trinit.  Qoethii,  Mrihit 
qnod  a  qnid  iiiTeiiiatnr  in  diet)* 
philoBophorum  fidei  repuguuM,  iUnd 
noD  esse  pbilosophia  deBomptom, 
eed  ex  ejns  abusn  procedere  propter 
mtionia  defeotum.'  HaEonioe  in 
^nti'.   Platonii  rt  Aritl.  Phiiotaph. 

p.»)l.   Quoted  l?  HMuten,  u.  479. 


198  RISE  OF  THE  ENGLISH  UNIVERSITIES. 

CHAP.  It  form  of  realism  still  prevailed,  though  the  theory  of  Uni- 
^  ~'  versals  as  objective  existences  was  abandoned.  *  It  is  possi- 
ble/ he  says, '  that  in  order  to  be  consistent  with  a  revealed 
religion,  nominalism  requires  a  definite  boundary  to  be 
drawn  between  the  provinces  of  religion  and  philosophy, 
and  to  thiis  the  whole  genius  of  scholasticism  is  opposed. 
But  this  at  least  is  certain,  whatever  be  the  cause,  that 
almost  all  the  religious  life,  and  even  all  that  was  continuous 
in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  middle  ages,  belonged  to  one 
or  other  of  the  various  shades  of  realism.  In  the  latter 
half  of  the  fourteenth  century,  whatever  there  was  among 
the  clergy,  either  of  such  religious  feeling  or  of  intellectual 
activity,  was  to  be  found,  speaking  broadly,  among  the 
secular  priests.  As  a  body,  therefore,  they  were  naturally 
realists  \'  It  is  evident,  indeed,  that  if  nominalism,  in  a 
form  incompatible  with  the  scholastic  method,  had  become 
predominant  to  the  extent  that  some  authorities  have  re- 
presented, the  result  must  have  inevitably  led  to  a  com- 
parative neglect  of  those  writers  in  whom  that  method  is 
the  all-prevailing  characteristic,  but  a  very  imperfect  ac- 
quaintance with  the  studies  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries  suflSces  to  shew  us  that  such  was  not  the  case. 
The  pretensions  of  scholasticism  were  lowered,  but  its  policy 
was  the  same.  The  provinces  of  reason  and  faith  may  have 
been  no  longer  regarded  as  conterminous,  but  logic  was  still 
the  weapon  that  the  theologian  most  relied  upon  in  con- 
troversy, and  its  popularity  was  undiminished  in  the  schools, 
^omjui  If  proof  were  required  of  our  statement,  we  could  scarcely 

AIMS.        adduce  better  evidence  than  is  aflforded  by  the  great  treatise 
of  Thomas  Bradwardine,  archbishop  of  Canterbury, — ^the  De 
Causa  Dei,  and  the  rapid  and  permanent  success  that   it 
Hb  trauiae    obtained.     This  treatise,  addressed  ad  suos  Mertonenses,  may 
^^  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  the  Calvinistic 

teaching,  so  far  as  it  ha,s  foimd  expression,  of  our  English 
Church ;  founded  for  the  most  part  on  the  work  of  Augustine, 
it  aims  at  developing,  by  a  series  of  corollaries  from  two 

^  Inizod.  to  FaicUtUi  Zizaniorum,  p.  lii. 


BRADWABBIKK 


199 


m^n  propositions,  (be  reasoning  agmnst  Pelag:iani8m.  The  chap,  n, 
mode  of  treatment,  which  is  almost  as  much  that  of  the 
geometrician  as  of  the  school  logician,  is  perhaps  the  most 
remarkable  instance  of  the  scholastic  method  to  be  found  in 
the  whole  range  of  middle  age  literature*.  How  soon 
authority  as  a  classic  work  on  the  controversy  became  recog- 1 
nised,  may  be  inferred  from  the  simple  yet  reverential 
language  which  Chaucer  has  put  in  the  mouth  of  his  Nonne 
Prest:— 

■  But  wbnt  tbkt  Odd  forwot  most  needes  ba 

After  tfas  opynjoDD  of  oertain  oleckU. 

WitoesM  oa  him,  thftt  coy  clerk  u, 

Tbftt  in  scols  is  gret  alUreaeion 

Id  this  matier,  and  gret  despateaonn. 

And  hath  bsn  of  an  hondnd  tbansend  men. 

Bat  yit  I  oan  not  bnlt  it  to  the  bten, 

Ab  can  the  holy  doctor  Angiutyi), 

Or  Boeoe,  or  lA«  bitehop  Bradieardyn, 

Whether  that  Ooddii  Dorthjr  forws^ng 

StreigDoth  me  needetjr  for  to  do  a  thing, 

(Needely  olepe  I  ninple  neoewitfi); 

Or  ellet  if  fre  ohoyB  be  granted  me 

To  do  that  Bame  thing  or  to  do  it  nonght. 

Though  God  forwot  it,  or  that  it  vaa  wrought ; 

Or  if  hii  wi^ug  streyneth  nerer  a  deel. 

Bat  by  iMoeasiU  ooDdioioneL' 

The  work  to  which  Chaucer  thus  deferentially  alludes  was 
received  with  unanimous  applause  by  the  learned  of  Brad- 
wardine's  time ;  it  found  its  way  to  nearly  all  the  libraries 
of  Europe';  it  was  edited,  in  1618,  with  laborious  care  by 


~  1  A  good  outline  of  the  general 
■cope  of  the  work  vill  be  found  In 
Dean  Hook's  Lica  of  tht  Archbiihopi 
of  Canterbury,  it  87—93 :  and  a  care- 
ful Btady  of  it  in  Leohler'B  Dt  Thoma 
BradteaTdivo  CornmtKtatio :  Lipeiffi, 
18B3.  SsTile  looks  npoo  Bradwar- 
dine'B  method  as  nmqne:  'Itaque 
priniiB,  qaod  sciam,  et  aolne  faano 
viam  tenlaiit  in  Theologioia,  nt  &la 
Uathematico  Theologioa  oontexeret, 
poneodo  edlieet  prime  looo  dnas 
hypotheses  qnaii  principia,  et  es  iii 
proxima  qosqae  demonstrando,  et 
eoroUaria  deAieendo,  petitie  eUam 
ex  Enelide  piabatlonibni ;  d«inaepf 


ex  hypotheaibos,  et  prndemonatntia 
reliqna  omnia  perpetiia  serie  ad  flnem 
nsqae  operiB  atteiendo,  quo  fit  nl 
oonclnsiones  ejoa  onipiam  foitaaee 
nimis  alte  petitn  videantar.  Qnodal 
in  lemmatibas  et  propositionibaa  non 
semper  ixpifttiar  illam  mathemati- 
oam  potiut  nsqueqnaqae  simnqni, 
meminerit  lector  non  id  aaotori  im- 
patandnm,  Bed  mbjeetc,  qnam  tn». 
tat,  materin.'     Praf.  Lectori. 

*  '  Fait  hie  liber,  Btatim  atqne 
editns  est,  tanto  omniom  dootormn 
exoeptos  applaaEa,  at  per  omnea  fere 
Ubliotheoas  totins  Eniopa  d«Mrili^ 
retnr.'    Ibid. 


SOO  RISE  OF  THE  ENGLISH  UKITEfifHTIES. 

CHAP.  iL  Sir  Heniy  Savile, — one  of  the  latest  of  tbat  eminent  scholar'a 
'^"'"^  services  to  literature, — appearing  as  a  folio  of  some  900 
pages;  and  even  so  late  as  the  last  century.  Dean  Milner 
deemed  it  deserviog  of  a  lengthened  and  scrupulous  analysis. 
In  the  account  of  Bradwardioe  which  Savile  prefixes  to  his 
edition,  he  extols  in  language  of  some  exa^eration  the 
learning  of  his  author,  who,  he  says,  soUdam  ex  Anstotelta 
et  IHatonis  fantihus  haueit  pkilosophiam.  What  kind  of 
philosophy  Bradwardine  was  likely  to  have  imbibed  as  that 
of  Aristotle,  we  have  already  seen ;  as  for  Plato,  there  is  no 
evidence  in  the  J}e  Cau^a  JDei  that  the  author  had  ever 
had  access  to  any  of  that  philosopher's  writings  except  the 
old  translation  of  the  Timwaa  by  Chalcidius,  At  the  same 
time  it  must  be  admitted  that  his  references  to  ancient 
authors  are  surprisingly  numerous  and  extend  over  a  wide 
SbSSf™  range.  His  pages  bristle  with  quotations  from  Ftolemieus, 
£li^^^  Cyprian,  Lactantius,  Jemme,  Augustine,  Gregory,  Boethius, 
""^  Seneca,  Cassiodorus,  Isidonis,  Hermes,  Johannes  Scotus,  the 
Pseudo-Diouysius,  Damascenus,  Bede,  Anselm,  Qrosseteste, 
Avicenna  and  Averroes.  Even  had  he  at  that  time  attained 
to  the  dignity  of  the  archbishopric,  his  hterary  resources 
would  appear  far  beyond  what  we  should  look  for  at  this 
period.  Our  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  his  life  offer  how- 
ever an  adequate  explanation  of  this  erudition ;  for  we  know 
that  Bradwardine  had  access  to  the  library  of  the  author 
of  the  PkUobiblon. 
Ri^ud  There  was  no  Qrosseteste  in  the  fourteenth  century,  but 

^igj[  his  love  of  learning  and  liberality  in  its  promotion  were 
worthily  represented  in  Richard  of  Bury.  The  son  of  a 
Konnau  knight  of  that  ancient  town,  Richard  received  his 
education  at  Oxford,  where  his  academical  distinctions  were 
such,  that  he  was  selected  to  fill  the  post  of  tutor  to  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  afterwards  Edward  III.  At  court  his 
position  was  a  difficult  one ;  for  the  rival  parties  were  con- 
tending in  bitter  enmity.  By  prudent  reserve  until  the 
time  for  action  had  arrived,  be  was  however  enabled  to 
render  important  service  to  his  pupil's  cause.  To  his 
counsels  have  been  attributed   the   deliberately   concerted 


RICHAAD  OF  BtTBT.  201 

ruptnre  forced  on  between  Ecttrard  n  and  bis  brotber-in-  chap,  il 
Ifttr,  Charles  the  Fair  of  France.  It  vas  he  who,  as  tbeiuiariT 
royal  treasurer  in  Quienne,  forwarded  the  reveBues  he  had  upatMww. 
collected  to  Isabella  on  her  amTal  in  Paris ;  a  daring  step 
which  subsequently  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  flee  for 
bis  life,  from  tbe  pursuit  of  Edward's  lieutenant,  to  the 
campanile  of  the  Franciscans  in  that  city.  During  tbe 
administration  of  the  queen  and  Mortimer  be  appears  to 
have  retained  their  favour  without  subsequently  becoming 
involved  in  their  disgrace;  and  when  the  youthful  Edward 
had  shaken  off  their  dictation  it  soon  became  apparent  that 
his  former  tutor  was  the  man  whom  he  delighted  to  honour. 
In  1330  Bichai-d  was  appointed  ambassador  to  pope  John 
Xxll  at  Avignon,  and  the  successful  conclusion  of  the 
businese  then  entrusted  to  bis  care  earned  for  him  the 
bishopric  of  Durham.  Tbe  stewardship  of  the  Palace,  the 
keepership  of  the  Wardrobe,  and  tbe  guardianship  of  the 
Privy  Seal,  had  already  foUen  in  rapid  succession  to  his 
lot. 

There  seems  to  be  little  reason  for  inferring  that  Bichard  ^^SIJZ 
of  Bury  was  a  man  of  profound  acquirements,  even  when"*'*"™- 
measured  by  the  standard  of  that  illiterate  age.  Petrarch, 
who  made  his  acquaintance  at  Avignon,  describes  him  as 
a  man  of  ardent  temperament,  not  ignorant  of  literature^ 
and  with  strong  natural  inquisitivenesa  into  obscure  and 
out  of  the  way  lore,  Tbe  poet,  indeed,  flattered  himself  that 
he  bad  found  the  very  man  to  solve  for  him  an  antiquarian 
di£Gculty  he  was  then  seeking  to  unravel, — the  ge<^raphy 
of  the  Thule  of  the  ancients, — and  propounded  his  question 
forthwith.  We  leam  with  regret  that  our  eminent  country- 
man proved  no  CEdipus  on  this  occasion.  He  took  refuge 
in  a  vague  vaunting  of  those  literary  stores  he  was  then 
accumulating  at  home,  and  expressing  his  certain  belief  that 
on  bis  return  he  should  be  able  at  once  to  find  the  necessary 
information.  But  though  Petrarch,  believing  that  tbe  pres- 
sure of  more  important  afiairs  might  have  driven  the  con- 
versation from  the  mind  of  the  English  ambassador,  wrote 
once  and  again  to  remind  his  lordship  of  Durham  of  his 


202 


AtSE  OF  THE  ENGLISH  UVIVEBSITIES. 


CHAP.  It.  promise,  the  oracle,  greatly  to  the  poet's  disappointment, 
preserved  an  obstinate  silence*.  From  various  data  we 
may,  indeed,  reasonably  surmise  that  in  Richard  of  Bury 
the  literary  enthusiast  and  the  bibliopbilist  prevailed  over 
Snir^hii  ^^^  accurate  scholar';  nor  does  the  appearance  of  some 
■itiinininu.  j^^  dozeu  Greek  words  in  the  Pkilobiblon  warrant  us  in 
concluding  that  the  author  had  any  extended  acquaintance 
with  the  language.  Our  admiration  will  more  judiciously 
select  his  really  strong  points  : — bis  indefatigable  eflbrts  in 
rescuing  valuable  books  from  oblivion  and  destruction, — the 
genial  manner,  tinged  with  a  harmless  pedantry,  in  which 
he  descants  on  the  advantages  of  learning,  and  on  the 
care,  the  respectful  care,  to  which  its  treasures  are  en- 
titled,— his  princely  bequest  to  Oxford  and  wise  provisions 
for  the  maintenance  of  that  bequest  in  its  int^;rity, — the 
kindliness  of  his  nature  and  his  quick  eye  for  genius,  as 
shewn  in  the  men  who  formed  the  literary  circles  which 
he  loved  to  gather  round  him  in  his  palace  at  fiishop's  Auck- 
land.    Among  these  was  Thomas  Bradwardine,  one  of  the 


■  The  lively  nuumer  in  vhieli  Pe- 
trarch bu  reUted  Uiii  ftneodote  Id- 
dncee  me  to  transcribe  the  origiiiat 
L&tin  :  —  '  Mi  hi  qoidem  de  hoc  re 
cnm  Biohordo  qnondun  AQglonun 
reng  canceUario,  sermo  non  ooiOBUi 
fmt,  Tiro  ardentiB  Ingeiiii,  nee  lite- 


genitua  alqne  edacatna,  abditanun- 
qoe  renmi  ab  adoleacentift  Btipra 
£dem  curioanB,  lalibiu  pnesertim 
qncBtitmauliH  enodondia  aptiasimaa 
Tideretui,  ille  aatem.  Ben  quia  eio 
aperaret,  sea  quia  paderet  igcoran- 
tiun  fateri  (qoi  moB  hodie  mDltomm 
est,  qui  non  intelligunt  quanta  jno- 
destis  lauB  Hit.homini  nalo,  uec  nosse 
omnia  lolmti,  profiteri  iugenoe  Be 
nescixe  quod  uesciat)  BSu  foiie,  quod 
non  BDflpiilor,  quia  hujus  mihi  orcani 
Dotitiam  invideret :  respondit,  oerte 
Be  dubielati  mes  BBtiBiactnrum,  sed 
non  prioeqium  od  libroe  bqob,  quo- 
rum nemo  copioaior  fnit,  in  patiiam 
revertiaaet,  erat  enim  dum  in  omici- 
tiam  ejus  inoidi,  traotandia  domini 
Bui  negotiia,  apnd  eedem  ApoBtolioam 
peregriauB  ea  scitioet    tempestate, 


qua  inter  pnefatnm  dominnm  innm 
et  Franoomtti  regem  t^imi  diDtami 
belli  semina  poUulabuit,  qnn  croen- 
tam  meaaem  poatea  proiulere  ;  nec- 

dum  repositn  faloes  aut  olauaa  aunt 
horrea.  Bod  dmn  promiBsor  ille  metu 
abiisBet,  aiye  aiJiil  inTeniena,  sJTe 
noviter  injonoti  pontificalia  officii 
graTi  munere  distractae,  quamvis 
aspe  literiB  interpeUuttia,  eipecta- 
tioni  meiB,  iion  aliter  qoam  obstinato 
silentio  Batisfedt.'  Epiit.  de  Rebia 
Fam.  Lib.  in.  ed.  Basil,  p.  674. 

'  'Iste  Bumme  delectabatur  in 
multitudine  libromm.  Flures  enint 
libroH  habuit,  titat  passim  dicebatur, 
qnam  omneB  Pontifices  Ajjglite.  Et 
pneter  eoi  qaoi  haboit  in  diTersia 
maneriis  suis,  rapositoe  aeparatim, 
ubicunque  cum  aua  familia  redde- 
bat,  tot  libri  jacebast  eparsim  in  ca- 
mera quadormiTit,  quod  ingredientea 
vix  Btare  poterant  Tel  incedere  nid 
librum  aliquem  pedibus  conculca- 
rent.'  W.  de  Chambre,  Conlimuxlio 
Hut.  Danelm.  Snrteea  Society,  p, 
130.  (quoted  by  Mr  Hacray,  ilnnali 
of  the  BodUiati,  p.  i). 


RICHABD  OF   BURT. 


203 


bishop's  chaplains;  aod  from  the  library  of  the  episcopal 
residence  the  author  of  the  De  Causa  Dei  eoricbed  the 
pages  of  his  treatise.  A  certain  community  of  error  between 
the  bishop  and  his  chaplain  would,  indeed,  suggest  that 
they  drew  from  common  stores,  for  both  are  to  be  found 
referring  in  their  writings  to  a  sorry  poem,  De  Vettda,  as 
the  work  of  Ovid'.  In  accumulating  his  collection,  with  all 
the  advantages  of  royal  sanction  and  his  own  high  position, 
the  English  prelate  had  spared  no  effort.  His  i^enta  ex- 
plored the  chief  towns  of  France,  Germany,  and  Italy. 
He  had  himself  conducted  the  search  in  Paris  and  among 
the  more  important  monasteries  in  England ;  and  at  the 
m^c  of  his  gold,  many  a  religious  house  and  many  a 
foundation  school  had  yielded  up  from  its  dark  recesses 
and  from  mouldering  chests  some  neglected,  half-forgotten 
volume,  gnawed  by  the  mice,  eaten  by  the  moth  and  the 
worm,  and  covered  with  mildew  and  with  dust 

It  is  gratifying  to  6nd  that,  unlike  many  libraries  that 
have  represented  the  literary  zeal  of  a  lifetime,  the  stores 
which  Richard  of  Buiy  had  collected  were  not  scattered 
at  bis  death.  At  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century  the 
monks  of  Durham  had  founded  for  their  order  at  Oxford 
a  college,  first  known  as  Durham  and  afterwards  as  Trinity 
College,  and  to  this  foundation  he  bequeathed  his  library*. 
The  society  was  required  to  preserve  the  volumes  in  chests, 
and  the  rules  laid  down  for  their  use  and  preservation  are 
interesting  as  affording  the  earliest  instance  of  the  existence 
of  the  pledge  system  in  our  universities,  and  also  as  another 


^BP■I^l■■^ 


TrtBl^<M- 
■v^OiJaidL 


I  Among  other  spooiTphKl  books 
and  writen  whom  Bradwardine  oites, 
besidex,  of  coarse,  the  omnipreBent 
Dionj^nB,  we  have  the  Vacca  of 
Plato,  the  Pamander  of  Hermei.  ftnd 
the  SecTila  Stcretorum  of  AriBtoUe. 

*  Some  of  these  books,  on  the  dis- 
iolatiOD  of  the  College  bj  Henry  vni, 
are  said  to  have  beea  tnmaferred  (o 
Duke  UniDphreT'B  Library,  and  some 
to  Balliol  College.  Maeraj.  Amalt 
of  the  Bodleian,  p.  5.  The  UniTer- 
■it;  Library  at  Oxford  vac  oom- 
menoed  in  1867,  on  the  toikb  and 


Talnable  collection  bequeathed  bj 
Thomas  Gobham,  bishop  of  Woreea- 
ter,  in  the  year  1320.  together  with 
those  bequeathed  by  Riohard  of  Boiy. 
The  original  statnte  for  the  regula- 
tion of  the  library  is  given  by  Mr 
Anstey  {Montimenla  Academiea,  ii 
337).  The  baoka  were  to  b«  chained, 
'  in  oonvenient  order,'  to  as  to  be 
aooessible  to  the  stndenta.  Fart  ol 
the  libnuy,  amounting  in  value  to 
forty  pound*,  was  sold,  in  order  io 
raise  a  salary  for  the  librarian. 


201 


BISE  OF  THE  ENGLISH  nNITERSirtES. 


I  proof  of  the  extent  to  whicb  the  regulations  that  obtaioed 
,  at  Paris  were  reproduced  at  Oxford'.  Five  scholars  deputed 
by  the  master  of  the  Hall  were  to  have  the  custody  of  the 
books,  of  whom  the  entire  number,  or  three,  but  not  fewer, 
were  competent  to  lend  the  volumes  for  use  and  inspection 
only ;  no  volumes  were  to  be  allowed  to  go  beyond  the  walla 
of  the  Hall  to  be  copied  or  transcribed.  No  book  was  to  be 
lent  to  any  but  the  scholars  of  the  Hall  unless  there  was 
a  duplicate  in  the  library,  and  then  only  when  security  had 
been  given  exceeding  the  value  of  the  book  itself.  The 
scholars  were  allowed  free  access  to  the  library  and  use  of 
the  books,  the  scholar's  name  and  the  day  on  which  he  took 
away  any  volume  having  been  duly  registered'. 
'  The  lives  of  the  three  eminent  men  whose  labours  we 
have  thus  briefly  reviewed,  all  terminated  at  but  a  short 

Uate,  and  the  high  poritioD  which 
he  occQpied  in  the  litenirr  world, 
gave  him  easy  accesB  to  this  ioBtita- 
tiOD,  where,  once  admitted,  he  would 
not  tail  to  visit  the  library  and  leam 
from  its  officers  the  rulea  for  its  ma- 
nagement.' Critical  Notice,  preSied 
to  the  Philobiblon,  p.  87. 

*  Fkilobibloa,  c.  xix.  The  amannt 
of  illaBtiatioQ  this  treatise  has  re- 
cently received  at  other  hands  ren- 
ders a  more  lengthened  notice  here, 
less  necessary.  Profeasor  Horle;  has 
given  a  careful  epitome  of  its  con- 
tents in  his  Englith  WriUn,  Vol.  ii 
pt.  1,  pp.  43 — 67.  Dean  Hook  has 
also  happily  toacbed  on  some  of  its 
moat  interesting  features  in  his  life 
of  Bradwardino,  (Lire*  of  tbf  Arch- 
biMkopi,  Vol.  iv).  The  original  work 
has  been  elaborately  edited  by  M. 
Cocheris,  (Pane,  1SS6,)  from  the 
the    Imperial    Library  of 


•  The  regulations  preseribed  by 
Biohard  of  Bniy  appear  to  have  been 
almost  identical  with  those  of  the 
Sorbonne.  U.  Victor  de  Ulero,  after 
describing  the  latter,  says,  '  L'^v^que 
de  Durham,  dans  la  donation  qa'il 
fait  de  see  livres,  in  1344.  k  I'univer- 
■itd  d'Oxford,  reproduit  presque  lit- 
t£ralement  les  mimes  articles,  et  ad- 
met  anssi,  avec  de  sages  restrictiona, 
le  prineipe  du  prGt,  DSji  vers  la  fin 
du  X*  sibcle  les  livi'es  de  I'dgliae  oathfr 
drale  de  Clermont  pouvaient  ttie  prS- 
te»  1  des  particnliera.  L'dvSquc  de 
Caraillon,  Philippe  de  Cabassole,  en 
1373,  n'tnterdit  A  persnnne  I'uaage  de 
ceui  qn'il  Idgue  i  son  chapitre;  mais 
il  veut  qu'ils  aoient  ench^dB.'  Eiat 
del  Lellret  au  Quatorziime  Sifcic,  i 
84S.  M.  CocberiB  |I  quote  Mr  Hand's 
tranntation)  remarka  as  follows  : — 
'They  (the  regulations  of  the  Sor- 
bonne) are  more  minnte  than  thoee  -.  -      -    — 

of  the  bishop  of  Durham,  but  do  not      Paris,    vrith  ,TaluBble   biographioal. 


materially  differ  fron 
first  article  presoribei  a  Byatem  of 
pledges,  and  the  second  directs  the 
election  of  the  custodian  or  Ubta- 
rians  by  the  iocii.  These  two  fun- 
damental articles  are  to  be  found 
in  Kichord  of  Bury'i  scheme  and  are 
its  essential  features.  It  is  there- 
fore quite  impossible  not  to  perceive 
the  imitation.  It  is,  besides,  easy 
to  eiplain  this  boirowing  by  Buiy 
from   the  Sorbonne.     Hu    literary 


bibliograpbical,  and  literary  e 
suaes  ;  there  is  an  American  transla- 
tion  of  this  edition  (Albany,  1861), 
to  which  the  editor  has  added  the 
English  translation  by  John  B.  Inglis, 
(London,  1832) ;  this  latter  transla- 
tion is  a  very  inaocorate  perform- 
ance. I  have  used  the  MS.  in  the 
Harleian  Collection,  No.  493,  which 
appears  in  some  respects  superior  in 
accaracylo  thoee  to  which  M.Cocberia 


RICHAED  OF  BUBT. 


S05 


interval  from  the  close  of  the  half  century.  Richard  of  chap,  it 
Bury  died  at  his  palace  at  Auckland  in  the  year  1345;  "^""^"^ 
William  of  Occam,  in  exile  at  Munich,  in  1347 ;  Thomas 
Bradwardiue,  after  holding  the  see  of  Canterbury  for  a  few 
months,  was  duried  off  hy  the  prevalent  epidemic,  the 
plf^ue  of  Florence,  in  1349'.  While  recognising  the  ■ 
peculiar  excellence  of  each,  we  must  be  careful  lest  their 
cooBpicuous  merit  blind  us  to  the  real  character  of  the  age 
in  which  they  lived.  There  have  been  writers  who,  with 
that  caprice  which  is  to  he  met  with  in  every  age,  however 
superior  to  preceding  times,  have  professed  to  believe  that 
the  England  of  the  fourteenth  century  excelled  the  England 
of  the  sixteenth';  hut  a  very  cursory  glance  through  the 
pages  of  the  Fhilobibl(m  suffices  to  show  us  that  the  author, 
enthusiast  though  he  undoubtedly  was,  had  formed  no  very 
hopeful  estimate  of  the  culture  and  the  men  of  his  own  day. 
The  censures  of  Bacon,  which  have  already  occupied  our 
attention,  are  forcibly  corroborated  by  Richard  of  Bury  when 
he  tells  ufi  how  he  is  endeavouring  to  remedy  the  almost 
uuivei^  ignorance  of  grammar  by  the  preparation  of  ma- 


*  Dr  Leehlerhas  diatingniBhed  the 
Mope  ftod  bent  ot  BrBdwardiiie'B 
writiDgB  from  tbose  ot  his  great  Con- 
temporai?  in  the  foillawing  pregnaat 
■enteDces  : — '  BradwordinnB  enim,  d 
quid  videmnB.  neqne  doctoribuB  illia 
■cboloaticiH  adnnmenuiilnB  est,  qui 
fidelisBimi  iuterpretea  atqae  Btieuni 
patroni  Kom&ns  medli  evi  eocleeiie 
nmninmqnB  etiam  eTromm  fjuB  de- 
feuBoreB  extitenint,  neqae  illia  viris, 
qui  Bomn  advenorii  in  pablicani 
prodiemDt,  iive,  at  Occftmoe,  imperii 
nomine  enin  saceidotio  pugn&m  cnm- 
mitt«bant,  Bive  doctrina  discipli- 
nnqne  Bomans  capita  qoedam  op- 
Dngnabont.  BrndvordiiiaB  Deque  in 
Boms  deciela  et  inititata  its  jora- 
Terat,  at  Romam  Boms  Cansa  veiie- 
tBretnr,  neque  olio  modo  Donailinm 
eepit  anna  Bomtt  inferre.  Nihilo- 
miuns  Bententia  ilia  de  gratia  Dei 
per  Cfariatant  gratie  Bolvante  et  peo- 
catoreB  jnstificante,  qua  medulla 
quaBi  Bradwardini  fnit,  cum  Bomons 


evangelien     medulla     est     eritqne. 

Neque  Lothero  proiimia  annis  ante 

in  mentem  Tenit,  ant  ecclesin  Bo- 
mane  ant  pontifioi  oerta  Bomano 
adtetBaH,  neqne  Bradvardinna  tan- 
qnarn  deimpngnanda  Boma  oogitavit. 
Tenun  uterqne  ea  tnit  pietate  eroa 
gratiam  Dei,  qiuB  onm  ra  pontificia 
non  poeait  prorsna  oonveniie.  Et 
temporiB  tanttim  fnit,  nt  diBBenana 
eo  oaqae  latena  in  laoem  profeiretiir. 
Itaqae  uolli  dubitamilB  Bradvaidi- 
nnm  noBtmm  illia  adnnmcTare  viria, 
qui  "teatea  Teritatia"  et  pisnnntii 
Beformationia  nononpati  aniit.'  CotK- 
nKniatio,  etc.  p.  18. 

■  Thomas  Jamea,  libnuiao  of  the 
Bodleian  in  1S99,  in  a  mannaciipt 
letter  to  Lord  Lnmlef,  preserved  at 
the  British  Mnitenm,  in  a  oopv  ot  the 
edition  of  the  PhUobibltm  -widab  be 
published  in  the  aame  ;ear,  gpeakii 
of  hie  own  time  as  '  an  iron  Bge,' 
while  ot  Bur;  he  saya  'vixit  in  iUo 
auTto  iteulo  cvm  iltii  friteii  tt  boma 
hominibu*.' 


S06  &I9E  OF  THE   ENGLISH   UNIYEBSITIiS. 

.P.  It  nuaJs  for  the  students, — when  he  contra«tB  the  ardour  of 
antiquity  iu  the  pursuit  of  learning  with  the  superficial 
impatience  that  marks  the  cultivation  of  letters  among  his 
contemporaries, — and  especially  when  he  thus  characterises, 
in  language  which  might  almost  pass  for  a  passage  from  the 
Opus  Tertium,  the  prevalent  characteristics  of  the  students 
who  composed  the  great  majority  at  Oxford  and  at  Fans : — 

"SS!"  'and  forasmuch  as,'  he  writes,  'they  are  not  grounded  in 

<!tmti  their  first  rudiments  at  the  proper  time,  they  huild  a  totter- 
ing edifice  on  an  insecure  foundation,  and  then  when  grown 
up  they  are  ashamed  to  learn  that  which  they  should  have 
acquired  when  of  tender  years,  and  thu>:  must  needs  ever 
pay  the  penalty  of  having  too  hastily  vaulted  into  the  pos- 
session of  authority  to  which  they  had  no  clajm.  For  these, 
and  hke  reasons,  our  young  students  fail  to  gain  by  their 
scanty  lucubrations  that  sound  learning  to  which  the  an- 
cients attained,  however  they  may  occupy  honorable  posts, 
be  called  by  titles,  be  invested  with  the  garb  of  office,  or  be 
solemnly  inducted  into  the  seats  of  their  seniors.  Snatched 
from  their  cradles  and  hastily  weaned,  they  get  a  smattering 
of  the  rules  of  Friscian  and  Douatus;  in  their  teens  and 
beardless  they  chatter  childishly  concerning  the  Categories 
and  the  Perihermenias  in  the  composition  of  which  Aristotle 
spent  his  whole  soul'.' 

■^-^^  In  no  way  less  emphatic  is  his  testimony  to  the  decline  of 
„.  the  mendicant  orders,  whom  he  describes  as  altt^ther  busied 
with  the  pleasures  of  the  table,  the  love  of  dress,  in  which 
they  disregarded  all  the  restrictions  of  their  order,  and  with 
the  erection  of  splendid  edifices'.  Amid  all  their  wide-spread 
activity,  learning  v/aa  falling  into  neglect;  they  still  prose- 
lytised with  undiminished  vigour,  but  they  no  longer  helped 
on  the  intellectual  progress  of  the  a^e.     There  is  indeed  one 

'  Philobibion,  c.  9.  circ»   labentu   oorporia   mdigentuta 

■  '  Sed  {proh  dolor)  tarn  hoB  qtmm  occapftti,  at   eiat  epuliB   spleudida, 

alios   istomm  gectiuites  pfBgiem,  a,  veslesqae   ooutm  regol&m   delicate, 

patenui  coltnra  libromm   Babtrahit  necnon  et  icdificiorum    fabric«,   nt 

triplex  caia:  cnra  BupeiBna;  ventria  caetronim  propognamila,  tali  proce- 

viz.  Teatiom,  et  domonuu.    Sio  sunt  ritate,  qnie  panpertnti  Don  ooDveoit 

eitim  (neglects  Salvatoris  proTiden-  eialtabe.'   a.  I.   Qufrijuoniutn  Libro- 

tip.,  quem  Fa&Imistii  circa  pauperem  nun  contra  Beligioioi  MatiUeaiiUi. 
et  mendicnm  promittit  esse  solioitum) 


OECLDTE  OF  THE  MONASnC  SCHOOLS.  207 

B  which,  takes  in  its  isolated  sense,  might  seem  to  ia-  chaf.  n. 
dicate  that  he  regarded  the  Mendicants  with  high  favour, — it 
is  that  wherein  he  bears  testimony  to  the  aid  he  had  received 
from  them  in  his  researches,  and  to  the  invaluable  lite- 
rary stores  of  which  their  foundations  were  the  repositories ; 
but  on  a  comparison  of  these  encomiastic  expressions  with 
other  portions  of  the  HiUobiblon  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
praise  belongs  rather  to  the  workers  of  a  prior  generation,  and 
modities  but  very  slightly  the  impression  conveyed  in  other 
portions  of  the  treatise. 

It  is  however  but  just  to  notice  that  the  religious  orders,  StJUJ!!^ 
and  more  especially  the  monastic  foundations,  were  already  J^?j^[£* 
banning  to  feel  the  effects  of  influences  beyond  their  con-  S^^^£& 
troL  We  have  already  seen '  that  the  decline  of  the  episcopal 
schools  on  the  continent  has  been  attributed,  whether  rightly 
or  not,  to  the  superior  attractions  of  the  universities,  and 
it  would  certainly  seem  that  Oxford  and  Cambridge  must  be 
regarded  as  to  some  extent  the  cause,  the  innocent  cause,  of 
the  similarly  rapid  decline  of  the  monastic  orders  in  popular 
estimation  in  England.  Without  denying  that,  from  the  in- 
herent defect  of  their  constitution,  those  orders  must  in  all 
probability  have  degenerated,  just  as  all  other  orders  bad 
degenerated  in  every  preceding  age,  we  may  yet  allow  that 
their  'late  overtook  them  with  more  rapid  strides  owing  to 
the  correspondingly  rapid  eDcroacbments  made  by  the  new 
centres  of  learning  upon  their  province  as  instructors  of  the 
people,  and  to  the  loss  of  that  occupation  which,  amid  their 
many  shortcomings,  bad  given  something  of  dignity  to  their 
office.  Warton  appears  to  us  to  have  here  pointed  out  the  J^t**!!._ 
connexion  of  cause  and  effect  very  justly: — 'As  the  univer- 
sities,' he  says, '  began  to  flourish,  in  consequence  of  the  dis- 
tinctions and  honours  which  they  conferred  on  scholars,  the 
establishment  of  colleges,  the  introduction  of  new  systems  of 
science,  the  universal  ardour  which  prevailed  of  Iweeding 
almost  all  persons  to  letters,  and  the  abolition  of  that  exclu- 
sive right  of  teaching  which  the  monasteries  had  so  long 
dumed;  the  monasteries,  of  course,  grew  inattentive  to  stu- 
>  Seen). 68— 71. 


208  RISE  OF  THE  ENGLISH  UNIVERSITIES. 

CHAP.  II.  dies  which  were  more  strongly  encouraged,  more  commo- 
^"^^^"*^  diously  pursued,  and  more  successfully  cultivated  in  other 
places ;  they  gradually  became  contemptible  as  nurseries  of 
learning,  and  their  fraternities  degenerated  into  sloth  and 
ignorance*.'  It  will  devolve  upon  us,  at  a  somewhat  later 
stage  in  our  enquiry,  to  point  out  how  a  like  decline  awaited 
the  prestige  of  the  mendicant  orders,  the  penalty  of  their 
own  arrogance  and  bigotry. 
lUiiiintiM  In  bringing  to  a  close  our  retrospect  of  the  intellectual 

u^Tmiaei^  activity  of  England  at  this  era,  a  yet  more  important  decline 
even  than  that  of  the  monastic  and  mendicant  orders  presses 
itself  upon  our  notice  and  demands  some  explanation.     How 
is  it,  that  from  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  up 
to  the  revival  of  classical  learning,  the  Very  period  wherein 
the  munificence  of  royal  and  noble  founders  is  most  con- 
spicuous in  connexion  with  our  university  history,  such  a  lull 
comes  over  the  mental  life  of  both  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
and  so  few  names  of  eminence,  Wyclif  and  Reginald  Pecock 
being  the  most  notable  exceptions,   invite   our  attention? 
From  the  death  of  Bradwardine  to  the  first  battle  of  St. 
Alban's,  more  than  three  quarters  of  a  century  intervene, 
during  which  no  adequate  external  cause  of  distraction  ap- 
pears which  may  be  supposed  to  account  for  the  comparative 
Wood*!  criti-  inertness  of  the  universities.     The  obseiTation  of  ^nthonv 
^*jjpj«gj>  Wood,  already  quoted,  that,  after  the  time  of  Wyclif '  the 
oftiMiMt    students  neglected  scholastical  divinity  and  scarce  followed 
any  studies  but  polemical,  being  wholly  bent  and  occupied  in 
refuting  his  opinions  and  crying  down  the  orders  of  mendicant 
friars,'  presents  us  with  a  true  but  only  a  partial*  explanation. 
Other  causes  were  at  work,  some  of  which  will  be  best  ex- 
plained in  a  subsequent  chapter,  but  it  can  hardly  be  ques- 
tioned that  the  most  baneful  eflFects  in  the  fourteenth  century 
are  to  be  traced  to  the  bias  given  to  the  studies  then  pursued. 
^Jj^jj^    The  shortcomings  and  excesses  indicated  by  Bacon  consti- 
Sa^oLnr.  tuted  the  prevailing  characteristics  long  after  his  time,  and 
the  absorbing  attention  given  to  the  civil  and  canon  law  was 
undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  fruitful  sources  of  those  evils.   It 

^  Diaertatum  <m  Introduction  of  Learning  into  England,  p.  oziii.  ed.  1840. 


\ 


THE  CANON   AND  CIVIL  LAW. 


209 


may  not  be  unimportant  here  to  notice,  that  it  would  be  a  cbap.  il 
serious  misapprehension  were  we  to  regard  these  two  branches 
of  jurisprudence  as  representing  at  that  time  the  provinces 
of  the  civilian  and  the  ecclesiastic  respectively.     It  is  part  of 
the  gravamen  of  Bacon's  complaint,  written  in  the  year  1270, 
that  the  effects  of  the  civil  law  were  to  confound  the  distinc- 
tion (the  dixtinction  which  so  A^uently  eludes  the  student's 
grasp)   between  the  laity  and  the   clergy  of  those  times. 
Blackstone  indeed  in  the  Introduction  to  his  Commentaries  ^g^jg^" 
has  gone  so  far  as  to  represent  the  civil  law  as  from  the  first  5^';2^o« 
under  the  protection  of  the  clergy,  and  contending  in  its'"""*" 
progress  against  no  other  obstacle  than  that  offered  by  the 
laity,  eager  in  the  defence  of  their  municipal  law  *.     We  have 
already  seen  that  such  would  be  but  a  very  imperfect  account 
of  the  history  of  the  Pandects.     The  same  conservatism  that 
bad  resisted  the  introduction  of  the  Sentences  and  of  the  new 
Aristotle,  had  opposed  the  study  of  the  Boman  Law.    But 
with  the  advance  of  the  thirteenth  century  this  opposition 
bad  died  away, — bow  completely  may  be  seen  from  the  fol- 
lowing passage  from  the  Compendium  PkiloaopkioB: — 

'  But  as  we  have  now  come  down  to  our  own  times,  I  am  22T«£!i« 
especially  desirous  of  introducing  that  which  has  been  ad-  iSSb?" 
vanced  in  preceding  pages  concerning  the  causes  of  errors  ^.£^'™ 
and   the   impediments   of  learning   which  have  multiplied  mLw. 
during  the  last  forty  years,  and  to  point  out  how  error  so 
prev^ls  in  the  Church  of  Ood,  that  either  the  approach  of 
Antichrist  or  some  other  heavy  trouble  must  be  near  at 
hand,  or  the  advent  of  some  most  holy  chief  pontiff,  who  in 
the  strength  of  God  will  root  out  these  causes  of  error  and 


■  '  The  clergy  in  piuiicnlar  as  the; 
then  engroBaed  almost  eiei7  other 
biBDch  at  learning... were  pecoliarlj 
remarkable  for  their  proficiency  in 
theitnd;  of  the  law.  iiulloMckneat 
niti  cataidiciu  is  the  character  given 
of  them  eoon  after  the  Conqneat  by 

William  of  MalmesbnTy... And  it 

it  be  ooiuidered  that  oai  nmreiHitiea 
began  abont  that  time  to  receive  their 
preaent  form  of  aeludaatio  discipline ; 
that  thev  were  then  and  eontinnedto 
be  till  the  time  of  the  BeformatiM), 


entirely  nndeT  the  inflnenoe  of  the 
popiab  clergy  (Bii  John  Maaon,  the 
first  Protestant,  being  also  the  Sn( 
lay,  chancellor  of  Oxford),  this  will 
iMd  OB  to  peroeiTe  why  the  study  of 
the  Boiaaa  laws  was  in  those  days  of 
bigotry  poisaed  with  such  alacrity 
in  these  seats  of  learning,  and  wiv 
the  common  law  was  entirely  de- 
spised, and  esteemed  little  better 
than  heratioal.'  Blackstone,  Com- 
mentaria  by  Eerr,  i  16. 

14 


210  RISE  OF  THE  ENGLISH  UNIVERSITIES. 

CHAP^IL  restore  all  things  to  their  proper  state.  Of  these  causes  two 
have,  in  the  last  forty  years,  attained  their  climax,  of  which 
one,  the  abuse  of  the  civil  law  of  Italy,  not  only  destroys  the 
desire  of  learning  but  the  Church  of  God  and  all  kingdoms. 
And  thus,  by  this  abuse,  all  those  five  before-mentioned 
grades  of  learning  are  destroyed,  and  the  whole  world  exposed 
to  the  evil  one.  But  as  for  the  way  whereby  evil-minded 
jurists  destroy  the  love  of  learning,  that  is  patent ;  namely 
that  by  their  craft  and  trickery  they  have  so  preoccupied  the 
minds  of  prelates  and  princes  that  they  obtain  nearly  all  the 
emoluments  and  favours,  so  that  the  empty-handed  students 
of  theology  and  philosophy  have  no  means  of  subsistence,  of 
buying  books,  or  of  searching  and  experimenting  upon  the 
secrets  of  science.  Even  jurists  who  study  the  canon  law 
possess  the  means  neither  of  subsistence  nor  of  study  unless 
they  previously  possess  a  knowledge  of  the  civil  law.  Whence, 
just  as  with  philosophers  and  theologians,  no  regard  is  paid 
them  unless  they  have  a  reputation  as  civil  jurists,  with  the 
abuses  of  which  study  they  have  disfigured  the  sacred  canons. 
Furthermore,  every  man  of  superior  talent,  possessing  an 
aptitude  for  theology  and  philosophy,  betakes  himself  to  civil 
law,  because  he  sees  its  professors  enriched  and  honoured 
by  all  prelates  and  princes,  and  also  that  few,  out  of  regard 
for  their  kin,  adhere  to  the  study  of  philosophy  and  theology, 
because  the  greedy  faculty  of  the  civil  law  attracts  the  great 
body  of  the  clergy.  And  not  only  does  the  civil  law  of  Italy 
destroy  the  pursuit  of  learning  in  that  it  carries  off  the  re- 
sources of  students  and  diverts  fit  persons  (from  that  pursuit), 
but  also  in  that  by  its  associations  it  unworthily  confounds 
the  clergy  with  the  laity,  since  it  is  in  no  way  the  function  of 
the  clergyman,  but  altogether  that  of  the  layman,  to  have 
cognisance  of  such  law, — as  is  evident  if  we  bear  in  mind 
that  this  law  was  compiled  by  lay  emperors  and  for  the 
government  of  the  laity  at  large.  And,  indeed,  the  professors 
of  the  law  of  Bologna  are  willing  to  be  styled  either  teachers 
or  clergymen ;  and  they  reject  the  clerical  tonsure.  They 
take  to  themselves  wives  and  regulate  their  household  en- 
tirely in  secular  fashion,  and  associate  with  and  adopt  the 


THE  CASOS  AND  CIVIL  LAW. 


2U 


customs  of  laymcD.    From  whence  it  is  evident  that  they  are 
separate  from  the  clerical  office  and  station'.' 

With  the  fourteenth  century  the  combination  which  Bacon  | 
thus  loudly  censures  of  the  study  of  the  civil  with  that  of  the  1 
canon  law,  bad  become  the  rule  rather  than  the  exception. 
A  powerful  impulse  had  been  given  to  the  former  study  by 
WilliamofNc^ret,whoinhi3capacityoflegal  adviser  to  i^ilip 
the  Fair,  in  that  monarch's  struggle  with  pope  Boniface,  had 
developed  the  resources  of  the  code  with  startling  significance. 
Compared  with  such  lore,  theological  learning  became  but  a 
sorry  recommendation  to  ecclesiastical  preferment ;  most  of 
the  popes  at  Avignon  had  been  distinguished  by  their  attain- 
ments in  a  subject  which  so  nearly  concerned  the  tempomi 
interests  of  the  Church  ;  and  the  civilian  and  the  canonist 
alike  looked  down  with  contempt  on  the  theologian,  even  aa 
Hagar,  to  use  the  comparison  of  Holcot,  despised  her  barren  \ 
mistress*.  The  true  scholar  returned  them  equal  scorn ; 
and  Bichard  of  Bury  roundly  averred  that  the  civilian, ' 
though  he  might  win  the  friendship  of  the  world,  was  the 
enemy  of  God'.  Equally  candid  is  the  good  bishop's  ex- 
pression of  his  indifference,  notwithstanding  his  omnivorous 
appetite  for  books,  for  the  volumes  of  the  gloBsists,  which 
alone  he  appears  to  have  been  careless  of  collecting  or  pre- 
serving*. It  is  not  improbable  that,  as  M.  Le  Clero  has 
suggested,  the  study  of  both  codes  had  a  genuine  attraction 
for  students  in  that  age,  inasmuch  as  it  provided,  along  with 
the  gratification  of  the  love  of  subtlety  induced  by  the  train- 
ing of  the  schools,  an  outlet  for  practical  activity'.     But  it  is 


'  Compendium  Stiidii  PhUotophite, 

'  Holcot,  Super  Librum  Sapientia, 
Pisf.  D.  '  Legea  enira,'  be  ude,  '  et 
euionea  istis  temporibos  miiAbiliter 
hsenndn  eonoipianl  divitias  et  pn- 
riout  dignitaleB.  Et  ideo  Bacra  Bcrip- 
tora  quae  est  omnimn  ncieDtiaram 
derelicts  est;  et  od  illas  affloit  i^asai 
tota  innltitado  BchoUrium.' 

*  '  In  libria  juris  positivi.  InciatlTk 
peiitia  diapeDsandia  terrenis  kceom- 
moda,  qoanto  bujoi  iftcnli  fiJiia 
famnlatnr  Dtilini,  lauto  nujiiii,  ad 


dptniB  iBTBterik 


et  arcana  fidei  sacramenta,  filiia  liieia 
confert:  ntpolo  qoB  diiponit  peon- 
liariter  ad  amicitiam  hiqtu  mnudi, 
per  qnam  homo,  Jaeobo  testante,  Dei 
coEstitnitiu'  iminieiu.'    P/uUbibltm, 

0.11. 

*  •  miana  tamen  libromm  ciTiliom 
appetitas  noBtris  adhesit  affectiboa, 
minasqtie  bQJnBDiodi  Tolnmimbiia 
acqnireudi*  coneeaumu  tam  opera 
qnam  eipentte.'    Ibid. 

■  ^tat  da  Lcttra  aa  zit*  BUcU,  ■ 
609. 

14—2 


212  EISE  OF  THE  ENGLISH  UNIVERSITIES. 

C3HAP.  n.  easy  to  see  that  its  chief  value  in  the  eyes  of  the  many,  of 
those  who  valued  knowledge  as  a  means  rather  than  as  an 
end,  was  that  asserted  by  Bacon, — that  it  was  the  path  to 
emolument,  to  high  office,  to  favour  with  'prelates  and 
princes.'  'Who  ever  rose  pricked  in  heart  from  reading  the 
laws,  or  the  canons?'  asked  John  of  Salisbury,  when  he 
sought  to  draw  away  Thomas  k  Becket  from  his  excessive 
attention  to  the  study  \  But  it  was  under  the  shelter  of  the 
canon  law  that  the  archbishop  fought  out  his  struggle  witli 
the  king  of  England.  As  for  the  hope  to  which  Bacon  had 
given  expression,  that  some  '  most  holy  pontiff'  might  arise 
who  should  reform  these  crying  evils,  it  is  sufficient  to  note 
the  exclamation  of  Clement  vii, — a  pope  whose  sole  recom- 
mendation to  the  tiara  had  been  his  unscrupulous  political 
genius, — ^when  he  heard  at  Avignon  that  a  young  student  of 
promise  in  the  university  of  Paris  was  devoting  his  attention 
2SSlS^.  ^  theology :— '  What  folly,'  he  ejaculated,  *  what  folly,  for 
^^^'  him  thus  to  lose  his  time  !  These  theologians  are  all  mere 
dreamers*.'  Neither  from  Bome  nor  from  Avignon  were 
those  influences  to  come  which  should  guide  into  happier 
paths  the  studies  and  learning  of  Europe. 

^  ^ProBontquidem  leges  etcanones,  PIub  dico:   scholaris  exercitatio  in- 

sed  mihi  credite,  quia  nnnc  non  erit  terdnm  scientiam  anget  ad  timorem, 

his  opuB,  Non  hoc  itta  Hbi  tempiu  sed  devotionem  aut  raro  ant  nan- 

spectacula  poscit.    Siqnidem  non  tarn  quam  inflammat.'    Epist.  138  [a.d. 

devotionem  exdtant,  quam  ouriosi-  1166]  ed.  J.  A.  Giles,  1 196. 

tatem Qois  e  lectione  legom,  ant  *  Crevier,  lu  186. 

etiam  oanonum  oomponotas  surgit? 


CHAPTER    m. 
CAMBRIDGE  PRIOR  TO  THE  CLASSICAL  BRA. 

Part  I: — eahlt  colleoe  foundations. 


to  illustrate  the  varied  activity  of  English  thought  would   - 
Beem  to  justify  ua  in  assertiDg  that,  "with  the  advance  of  the  V^uaS- 
fourteenth  century,  the  palm  of  intellectual  superiority  had  UHnnit  &« 
been  transferred  from  Paris  to  the  English  universities.    With-  ""^ 
out  insisting  upon  the  philosophic  insight  of  Bacon  aad  the 
metaphysical  ability  of  Duns  Scotus,  we  may  fairly  ask  whe- 
ther any  other  university  can  point,  at  this  period,  to  men 
comparable   in   their  respective  excellences  and   extended 
influence  with  William  of  Occam,  Bradwardine,  and  Richard 
of  Bury.     If  Paris  can  claim  to  have  given  to  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  their  statutes  and  their  organisation,  Oxford  can 
boast  that  she  gave  to  Paris  some  of  her  ablest  and  most 
influential   teachers'.      As  the   renown    of  those  eminent 
thinkers  became  established,  men  did  not  fail  to  note  the 


'  '  Lyons,  Pftris,  and  ColoRoe  were 
indebted  for  their  first  proteawni  to 
the  Englinh  Francucons  at  Oitoid. 
Bepeat«d  applications  were  made  from 
InJand,  Denmark,  Frimce,  and  Ger- 
man; for  English  Iriars;  foreigners 
were  sent  to  the  English  school  as 
naperior  to  all  others.'  Prof.  Brewer, 
Pref.  to  MonunuJita  Franchcana,  p. 
Irai.  In  a  letter  of  Edward  n  to 
Pope  Idbn  mi  desiring  that  Oiford 


may  hare  free  inlerchaiiRe  with  Fuia 
aa  regnrdB  the  rights  of  nuuters  of 
arta  at  that  oniveru^,  we  find  that 
the  claim  of  Oxford  as  the  sooroe  of 
the  ancient  instmcUon  of  Paris,  ia 
plainly  preferred: — vtrum  quia  du- 
bium  Hon  r>i  {tecandam  veiemm  Uili- 
BKinia  icriptvrarum)  Gallieatmm  itu- 
dium  all  Anglicanii  noitrit  originate 
traxiue  prineipittm.  SeeBriauTwTne, 
Apologia,  p.  S77. 


214 


EAELT  COLLEGE  FOUSDATIOSS. 


cSAT.  m.  comparative  sterility  of  the  contiDental  university.  Pe- 
■^^1%^  trarch  exultingly  pointed  to  the  fact  that  her  greatest  names 
were  those  of  men  whom  he  claimed  as  compatriots'.  Ri- 
chard of  Bury,  while  he  dwells  with  enthusiasm  on  the  lite- 
rary wealth  and  established  prestige  of  the  French  capital, 
does  not  hesitate  to  imply  that  her  preeminence  is  already  a 
thing  of  the  past,  and  attributes  to  his  own  country  the 
merit  of  according  a  far  more  ready  reception  to  novel  truth ; 
Fans,  he  declares,  in  her  regard  for  antiquity,  seems  careless 
of   adding   to   her  knowledge,    while   the    perspicacity   of 

»fc£lK  "^  English  thought  is  ever  adding  to  the  ancient  stores,  '  We 
behold  the  palladium  of  Paris,'  he  exclaims,  writing  while 
the  soldiery  of  Edward  III  were  ravf^ng  the  French  pro- 
Tiaces,  'borne  oflf,  alas,  hy  that  same  paroxysm  which  afflicts 
our  own  land.  The  zeal  of  that  illustrious  school  has  become 
lukewarm,  nay,  even  &ozen,  whose  rays  once  illumined  every 
comer  of  the  earth.  The  pen  of  every  scribe  is  there  laid 
aside,  the  race  of  books  is  do  longer  propagated;  nor  is  there 
one  who  can  be  regarded  as  a  new  author.  They  wrap  up 
their  thoughts  in  unskilful  language,  and  are  wanting  in  all 
logical  propriety,  save  when  they  learn  by  secret  vigils  those 
refinements  of  English  thought  which  they  publicly  disparage.' 


1  >EEt  ilia  ciTitaE  bOQtl  qnldem,  et 
inuanis  Begia  pneBentis,  qaod  sd 
Btadinm  ftttiuet  cea  nmUia  est  cola- 
thas,  quo  poma  nndiqne  peregntia  et 
nobilia  defeiADtnt ;  ei  qao  emm  Bta- 
dioin  illud,  ut  legitur,  ab  Aicuino 
pTBceptoie  Coroli  regisinstitntnmeBt, 
nimqnam  quod  andierim  PariBienuB 
qnigquain  ibi  Tir  clarna  fnit,  Bed  qni 
faenmt  eitemi  ntiqne  et  nisi  odiiua 
barbari  ocnioa  perBtiingeret,  magna 
Bi  parte  lUli  fuere.'  Contra  Dalli 
CaUmniat,  (ed.  BasU,  1561)  p.  1192. 
He  enomerateB  in  sapport  oE  bis 
UBertioD  Peter  Lombard,  Bona- 
Tentors,  Aqninas,  and  Xgidiiu.  Xo 
these  obaerfatio>i»  M.  lie  Clero  re- 
plies, '  Cetle  Temarqne  est  juste,  et 
contiuiu  mSrae  de  I'fitre  pour  lea 
siicleB  qui  euiTirent.  Male  elle  ne 
pronve  rieo  contre  la  pniBBance  et 
I'antoriti  de  ees  grands  oentrea  d'ao- 
tiTit^  intellectnelle  qui  se  obargent 
de  r  jdneation  dea  penples.    Li  sont 


lea  maltres  qui  tormeut,  dirigent, 
dalaiient:  qni  asent  leoF  eBprit  et 
lenr  vie  iL  ce  labenr  de  toua  lea  in- 
BtantB,  et  ne  Be  neDtent  paa  hurailid^ 
d'aioir  des  disciplea  pluB  hardis  et 
pins  cfli^bres  qu'eai.  On  eait  bieu 
que  la  cntique  n'est  poiut  le  g^nie; 
or,  danB  les  gcandes  ^'iUcs.  dana  les 
grands  foyers  d'instruction,  la  cri- 
tique r^gne  presque  sana  partage. 
L'anctenne  Borne,  qni  fut  long  temps, 
comme  Faria,  one  Borte  d'^cole  uni- 
verselle,  n'a  carapa  non  pins  qu'un 
petit  Domlire  de  ses  citojeuBparmi  les 
orateon  et  les  poetes  que  Fetrarqne 
B'enorgoeilUt  d'appeler  des  citoyens 
ramains;  et  elle  n'en  a  pas  moina  le 
droit  de  revendiqner,  entie  ses  titres 
d'illustration,  la  ^oire  litt^raire.' 
Etat  det  Lettrei  au  H~"  SiicU,  ii  61. 
An  ingenioas  detenee;  bat  Fetrarcb, 
I  imagine,  would  have  regarded  the 
parallel  institated  as  delectire. 


CAMBRIDGE  IN  THE  FOUBTEENTH  CCKTtJRT.  S15 

But  though  we  may  readily  admit  that  the  temporary  can.  m. 
eSects  of  the  events  alluded  to  by  Kichard  of  Bury  bad  their  -  "^  ■ 
share  in  bringing  about  this  decline,  it  would  seem  that  the  vSaSSxi 
most  potent  cause  most  be  sought  in  a  long  prior  occurrence ;  ^sStl'^ 
and  it  ia  probably  to  the  removal  of  the  papal  court  to  ^"^ 
AvigDOD  that  we  must  refer  that  paralysis  which  seems  to 
have  overtaken  the  genius  of  the  nation.  The  pope,  while 
he  servilely  subscribed  to  the  political  policy  of  the  French 
monarch,  to  some  extent  indemnified  himself  by  the  assertion 
of  an  ampler  authority  over  the  centres  of  education  and 
intellectual  activity,  'With  such  a  neighbour,'  remarks  gg^^,. 
Professor  Shirley,  '  intellectual  independence  was  impossible.  "** 
One  of  the  many  mortifications  suffered  by  the  pride  of 
Boni£ace  Vlli,  had  been  a  refusal  on  the  part  of  the  univer- 
sity of  Paris  to  send  to  him  a  list  of  the  lectures  she  de- 
livered, together  with  the  names  of  such  of  her  professors,  or 
more  distinguished  graduates,  as  she  wished  to  recommend 
for  promotion.  What  Boniface  bad  solicited  in  vain  was 
freely  granted  by  the  university  to  John  xxil.  In  1316  the 
first  Rotalus  Kominandorum  was  sent  to  the  newly  elected 
pope  at  Avignon,  and  the  practice  once  established  soon 
became  annual.  Ecclesiastical  dignities  and  emoluments 
fell  in  abundance  upon  the  professors;  and  from  that  time 
the  university  declined.  Other  causes  were,  indeed,  in  ope- 
ration. Paris  had  hitherto  been  the  only  great  school  of 
theology  on  the  continent.  The  time  bad  come  when  this 
could  no  longer  continue.  The  demand  for  learning  was 
becoming  daily  more  general;  and,  what  is  more  important, 
the  spirit  of  nationality  was  growing  every  day  more  pover- 
fuL  A  vernacular  literature  bad  arisen  in  Italy,  and  was 
rising  on  a  humbler  scale  in  England ;  and  even  Germany 
and  Bohemia,  which  had  contributed  many  illustrious  pupils 
to  Paris,  began  to  wish  for  national  universities  of  their  own. 
In  1348  the  university  of  Prague  was  founded  in  connexion 
with  Oxford;  in  1365  that  of  Vienna,  'the  eldest  daughter 
of  Paris;'  in  1362  and  1363  faculties  of  theology  were  given 
to  Bolf^na  and  Padua,  where  law  alone  bad  biUierto  been 
studied.     To  Paris,  therefore,  little  more  than  France  was 


210 


EARLY  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 


cuAP.  iiL  left,  at  a  time  when  France  was  torn  by  division  and  liumi- 
>K^"^^  liated  by  defeat.     To  Oxford  passed  what  remained  of  her 

intellectual  empire  \' 
SeuitiiMMor        It  is  accordingly  by  a  natural  and  inevitable  transition 
to' h^jf     that,  in  tracing  the  progress  of  learning,  the  historian  finds 
cSlmSidg*    himself  passing  with  the  advance  of  the  fourteenth  century 
Sou!n«nu    ^^  ^^^  continent  to  England ;  and,  having  examined  suffi- 
ciently for  our  present  purpose,  the  character  and  direction 
of  the  new  activity  at  Oxford,  we  may  now  proceed  to 
consider  the  rise  in  our  own  university  of  those  new  insti- 
tutions, which,  reflecting  for  the  most  part  the  example 
set  by  Walter  de  Merton,  occupy  the  foreground  of  our  sub- 
ject in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries.    Lengthened 
as  our  preceding  enquiry  has  been,  it  has  not  been  irrelevant 
to  our  main  purpose.   The  commencement  and  early  celebrity 
of  the  university  of  Paris,  its  remarkable  mental  activity 
under  the  influence  of  the  Mendicants,  and  its  rapid  collegiate 
growth,  are  the  three  cardinal  features  in  its  early  annals 
which  Oxford  reproduced,  in  all  essential  points,  with  sin- 
gular fidelity.    It  would  be  gratifying  if  our  information 
enabled  us  to  trace  out  a  similar  resemblance  at  Cambridge, 
but  the  obscurity  which  hangs  over  her  ancient  history,  and 
the  loss  of  much  that  might  have  served  to  attest  a  corre- 
sponding process  of  developement,  preclude  us  from  a  like 
course  of  treatment.    Beyond  those  broad  outUnes  which  we 
have  followed  in  our  preceding  chapter,  there  is  little  that 
we  know  concerning  our  ante-coUegiate  era;  presumptive 
evidence  affords  our  principal  guidance ;  it  is  not  until  the 
rise  of  the  Hospital  of  St.  John  the  Evangelist  and  of  Peter- 


^  Introd.  to  Fasciculi  Zizaniorunif 
p.  li.  M.  Le  Glero,  somewhat  mis- 
led, I  rather  think,  by  the  nnmerous 
movements,  political  and  theological, 
which  found  a  centre  at  Paris  during 
this  century,  movements  however 
that  represent  the  conservatism  ra- 
ther than  the  advancement  of  the 
age,  has  claimed  for  his  university 
an  undiminished  influence  and  pres- 
tige:— '  Mais  cette  university  de  Pa- 
ris qu'un  81  grand  nombre  d*autres, 
en  France  et  bors  de  France,  ont 


proclam^e  leur  mbre,  ne  nous  parat- 
tra  jamais  plus  puissante,  malgr^  le 
prestige  qui  environne  au  loin  sou 
nom,  qu'elle  ne  le  fut  pendant  ce 
si^le  au  centre  mdme  du  royaume, 
k  Paris,  et  dans  notre  propre  his- 
toire;  oar  jamais,  depuis  qu'elle  fut 
mdl6e  aux  affaires  du  monde  politi- 
que, elle  n'exerga,  prds  de  cinquante 
ans  de  suite,  un  tel  pouvoir  sur  les 

esprits.*  Etat  de$  Lettra  au  H"*  Sil- 
cUf  I  282. 


CUEATIOS  OF  HOSTELS.  217 

liouse,  of  llicliaelhouae  aod  of  King's  Hall,  of  University  chap,  nt 
Ha.ll  and  of  Clare,  that  our  data  assume  something  of  com-  -  *,  ■  - 
pleteness  and  precision;  it  is  not  until  we  decipher  the  faded 
characters  of  the  charters  and  earliest  statutes  of  those  an- 
cient foundations, — note  the  rude  Latinity  wherein  the  new 
conception  is  seen  struggling  as  it  were  for  utterance  amid 
the  terrorism  and  traditions  of  a  monkish  age, — the  mass  and 
the  disputation,  the  friar  and  the  secular,  dt^ma  and  specula- 
tion, in  strange  and  bewildering  contrast  and  juxtaposiUon,— ^ 
that  a  sense,  dim  and  vague  though  it  be,  comes  over  as  of 
the  conditions  under  which  our  college  life  b^an;  and  it  is 
precisely  as  we  turn  to  collect  the  scattered  links  that  still 
connect  us  with  that  age,  that  we  become  aware  what  a 
cbasm,  deep  and  not  to  be  bridged  over,  separates  us  from 
its  feelings  and  its  thought. 

Omitting  fur  the  present  much  interestiDg  detail,  it  will 
accordingly  be  our  object  in  this  chapter  to  gather  from  the 
charters  and  statutes  of  the  new  foundations,  that  now  began 
to  rise  in  such  rapid  succession,  the  motives  and  designs  of 
the  founders,  and  to  illustrate  the  dominant  conception  of 
that  new  movement  in  which  the  old  univendty  life  be- 
came ultimately  merged.  Before  however  passing  on  to  this 
stage  of  our  enquiry  it  will  be  necessary  to  devote  some 
consideration  to  that  intermediate  institution,  the  hostel, 
which  took  its  rise  in  an  endeavour  to  diminish,  to  some 
extent,  the  discomforts,  sufferings,  and  temptation^  to  which, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  students  of  the  earliest  period 
were  exposed.  The  hostel  of  the  English  universities  inBoat^ 
former  times  may  be  defined  as  a  lodging-house,  under  the 
rule  of  a  Principal,  where  students  resided  at  their  own 
cost.  It  provided  for  and  completely  absorbed  the  pensioner 
cla.^  in  the  university;  for  the  College,  as  we  shall  after- 
wards see,  was  originally  composed  only  of  a  Master,  Fellows, 
and  Sizars.  It  offered  no  pecuniary  aid,  but  simply  freedom 
from  extortion,  and  a  residence  where  quiet  would  be  ensured 
and  some  discipline  enforced;  advantages  however  of  no 
small  rarity  in  that  turbulent  age.  Fuller,  in  his  history  of  hcowk 
the  university,  has  enumerated,  chiefly  on  the  authority  of  uhk 


218  EABLY  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 

CHAP.  iiL  Caius  and  Parker,  no  less  than  thirty-four  of  these  institu- 
-  ^^i_-  lions,  of  which  the  greater  number  either  fell  into  decay  or 
became  incorporated  with  colleges  before  the  Reformation, 
while  some  imdoubtedly  survived  for  a  longer  period  and  are 
supposed  by  the  same  authority  to  have  been  the  residence 
of  many  eminent  men,  who  though  trained  at  Cambridge 
during  the  earlier  half  of  the  sixteenth  century  are  unmen- 
tioned  on  her  college  registers.  '  Of  these  hostels/  he  says, 
'we  see  some  denominated  from  the  saint  to  whom  they 
were  dedicated,  as  St.  Margaret's,  St.  Nicholas's,  etc.  Some 
from  the  vicinage  of  the  church  to  which  they  were  adjoined, 
as  St  Mary's,  St.  Botolph's,  etc.  Some  from  the  materials 
with  which  they  were  covered,  as  Tiled-Hostel.  Some  from 
those  who  formerly  bought,  built,  or  possessed  them,  as  Bor- 
den's, Rud's,  Phiswick's,  etc.  Some  were  reserved  only  for 
civil  and  canon  lawyers,  as  St.  Paul's,  Ovings',  Trinity,  St 
Nicholas's,  Borden's,  St  Edward's,  and  Rud's ;  and  all  the 
rest  employed  for  artists  and  divines.  Some  of  them  were 
but  members  and  appendants  to  other  hostels  (and  after- 
wards to  colleges),  as  Borden's  to  St  John's  Hostel,  then  to 
Clare  Hall ;  St.  Bernard's  to  Queens'.  The  rest  were  abso- 
lute corporations,  entire  within  themselves,  without  any  sub- 
ordination.' 
Early  ttaiute  We  are  indebted  to  recent  research  for  the  discovery  of 
SniSfof™*  *^  early  statute  concerning  the  hire  and  tenure  of  these 
***^**^  institutions,  which  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  oldest 
documents  illustrating  the  internal  economy  of  the  univer- 
sity; it  belongs  to  the  latter  part  of  the  thirteenth  or  to  the 
early  part  of  the  fourteenth  century;  and  offering  as  it  does 
marked  points  of  contrast  when  compared  with  the  statute 
given  in  our  Statuta  ArUiquaj  has  seemed  worthy  of  inser- 
tion:— 
OMitioM:  at  ^If  anyone  desire  to  have  the  principalship  of  any  hostel 
JJjj^  *•  ui  the  said  imiversity,  he  must  come  to  the  landlord  of  the 
said  hostel  on  St.  Barnabas  the  Apostle's  day  (June  11); 
for  from  that  time  up  to  the  nativity  of  the  blessed  Mary 
(Sei^i  8)  cautions  may  be  offered  and  received  and  at  no 
other  time  of  the  year. 


HOSTELS.  219 

'  Moreover,  tie  first  by  priority  is  the  first  by  legal  right,  cbap.  m. 
and  therefore  he  who  first  offers  the  caution  to  the  landlord  --'"-^ 
of  the  house,  his  caution  shall  stand,  and  that  same  caution  "^£S" 
must  be  preferred  in  the  presence  of  the  chancellor.  I^in. 

' Moreover,  the  scholar  who  is  to  give  the  caution  must  J^JJmih* 
come  in  person  to  the  landlord  of  the  hostel,  on  the  aforesaid  ^S^bmS- 
day  or  within  [the  abovenamed]  period,  but  the  sooner  the  *"' 
better,  and  in  the  presence  of  a  bedell  or  a  notary,  or  of  two 
witnesses,  produce  his  caution,  giving  effect  thereto,  if  he  be 
willing;  by  effect  is  intended  either  a  cautio  fdgussoria  or 
pignoraticia,  that  is,  two  sureties,  or  a  hook  or  something  of 
the  kind ;  and  if  he  be  not  admitted  the  same  scholar  is 
forthwith  to  repair  to  the  chancellor  and  produce  his  cau- 
tion in  the  presence  of  the  aforesaid  witnesses  and  say  in 
what  way  the  landlord  of  the  hostel  has  refused  him  in  the 
matter  of  the  acceptaace  of  the  caution ;  and  this  having 
been  proved  the  chancellor  shall  immediately  admit  him  on 
that  caution  and  to  that  principalship  notwithstanding  the 
refusal  of  the  proprietor. 

'  Moreover,  he  who  is  a  scholar  and  the  principal  of  any  »■■»  <t 
hostel  may  not  give  up  posseBsion  or  renounce  his  right  in  ««"•'"■'*» 
favour  of  any  fellow-student,  but  to  the  landlord  of  the  hostel 
only. 

'Moreover,  cessions  of  this  kind  are  forbidden,  because 
they  have  proved  to  the  prejudice  of  the  landlord  of  the 
hostel,  which  ought  not  to  be. 

'Moreover,  if  anyone  be  principal  of  a  hostel  and  ^ny^''^^^ 
other  scholar  desire  to  occupy  the  same  hostel  as  principal,  jWpofy* 
let  him  go  to  the  landlord  of  the  hostel  and  proffer  his  cau-  ^Uf  "^ 
tion,  as  above  directed,  with  these  words : — '  Landlord,  if  it 
please  thee,  I  desire  to  be  admitted  to  the  principalship  of 
the  hostel  in  such  and  such  a  parish,  whensoever  the  princi- 
pal is  ready  to  retire  or  to  give  up  his  right,  so  that  I  may 
first,  as  principal  {principaliter)  succeed  him,  if  you  are  will- 
ing, without  prejudice  to  his  right  thereto,  so  long  as  he 
shall  he  principal.*     If  he  do  not  agree,  thou  mayest  pro- 
duce thy  caution  before  the  chancellor  that  he  may  admit 
thee  on  the  condition  that  whenever  there  shall  be  no  prin- 


220 


EABLY  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 


CHAP.  iiL  cipal  thou  mayest  be  master  and  mayest  succeed  him   (the 
-  ,'"    ■  former  principal)  in  the  same  hostel  rather  than  any  one 
else ;  aud  the  chancellor  shall  admit  thee  even  against  the 
wish  of  the  landlord  and  that  of  the  principal. 
Jj5I^I5^        'Moreover,  if  any  landlord  shall  say  to  any  scholar, — 
^SSriiSlUk'  '  Dost  thou  desire  to  be  principal  of  this  mine  hostel  Y  and 
u^priDdJlt  the  scholar  answer  '  Yes,'  but  the  landlord  says  that  he  does 
•fW^        not  wish  that  the  hostel  should  be  taxed  in  any  way,  and 
the  scholar  says  he  does  not  mind,  and  enters  into  occupa- 
tion as  principal  and  receives  scholars  to  share  the  hostel 
with  him, — those  same  scholars  may  go  to  the  chancellor 
and  have  their  hostel  taxed,  contraiy  to  the  wish  of  both  the 
landlord  and  the  principal,  and  notwithstanding  the  agree- 
ment between  the  landlord  and  the  principal,  inasmuch  as 
agreements  between  private  persons  cannot  have  effect  to 
the  prejudice  of  public  rights. 
^!S^31i^       'Moreover,  no  one  is  to  deprive  any  principal  of  his  prin- 
''^''°'**'^''"  cipalship  or  to  supplant  him,  in  any  fashion,  so  long  as  he 
pays  bis  rent,  or  unless  the  landlord  desire  himself  to  be  the 
occupier,  or  shall  have  sold  or  alienated  the  hostel'.' 

The  rude  Latinity  of  this  statute,  its  simplicity  and  bre- 
vity, would  alone  suggest  its  superior  antiquity  to  the  one 
quoted  in  the  Statuta  Anliqua;  but  further  internal  evidence 
may  be  noted  in  favour  of  such  a  conclusion.  It  will  he 
observed  that  with  the  exception  of  one  clause,  its  purpose  is 
St^iuwtfc  ***  assert  the  rights  of  the  university  over  the  town.  The 
presumably  later  statute  contained  in  the  collection  above 
referred  to  enters  much  more  into  detail ;   it  secures  the 


'  Bee  Comwanicatioa  imtde  by 
Htnry  Bradthaw,  SI.A.,  publixlied 
\rith  Report  preiented  to  the  Cam- 
bridge Antiqvariait  Socielij,  May  11, 
1663.  'A  Btatate,'  obaerveB  Mr. 
Biadshaw,'aonceTiiiiig  Hostels,  mute 
in  the  Teigii  of  Edward  tte  First, 
carries  ns  back  to  a  time  in  the  his- 
tOTj  of  the  nniversity  when  Peter- 
bouse  ws3  the  only  coll e){e.  and  nearly 
■11  the  members  lived  in  these  Hob- 
pitia.  It  is  therefore  leas  remark- 
able that  we  do  not  fled  this  statote 
amoDg  the  Statuta  Antiqwa  in  the 


printed  editions,  bb  the  old  Proctors' 
books,  from  which  the  materials 
chiefly  came  for  the  edition  of  1786, 
Beem  not  to  have  been  drawn  np  till 
the  end  of  the  14th  century  at  the 
earliest,  and  so  represent  a  tiine  when 
the  collegiate  system  had  began  to 
(tet  a  firm  footing  in  the  UniTeraity.' 
The  quaint  character  and  eccentric 
grammar  of  this  ancient  statute  has 
seemed  to  render  it  worthy  ol  inser- 
tion  in  its  original  form:  Gee  Appen- 
dix (C). 


forbids  that  houses  formerly  used  as  schools  should  be  occu- 
pied as  hostels  uuless  good  reason  be  shewn,  the  object  being  »i^^ 
evidently  to  secure  to  the  university  a  sufficient  number  of  iiMtnMCT. 
suitable  and  convenient  places  for  instmotion;  it  provides 
that  the  principal  alone  shall  be  responsible  for  the  payment 
of  the  rent,  '  lest  he  who  has  made  a  contract  with  one  per- 
son should  be  distracted  by  a  multitude  of  adversaries;'  it 
gives  to  the  lord  of  the  manor  or  the  receiver  of  the  superior 
annual  fees  the  right  of  distraining  for  rent.  We  can  hardly 
doubt  that  these  provisions  have  reference  to  a  later  period, 
when  the  points  severally  dealt  with  had  become  matters  of 
frequent  experience;  while  in  the  shorter  statute  we  seem 
to  recognise  an  enactment  drawn  up  in  that  turbulent  period  , 
when.the  law  between  the  two  corporations  was  ill  deiined, 
and  the  protection  of  the  student  was  the  primary  object; 
and  it  is  deserving  of  notice  that  it  is  probably  in  virtue  of 
the  power  conferred  by  the  third  clause  that  we  find,  in  the 
year  1292,  the  Chancellor  putting  one  Ralph  de  Leicester  in 
occupation  of  a  house  to  the  tenancy  of  which  the  Prior  of 
Barnwell  had  refused  to  admit  him,  though  a  sufficient  cau- 
tion for  the  rent  had  been  duly  tendered'. 

But  the  aid  afforded  to  the  student  by  the  institution  of  bhIIb«uim 
the  hostel  was  evidently  of  a  very  limited  character.     If liSSSuI 
poor,  the  only  assistance  he  obtained  was  protection  agunst  tk 
the  rapacity  of  the  lodging-house  keeper;  the  principal  ap-v 
pears  to  have  been  in  no  way  concerned  with  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  inmates;  the  Mendicants  proselytised  with  impu- 
nity, and  inexperienced  unsuspicious  youth  were  induced  to 
enrol  themselves  as  Dominicans  or  Franciscans  long  bef^e 
their  judgment  was  sufficiently  formed  to  estimate  the  full 
importance  of  such  a  step.     The  attractions  held  out  were, 
indeed,  well  calculated  to  allure  them  from  honorable  acti- 
vity in  any  secular  calling.     The  indolent  were  tempted  by 
the  prospect  of  a  dronelike  existence  at  the  expense  of  the 
public  charity;  the  needy,  by  the  temptations  of  a  thinly- 
disguised  epicureanism  and  the  security  of  a  corporate  life; 
>  Cooper,  Annali,  1 66. 


222  EAHLT  COLLEGE  TOUKDATIOSS. 

•.  la  vhile  to  the  studious,  the  eDthusiastic,  and  tbe  ambitious, 
^  the  friar  could  point  out  how  the  great  teachers  of  tbe  age 
had  found  in  the  ranks  of  his  order  the  most  congenial  asso- 
ciations and  the  opportunities  for  the  most  successful  career. 
It  is  difficult  to  study  the  character  of  such  men  as  Boger 
Bacon  and  William  of  Occam,  and  not  to  surmise  that 
their  adoption  of  the  vows  of  the  Franciscan  was  the  result 
rather  of  the  proselytising  activity  to  which  they  were  ex- 
posed than  of  their  own  mature  and  deliberate  choice. 
'  Minors  and  children  agreed  well  together,'  says  Fuller,  in 
bis  usual  vein. 

When  such  were  the  circumstances  under  which  lads  of 
fourteen  bad  to  acquire  a  university  education,  we  need  feel 
no  surprise  that  both  tbe  academical  authorities  and  private 
MM  munificence  were  roused  to  action  on  their  behalf.  In  1336 
Uj".  a  statute  of  our  own  university  forbade  the  friars  to  receive 
^  into  their  orders  any  scholars  under  the  age  of  eighteen 
years,  a  measure  which  it  required  tbe  united  influence  of 
the  four  orders  to  repeal'.  To  such  an  extent  had  the  evil 
spread  at  Oxford  that,  in  the  preamble  of  a  statute  passed  in 
1358,  we  find  it  asserted  as  a  notorious  iaot,  that  the  nobi- 
lity and  commoners  alike  were  deterred  from  sending  their 
sons  to  the  university  by  this  veiy  cause,  and  it  was  enacted 
that  if  any  Mendicant  should  induce,  or  cause  to  be  induced, 
any  member  of  the  university  under  eighteen  years  of  age  to 
join  the  said  friars,  or  should  in  any  way  assist  in  his  abduc- 
tion, no  graduate  belonging  to  the  cloister  or  society  of 
which  such  friar  was  a  member  should  be  permitted  to 
give  or  attend  lectures  in  Oxford  or  elsewhere  for  the  year 
ensuing*. 

It  may  be  questioned  whether,  at  any  period  in  our  mo- 
dem era,  the  spirit  of  cooperation  has  been  more  active  in 
this  country  than  it  was  in  tbe  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies. The  rapid  spread  of  tbe  religious  orders,  and  the 
numerous  gilds  among  the  laity  attest  its  remarkable  power ; 
but,  save  for  the  purposes  of  propagandism,  as  among  the 
M^idicants,  we  rarely  find  this  principle  developing  a  novel 

^  Coofvt,  Aniuli,  1 109.        *  AniU/,  Mmnmenla  Academica,  i  201-6. 


EARLY   rOUSDATlOSS.  223 

conception.  The  gilds  of  the  Middle  Ages,  vhile  Bometimes  cH&r.  i 
subserving  tbe  purposes  of  supeistition,  were  mostly  societies  -^^^ 
for  the  protection  of  tbe  presumed  interests  of  a  class  or  of  a 
branch  of  industiy;  they  represented  tbe  traditions  and  pre- 
judices rather  than  tbe  advanced  thought  and  enlightenment 
of  tbe  time.  It  is  therefore  no  matter  for  surprise  that  the 
foundation  of  our  colleges  was  left  to  the  philanthropy  of  a 
few  illustrious  individuals,  and  that  it  was  not  until  the 
example  thus  set  had  been  six  times  repeated  in  oar  own 
university,  that  it  occurred  to  any  corporate  bodies  to  com- 
bine for  a  like  purpose. 

So  early  as  tbe  twelfth  century,  in  the  year  113a,  tti^Ef^!!^ 
Frosts,  an  ancient  and  charitable  family  in  Cambridge,  J'^'Jb 
founded  theie  a  hospital  dedicated  to  St.  John  the  Evan-*^ 
getist,  under  the  management  of  Augustinian  Canons.  Tra- 
dition has  assigned  to  Nigellus,  the  second  bishop  of  Ely, 
the  honour  of  the  foundation,  but  in  tbe  list  of  benefactors 
tbe  name  of  Eustachius,  tbe  fifth  bishop  of  that  see,  stands 
earliest,  and  this  must  be  accepted  as  conclusive  against  tbe 

claim  put  forward  on  behalf  of  his  predecessor.     The  bene-  b _, 

factions  of  Eustachius  were  of  a  princely  character,  and  tbe  tSn—mk 
privileges  he  obtained  for  the  new  foundation  added  largely 
to  its  importance.     His  example  was  followed  by  his  sue-  ^^Soid, 
cessors  in  the  bishopric ;  by  Hugh  Norwold,  who  obtained  S^uJL 
for  the   foundation   exemption   from   taxation   (a  material 
relief  at  that  period)  in  respect  of  two  bouses  near  St.  Peter's 
Church;  and  by  William  of  Kilkenny,  the  founder  of  ourwiniMiot 
earliest   university  exhibition.     William  of  Kilkenny  was  Qj^Si 
succeeded  in  the  bishopric  by  Hugh  Balsham.     Hugh  Bal-  H>jgi__^ 
sham  was  a  monk  and  subprior  of  Ely,  and  bis  election  to  JSj^lgji. 
tbe  vacant  see  haa  a  special  interest,  for  it  represents  tbe 
installation  of  a  bishop  through  local  infiuence  in  opposition 
to  the  nominee  of  both  the  Crown  and  the  archbishop, — the 
representative  of  a  Benedictine  community,  in  preference  to 
the  foremost  Franciscan  of  his  day.     It  was  the  monks  of 
Ely   who  elected  Hugh  Balsham ;   tlie  King  quashed  the  ™^«^'i 
election  and  nominated  Adam  de  Marisco'.     'A  proceeding,' 
^  *Doiiiiiiiu  Bfli,  nxd  domimiiD  Hczuioiuii  ds  WiOi^Mxn,  ^gilll  loi 


S24  EABLT  COLLEGE  FOUSDATIOXS. 

CHAP.  III.  aays  Mattliew  Paris,  '  which  excited  tlie  wonder  of  all ;  for 
■^i^J^  neither  the  election  nor  the  elected  could  l)e  condonineil 
^JJJ^JJ*™  with  justice,  nor  any  fault  be  found  with  the  elect'.'  It  was 
*iumud~  only  by  recourse  to  the  usual  bribery,  and  an  expensive  joiir- 
iiwSni.*  ney  to  Rome,  that  Hugh  Balsham  succeeded  in  obtaining 
the  papal  confirmation  of  his  election.  It  may  possibly 
appear  to  those  who  have  read  Professor  Brewer's  sketch  of 
the  eminent  Franciscan,  that  the  friend  of  Grossetcste  and 
Simon  de  Montfort,  and  tlie  founder  of  a  distinguished 
school  of  thinkers  at  Oxford,  would  have  added  more  to  the 
lustre  of  the  episcopal  chair.  But  we  must  not  foi^et  that 
Adam  de  Marisco  was  chiefly  distinguished  in  connexion 
with  the  Franciscan  party,  and  we  can  hardly  imagine  that 
the  interests  of  his  order  would  not  have  influenced  him  in 
]iis  capacity  of  diocesan.  We  may  feel  assured  that  he 
would  never  have  become,  what  Hugh  Balsham  became,  the 
founder  of  our  first  Cambridge  college.  He  was  moreover  at 
tbia  time  a  worn  out  man,  and  died  within  twelvemonths  of 
the  election;  while  Hugh  Balsham  filled  the  sec  of  Ely  for 
nearly  thirty  years.  Though  therefore  the  Benedictine  prior 
might  not  compare  with  the  Doctor  Illiistris*  for  genius  and 
varied  learning,  we  can  well  understand  that  as  a  Cam- 
bridgeshire man',   with   etrong   local   sympathies,    and   an 

bajnlmn,  promovere  CDpiebat,  8p«ci-  denn  ad  cuetodiendum  et  tucndum 

alcB  literaa  soppUcstonai  ei  solemieB  uobilem  episcapatom  Eljcnsem,  vt 

noncios  conveotai  Eljreoai  direiit;  iuBulam.quie  ab  antiqao  asylum  oiti. 

peteDB  Drgenter  et  iuBtanter,  at  die-  tit  refngii  omDibns  oppreKsia  tumporo 

tmu  dominum  Henrionm  in  episco-  tribulAtionix,'    Ibid.  p.  95U. 

pnm  et  Bnamm  eligerent  pastorem  *  Tbe  clnim  of  Adam  de  Marisco 

BnininniiD.    ConTentus  autem  con-  to  this  title  tu,  Prof.  Brewer  obserrpR, 

eiderans  notitiam  sai  gnppriaria,  se-  bardl;  boroe  out  b;  liis  letters,  bis 

ciindnra  iltnd  etbicnm: — Ignotum  libi  on];  extant  mitingB;  bat  be  qnotea 

tu  noii  prttponerf  notii,  ipaum  me.  from  (lie  Opia  Tertium  tbe  cmpliatic 

moratum  Buum  Priorem,  Hugouem  teatimoDj  borne  by  KoRer  Bacon  lo 

Tidelioet  deBelesale,  in  Huum  epiaco-  tbe  nttainmeiita   of   bia  illuHtrionx 

pmn  elegenmi'    PoiIb,  Hiit.  ilajor,  brotber  Franciscan.   Sec  3IoHumt«la 

ed.  Watfl,  p.  936.  Frantitcana,  Pref.  p.  c. 

'   '  Snper  qno  faoto  mirati  Bunt  '  Bobdiain,    a  Tillage  aljout  ten 

annctl  audientee,   quia  electuB  ueo  milea  to  the  east  of  Cambridge,  vab 

electio  reprobari  de  jnre  poterat,  iiec  formerly  one  of  the  manor  seats  oT 

in  eiadem  Titiam  reperiri.    Bed  prir.  tbe   bishopric    of   Ely,   and   Simon 

TaiicatoreB,  qn«renl«s  nodnm  iu  Bcir-  Montacule  resided  there.    Fuller  re- 

po,  et  anjultun  in  eironlo,  imposne-  marka  that  it  waa  cahloraary  at  tbia 

runt  ei  quod  simpiei  clauatralis  fnit,  period  for  clergjmeD   to  take  their 

■0  de  negociia  sieoulBribUH  eiercita-  aumame    from  the   place   of   their 


tna  tbI  e^wrtna,  et  penituB  insiifG-      birth.    In  the  accounts  of  tbe  Pre. 


HUGH  BAL8HAK.  S25 

eminently  practical  turn  for  grappling  with  the  defects  and  ^^^-  ™- 
evils  which    he    saw  around   him,    his  merits  may  have  --.■"■• 
appeared  to  many  to  outweigh  even  the  fame  and  influence 
of  the  Franciscan  leader. 

Some  three  and  twenty  years  elapsed  before  the  new 
bishop  of  Ely  founded  Peterhouse, — ^years  during  which  he 
was  acquiring  a  real  knowledge  of  the  state  of  the  neigh- 
bouring university;  and  itwould  be  difficult  to  point  to  any 
patron  of  learning  either  at  Oxford  or  at  Cambridge  who 
has  combined  with  such  enlightened  activity  such  generous 
self  abnegation.     Other  founders  have  equalled  Hugh  Bal-  SS>^lriH 
sham  in  munificence  and  in  eamestnesB,  hut  mostly  where  Mnur. 
they  have  established  a  claim  to  gratitude  they  have  sought 
to  assert  a  corresponding  authority.     It  was  this  prelate's 
distinguishing  merit  that  he  could  at  once  voluntarily  sur- 
render his  powers  of  interference  and  increase  his  benefac- 
tions ;  he  more  a  helper  and  yet  less  a  dictator ;  could  cede 
the  ancient  claims  of  his  predecessors  to  control  and  com- 
mand,  and  yet  labour  on  in  the  same  field  where  those 
claims  had  been  asserted ;  preferring  rather  to  survive  as  a 
fellow-worker  than  as  a  lawgiver  in  the  memory  of  a  grate- 
ful posterity.     Of  this  spirit  a  signal  instance  is  afforded  us  JJ*£llBt 
in  the  letters  which  he  issued  m  the  year  1275,  whereby  heSSSST- 
distinctly  hmited  the  jurisdiction  claimed  by  former  bishops,  """^ 
and  extended  that  of  the  chancellor  of  the  university,  by 
requiring  that  all  suits  in  the  university  should  be  brought 
before  that  functionary,  and  restricting  his  own  authority  as 
bishop  to  the  power  of  receiving  appeals'. 

In  the  following  year,  when  he  was  called  upon  to  adjust  2liJ5^^„ 
a  dispute  between  his  own  archdeacon  and  the  authorities  of  Jjjj^^ 
the  university,  his  decision  was  given  in  the  same  spirit.  J^ig*  "*" 
The'  archdeacon,  it  appears,  not  only  claimed  jurisdiction  over 
the  churches  in  Cambridge  as  lying  withhi  the  diocese,  but 
also,  through  the  Master  of  the  Glomerels,  whose  nomination 

eentor  of  EI7  Cathednd,  in  tbe  jmz  sapplement  to  Beatbam,  Sitt.  of  £Jy 

U9tt,  we  hsTB  th«  foUawine  entr;: —  Catludral,  pp.  61,  86, 

*Tbe  Preuntor,  going  to  B»Uh»iii,  '  Djet, Pririlegei  of  tht  ViUv.  i  S. 
to  eoqnin  for  boob,  6*.  7<>.'    Soe 


226 


EARLY  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 


ciiAP.  iiL  ^as  vested  in  the  archdeaconry,  laid  claim  to  other  authority 
^  y  '  which  threatened  to  encroach  upon  the  rights  of  the  chan- 
cellor. The  Glomerels,  as  we  have  already  seen,  constituted 
a  body  distinct  from  the  scholars  of  the  university,  and  it 
became  necessary  definitely  to  mark  out  the  limits  of  the 
jurisdiction  exercised  by  the  heads  of  the  two  bodies.  Hugh 
Balsham's  decision  was  clear  and  equitable.  He  decided  that 
the  Magister  Glomericd  should  be  arbiter  of  all  disputes  con- 
fined ta  the  Qlomerels  themselves,  or  between  Glomerels  and 
townsmen,  but  that  whenever  a  dispute  hod  arisen  between 
Glomerels  and  scholai-s  there  should  be  a  power  of  appeal 
from  the  decision  of  that  functionary  to  the  chancellor*.  On 
other  points^  such  as  the  jurisdiction  over  university  ser- 
vants, over  priests  resident  at  Cambridge  merely  as  cele- 
brants, and  priests  resident  for  the  purpose  of  study,  the 
bishop's  decisions  are  equally  clear  and  deserving  of  com- 
mendation; but  the  most  important  is  undoubtedly  that  in 
confirmation  of  a  statute  previously  passed  by  the  chancellor 
S^d^mM-  *^^  masters,  '  that  no  one  shoul4  receive  a  scholar  who  has 
th««Sr£^  not  had  a  fixed  master  within  thirteen  days  after  the  said 
scholar  had  entered  the  university,  or  who  had  not  taken 
care  that  his  name  had  been  within  the  time  aforesaid 
inserted  in  the  matriculation  book  of  his  master,  uuless  the 
master^s  absence  or  legitimate  occupation  should  have  pre- 
vented the  same.'  To  this  'commendable  and  wholesome' 
statute,  as  he  terms  it  {atatutuin  laudabile  et  salubre),  the 
bishop  gives  his  hearty  sanction.  '  In  fact,'  he  further  adds, 
'  if  any  such  person  be  found  to  remain  under  the  name  of  a 
scholfi^,  he  shall  be  either  expelled  or  detained,  according  to 
the  King's  pleasure.'    It  will  be  readily  allowed  that  the 


■IV. 


1  *  It  appeuTB  from  the  pemsal  of 
these  veiy  remarkable  docmnents, 
that  the  matter  of  glomery  received 
his  appointment  and  institution  from 
the  arohdeaoon  of  Ely,  to  whose  ju- 
risdiction the  regulation  and  colla- 
tion of  the  schools  of  grammar  of  the 
uuTcrsity  preseriptiTely  belonged; 
that  he  was  required  to  swear  obedi- 
ence to  the  archdeacon  and  his  offi- 
eials:  that  it  was  his  duty  to  preside 


over  and  read  (to  have  the  tutela  et 
regimen)  in  those  schools,  receiving 
from  the  scholars  or  gUmereUi  the 
accustomed  colUcta  or  fees;  that  he 
was  also  attended  by  his  proper  be- 
deU  (now  said  to  be  the  yeoman  be- 
dell), and  that  he  exercised  over  his 
glomerells  the  usual  jurisdiction  of 
regent  masters  over  Uieir  scholars.* 
Dean  Peacock,  Obtervationt  on  the 
Statutes,  Appeoidix  A. 


PETEEHOUSe. 


227 


arbitrator  ia  matters  requiring  sucb  careful  investigatioD  as  c 
the  foregoing,  must  have  had  ample  opportunities  for  a  clear  ■ 
insight  into  the  defects  and  wants  of  the  university,  nor  can 
we  doubt  that  the  knowledge  thus  gained  found  expresfflon 
in  the  design  which  he  shortly  afterwards  carried  into  exe- 
cntion.  'His  affection  for  learning,  and  the  state  of  the 
poor  scholars  who  were  much  put  to  it  for  conveniency  of 
lodging  from  the  high  rents  exacted  by  the  townsmen,'  being 
the  causes  assigned  by  the  chronicler  as  weighing  with  Hugh 
Balsham  in  his  new  endeavour*. 

If  we  adopt  the  account  accepted  by  so  trustworthy  a  JJ 
guide  as  Baker,   his  efforts  were  first  directed   towards  a  £ 
fusion  of  those  two  elements  which  Walter  de  Merton  had  al 
striven  to  keep  distinct    '  Having  first  obtained  the  Ein^s 
license  and  the  consent  of  the  brethren,  he  brought  in  and 
engrafted  secular  ecbolars  upon  the  old  stock  (the  Hospital 
of  St.  John  the  Evangelist),   endowing  them  In  common 
with  the  religious  brethren,  as  well  with  the  revenues  of  the 
old  house,  as  with  additional  revenues,  granted  with  r^ard 
to,  and  in  contemplation  of  his  new  foundation ;  and  so  the 
regular  canons  and  secular  scholars  became  unum  corpus  «t 
unum  collegium,  and  were  the  first  endowed  college  in  this 
university,  and  possibly  in  any  other  university  whatever*.' 
The  attempted  combination  was  not  successful     '  The  scho-  ^ 
lani,'  observes  Baker,  '  were  too  wise,  and  the  brethren  pos- 1^ 
sibly  over  good;'   and  Hugh  Balsham,  after  vainly  endea- 
vouring to  allay  the  strife  that  sprang  up  between  the  two 
bodies,  was  compelled  to  take  measures  for  their  separation. 


>  Addilioru  to  Camden,  col.  412, 
qDol«d  in  Benlham,  p.  150. 

>  Hut.  of  the  CoUrge  of  St.  John 
the  Ei:angeti4t,  hj  Thom>s  Baker, 
edited  b;  John  E.  B.  Ms;or.  U.A.  i 
22.  '  The  precise  time  when  this 
wu  done,  or  bon  long  the;  coDtinned 
together,  does  not  bo  clesri;  appear ; 
tor  though  the  license  to  thia  pnr- 
noae  «u  obtained  from  Edward  the 
Fiist  an.  r^.  dodo,  Decembr.  27, 
and  there  might  be  no  foU  and  tho- 


Eooner,  and  my  r«M<ni  !■  tbia,  be- 
canse  they  are  sud  hj  SioMm  Ifon- 
tacnte  {who  knew  Teiy  well)  to  haye 
continned  hen  per  longa  tcnpora, 
which  in  no  coiiatrnotiaii  of  word* 
can  be  understood  otberwiM,  than 
that  they  were  placed  here  rery  early, 
and  towarda  the  beginning  irf  Hogb 
Bolsham's  prelacy  at  Ely:  tor  that 
they  were  here  before  he  waa  bishop, 
I  can  hardly  imagine,  he  having  no- 
thing to  do  with  the  goremment  of 
the  home  before  ha  waa  biabop.' 
Ibid.  1 22,  23. 

16— a 


228  EARLY  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 

ciiAP.  iiL  Such  a  proceeding  involved,  of  course,  a  division  of  the  com- 
Jlf^^i^  mon  property,  and  the  canons,  who  appear  to   have  been 
SfgJ^Jl^     most  anxious  for  the  separation,  were  considerable  losers  by 
TThlTidiotari  *^®  rcsult.     They  resigned  to  the  secular  scholars  the  inipro- 
llSSSfaSSn""  priation  of  St.  Peters  Church  with  the  two  adjourning  hos- 
"iiureh'Sth-  tcls  already  mentioned,  receiving  in  return  a  hostel  near  the 
ingumgiuet.  Domiuicau  foundation,  afterwards  known  as   Rud's  Hostel, 
and  some  old  houses  in  the  vicinity  of  the  hospital.     To  the 
two  hostels  of  which  they  had  thus  become  the  sole  proprie- 
tors, the  secular  scholars  removed  in  the  year  1284,  and  there 
S*pm?.**  formed  the  separate  foundation  of  Peterhouse.     But  though 
Btini,u8i  ^Q  ^^^^  ancient  foundation  undoubtedly  belongs  the  honour 
of  having  first  represented  the  Cambridge  college,  as  a  sepa- 
rate and  distinct  institution,  to  the  Hospital  of  St  John  the 
Evangelist  belongs  the  credit  of  having  first  nurtured  the 
collegiate  conception \     *No  doubt,'  says  Baker,  'our  good 
bishop  was  much  grieved  with  these  divisions ;  but  could  he 
have  foreseen,  that  this  broken  and  imperfect  society  was  to 
give  birth  to  two  great  and  lasting  foundations,  and  that  two 
colleges  were  to  be  built  upon  one,  he  would  have  had  much 
joy  in  his  disappointment*.*     Within   another  quarter  of  a 
century  the  foundation  of  Peterhouse  was  further  enriched 
by  an  imexpected  addition.     Tlie  immunities  and  influence 
enjoyed  by  the  Franciscans  and  Dominicans  had  excited  the 
emulation  of  not  a  few  rival  sects,  imtil  at  length  the  Church 
found   it  necessary  to   set  boimds   to   a  movement  which 
threatened  to  terminate  in  disaster  from  a  too  complete  suc- 
Theeoiiflfe    cess.     At  tho  socond  Council  of  Lyons,  held  in  1274,  it  wag 

becouMi  pot-  *' 

Mn^oroie  decreed  that  only  the  four  great  orders  of  Friars   should 
{^[^^■^    henceforth  be  recognised,  the  other  sects  being  formally  sup- 

1  *It  may  even  be  urged,'  observes  possessions,  may  justly  bo  accounted 

Mr.  Cooper,  *that  St.  John's  college  the  first  of  our  present  colleges.*  Ba- 

is  of  superior  antiquity  to  any  other,  ker-Mayor,  ii  5G1. 

as  the  Hospital  of  St.  John,  on  the  ^  Ibid.  p.  2G.    '  By  his  last  will  he 

site  of  which  it  stands  and  with  the  left  to  his  scholars  many  books  in 

revenues  whereof  it  is  endowed,  al-  divinity  and  other  sciences,  and  8O0 

though  a  religious  house,  was  also  a  marks  for  erecting  new  buildings ; 

house  of  learning,  its  members  being  with  which  sum  they  purchased  a 

entitled  to  academic  degrees.'    Me-  piece  of  ground  on  the  south  side  oi 

moriafs,  II 2,  note.  So  Cole,  who  says,  the  said  church,  where  they  built  a 

'  St  John's  college,  now  grafted  on  very  fine  haU. '    MS.  Harleiou,  258, 

that  hospital,  and  still  enjoying  its  quoted  in  Bentham,  p.  151. 


FETimUOUtJE.  *       ii9 

pressed.     Among  these  -was  the  order  De  Poenitentia  Jesu,  chai"-  nr. 
the  site  of  whose  foundation  at  Cambridge  came  into  the   -  t^'-- 
possession   of  Feterhouse   in  the   year   1309;   the  earliest 
instance  of  that  species  of  conversion  which  so  largely  aug- 
mented the  resources  of  the  universities  at  a  later  era. 

The  example  set  by  Hugh  Balsham  was  worthily  followed  gg°;.^^ 
by  Simon  Montacute  or  Montague,  his  successor  in  the  ifi^lSt 
bishopric.  The  first  efforts  of  this  prelate  were  directed  to  a 
more  equitable  adjustment  of  the  terms  on  which  the  canons 
and  the  scholars  had  parted  company,  for  the  dissatisfaction 
of  the  former  found  unremitting  and  clamorous  expression ; 
the  society  at  Feterhouse  was  confirmed  in  its  possession  of 
the  two  hostels,  but  subjected  to  an  annual  payment  of 
twenty  shillings  to  the  brethren  of  St,  John's.  If  we  further 
pursue  the  fortunes  of  these  two  foundations,  we  shall  with  ^fo^tn^ 
difficulty  avoid  the  conclusion  that  their  separation  repre- JjJjJH^^ 
sented  a  real  and  radical  inaffinity.  Both  became  enriched 
by  valuable  endowments;  but  under  the  management  of  tho 
canons  the  fortunes  of  their  house  dwindled,  while  the  merits 
of  the  scholars  of  Feterhouse  attracted  further  munificence 
to  their  foundation.  Of  the  former,  Baker  tells  ua,  a  com- 
mission appointed  in  the  reign  of  Richard  II  reported  how 
'by  the  neglect  of  the  warden  the  number  of  students  had 
become  diminished;'  'lands,  rente,  and  possessions  granted 
them  by  Edward  ili  wasted  and  destroyed;'  'charteis,  books, 
jewels  and  other  monuments,  goods  and  chattels,  alienated 
and  sold  by  the  warden  and  his  ministers  or  servants;'  bow 
'debates,  dissensions,  and  discords'  had  arisen  betwixt  the 
master  and  students,  'so  that  the  students  led  a  desolate  life 
and  could  by  no  means  attend  to  learning  and  study'.' 
Very  different  is  the  account  concerning  Feterhouse,  within 
a  few  years  of  the  above  report;  for  from  the  same  writer  we 
learn  how  that  John  Fordhnm,  bishop  of  Ely,  'having  com> 
passion  of  their  case,  and  a  tender  regard  to  their  notorious 
indigence,  as  likewise  with  r^ard  to  their  celebrated  virtues, 
as  well  as  continued  and  unwearied  exercise  in  discipline 
and  study,  and  aa  an  inexpugnable  bulwark  against  the  per- 
■  Bakar-HaTor,  ■  S7. 


230   '  EARLY  colle(;e  foundations. 

CHAP.  m.  verse  and  sacrilegious  doctrines  then  prevailing/  made  over 
^^"^    to  them  the  church  of  Hinton,  as  a  college  property*.     The 
former  foundation  regained   its  exclusively  religious   cha- 
racter; shared  the  corruption  and  degeneracy  that   mark 
nearly  all  the  religious  foundations  from  the  thirteenth  to 
the  sixteenth  century ;  and  was  finally  dissolved  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  viii,  to  be  converted  into  the  college  that  now 
bears  its  name'.    The  college  of  Peterhouse,  on  the  other 
hand,  developed  the  secular  conception,  and,  further  aug- 
mented by  the  wise  munificence  of  its  masters,  sent  forth, 
during  the  same  three  centuries,  many  well-trained  scholars 
and  not  a  few  able  men;   offering,  in  both  its  utility  and 
vitality,  a  marked  contrast  to  the  institution  from  which  it 
sprang. 
staoDiioii-        It  must  be  regarded  as  a  signal  proof  of  the  moderation 
rigScfpre-  of  Simou  Moutacutc,  that  he  resigned  to  the  college  the 
^^t  £^'  valuable  right  he  possessed,  in  virtue  of  his  office,  of  pre- 
senting students  to  the  fellowships', — an  act  conceived  in  a 
very  different  spirit  to  that  displayed  by  some  of  his  suc- 
cessors a  century  later,  when  the  encroachments  of  the  see 
of  Ely  gave  rise  to  the  famous  Barnwell  Process.    But  the 
most  eminent  service  rendered  by  this  prelate  to  the  new 
foundation,  was  undoubtedly  the  body  of  statutes  which  he 
caused  to  be  drawn  up  for  its  government.     To  the  con- 
sideration of  these  we  shall  now  proceed.     We  shall  very 
shortly,  it  is  true,  find  a  body  of  college  statutes  of  yet  more 
££^o?p«.   ancient  date  engaging  our  attention,  but,  as  the  statutes 
Sran^Bi-  given  by  bishop  Montacute  appear  to  have  faithfully  reflected 
ciitoi8sa(f)  the  design  and  motives  of  the  founder,  there  seems  good 
reason  for  regarding  them  as  the  embodiment  of  the  earliest 
conception  under  which  our  college  life  and  discipline  found 
expression. 
^jSftSm         That  the  statutes  of  Peterhouse  have  no  claim  to  origi- 
SrS^kSr^  nality  has  been  already  observed ;  the  phrase  ad  iTistar  AuUb 

Ozftnd. 

^  Baker-Mayor,  i  89.  to  the  nniyeraity,  he  was  commemo- 

*  Ibid.  I  60,  60 — 64.  rated  in  the  ancient  formolaiy  of 

'  '  For  whioh  particular  favotur,  as  commemorating  and  praying  for  our 

mSl  M  for  piiTilegea  granted  by  him  benefactors.*    Ibid.  1 88. 


PETEUUOUSE.  231 

de  Mertcm  meets  us  at  almost  every  page'.    The  second  sta-  ckap.  m. 
tute  affords  a  defioite  exposition  of  the  purpose  of  Hugh  ■— v— 
Balsbam,  as  interpreted  by  his  8ucx:essor,  '  of  proriding,  as 
far  as  lay  in  bis  power,  for  the  security  of  a  suitable  main- 
tenance for  poor  scholars  desirous  of  instruction  in  the  know- 
ledge of  letters.'    A  master  and  fourteen  perpetual  fellows*.  SSSSSSS* 
'  studiously  engaged  in  the  pursuit  of  literature,'  represeat  JSSrni* 
the  body  supported  on  the  foundation;  the  'pensioner'  ofiow^ 
later  times  being,  of  course,  at  thb  period,  already  provided 
for  by  the  hostel.     In  case  of  a  vacancy  among  the  fellows  ^^S^ 
'the  most  able  bachelor  in  logic'  is  designated  as  the  one  on  ^^^^ 
whom,  ceterit   panbvs,   the   election   is  to   fall,   the  other  im 
requirements  being  that,  'so  far  as  human  frailty  admit,'  he 
be  'honorable,  chaste,  peaceable,  humble,  and  modest'     The  i;™gwi»- 
'scholars  of  Ely,'  for  by  this  name  they  were  first  known, 
were  bound  t-o  devote  themselves  to  the  '  study  of  arte,  Ari-  ek^im. 
ntotle,  canon  law,  or  theology;'  but,  as  at  JUerton,  the  basis 
of  a  sound  liberal  education  was  to  be  bud  before  the  study 
of  theol<^  was  entered  upon ;  two  were  to  be  admitted  to 
the  study  of  the  civil  and  canon  law;  one,  to  that  of  medi- 
cine.    When  any  fellow  was  about  to  incept  in  any  faculty  it  g3g;i*_ 
devolved  upon  the  master  with  the  rest  of  the  fellows  to  ^^j^ 
enquire  in  what  manner  he  had  conducted  himself  and  gone  *viiMhr- 
through  bis  exercises  in  the  scholastic  acts;  bow  long  he  had 
heard  lectures  in  the  Acuity  in  which  be  desired  to  incept; 
and  whether  he  had  gone  through  the  forms  according  to 
the  statutes  of  the  university.     The  sizar  of  later  times  is 
recognised  in  the  provision  that,  if  the  funds  of  the  founda- 
tion permit,  the  master  and  the  two  deans  shall  select  two 


I  Tha  dmt*  uiigned  to  tbew  ite- 
Intea  in  the  Statuta  Antiqva  is  1S38, 
bnt  internal  avidence  sbows  that 
■oma  of  them  are  &t  laut  four  jskn 
Ut«r.  In  the  3Sth  Htatate  reference 
ia  mkde  to  the  provincial  ooiutita- 
tion  of  ArchbiKhop  Htratford  whicU 
behings  to  the  ;eu  1342.  The  sig- 
Batnre  of  Bimon  MoDtacota  nppMia 
to  hmn  bMD  given  on  tlia  ninth  of 
April,  IftU. 

*  At  lint  tha  /cUowt  of  a  eollags 


(onndatioo  wen  known  m  tha  teho- 
Ian:  but  in  order  to  avoid  the  erro- 
neoDs  impretiion  whiah  the  use  of 
the  lattOT  t«nn  would  be  calenlatad 
to  give,  I  have  emplojed  the  other 
throDghont.  Judging  fiom  a  paaaage 
in  Chaae«r,  the;  wete  ooea*ioua% 
called  feUowa  in  W  da;: — 

'  Oore  aome  ia  atole,  men  woll  u 

tocdea  call 
Both  the  wuden,  and  onr  fellovM 

all.'    Reve'i  Tait. 


232  EARLY  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 

ciiAP.  HL  or  three  youths  'indigent  scholars  well  grounded  in  Latin* 
w^i^  (juvenes  indigentes  scholares  in  grammatica  notabiliter  fan- 
£jjf**®"    datos),  to  be  maintained,  'as  long  as  may  seem  fit/  by  the 
college  alms ;  such  poor  scholars  being  bound  to  attend  npon 
the  master  and  fellows  in  church,  on  feast  days,  and  at  other 
ceremonial  occasions,  io  serve  the  master  and  f^ows   at 
i^S^^  seasonable  times  at  table  and  in  their  rooms.    All  meals 
were  to  be  taken  in  common ;  but  it  would  seem  that  this 
regulation  was  intended  rather  to  conduce  towards  an  econo- 
mical management,  than  enacted  in  any  spirit  of  studied 
conformity  to  the  monastic  life,  for,  adds  the  statute,  *the 
scholars  shall  patiently  support  this  manner  of  living,  until 
their  means  shall,  under  God's  favour,  have  received  more 
plentiful  increase*.' 

We  shall  be  able,  in  a  future  chapter,  to  avail  ourselves 
of  many  of  the  interesting  details  observable  in  these  sta- 
tutes, which  we  shall  here  pasrf  by;  but  one  of  the  statutes, 
relating  to  the  dress  of  the  scholars,  though  appertaining 
to  a  minor  point,  affords  such  pertinent  illustration  of  the 
whole  conception  of  the  founder,  that  it  seems  to  demand  a 
notice  in  this  general  outline. 

Among  other  features  that  illustrate  the  character  of  the 
clergy  at  this  period,  is  one  which  forcibly  attests  how  largely 
they  then  intermingled  with  the  laity  and  how  little  restraint 
their  calling  imposed  on  their  mode  of  life, — their  disregard 
Jg^^Jg^  of  the  dress  held  proper  to  the  profession.  At  the  universi- 
JJa^jy**  ties  this  licence  had  reached  its  highest  point.  The  students, 
we  quote  from  Mr.  Cooper,  *  disdaining  the  tonsure,  the  dis- 
tinctive mark  of  their  order,  wore  their  hair  either  hanging 
down  on  their  shoulders  in  an  effeminate  manner,  or  curled 
and  powdered:  they  had  long  beards,  and  their  apparel  more 
resembled  that  of  soldiers  than  of  priests;  they  were  attired 
in  cloaks  with  furred  edges,  long  hanging  sleeves  not  cover- 
ing their  elbows,  shoes  chequered  with  red  and  green,  and 
tippets  of  an  unusual  length;  their  fingers  were  decorated 
with  rings,  and  at  their  waists  they  wore  large  and  costly 
girdles  enamelled  with  figures  and  gilt;  to  these  girdles 

^  Documcntit  u  1—42. 


PETEUHOUSE  233 

hung  knives  like  swords'.'  In  order  to  repress  such  laxity  of  cbap.  itt. 
discipline  an  order  was  issued  in  the  year  1342  by  Arch-  -^—^^ 
bishop  Stratford,  whereby  every  student  in  the  university  A^^iuop 
was  rendered  incapable  of  any  ecclesiastical  degree  or  honour  wunw*- 
until  he  should  have  reformed  his  'person  and  apparel;'  and 
it  is  with  express  reference  to  this  order  that  the  following 
statute  of  Peterhouse  appears  to  have  been  drawn  up: — 

'Inasmuch  as  the  dress,  demeanour  and  carriage  ofpIl£iJ,i, 
scholars  are  evidences  of  themselves,  and  by  such  means  it  is 
seen  more  clearly  or  may  be  presumed  what  they  themselves 
are  internally,  we  enact  and  ordain,  that  the  master  and  all 
and  each  of  the  scholars  of  our  house  akaU  adopt  the  clerical 
dress  and  fewwure,  as  becomes  the  condition  of  each,  and 
wear  it  conformably  in  every  respect,  as  far  as  they  conve- 
niently can,  and  not  allow  their  beard  or  their  hair  to  grow 
contrary  to  canonical  prohibition,  nor  wear  rings  upon  their 
fingers  for  their  own  vain  glory  and  boasting  and  to  the  per- 
nicious example  and  scandal  of  others*.' 

Similarly,  as  it  was  forbidden  the  clet^  to  play  at  dice,  n*  ftnixic 
80  is  the  same  pastime  forbidden  the  '  scholars  of  Ely.'    On  3SnS^^ 
the  other  hand  the  non-monastic  purposes  of  the  founder  £"1,^2^ 
are  insisted  upon  with  equal  explicitness ;  should  either  the  ot  wan^ 
master  or  one  of  the  fellows  desire  to  enter  any  of  the 
approved  monastic  orders,  it  is  provided  that  a  yeAr  of  grace 
shall  be  given  him,  but  that  after  that,  another  shall  be 
elected  in  his  place,  inasmuch  as  the  revenues  of  the  foun- 
dation are  designed  for  those  only  who  are  actual  students 
and  desirous  of  making  progress  (pro  actwiZiter  studentibus 
et  proficere  voUntibua').   No  clearer  evidence  could  be  desired 
that   while,  as  in  the  case   of  Merton  college,  it  wos  the 
design  of  the   founder  to  provide   assistance   for  students 
unfettered  by  the  necessity  of  embracing  the  monastic  life, 
nothing  hostile  to  monasticism  was  intended;  but  as  it  was 
not  the  object  of  Hugh  Balsham  to  found  a  monastery,  the 
college  was  no  home  for  the  monk.     If  we  add  to  the  fore- 
going features  that  afforded  by  the  statute  which  provides, 
that  on  any  fellow  succeeding  to  a  benefice  of  the  annual 
>  Coopco'i  AnnaU,  1 96.  ■  DoaimifiU,  ii  73.  *  Ibid,  u  33. 


23* 


EAKLY   COLLEGE   FOUNDATIONS. 


FoamUtioii 

of  MlCIIAKL- 

BOUiit  U24 


Bulytto- 
ttttcsoTMi 
okacllMnue 
given  t 
▼67  do 
ton. 


ciTAP.  iiL  value  of  one  hundred  shilliDgs,  he  shall,  after  a  year's  grace, 
vacate  his  fellowship,  we  shall  have  enumerated  the  princi* 
pal  points  in  these  concise  and  simple  statutes  \ 

An  interval  of  forty  years  separates  the  commencement 
of  Michaelhouse  from  that  of  Peterhouse.    In  the  year  1324 
we  find  Hervey  de  Stanton,-  chancellor  of  the  exchequer,  and 
canon  of  Bath  and  Wells,  obtaining  from  Edward  II  permuB- 
sion  to  found  at  Cambridge, — where,  as  the  preamble  mfomiB 
us,  exercitiu^m  studii  fulgere  dinoscitur, — the  college  of  the 
*  scholars  of  St  Michael/    Though  itself  of  later  date,  yet,  as 
^USS^^fTer.  &11  illustration  of  early  college  discipline,  Michaelhouse  is, 
▼•yde  tan-  ^  point  of  fact,  of  greater  antiquity  than  Peterhouse,  for 
the  statutes  given  at  the  time  of  its  creation  preceded  those 
given  by  Simon  Montacute  to  the  latter  society  by  at  least 
S2S*^-   fourteen  years.     The  foundation  itself  has  long  been  merged 
dat«?fSfai-  ^^  A  more  illustrious  society,  but  its  original  statutes  are  still 
lowahipa.      extant,  and  are  therefore  the  earliest  embodiment  of  the  col- 
lege conception,  as  it  found  expression  in  our  own  univer- 
sity*.   Their  perusal  will  at  once  suggest  that  they  were 
drawn  up  in  a  somewhat  less  liberal  spirit  than  presents 

£S*M^SJfe-  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^  ^^®  ^f  Hugh  Balsham.  The  monk  and  the 
fe^^*^  friar  are  excluded  from  the  society,  but  the  rule  of  Merton  is 
toUoiSr"**  not  mentioned.  It  is  in  honour  of  the  holy  and  undivided 
Trinity,  of  the  blessed  Mary,  ever  a  Virgin,  of  St,  Michael 
the  Archangel,  and  all  the  saints,  that  the  foundation  stone 
is  laid;  the  fellows  are  to  be  priests  or  at  least  in  sacria  ordi^ 
nihm  constituti;  they  must  have  taught  in  the  liberal  arts  or 
in  philosophy,  or  be  at  least  bachelors  incepting  in  those 
branches,  who  intend  ultimately  to  devote  themselves  to  the 
study  of  theology;  the  celebration  of  service  at  the  neigh- 


^  *  These  ststntes/  observes  Dean 
Peacock, '  present  a  very  remarkable 
contrast  to  many  of  the  later  codes 
of  statutes,  which  attempted  to  regu- 
late and  control  nearly  every  trans- 
action in  life,  and  which  embodied 
nearly  every  enactment  which  the 
experience  of  other  and  more  ancient 
bodies  had  shown  to  be  sometimes 
required.'  Ohaervations  on  the  Sta- 
tut^t  p.  110. 

'  These  statutes  have  never  been 


printed,  and  as  the  earliest  eoUege 
atatutei  of  our  university  have  con- 
sequently seemed  deservmg  of  inser* 
tion  in  externa:  see  Appendix  (D). 
I  have  printed  them  from  a  trans- 
cript of  the  original  in  Ottringham^ 
or  the  Michaelhouse  Book,  now  in 
the  possession  of  the  authorities  of 
Trinity  college.  There  is  also  a 
copy  of  these  statutes  in  Baker  MS6. 
XIX  7;  XXXI 160. 


MICHAELUOUSE.  235 

bouring  churcli  of  St.  Michael  is  provided  for  with  great  cbap.  in. 
mintitenesa ;  the  aervices  to  be  performed  are  specified.  So  ■— y— 
tnuch  promiBence,  indeed,  is  given  to  this  part  of  the  foun- 
der's instnictiotis,  that  he  deems  it  necessary  to  explain 
that  it  is  in  no  way  his  intention  to  prejudice  the  study  of 
secular  learning: — 'It  is  not,'  he  says,  'my  design  herein  to 
burden  any  of  the  officiating  scholars  with  the  performance 
of  masses,  as  aforesaid,  beyond  his  convenient  opportunity, 
so  as  to  prevent  a  due  attention  to  lectures,  disputations  in 
the  schools,  or  private  study;  but  I  have  considered  that 
such  matters  must  be  left  to  individual  discretion'.'  It  is 
required  that  the  fellows  shall  pray  daily  for  '  the  state  of 
the  whole  Church,'  and  '  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  the 
realm,'  for  the  welfare  of  the  kiog,  of  the  queen  Isabella,  of 
Prince  Edward  and  the  rest  of  the  royal  family,  of  the  lord 
bishop  of  Ely,  of  the  prior  and  convent  of  Ely,  of  the  foun- 
der and  his  family.  The  consent  of  the  bishop  of  the  die-  j,^°.„ 
cese  bad,  like  that  of  the  reigning  monarch,  been  necessary ;  jj^g&. 
and  if,  as  from  the  tenour  of  different  statutes  appears  pro* 
bable,  the  general  scheme  of  the  new  foundation  had  been 
drawn  up  under  the  auspices  of  John  Hotham,  who  at  that 
^me  filled  the  episcopal  chair,  the  prominence  given  to  the 
religious  services  to  be  observed  will  be  rendered  more  in- 
telligible. That  bishop,  though  a  prelate  of  distinguished 
ability,  unlike  Hugh  Balsbam,  directed  his  efforts  almost 
exclusively  to  enriching  and  strengthening  the  monastic 
foundations  of  his  diocese,  and  left  it  to  Simon  Montacute,  his 
successor,  to  assist  in  the  developement  of  the  more  secular 
theory*. 

The  regulations  concerning  a  common  table,  a  distinctive 
dress,  and  other  details  of  discipline  to  be  found  in  these 
statutes,  ofier  but  few  points  of  difference  when  compared 
with  those  of  Peterbouse,  but  many  matters  are  unprovided 

I  CompMV  note  5  p.  349.  that  addnced  by  Baker,  namely  his 

*  '  An  actiTB  prelaie,'  aajs  Baker,  interfeieiiM   in  coimelioa  with  Bt. 

■  and  ooneemed  himaelf   in  eveiy.  John's  Hospital,  in  fixing  the  mode 

ttiin^  that  (ell  within  the  compass  of  of  tlie  election  of  the  prior  of  that 

Ua  joritdietioa.'     (Baker-UaTor,   i  hODM.    CL  Bentham,  Hi»t.  o/  £I|r 

81).   I  tail  to  find  any  other  proof  ol  Cathedral,  pp.  159—168. 
Us  intemt  in  the  oiuTmity  Uian 


236 


EARLY  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 


CHAP,  m  for  concerning  which  the  code  of  the  latter  college  is  circum- 
^■^->  stantial  and  explicit,  while  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that 
the  example  of  Walter  de  Mcrton  was  present  to  the  mind 
of  Hervey  de  Stanton. 

^JP^S^lJJ]^       The  two  foundations  which  next  claim  our  attention,  that 

odl^  of  Pembroke  Hall  in  1347,  and  that  of  Gonville  HaU  iu 
1350,  afford  satisfactory  evidence  that  the  college  was  not 
necessarily  regarded  as  an  institution  hostile  to  the  religious 

luitedost  orders ;  the  former  owed  its  creation  to  Marie  de  St.  Paul,'  a 
warm  friend  of  the  Franciscans;  while  the  latter  was  founded 
by  Edmund  Gonville,  an  equally  warm  friend  of  the  Domi- 

JygJ3^   nicans.    The  allusion  in  Gray's  Installation  Ode,  where  in 

oiljr*  ^  ^^  enumerating 

*A11  that  on  Granta'a  fmitfal  plain 
Bich  streams  of  regal  bounty  poured,' 

the  poet,  himself  a  Pembroke  man,  designates  the  foundress 
of  his  college,  as 

* —  sad  Chatillon,  on  her  bridal  mom 
That  wept  her  bleeding  love/ 

is  founded  on  a  mere  fiction*;  but  it  is  certain  that  the 
untimely  loss  of  her  chivalrous  husband  first  turned  the 
thoughts  of  Marie  de  St.  Paul,  better  known  as  Mary  de 
Valence",  to  deeds  like  that  to  which  Pembroke  College  owes 
its  rise.  Large  endowments  to  a  nunnery  of  Minoresses  at 
Waterbeach,  and  the  foundation  of  Deney  Abbey,  had  fully 


*  'However  premature  his  death 
may  have  been,  it  assuredly  did  not 
take  place  so  soon  as  our  poet  repre- 
sents. Not  that  he  is  chargeable 
with  the  invention  of  this  interesting 
tale.  Ho  only  relates  what  was  and 
is  to  this  day  currently  believed  to 
be  true.  And  perhaps  the  lovers  of 
poetry  and  romance,  who  have  been 
accustomed  to  indulge  a  feeling  of 
sympathy  for  the  unhappy  lot  of 
this  bereaved  lady,  would  rather  that 
the  illusion  were  not  dispelled.  The 
historian  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
doubtless  resting  on  the  authority  of 
monkish  annals,  and  succeeding  wri- 
ters even  to  the  present  time,  head- 
ing in  their  steps,  state  that  she  was 
on  one  and  the  same  day  a  virgin. 


wife,  and  widow,  her  husband  having 
been  killed  by  a  jousting  on  the  very 
day  of  his  marriage.  The  date  of 
his  marriage  being  however  ascer- 
tained the  mere  detail  of  subsequent 
events  occurring  during  his  lifetime 
will  at  once  prove  the  whole  account 
to  be  a  fable.'  Memoirs  of  Marie  de 
St.  Paul,  pp.  26—28.  By  Gilbert 
Ainslie,  Master  of  Pembroke  College, 
Cambridge,  1847.  I  am  indebted  to 
the  courtesy  of  the  present  Master  of 
Pembroke,  the  Rev.  J.  Power,  for  ac- 
cess to  this  valuable  and  interesting 
manuscript. 

'  *  After  her  marriage  she  was 
never  known  by  any  other  surname 
than  that  of  St.  Paul.'    Ibid.  p.  37. 


attested  her  liberality  of  disposition  before  the  Atiia  seu  chap.  m. 
Domus  de  VaJencemarie  arose.  - ,  ,    ' 

It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  earliest  rule  given  to  ^^^ 
the  new  foundation  of  Pembroke  Hall  is  no  longer  extant'.  IST*"' 
A  revised  rule,  of  the  conjectural  date  of  1366,  and  another 
of  perhaps  not  more  than  ten  years  later,  are  the  sole  data 
whence  the  subjoined  outline  has  been  drawn  up*.    The 

>  The  preamble  in  He7«ood,  Ear- 
ly Slaluta,  p.  179,  and  that  ia  Do- 

eataenli,  ii  192,  are  cftlcuUted  to  gyve 

the  imptesxion  that  the  atatotes  of 

1S47  are  Btill  eitant ;  bat  each  ia  not 

thecaae.  'AlUiongh  nocopyof  them 

is  eitant,' Baja  Dr.  Ainalie,  'jetitis 

eertftin  that  they  w^e  enacted  in  the 

jear  1347,  since  the  revised  copy  of 

statateB.  b;  wliich  they  were  super- 

Beded,  though  itself  wauting  in  datBi 

explicitly  etatee  that  fact.    The  do- 

coment  containing  the  rerised  Eta- 

tates  ia  in  the  form  oi  an  indenlntc, 

to  one  part  of  which  remaining  with 

the  college  was  affixed  the  seal  of  our 

lady,  and  to  the  coimterpart  remain- 
.    ing  with  her  the  seal  of  the  college. 

The  part  remaining  with  the  college 

WM,  npon  a  subsequent  revision,  can- 

eelled  by  cutting  off  the  seal  together 

with   the   names  of  the  vritneaaes. 

The  docmnent  never  had  a  date.     It 

may  be  conjectured  to  be  about  the 

year  1366.  The  lilce  want  of  a  dale 
throws  the  same  tmcertainty  over 
the  time  at  which  the  second  revi- 
riou  was  made.  All  perhaps  that 
can  be  affirmed  with  certainty  is  that 
it  was  not  made  later  than  the  year 
1430.  Thus  much  at  least  there  ia 
internal  evidence  to  prove,  if  not  in- 
deed that  it  was  made  by  the  taim- 
dreaa  herself,  that  is,  before  March 
17. 1876—7.'    /6iif,  p.  89. 

*  The  folloiring  succinct  outline 
from  ihe  pen  of  Dr.  AiiiHlie  gives  the 
aabstanee  of  the  two  codes: — 'The 
honae  was  to  be  called  the  Hall  or 
House  of  Valence  Marie,  and  was  to 
contain  thirty  scholars,  more  or  less, 
according  to  the  revenoes  of  the  col- 
lege :  of  whom  twenty.foor,  denomi- 
nated fellows,  were  to  he  greater  and 
pmnanont;  and  the  remaininp;  six, 
b^ng  students  in  grammar  or  arts, 
to  be  leas,  and  at  the  times  of  elec- 
tion either  to  be  pnt  ont  altogether 
or  else  promoted  to  the  permanent 


class.  If  tha  whole  number  ol  fellows 
was  complete,  six  at  least  were  to  be 
in  holy  orders;  if  there  were  twenty 
there  were  to  be  at  least  tonr;  and  U 
twelve  or  upwards,  there  were  to  be 
two  for  the  pertormanoe  of  divine 
serrioe.  Th^  proportions  were  al- 
tered in  the  next  code  thus:  if  there 
were  ten  feilowa  or  upwards,  there 
were  to  be  at  least  six  in  ordcra ;  and 
four,  if  the  number  was  less. 

'  The  fellows  were  to  apply  them- 
selves solely  to  the  faculty  of  arts  or 
theology;  the  mastar  might  exercise 
more  thui  one  faculty,  according  to 
the  judgement  and  approbation  of 
the  two  rectors.  And  w|ieD  any  one 
should  have  finished  his  lectures  in 
arts,  he  was  to  betake  himself  to  tfae- 

'  The  head  of  the  college  was  to  be 
elected  by  the  fellows  and  to  be  dis- 
tingniahed  by  the  title  of  Keeper  of 
the  House ;  and  he  was  to  have  a  lo- 

'  There  were  to  be  annnally  elected 
two  rectors,  the  <me  a  Friar  fiinor, 
the  other  a  secular,  who  should  have 
taken  degrees  ia  the  oniveisity.  They 
were  to  admit  fellows  elect,  and  to 
have  visitorial  jurisdiction,  which 
after  the  death  of  the  foundi«as  they 
were  to  exercise  even  over  the  sta- 
tates  with  the  consent  of  the  college. 

'  The  later  code  however  did  not 
recognise  the  rectors  at  all,  but  ap- 
propriated their  several  duties  to  the 
master  either  alone  or  in  conjunction 
with  two  or  more  of  the  fellows;  sav- 
ing only  the  power  of  control  over  the 
statutes,  wluch,  tbongb  reserved  to 
the  foandress  during  her  life  without 
a uy  limitation,  was  not  vested  in  any 
one  after  her  decease. 

'And  thus  ended  all  oonneiion  be- 
tween the  Franeiacana  and  the  col- 
lege... 


238 


EARLT  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 


cfiAP.  m. 

Paul 


tUNtOf 


tiM 


tutM. 

wduUBnbtn 

flnttoba 

BMmith. 


GfMnmarfor 
the  lint  time 
included  in 
thecolkm 
cooneof 
■tttdy. 


Tlnritatlom 

wtthreipect 

todtffereot 

countiee^in 

•leetioneto 

feltowihipi. 


points  of  contrast  in  those  two  later  codes  are  however 
deserving  of  close  attention;  especially  that  whereby  the 
participation  of  the  Franciscans  in  the  management  of  the 
society,  secured  to  them  by  the  earlier  statutes,  is  abolished 
on  a  second  revision.    The  scholar,  in  the  sense  in  which  the 
term  is  now  used  in  the  university,  is  also  here  first  to  be 
met  with;  it  being  provided  that  six  of  the  'scholars'  may 
be  minor  scholars^  eligible  at  elections  to  major  scholarships, 
i.  e.  fellowships,  or  subject  to  removal.    It  is  in  connexion 
with  these  six  that  we  find,  again,  the  standard  of  coU^fe 
education  so  far  lowered  as  to  include  Latin,  (grammatica),  a 
knowledge  of  which,  as  we  have  before  had  occasion  to 
observe,  was  generally  looked  upon  as  an   essential  pre- 
requisite to  a  course  of  university  study.     Here,  too,   we 
meet  with  the  earliest  formal  recognition  of  the  necessity  of 
providing  against  those    local   prejudices    and  partialities 
which  so  often  endangered  the  harmony  of  both  university 


ence  was  to  be  given  to  the  most  or- 
derly, the  best  proficient  in  his  stn- 
dies,  being  withal  freebom  and  legi- 
timate; provided  he  were  a  bachelor 
or  sophist  in  arts,  or  at  least  had  stu- 
died three  years  in  that  faculty;  and 
he  might  be  of  any  nation  or  realm, 
that  of  France  especially,  if  there 
should  be  found  anyone  of  that  coun- 
try qualified,  as  above  stated,  in  either 
university  of  Cambridge  or  Oxford. 
The  number  of  feUows  of  any  one 
county  was  not  to  exceed  six,  nor  the 
fourth  part  of  the  feUows.  The  scho- 
Inrs  also  might  be  elected  indiffer- 
ently from  among  the  students  of 
Cambridge  or  Oxford. 

'  The  fellow  elect  was  required  to 
swear  that  he  had  neither  by  inhe- 
ritance nor  of  his  own  means  above 
forty  shillings  a  year  to  spend.  By 
the  next  code  this  sum  was  doubled, 
being  made  six  marks. 

'  The  election  of  a  feUow  was  not 
confirmed  by  admission  till  after  the 
lapse  of  a  year ;  and  then  the  major 
part  of  the  fellows  might  withhold 
such  confirmation. 

'Everv  feUow  before  admission 
pledged  himself  to  vacate  his  feUow- 
ship  as  soon  as  ever  he  was  promoted 
to  any  more  lucrative  place,  unless 


previously  to  such  promotion  he  had 
become  master;  for  the  master  was 
allowed  to  hold  any  preferment  com* 
patible  with  his  office.  The  next 
code  did  away  with  the  year  of  pro- 
bation, and  directed  that  the  pledge 
should  be  to  vacate  on  the  expiration 
of  one  year  after  such  promotion  as 
would  enable  the  feUow  to  expend 
above  six  marks;  unless  promoted  in 
the  meantime  to  the  mastership. 
Beside  taking  an  oath  of  fidelity  to 
the  college  and  of  obedience  to  the 
statutes,  each  fellow  swore  that,  if 
ever  expeUed  from  the  society,  he 
would  submit  to  the  sentence  with- 
out any  remedy  at  law. 

'In  the  choice  of  scholars  those 
were  to  be  preferred,  who  came  doly 
qualified  from  the  parishes  pertaining 
to  the  college  rectories;  but  there 
were  not  to  be  more  than  two  of  the 
same  consanguinity. 

*And  as  her  final  Vale,  the  foun- 
dress solemnly  adjures  the  feUows  to 
give  on  all  occasions  their  best  coun- 
sel and  aid  to  the  abbess  and  sisters 
of  Deney,  who  had  from  her  a  com- 
mon origin  with  them;  and  she  ad- 
monishes them  further  to  be  kind, 
devoted,  and  grateful  to  all  religious, 
especially  to  the  Friart  Minor,* 


OONTILLE  HALL.  239 

and  college  life.  In  days  when  intercourse  between  widely  <bap.  m. 
severed  localities  was  rare  and  difficult,  the  limits  of  covm-  --'y- 
ties  not  unfrequently  represented  differences  greater  than 
now  exint  between  nations  separated  by  seas.  The  student 
from  Lincolnshire  spoke  a  different  dialect,  had  different 
blood  in  his  veins,  and  different  experiences  in  his  whole 
early  life,  from  those  of  the  student  from  Cumberland  or  the 
student  from  Kent  Distinctions  equally  marked  cliarscter- 
ised  the  native  of  Somersetshire  and  the  native  of  Essex, 
Hereford,  or  Yorkshire,  When  brought  therefore  into  con- 
tact at  a  common  centre,  at  a  time  when  local  traditions, 
pr,.>judicea,  and  antipathies,  operated  with  a  force  which  it  is 
difficult  now  to  realise,  men  from  widely  separated  counties 
were  guided  in  the  formation  of  their  friendships  by  common 
associations  rather  than  by  individual  merit;  and,  in  elec- 
tions to  fellowships,  the  question  of  North  or  South  often 
reduced  to  insignificance  considerations  drawn  from  the 
comparative  skill  of  dialecticians  or  learning  of  theologians. 
That  statute  accordingly  is  no  capricious  enactment,  but  the 
reflexioQ  of  a  serious  evil,  which  provides  that  the  number  of 
fellows  firom  a  single  county  shall  in  no  case  exceed  a  fourth 
of  the  whole  body.  Another  provision  is  explained  by  the 
descent  and  early  life  of  the  foundress.  The  countess  had  JISl|!?S'° 
inherited  from  her  father,  John  de  Dreux,  duke  of  Brittany,  rSSi" 
extensive  possessions  in  France;  and  it  must  be  r^arded 
rather  as  a  graceful  recognition  of  the  country  of  her  hirth 
than  as  a  national  prejudice,  that  at  a  time  when  intercourse 
between  the  two  countries  was  so  frequent,  natives  of  France 
belonging  to  either  of  the  English  universities  were  to  he 
entitled  to  preference  in  the  election  to  fellowships. 

The  founder  of  the  next  college  that  claims  our  attention  nn'Mta 
was  Edmund  Gonville,  a  memlnir  of  an  ancient  county  family,  '**^  "* 
a  clergyman,  and  at  one  time  vicar-general  of  the  diocese  of 
Ely ;  his  sympathy  with  the  Mendicants  is  indicated  by  the 
fact  that  through  his  influence  the  earl  Warren  and  the  earl 
of  Lancaster  were  induced  to  create  a  foundation  for  the 
Dominicans  atThetford.  In  the  year  1348,  only  two  years 
before  his  death,  be  obtained  from  Edward  lu  pennissioa  to 


240  EARLY  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 

CTiAP.  ra.  establish  in  Lurteburgh  lane\  now  known  as  Freeschool  lane, 
^!!^"il^  a  college  for  twenty  scholars,  dedicated  in  honour  of  the  An- 
nunciation of  the  Blesijed  Virgin*. 
22Srfl^        The  statutes  given  ])y  Edn\und  Gonville  are  still  eztant, 
SooviS?**  but  within  two  years  of  their  compilation  they  were  coosi* 
derably  modified  by  other  hands;  they  cannot  therefore  be 
regarded  as  having  long  represented  the  rule  of  the  new 
foundation.    Their  chief  value,  for  our  present  purpose,  is  in 
the  contrast  they  oflfer  to  the  rule  of  another  college,  founded 
at  nearly  the  same  time, — that  of  Trinity  Hall, — ^to  the  con- 
ception of  which  they  were  shortly  to  be  assimilated.     Ac- 
cording to  the  design  of  Edmund  Gonville,  his  college  was 
to  represent  the  usual  course  of  study  included  in  the  2W- 
vium  or  Quadrivium,  as  the  basis  of  an  almost  exclusively 
"J{jj»*j^^  theological  training.     Each  of  the  fellows  was  required  to 
mSaj^      have  studied,  read,  and  lectured  in  logic,  but  on  the  comple- 
^"*******'*     tion  of  his  course  in  arts,  theology  was  to  form  the  main 
subject,  his  studies  being  also  directed  with  a  view  to  ena- 
bling him  to  keep  his  acts  and  dispute  with  ability  in  the 
schools.     The  unanimous  consent  of  the  master  and  fellows 
was  necessary  before  he  could  apply  himself  to  any  other 
faculty,  and  not  more  than  two  at  a  time  could  be  permitted 
to  deviate  from  the  usual  course.     It  was  however  permitted 
to  every  fellow,  though  in  no  way  obligatory  upon  him,  to 
devote  two  years  to  the  study  of  the  canon  law'. 
Ptnd.vofth6         The  foregoing  scheme  may  accordingly  be  regarded  as 
ESnot^u-  ^^^*  ^^  ®^  English  clergyman  of  the   fourteenth  century, 
'^'^'        actuated  by  the  simple  desire  of  doing  something  for  the 
encouragement  of  learning  in  his  profession,  and  well  ac- 
quainted, from  long  residence  in  the  diocese  or  in  neighbour- 
ing dioceses,  with  the  special  wants  and  shortcomings  of  his 
order.     It  will  be  interesting  to  contrast  his  conception  with 
that  of  another  ecclesiastic  reared  in  a  diflferent  school. 

The  see  of  Norwich  was  at  that  time  filled  by  William 
Bateman,   a  bishop  of  a  diflferent  type  from  either  Hugh 

*  Or  Luthbome-lane:  see  Masters*  dedicated,  was  origmaUy  known  by 

Hist,  of  Corpus  Chruti  College,  ed.  the  name  of  GonTiUe  HalL      See 

Lamb,  p.  28.  p.  245. 

"  The  coUege  however  though  thus  '  MSS.  Bak^r,  xnx  2C8-— 270. 


TRINTIT  HALL.  241 

Balsbam  or  John  Hotbam;  one  who  had  earned  a  high  repu-  chap.  m. 
tation  at  Cambridge,  b;  his  pro6ciency  in  the  civil  and  canon   — ^^v— 
hiw ;  who  bad  held  high  office  at  the  papal  court  and  resided 
long  at  Avignon ;  and  who,  while  intent  it  would  seem,  on  a 
cardinal's  hat  rather  than  upon  the  duties  of  bis  diocese,  had  « 

finished  his  career  amid  the  luxury  and  dissipation  of  that 
splendid  city'.  It  is  accordingly  with  Uttle  surprise  that  we 
find  a  man  of  such  associations  deeming  no  culture  more 
desirable  tban  that  which  Roger  Bacon  had  declared  inimical 
to  man's  highest  interests,  but  whioh  pope  Clement  Til 
regarded  as  the  true  field  of  labour  for  the  ecclesiastic  who 
wmed  at  eminence  and  power. 

Tlie  year  lS+9  is  a  memorable  one  in  English  l^istory,  TtaOnu 
for  it  was  the  year  of  the  Great  PU^e;  and  it  would  be  ™ 
difficult  to  exaggerate  the  effects  of  that  visitation  upon  the 
political  and  social  institutions  of  those  days.  Villages  were 
left  without  an  inhabitant;  tbe  flocks  perished  for  want  of 
the  herdsman's  care;  houses  fell  into  ruins;  the  crops  rotted 
in  the  fields.  In  the  demoralization  that  ensued  existing 
institutions  were  broken  up  or  shattered  to  their  base.  The 
worst  excesses  of  Lollardism  and  the  popular  insurrections  of 
the  latter  part  of  the  century  may  both  be  traced  to  the 
general  disoi^anization.  Upon  the  universities  the  plague  fell 
with  peculiar  severity.  Oxford,  which  rhetorical  exaggeration  iHdim^ 
bad  credited  with  thirty  thousand  students,  was  half  depopu-  tJ>ii«niiiK 
lated,  and  her  numbers  never  again  approached  their  former 
limits.  At  Cambridge,  the  parishioners,  to  use  the  expression 
of  Baker,  'were  swept  away  in  heaps;'  from  the  Hospital  of 
St.  John  three  masters,  in  the  space  of  so  many  months,  were 
carried  forth  for  burial*.  The  clergy  throughout  the  country 
fell  victims  in  great  numbers;  it  has  been  calculated  that 
more  than  two  thirds  of  the  parish  priests  in  the  West 
Riding  died ;  in  the  East  Riding,  in  Nottinghamshire,  and  the 
dioceses  round  Cambridge  the  losses  were  hardly  less  severe*. 

'  M&Bten-Lamb.  p.  29.    'He  had  eordinala,  arBbbishopB,  bfibops,  and 

denired  to  be  iuteired  in  Eaglond,  other  great  men.     The  serrice  wM 

either  amoiiK  hia  accei^torB  or  in  his  performed  by  the  patriAmh  of  Jeru- 

Oktbedral.  Uiti  remaiiis  weie  how-  wlem.'  Cooper,  ilrmorialt,  i  113. 
«Ter  buried  in  the  cathedral  chorah  '  Baker-Uiijor,  i  M. 

«(  St.  Uaiy  at  Avifpioii,   bia  bodj  *  Se«  artiole  on  Tk«  Black  Diath 

being  attended  to  the  grate  b;  the  by  B«ebohm,    f'orlnifhlty    Reritie, 

16 


242 


EARLT  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 


CHAP.  in.  It  was  chiefly  with  a  view  to  recruiting  the  thinned  ranks 

^-\  ^f  of  the  clergy  in  his  diocese,  that  William  Bateman  proceeded, 

Foundation   in  the  year  1350,  to  the  foundation  of  Trinity  Hall\     In  fact, 

hali^  1850.   no  less  than  three  of  the  colleges  that  rose  at  Cambridge  in 

•  this  century,  distinctly  refer  their  origin  to  the  plague. 

In   the  statutes  of  Trinity  Hall  the  design  of  bishop 
Bateman  appears  in  its  original  and  unmodified  form.     The 
g[«gjy^    college  is  designed  for  students  of  the  civil  and  canon  law, 
g2J^;^  and  for  such  alone,  the  balance  inclining  slightly  in  favour  of 
the  civilians.     The  foimdation,  it  is  contemplated,  will  sup- 
port a  master  and  twenty  fellows;  of  these  twenty  it  is 
required  that  not  less  than  ten  shall  be  students  of  the  civil 
law,  not  less  than  seven  students  of  the  canon  law.     A  civi- 
lian may,  at  a  subsequent  period,  devote  himself  to  the  study 
of  the  canon  law,  or  a  canonist  to  that  of  the  civil  law,  so  as 
JH^<««    to  augment  the  number  of  canonists  to  ten  or  that  of  the 
foi^^o&  civilians  to  thirteen ;  but  these  numbers  represent  the  max- 
and  dTiiians.  j^^^jj^  limits  of  variation  allowed  in  the  proportion  of  the  two 
elements.  Thrice  a  week,  on  the  evenings  of  Mondays,  Wednes- 
days, and  Fridays,  disputations  are  to  be  held,  at  which  some 
question  taken  from  the  decretals  or  the  Pandects  is  to  sup- 
ply the  place  of  the  ordinary  theological  or  logical  quosstio. 

All  the  fellows  ai*e  to  apply  themselves  to  the  prescribed 
course  of  study  until  qualified  to  lecture;  and  are  then  to 
lecture,  the  civilians  on  the  civil  law,  the  canonists  on  the 
canon  law,  so  long  as  they  continue  to  be  bachelors,  until 
they  have  gone  through  the  customary  course  of  reading*. 


Vol.  II.  It  is  however  open  to  qnes. 
tion  whether  the  writer^s  inferences 
are  quite  jastified  hy  his  facts.  Two 
thirds  of  the  benefices  in  the  West 
Biding  might  be  vacated  without  two 
thirds  of  the  priests  dying.  Let  us 
suppose  four  benefices  A,  6,  C,  D, 
worth  respectively  400,  800,  200,  and 
100  marks.  The  holder  of  A  dies: 
then  the  holder  of  B  is  promoted  to 
A,  the  holder  of  C  to  B,  and  the  hol- 
der of  D  to  0.  Thus  (me  death  gives 
rise  to  four  vacancies. 

^  *It  had  before  been  a  hostle  be- 
longing to  the  monks  of  Ely :  John 
of  Crauden,  one  of  their  priors,  pur- 
chased it  for  his  monks  to  study  in 


when  they  came  to  Cambridge.  Bi- 
shop Bateman  afterwards  made  an 
exchange  with  them,  and  gave  them 
several  parsonages  for  the  said  hostle, 
and  converted  it  into  a  college  or 
hall.'  Vfairen,  HUL  of  TrinUy  Hall, 
Cole  MSS.  Lviii  85. 

s  *Volumu8  enim  quod  Socli  om- 
nes  studio  intendant  scholastico  dili- 
gonter,  quousque  habiles  fuerint  ad 
legendum;  et  ex  tunc  ad  legendum 
continue  in  statu  Baccalaurei  se  oon- 
vertant,  quousque  volumina  in  Jnxe 
Civili  LegistfB,  et  libros  Decretalium 
DecretistsB,  more  porlegerint  consne- 
to.'    Documents^  ii  419. 


TIIINITT   HALL. 


243 


A  fellow,  wbether  a  civiliaa  or  a  canonist,  is  eligible  to  the  c 
mastcraliip;  but  should  Done  of  the  fellows  appear  deserving  • 
of  the  dignity,  a  master  of  arts  may  be  choaen  from  the  uni- 
versity at  large,  whose  reputation  entitles  him  to  such  a  dis- 
tinction. On  a  vacancy  occurring  among  the  fellowships  o 
appropriated  to  civilians,  it  may  be  filled  by  electing  a  ba-  ^^ 
chelor  or  a  scholar  of  three  years  standing,  whose  studies  J^JSl^ 
have  been  directed  to  the  civil  law,  or  by  the  electiw  of  a 
master  or  a  bachelor  of  arts  {the  latter  to  be  within  a  year  of 
incepting  as  master),  provided  he  be  willing  to  enrol  himself 
in  the  faculty.  On  a  like  vacancy  occurring  among  the 
canonists,  whereby  their  number  is  reduced  below  seven,  the 
vacancy  may  be  filled  by  the  election  of  one  of  the  civilians 
already  holding  a  fellowship,  on  his  signifying  his  readiness 
to  become  a  canonist,  and  to  take  holy  orders';  but  should 
seven  canonists  still  remain,  the  vacancy  may  be  filled  by 
the  election  of  either  a  civilian  or  a  canonist  as  the  majority 
may  decide.  It  is,  however,  imperative  that  whoever  electa 
to  become  a  canonist,  shall  within  a  year  from  his  election  to 
a  fellowship,  take  upon  himself  6j11  priest's  orders,  and  forth- 
with qualify  himself  for  the  performance  of  masses'.     • 

A  library  given  by  the  bishop  to  the  new  coU^e  affords  lAcMrptB- 
additional  illustration  of  the  comparative  importance  attached  ^y*™" 
by  him  to  theological  and  juridical  studies.     No  less  than  "^ 
four  copies  of  the  code  of  the  civil  law,  each  in  five  volumes, 
integrum  et  gloaalum,  head  the  catalogue;  these  are  followed 
by  volumes  of  the  lectures  of  Clinius,  Raynerus,  and  Pctrus, 
on  the  Codex,  In/orciatum,  and  Aulhentica.     The  volumes  of 
the  canon  law  are  seventeen  in  number;  those  in  theology 
only  three!  viz.  a  small  bible,  a  Compendium  liibtie,  in  uuo 
parvo  putcro  volumine,  and  vHum   librum  Recapitulacioiiia 


'  'Si  quia  eortiiii  ad  flndieDdnra 

jnra  Canonicu,  et  ad  graduiu  PrcHby- 
teri  volueriC  migrore.'  Doeumenu, 
aG31. 

*  'Item  fltatuimDB  et  ordinomiiB, 
quod  eiceptia  incupturiB  in  Jure  Ci- 
Tili,  jura  CanoDicn  ioSin.  t«mpuB  ad 
lucipiaiidnm  oiadem  limtUtuiD  audi- 
entibus,  nt  pisfertoi,  et  Ductonbus 
Jnria  CiviliB  poT  bie 


ordisari^  vel  cnTsoriii  Deoretales; 
quicniiiiue,  modo  quo  prffimittattir, 
ad  Htu'leiidQui  in  Jure  CBuonico  de- 
putatUB,  Beu  in  locum  CuncniBtm  aU 
teriuH  EDbrogatUB,  iitfra  nnni  proximi 
Bpatium  a  dio  cino  admixaaa  fnorit  in 
Eocium  Caniiuutaiu,  ad  omnei  ancruf 
ordinft  It  Jaciat  fnimovni,  tt  punt 
nactptuiH  lacerdoliuia  it  facial  celt- 
riUr  innlmi  ad  UUlat  etUbrandil.' 
DoeuaiaiU,  u  tH. 

16—2 


244 


E&LRLY  CX)LLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 


^ptTt  ™  Biblie,    There  is  however  a  second  catalogue,  the  volumes 
'-"  ^  -'  in  which  are  reserved  by  the  bishop  for  his  own  use  during 
his  lifetime,  wherein  theology  is   somewhat  better   repre- 
sented \ 

It  is  sufficiently  evident  from  this  outline  that  the  new 
foundation  was  certainly  not  conceived  in  a  manner  calcu- 
lated to  remove  the  evils  which  Roger  Bacon  deplored;  the 
combination  of  two  branches  of  study  which  he  held  should 
be  regarded  as  radically  distinct, — the  predominance  given  to 
the  secular  over  the  sacred  branch, — the  subservience  in  which 
theology  and  the  arts  were  to  be  placed  to  both, — all  point  to 
the  training  of  a  body  of  students  either  wholly  given  to 
what  he  deemed,  and  what  probably  then  was,  an  ignoble 
and  corrupting  profession,  or,  to  use  his  own  expression, 
civiliter  jus  canonicum  tractantes,  and  thus  debasing  a  reli- 
gious calling  J;o  secular  and  sordid  purposes". 

We  must  now  go  back  to  trace  the  fortunes  of  Qonville 
Hall.    The  plans  of  the  founder,  it  appears,  were  so  far 
from  being  fully  consolidated  at  the  time  of  his  death,  that, 
either  from  insufficiency  of  funds  or  some  other  cause,  the 
ronflmmtion  coUegcT  would  probably  have  ceased  to  exist,  had  not  the 
Go^i??*    founder  of  Trinity  Hall  given  it  effectual  aid.     In  the  same 
S^iSlh^  year  that  the  original  statutes  were  given,  the  year  in  which 
Dec.  MOMi.  Edmund  Gonville  died,  bishop  Bateman  ratified  the  rule  of 
the  house,  and  announced  his  intention  of  carrying  out  the 
designs  of  the  founder.     '  Wisdom,'  he  says,  in  a  somewhat 
pompous  manifesto,  '  is  to  be  preferred  to  all  other  posses- 
sions, nor  is  there  anything  to  be  desired  that  can  compare 
with  it;  this  the  wise  man  loved  beyond  health  and  every 


^  Warren,  Hist,  of  Iprinity  Hall, 
MSS.  Cole,  Lviii  116—18. 

'  The  prominenoe  giy^ai  to  the 
study  of  the  civil  law  both  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  in  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries  seems  to  have 
altogether  escaped  the  observation  of 
Hnber.  *  The  department  of  civil 
law,'  he  says,  *  which  was  of  national 
importance,  was  but^limited;  and 
the  number  of  individuals  who  stu- 
died it  was  too  small  to  constitute  a 
sohooL'  English  Universities^  i  158, 
jldUL     A  closer  acquaintance   *.^th 


our  college  history  would  have  saved 
him  from  this  misconception.  It 
has  been  pointed  out  to  me  that, 
inasmuch  as  the  fellows  of  Trinity 
Hall  were  prohibited  by  one  of  the 
statutes  from  (joing  about  to  practiMe, 
the  design  of  the  founder  appears  to 
have  been  to  encourage  the  study  of 
the  civil  law  rather  than  its  practical 
profession;  but,  on  the  other  hand^ 
the  very  necessity  for  such  a  pro- 
vision must  be  regarded  as  another 
indication  of  the  mercenary  spirit  in 
wiuoh  thfi  study  was  then  pursued. 


OONTtLLB  HALL.  S45 

good  thing,  preferring  it  even  to  life  it«elf.    The  founder  of  chap.  m. 
this  college  proposed  to  create  a  perpetual  college  of  scholars  — i^!— - 
in  the  university  of  Cambridge,  in  the  diocese  of  Ely,  but 
death  prevented  the  execution  of  bis  praiseworthy  design. 
We  therefore,  biahop  of  Norwich,  by  divine  permission, — 
although    already   over-burdened    with   the  founding    and 
endowing  of  the  college  of  Scholars  of  the  Holy  and  Undi- 
vided Trinity,  in  order  that  so  prwaeworthy  an  endeavour 
may  not  wholly  be  brought  to  an  end,  and  considering  the 
great  benefits  that  must  result  in  the  salvation  of  souls  and 
to  the  public  weal,  if  the  seeds  of  the  knowledge  of  letters 
becoming  moistened*by  the  dew  of  scholastic  teaching  bring 
forth  much  fruit, — being  also  the  more  incited  to  such  work 
in  that  we  have  here  ourselves  received  the  first  elements  of 
learning,  and  afterwards,  though  undeservedly,  the  doctorial 
degree — desiring  that  this  design  may  be  brought  to  its  full 
accomplishment,  do  constitute,  ordain,  and  appoint  the  said 
college,  and  moreover  confirm  and  will  that  the  said  college 
be  called  the  college  of  the  Annunciation  o(  the  Blessed  tiwib 
Maty,  proposing  by  the  assistance  of  the  said  glorious  Virgin,  ■ 
80  to  endow  the  said  college  with  revenues  and  sufficient  g^Uig^"* 
resources,   (when  the  present  site  or  any  other  shall  haveJSJ^*'^ 
been  approved  by  our  diocesan  bishop  of  Ely,)  that  they  '*"^' 
shall,  in  all  future  time,  be  able  to  obtain  the  things  heces- 
Bory  for  life'.' 

Within  three  months  from  the  time  when  this  document 
received  the  bishop's  signature,  we  find  the  royal  license  issu- 
ing to  the  chancellor  of  the  university  and  the  brethren  of 
the  Hospital  of  St.  John  empowering  them  to  transfer  to  the 
new  foundation  of  the  Annunciation  of  the  Blessed  Mary 
two  messui^es  in  Lurteburgb  Lane,  manso  pradicto  Cfustodis 
et  Schdarium  coniigva*.  The  phrase  in  the  bishop's  mani- 
festo indicating  a  possible  change  of  locality,  is  probably  to 
be  referred  to  some  uncertainty  at  the  time  as  to  the  perma- 
nent settlement  of  the  college  in  Lurteburgh  Lane,  for  we 
find  that  in  the  following  year  an  exchange  of  property  was 


246  EARLY  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 

CHAP.  III.  effected  with  the  Gild  of  Corpus  Christi,  and  the  scholars 
•^^^^^  were  removed  from  that  part  of  the  town  to  the  present  site 
of  the  college  in  close  proximity  to  Michaelhouse.     The  Hall 
of  the  Annunciation  was  thus  also  brought  into  the  imme- 
diate neighbourhood  of  Trinity  Hall,  and  under  the  bishop's 
Ammeui    auspicos  a  formal  agreement  of  a  somewhat  novel  character 
"*<»*••  ^     was  entered  mto  between  the  two  foundations, — a  Compositio 

tweenthe  ...  . 

TSniSHmii  ^^  AmxcahiUtate, — which,  unnecessary  and  unmeaning  as  any 
ffiduSS?**  such  convention  would  now  appear,  was  probably  of  real  ser- 
vice in  preventing  rivalries  and  feuds  between  colleges  in 
close  juxtaposition  and  schools  of  the  same  faculty.  By  this 
agreement  the  members  of  the  two  fouiMations,  as  sharers  in 
the  protection  of  a  common  patron  and  living  under  nearly 
the  same  rule,  pledge  themselves  to  dwell  in  perpetual  con- 
cord, in  all  and  each  of  their  necessities  to  render  to  one 
another  mutual  succour,  and  throughout  life  as  far  as  in 
them  lies  to  aid  in  promoting  the  reputation  and  welfare  of 
the  sister  college  and  its  individual  sons.  On  all  public  occa- 
sions it  is  stipulated,  however,  that  the  scholars  of  Trinity 
Hall  shall  have  the  precedence  tanquam  primogeniti  et  prcs- 
stantiores^, 
gJJJ^J  But  the  original  statutes  of  Gonville  Hall  harmonised 

SSfto  gSS*-  but  little  with  bishop  Bateman's  views,  and  his  aid,  unlike 
Sis  rtuhe'  that  of  Hugh  Balsham,  was  to  be  bought  only  with  a  price. 
tkiii,ii6&  To  the  bustling  canonist  Avignon  and  her  traditions  were  all 
in  all;  to  him,  as  to  pope  Clement,  the  theologian  seemed 
a  *  dreamer,*  and  the  civil  and  the  canon  law  the  only  studies 
deserving  the  serious  attention  of  young  clergymen  aiming 
at  something  better  in  life  than  the  performance  of  masses 
and  wranglings  over  the  theory  of  the  Real  Presence  or  the 
Immaculate  Conception.  Accordingly,  without  explanation, 
and  even  without  reference  to  the  former  statutes,  he  sub- 
stituted as  the  rule  of  the  foundation  of  Edmund  Gonville, 
twelve  of  the  statutes,  but  slightly  modified,  which  he  had 
already  drawn  up  for  his  own  college*.     The  direction  thus 

^  See  Stabilitio  Fundacionis,  dbe.  tempore  fuerint  plene  et  integraliter 

Baker  MSS.  xxn  279.  faciant  et  obflervent  omnia  et  singula 

^  '  Volnmns  inpuper  quod  omnes  et  que  in  dnodccim  Statntis  Sooionun 

Bingnli  sooii  dicti  Gollegii  qui  pro  Oollegii  Sancte  Trinitatis  per  eoB  ju- 


COBPUS  CHBISn. 


247 


given  to  the  course  of  study  is  a  kind  of  mean  between  that  chap,  iil 
designed  by  the  original  founder  and  that  of  Trinity  Hall,  s.^..^ 
The  Trivium  and  Qnadrimum  are  retained  in  the  promi- 
nence, originally  assigned  to  them,  but  the  requiremeDta 
with  respect  to  the  study  of  theology  are  abolished.  All  the 
fellows  are  to  be  elected  from  the  faculty  of  ari^,  and  are  to 
continue  to  study  therein  until  they  have  attained  to  the 
standing  of  master  of  arts,  and  even  after  that  period  they 
are  to  lecture  ordinarie^  for  one  year;  but  from  the  expira- 
tion of  that  year  it  is  required  that  they  shall  devote  them- 
selves to  the  study  of  either  the  civil  law,  the  canon  law, 
theology,  or  medicine;  but  only  two  are  permitted  to  eater 
the  last-named  faculty'.  The  order  of  enumeration  would 
alone  suggest  that  the  first-named  branches  held  the  prefer- 
ence in  the  bishop's  estimation.  The  principal  provision  in 
reference  to  other  studies  is  that  requiring  that  all  students 
elected  to  feUowships  shall  not  simply  have  gone  through  the 
usual  course,  but  shall  have  attended  lectures  in  logic  for 
three  years ;  the  three  years  being  reducible  to  two  only  in 
cases  of  distinguished  proficiency. 

The  college  of  Corpus  Christi  is  another  foundation,  J^JJ^ 
whose  rise  may  be  attributed,  though  in  this  case  less  directly,  ^^ 
to  the  effects  of  the  plague;  but  the  whole  circumstances  of'"*' 
its  origin  are  peculiar.   In  the  fourteenth  century  Cambridge 
was  distinguished  by  its  numerous  Gilds,  among  which  those  , 
of  the  Holy  Trinity,  the  Annunciation,  the  Blessed  Virgin, 
and  Corpus  Christi,  appear  to  have  been  the  more  important. 
A  recently  published  volume  by  a  laborious  investigator  of 


ratU,  et  tarn  per  Archiepnm  Cantnar 
qaun  per  UniTeraitAtem  Cantabrig: 
oanfinnalig,  in  titnlatis  inferins  et 
dewriptiB  plenins  continental.'  Do- 
raflwntf,  u  228.  In  DocumenU,  i 
406,  bishop  Bateman  is  HpakeQ  of 
u  hmnng  ■  carri«d  OQl  UonviUe'e  in- 
tentioiiB  in  f^viag  Btatatea  to  Gon- 
Tille  Hal];'  for  carried  out  ire  may 
read  fnutrattd. 

'  For  eiplanatioD  of  this  teim  Bee 

*  '  In  piiniiB  onm  ad  hoDoiem  Dei 
BO  DniTeraitatiB  decorem  muTerseqne 
litenlu  anentie  [omentum  lore  cie- 


ditnns  si  Faenltoa  Arcimn  SoientiGca 
Ejiberaliam  inT»lesot:  Btaluimiu  et 
ordinamiu  qnod  omnet  Sooii  dieti 
veatri  Collegii  qui  pro  tempore  fae- 
rint,  sint  Artists,  et  in  illi  facoltata 
OonUmieDt,  qaoosqiie  in  ilia  Msgia- 
teiii  gradnm  obtinnerint,  et  per  an- 
nmn  in  eadem  ordinarie  legeiint,  at 
est  morjs.  Qaoe  gtatim  post  annnin 
cessare  volnmus,  et  ad  Jtira  Cirilia 
Beu  Cononica  Theologie  ant  ad  H«- 
dicinescientiam,  Jaita  eormn  electio- 


248-  EARLY  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 

CHAP.  m.  the  subject  has  thrown  considerable  light  upon  these  ancient 
..£i^lJl^  institutions,  and  tends  considerably  to  modify  the  conception 

sSth?*       tbat  before  prevailed  concemiDg  their  scope  and  character*. 

thecSmcter  'They  wcie  uot,'  says  this  writer,  *in  any  sense  superstitious 

Giidfc**'^  foundations;  that  is,  they  were  not  founded,  like  monasteries 
and  priories,  for  men  devoted  to  what  were  deemed  religious 
exercises.  Priests  might  belong  to  them,  and  often  did  so, 
in  their  private  capacities*  But  the  Gilds  were  lay  bodies, 
and  existed  for  lay  purposes,  and  the  better  to  enable  those 
who  belonged  to  them  rightly  and  understandingly  to  fulfil 

their  neighbourly  duties  as  free  men  in  a  free  State It 

is  quite  true  that,  as  the  Lord  Mayor,  and  Lincoln's  Inn,  and 
many  other  as  well-known  personages  and  public  bodies, 
have  to  this  day  a  chaplain,  so  these  old  Gilds  often  took 
measures  and  made  payments  to  enable  the  rites  of  religion 
to  be  brought  more  certainly  within  the  reach  of  all  who 
belonged  to  them.  This  was  one  of  the  most  natural  and 
becoming  of  the  consequences  following  from  their  existence 
and  character.  It  did  not  make  them  into  superstitious 
bodies V  'Though  it  was  in  this  way  very  general,'  observes 
his  continuator,  'to  provide  more  or  less  for  religious  pur- 
poses, these  are  to  be  regarded  as  incidental  only;  and  this 

Gtttoatoim-  is  curiously  exemplified  by  the  case  of  three  Gilds  in  Cam- 
bridge,  one  of  which,  the  Gild  of  the  Annunciation,  excludes 
priests  altogether;  another,  that  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  if  they 

Not  formed    come  iuto  the  Gild,  does  not  allow  them  any  part  in  its  ma- 

jnupoMii?"'  nagement;  while  the  third,  that  of  the  Blessed  Virgin,  has  a 
chaplain,  whose  office  however  is  to  cease,  in  the  event  of  the 
funds  proving  inadequate  to  his  support  in  addition  to  that 
of  the  poorer  brethren'.'  The  statement,  accordiDgly,  made 
by  the  historian  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  with  reference  to 
the  two  Gilds  to  whose  united  action  that  College  refers  its 

1  Engluh  Gilds,     Edited  by  the  •  Ths  Old  Croum  House,  by  Tord- 

late  Toulmin  Smith.    With  Intro-  min  Smith,  p.  31. 
duction  and  GloBsary  by  Lucy  Tool-  '  English  GUdSf  Introd.  p.  tti't. 

min  Smith,  and  Preliminary  Essay  *  The  services  of   a  chaplain  were 

on  the  History  and  Developement  of  deemed  quite  secondary  to  the  other 

Gilds  by  Dr  Brentano.    1870.   Pub-  purposes  of  the  Gilds.*     Note,    p. 

lished  by  the  Early  English   Text  264. 
Society. 


CORPUS  CHBISTL 


■249 


origin,  that  '  they  seem  to  have  been  principally  instituted 
for  religious  purposes*,'  ie  scarcely  accurate;  but,  though 
iacorrect  with  respect  to  the  Gilds,  it  may  be  applied  with 
perfect  accuracy  to  the  college  which  they  founded.  It 
would  appear  that  among  the  many  secondary  effects  that 
followed  upon  the  pl^pie,  the  great  mortality  among  the 
clei^  had  induced  the  surrivorB  in  that  profession  consider- 
ably to  augment  the  fees  they  demanded  for  the  celebration 
of  masses';  and  there  is  good  reason  for  inferring  that  the 
exorbitancy  of  their  demands  suggested  to  the  members  of 
the  Oilds  of  Corpus  Chnsti  and  the  Blessed  Virgin  the  idea 
of  founding  a  college  for  the  education  of  the  clergy,  where 
it  should  be  obligatory  on  the  scholars  to  celebrate  whatever 
masses  might  be  desired  for  the  repose  of  the  souls  of 
departed  members  of  the  two  Gilds.  The  duke  of  Lancaster, 
known  as  the  'good  duke,'  had  been  elected  by  the  two 
Oilds  as  their  'Alderman*'  or  president,  and  through  his 
offices  the  royal  licence  was  obtained  to  found  the  college 
now  known  by  the  name  of  Corpus  Christi*.  When  such 
was  the  prevailing  motive,  we  shall  scarcely  look  for  a  very, 
enlightened  conception  of  education  in  the  statutes  given  to 
the  new  foundation;  they  present  indeed  little  originality, 
the  greater  part  appearing  to  have  been  taken  from  those  of 
Michael  house,  some  passages  in  the  latter  being  reproduced 
verbatim*.     The  scholars  are  described  as  Capellani,  though 


>  MMten-Lunb,  p.  8.  Tbenune 
of  Bichud  of  Bm;,  it  is  voitb?  of 
note,  oocnre  in  the  list  of  beoefactora 
of  the  Gild  of  the  Blessed  Vii^in. 
Hud.  p.  16. 

■  EttfftUh  Gild*.  EBsaj  by  I>r. 
Breotano,  p.  cxlii. 

*  This  explains  the  title  in  the 
pieunble  to  the  Statntes, —  'Ad  per- 
petoun  rei  memoriam  cum  noa  Hea- 
neni  Dm  LaneaBtriffi  Aldfriaannni 
•t  Confratree  Oildie  £e.'  Mseten  le- 
marks '  Although  ho  is  nioaUy  deemed 
th«  Founder  of  the  college,  I  meet 
with  no  considerable  monmnenta  of 
hii  bonnt;  bestowed  upon  it,  eioept 
■  tew  ailTer  shields  enamelled  with 
bia  anna  and  the  imttrnmenta  of  the 
Paaaion  upon  tbem,  to  00117  about 


in  their  proeeaaiona,  and  some  other 
preaents  not  particnlarlj  Bpediied.' 
Ibid.  p.  23. 

*  'Aboat  the  dose  of  the  four- 
teenth oentnr]',  the  college  began  to 
be  geDBrall;  biown  as  Benet  College 
(from  its  proximit;  to  the  chorob  ol 
B.  Benedict),  and  this  adventltiona 
title  was  bo  genetallj  adopted  at  a 
later  period,  as  entirely  to  Hupereode 
its  sorreot  designation  of  Corpus 
Christi,  which  indeed  has  only  been 
geoerally  revived  within  the  last 
forty  years.'  Cooper,  MemoriaU, 
I  147. 

'  I  am  indebted  to  the  oourtesy  of 
the  Master  of  Gorpns  Christi  College, 
tfae  BeT.  James  Pulling,  D.D.,  tor  ac- 
oeaa  to  the  Statuta  Antiftta  of  13£0, 


250 


EARLY  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 


CHAP.  m. 
PamI. 

Require- 
menu  with 
renectto 
itadieii 


Foundfttton 

OfCLAEB 


Deelgnofthe 
Foundren. 
EllBbethde 
Boigh. 


it  is  intimated  that  others  may  be  admitted  to  the  founda- 
tion: it  is  required  that  they  shall  'one  and  all'  be  in 
priest's  orders,  and  shall  have  lectured  in  arts  or  philosophy, 
or  at  least  be  bachelors  in  either  the  civil  or  the  canon  law 
or  in  arts,  intending  to  devote  themselves  to  the  study  of 
theology  or  of  the  canon  law,  the  number  of  those  devoting 
themselves  to  the  last-named  faculty  being  restricted  to  four. 
If  however  we  compare  the  general  tenour  of  these  statutes 
with  that  of  the  ordinances  of  the  Gilds  themselves,  we  shall 
have  no  difficulty  in  discerning  that  the  religious  sentiment 
of  those  bodies  found  its  chief  expression  in  the  foundation 
of  the  new  college. 

The  havoc  wrought  by  the  pestilence  stimulated  the  phi- 
lanthropy of  others  besides  bishop  Bateman.  Within  ten 
years  from  its  visitation  of  this  country,  we  find  Elizabeth  de 
Burgh,  Countess  of  Clare,  and  grand-daughter  of  Edward  I, 
largely  augmenting  an  already  existing  foundation  \  The 
following  passage  from  the  preamble  to  the  statutes  given  by 
the  Countess  in  the  year  preceding  her  death  sufficiently 
explains  her  motives: — 

'Experience/  says  this  august  lady,  'doth  plainly  teach 
us,  that  in  every  degree,  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  temporal, 
skill  in  learning  is  of  no  small  advantage;  which,  although 
sought  for  in  many  ways  by  many  persons,  is  found  in  most 
perfection  in  the  university,  where  general  study  is  known 
to  flourish.  Moreover,  when  it  has  been  found,  it  sends  out 
its  disciples,  who  have  tasted  its  sweetness,  skilful  and  fit 


which  do  not,  I  believe,  exist  in  a 
printed  form.  Among  the  passages 
common  to  the  statutes  of  Michael- 
honse  and  those  of  Corpus  Christi, 
I  may  quote  the  following,  which 
succeeds  the  regulations  laid  down 
for  the  celebration  of  special  Masses : 
— 'Per  hoc  tamen  intentionis  nostraa 
non  existit  eorum  Scholarium  Capel- 
lanorum  aliquem  ultra  possibilitatem 
8uam  congruam  super  harum  Missa- 
rum  celebrationibus  faciendis  one- 
rare  quominus  lectionibus  dispu- 
tationibus  in  Scholis  sen  studio 
vacare  valeat  competenter  super  quo 


eorum  conscientias  oneramus.*    Gf. 
p.  235. 

1  The  death  of  a  brother,  GUbert 
de  Clare,  Earl  of  Gloucester  and  Here- 
ford, who  fell  at  Bannockbum,  leay- 
ing  no  issue,  had  placed  tbe  whole 
of  the  family  estates,  which  were  of 
a  princely  character,  at  the  disposal 
of  the  Countess  and  her  two  sisters. 
See  Cooper,  Memorials,  i  25 — 30. 
The  change  in  the  name  of  the  foun- 
dation from  University  to  Clare  HaU 
is  said  to  have  been  effected  under 
a  charter  granted  by  Edwiurd  ni  in 
1338-9.    Ibid.  p.  29. 


CUBE  HALL.  251 

members  of  God's  church  and  the  state,  who  shall,  as  their  chap.  m. 
merits  demand,  rise  to  various  raoka.  •— y '- 

'Being   therefore    induced    by  this  consideration,    and 
desiring,  as  far  as  God  has  enabled  ue,  to  promote  the  ad- 
vancement of  divine  worship,  the  welfare  of  the  state,  and 
the  extension  of  these  sciences,  which,  by  reason   of  ther-o""""- 
pestilence  havmg  swept  away  a  multitude  of  men,  are  now  JJJ'Jj^ 
beginning  to  fail  lamentably,  and  directing  our  observation  ■""'"* 
to  the  univereity  of  Cambridge  in  the  diocese  of  Ely,  in 
which  there  is  an  assembly  of  student-s,  and  to  a  hall  therein, 
hitherto  generally  called  University  Hall,  now  existing  by 
our  foundation,  and  which  we  desire  to  be  called  0are  Hall 
and  to  bear  no  other  designation;  we  have  caused  this  to 
be  augmented  with  resources,  out  of  the  property  given  us 
by  God,  and  to  be  placed  among  the  number  of  places  for 
study. 

'  We  have  also  had  in  view  the  object,  that  the  pearl  of 
science,  which  they  have  through  study  and  learning  disco- 
vered and  acquired,  may  not  Ue  under  a  bushel,  but  be 
extended  further  and  wider,  and  when  extended  give  light 
to  them  that  walk  in  the  dark  paths  of  ignorance.  It  is  also 
our  design  that  the  scholars  who  have  been  long  since  dwell- 
ing in  our  house,  may,  by  being  protected  under  a  stronger 
bond  of  peace  and  benefit  of  concord,  devote  themselves 
more  freely  to  study.  With  this  view  we  have,  with  the 
advice  of  experienced  persons,  drawn  up  certiun  statutes  and 
ordinances  which  follow,  to  last  for  ever',' 

The  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  design  of  theubBantrof 
foundress   would  appear  to   be   a  greater  liberality  in  the"iJ=i"i«" 
requirements   respecting   the  professedly   clerical    element.  ^J*'**' 
The  scholars  or  fellows  are  to  be  twenty  in  number,  of  whom 
it  is  required  that  six  shall  be  in  priests'  orders  at  the  time 
of  their  admission;  but  comparatively  little  stress  is  laid,  as 
at  Michaclhouse,  on  the  order  or  particular  character  of  the 
reli^ous  services,   and   the   provision   is   made  apparently 
rather  with  the  view  of  securing  the  presence  of  a  sufficient 
number  for  the  performance  of  such  services,  than  for  the 
'  Baksr,  MS.  Huleian  7041,  S.  43-63.    Doeanumtt,  n  131. 


■252  EARLT  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 

purpose  of  creating  a  foundation  for  the  church*.  The 
remaining  fellows  are  to  be  selected  from  haclielora  or  soph- 
istera  in  arts,  or  from  '  skilful  and  well-conducted '  civilians 
and  canoaists*,  but  only  two  fellows  may  be  civilians,  only 
one  a  canonist.  Three  of  the  fellows,  being  masters  of  arts, 
are  to  lecture;  and  on  the  inception  of  any  other  fellow,  one 
of  the  three  has  permission  to  retire  from  this  function, 
provided  he  has  lectured  for  a  whole  year.  This  permission 
does  not,  however,  imply  permission  to  cease  from  study;  he 
is  bound  to  apply  himself  to  some  other  service  wherein,  con- 
sidering his  bent  and  aptitude,  he  may  be  expected  to  make 
the  most  rapid  progress.  The  sisars  are  represented  by  ten 
'docile,  proper,  and  respectable'  youths,  to  be  chosen  from 
the  poorest  that  can  be  found,  especially  from  the  parishes  of 
those  churches  of  which  the  master  and  fellows  are  rectors; 
every  Michaelmas  they  are  entitled  to  receive  clothing  and 
necessaries  to  the  value  of  half  a  mark  sterling;  they  are  to 
be  educated  in  singing,  grammar,  and  logic ;  and  their  term 
of  residence  is  to  extend  to  the  completion  of  their  twentieth 
year  when,  unless  elected  to  fellowships,  they  we  to  with- 
draw from  the  foundation. 

The  statutes  that  next  claim  our  attention  are  the  last 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  offer  some  noticeable  and 
novel  features.  So  early  as  1326,  thirty-two  scholars,  known 
as  the  Ring's  scholars,  had  been  maintained  at  the  univer- 
sity by  Edward  IL  It  is  probable  that  he  had  intended 
thereby  to  extend  the  study  of  the  civil  and  canon  law,  for 
we  find  him  presenting  books  on  these  subjects,  to  the  value 
of  ten  pounds,  to  Simon  de  Bury  the  master,  from  whom 


>  One  of  the  claaBes,   somewhat 

BinbigQonely  eiprensed,  and,  I  buB' 
poet,  corrupt,  Beoma  deniRnecl  to  se- 
cure thoie  nndertoking  the  perform, 
ance  of  the  servioeti  sgamst  laboming 
under  any  duadTaiitage  when  oom- 
pared  with  the  reet,  by  providing  for 
the  retirement  of  one  of  the  eii  every 
time  that  there  is  a  new  election  to 
a  [ellowship:  the  expression,  in  fa- 
vitribua  Ttcijrimdii  ompliiu  remoti, 
refers,  probably,  to  opportnnitios  of 
]eaviug  tbe  college  and  pushing  one's 


iadiiridaal  claims  to  preferment  &- 
siong  the  disposers  of  beueficea.  Bee 
DocumrnU,  ii  ISO. 

'  Only  two  civilians  and  one  oa- 
noniat  are  however  permitted  to 
hold  teUowehipa  at  the  same  time. 
The  olanses  relating  to  the  stDdies  to 
be  pnrsnad  after  the  year  of  leetnre- 
sliip  are  apparently  intended  to  die- 
aotiiage  both  these  branches  of  the 
law;  possibly  as  an  equipoise  to 
biabop  Dateman's  enaotmente. 


KINDS  HALL.  S53 

they  were  sabsequently  takea   away   at  the  comniand  of  chap,  in, 
queen  Isabella.     It  had  also  been  his  icteution  to  provide   — .^ 
his  scholars  with  a  hall  of  residence,  but  during  his  lifetime 
they  resided  in  hired  houses,  and  the  execution  of  his  design 
devolved  upon  bis  son, 

'Qreat  Edwud  with  tlie  lilies  on  Mb  bio» 
From  haD^ty  0«Ui»  torn'.' 

By  this  monarch  a  mansion  was  erected  in  the  vicinity  "f '?S'Ju« 
the  Hospital  of  St  John,  'to  the  honour  of  God,  the  blessed  ^J*^ 
Virgin,  and  all  the  saints,  and  for  the  souls  of  Edward  n,  of  "■^"'■ 
himself,  of  Philippa  the  Queen,  and  of  his  children  and  his 
ancestors.'     As  Feterhouse  had  been  enriched  by  the  advow- 
son  of  the  chureh  at  Hinton,  so  the  new  foundation,  now 
known  by  the  name  of  King's  Hall,  was  augmented  by  that 
of  the  church  of  St.  Peter,  at  Northampton.     Such  was  the 
society  which  amid  the  sweeping  reforms  that  marked  the 
reign  of  Henry  viii  was,  in  conjunction  with  Michaelhouse, 
subsequently  merged  in  the  illustrious  foundation  of  Trinity 
college. 

The  statutes  of  King's  Hall,  as  given  by  Richard  it,  are  statntea 
brief  and  simple,  and  bear  a  closer  resemblance  to  those  of  ^vSn. 
Merton  than  those  of  any  of  the   preceding  foundations, 
Feterhouse  alone  excepted.     It  is  somewhat  remarkable,  and 
is  possibly  with  a  view  to  the  youthiiil  monareh's  own  edifi- 
cation, that  the  preamble  moralises  upon  'the  unbridled 
weakness  of  humanity,  prone  by  nature  and  from  youth  to 
evil,  ignorant  how  to  abstain  from  things  unlawful,  easily 
falling  into  crime.'     It  is  required  that  each  scholar  on  his  umiutiDnB 
admission  be  proved  to  be  of  '  good  and  reputable  conversa-  "f  •"UuImIo"- 
tion;'  and  we  have  here  th€  earliest  information  respecting 
the  college  limitation  as  to  age,  the  student  not  being  admis- 
sible  under  fourteen  years  of  age,  a  point  on  which  the 

I  It  is  thns  that  Qray,  in  Iub  In-  regarded  as  the  foimdei  of  the  inati- 

ilallaiiOtt  Ode,  baa  repreaeoted  Ed-  tntion.  and  ia  bo  deait^ated  in  the 

ward  ni  aa  the  foODder  of  Trinity  aneieiit  nniverxity  ntatate.   Be  ere- 

College.     Bnt  the  honoar  more  pro-  qtiiu    annuatiin  celebrandit,    nnder 

peri;  belongs  to  Edward  ii,  [or,  m  which  his  exequies  were  performed 

Mr.  Cooper  observes,  'altboogh  that  od  the  fifth  of  May  annnall;,'    Jif«- 

monaiohdidnotlivetooBrTyout  hia  moriaU,  u  191.    CI.   DocvmenU,  i 

iatentumol  erecting  a  hall. ..be  wu  405. 


254 


EARLY  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 


CHAP.  iiL  Master  is  to  be  satisfied  by  the  testimony  of  trustworthy 
^■■^"->  witnesses.     The  student's  knowledge  of  Latin,  on  his  admis- 
othorproTi-  gio^^  must  be  such  as  qualify  him  for  the  study  of  logic,  or 
of  whatever  other  branch  of  learning  the  master  shall  decide, 
upon  examination  of  his  capacity,  he  is  best  fitted  to  follow \ 
On  enrolment  in  a  religious  order  or  succession  to  a  benefice 
of  the  value  of  ten  marks,  the  scholar  is  to  retire  from  the 
foundation,  a  year  being  the  utmost  limit  within  which  his 
stay  may  be  prolonged.     On  his  ceasing  to  devote  himself  to 
study,  and  not  proving  amenable  to  admonition,  a  sentence 
of  expulsion  is  to  be  enforced  against  him.    From  the  general 
tenour  of  these  statutes  we  should  incline  to  infer  that  the 
enforcement  of  discipline,  rather  than  the  developement  of 
any  dominant  theory  in  reference  to  education,  was  the  para- 
mount consideration.     Students  are   forbidden   to  transfer 
themselves  from  one  faculty  to  another  without  the  approval 
and  consent  of  the  master,  and  bachelors  are  required  to  be 
regular  in  their  attendance  at  repetitions  and  disputations; 
but  no  one  faculty  appears  to   have   very  decidedly  com- 
manded the  founder's  preference.     On  the  other  hand,  there 
are   indications   in   the    prohibitions    with    respect   to  the 
frequenting  of  taverns,  the  introduction  of  dogs  witbin^he 
college  precincts,  the  wearing  of  short  swords  and  peaked 
shoes  {contra  honestatem  cleincalem),  the  use  of  bows,  flutes, 
catapults,  the  oft-repeated  exhortations  to  orderly  conduct, 
Thefomida-  and  perhaps  in  the  unusually  liberal  allowance  for  weekly 

rtufetoof'  co'^^o'^'  ^^^^  ^^  foundation  was  designed  for  students  of 
ttwweiiuiier  ^j^q  wealthier  class*;  poverty  is  not,  as  in  the  case  of  most  of 


1  'Bone  conversationis  sit  et  ho- 
neste,  statis  qaatuordecim  annonim 
vel  ultra,  de  quo  volamuB  quod  pre- 
fato  GuBtodi  fide  dignorum  testimo- 
nio  fiat  fides:  quodque  talis  sic  ad- 
mitteudus  in  regulis  grammaticali- 
bus  ita  Bufficienter  sit  instructus, 
quod  oongrue  in  arte  Dialectica  stu- 
dere  poterit  sen  in  aliqua  alia  facul- 
tate  ad  quam  pnefatus  Gustos  post 
examinationem  et  admissionem  ejus 
duxerit  ilium  deputandum.'  Sta- 
tutes of  Kinifs  Hall  (from  transcript 
in  possession  of  the  authorities  of 
Trinity    Gollege).     These   statutes 


have  been  printed  in  Bjmer,  yii  239. 
•  ^  The  sum  allowed  for  the  weekly 
maintenance  of  a  King's  scholar  was 
fourteen  pence: — '  expense  conmien- 
sales  singulorum  scholarium  singulis 
septimanis  summam  quatuordecim 
denarios  nullatenus  excedant.'  This 
was  in  1379;  no  more  was  aUowed 
at  Peterhouse  in  1510;  the  allow- 
ance at  Glare  HaU  in  the  same  cen- 
tury was  twelve  pence,  at  GonviUe 
Hall  only  ten  pence !  At  Gorpus  the 
allowance  was  most  liberal,  amount- 
ing to  sixteen  pence.  Ghioheley, 
when  confined  to  his  rooms  by  a 


■  CXtHCLUSIOIT.  S55 

the  other  colleges,  indicated  as  a  qualification ;  and  it  seems  chap.  m. 
reasonable  to   suppose  that  a  foundation  representing  the  -J^^^ 
munificeDce   and    patronage   of   three   successive   kings  of 
England,  would  naturally  become  the  resort  of  the  more 
amtocratic  element  in  the  university  of  those  days. 

It  is   difficult  perhaps  to  trace  any  real  advance  with  ^mi^ 
respect  to  the  theory  of  education  in  the  statutes  of  theotibMariy 
seven  Cambridge  foundations  which  we  have   now   passed  ottb^wr- 
under  review,  but  it  must  be  admitted  that  they  afford  con-  *•««• 
siderable  illustration  of  those  different  tendencies  that  have 
occupied  our  attention  in  the  preceding  chapters.     In  Peter- 
house,  Clare,  and  King's  Hall,  we  are  presented  with  little 
more  than  a  repetition  of  Walter  de  Merton'a  main  concep- 
tion, not  unaccompanied  by  a  certain  vagueness  as  te  the 
character  of  the  education  te  be  imparted,  and  an  apparent 
disinclination  seriously  te  assess  the  comparative  value  of  the 
different  studies  of  the  time.     In  Trinity  Hall  and  in  Gon-  JJia™,rt«ii 
ville  Hall,   (as  modified  by  its  second  founder,}   we  hear^SE^i^ 
nothing  more  than  an  echo  of  the  traditions  of  Avignon, —  ""'^ 
traditions,  it  need  scarcely  be  said,  of  a  kind  against  which 
all  centres  of  culture  of  the  higher  order  have  special  need 
to  guard.     The  question  whether  a  university  may  advan- 
tageously concern  itaelf  with  education  of  a  purely  technical 
character,  was  one  which  presented  itself  te  the  minds  of  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  as  well  as  to  those  of  the 
uiaeteenth.     At  Paris,  as  we  have  already  seen,  it  had  been 
decided  in  the  negative     The  civil  and  the  canon  law  had 
been  excluded  from  her  curriculum,  for  in  the  hands  of  the 
jurist  and  the  canonist  they  had  become  a  trade  rather  thsa 
a  branch  of  liberal  learning';  and  it  is  evident  that  those 
who  then  guided  the  progress  of  ideas  at  Paris,  whatever 
may  have  been  their  errors  and  shortcomings,  saw  clearly 
that  if  once  the  lower  arte,   conducive  chiefiy  to   worldly 

■evere  iUnew  in  1S90-1,  at  New  Col-  >  'Lea  tbJatogieiiB  «t  let  artlates,' 

lege,  Oxford,   had  allowance  made  sayB  U.  Thoiot,   >De  conaideraient 

him  for  hie  commone  at  the  rate  of  pas  la  science  da  droit  comme  na 

miteen  pence  a  week  tor  ail  week» ;  art    liberal.      Ponr  eui  c'^tait   im 

which   WM    aflerwordB   reduced   to  metier  platAt  qa'nn  art'    De  VOr- 

fouiteen  pence.    BMrtar't  Accounti,  ^anwattim    dt   PEiutignenunt,   clc> 

qooted  by  Dean  Hook.    Uva,  v  8.  p.  160. 


256  EARLY  COLLEGE  FOUNDATIONS. 

CHAP.  III.  success  and  professional  advancement,  were  admitted  within 
the  walls  of  a  university,  they  would  soon  overshadow  and 
blight  those  studies  that  appealed  to  a  less  selfish  devotion  ^ 
To  bishop  Bateman  the  question  appeared  in  another  light. 
The  civil  and  the  canon  law  were  the  high  road  to  ecclesi- 
astical preferment,  and  he  aimed  at  training  up  a  body  of 
shrewd,  practical  men,  who,  though  they  might  do  little  to 
help  on  philosophy  and  science,  would  be  heard  of  in  after- 
life as  high  dignitaries  in  church  and  state,  and  would  exer- 
cise a  certain  weight  in  the  political  struggles  of  the  day. 
But  if  the  reiterated  complaints  of  the  foremost  thinkers  of 
the  time  are  to  be  regarded  as  having  any  basis  in  fact,  it 
would  seem  that  the  bishop  had  rendered  his  university  but 
a  doubtful  service;  and  though  colleges  multiplied  at  Cam- 
bridge we  may  vainly  look  for  any  corresponding  growth  in 
her  intellectual  activity.  The  statutes  of  the  other  founda- 
tions scarcely  call  for  comment.  Those  of  Pembroke  are 
interesting  as  an  illustration  of  the  persevering  endeavours 
of  the  religious  orders  to  upset  what  it  is  no  exaggeration  to 
describe  as  the  fundamental  conception  of  the  new  institu- 
tions,— an  endeavour  which,  as  we  shall  shortly  see,  was  pro- 
secuted at  nearly  the  same  time  with  greater  success  at 
Oxford.  In  Michaelhouse  and  Corpus  Christi  we  recognise 
little  more  than  the  sentiments  of  the  devout  laity,  inspired, 
in  all  probability,  by  the  priest  and  the  confessor. 

It  will  scarcely  bo  denied  that  in  connexion  with  these 
foundations  questions  of  grave  import  were  contending  for 
solution ;  nor  can  we  doubt  that  fuller  records  of  our  univer- 
sity life  at  this  period  would  reveal  that  the  antithesis  repre- 
sented in  the  statutes  of  Peterhouse  and  those  of  Trinity 
Hall,  was  a  matter  of  keen  and  lively  interest  to  the  Cam- 
bridge of  those  days;  and  inasmuch  as  an  opportunity  here 
presents  itself  for  a  slight  digression, — for  between  the  sta- 
tutes of  King's  Hall  and  the  foundation  of  King's  College 
(the  first  foundation  of  the  following  century)  more  than 

^  *n  y  avait  k  craindre   qn'one      singuli^rement  ceUes  de  th^logie. 
^cole  de  droit  civil  nne  fois  ouverte      Crevier,  v  156.    See  p.  75,  note  2. 
ue  fit  deserter  toutea  les  autres,  et 


CWSCtUSION. 


257 


sixty  ycara  intervene, — we  shall  now  proceed  to  illustrate  chap,  ti 
more  fully  the  scope  and  hearing  of  that  antithesis,  from  the   -  ,*"  ' 
history  of  the  sister  university  and  the  progress  of  thought 
in  the  country  at  large. 


CHAPTER  III. 
CAMBRIDGE  PRIOR  TO  THE  CLASSICAL  ERA. 


Part  II :-— the  fifteesth  century. 


rtiBMnpn 


It  was  on  the  eixteenth  of  September,  1401,  tliat  Thomas 
Arundel,  arcLbi»Iiop  of  Canterbury,  arrivc<i  in  'a  stately 
equipage '  at  Cambridge,  upon  his  visitation  as  metropolitan. 
The  chancellor,  doctors,  and  masters,  whom  be  Lad  already 
cited,  appeared  before  liim  the  following  day  in  the  Congre- 
gation House,  and  rendered  their  cauouical  obedience.  Com- 
missioners were  appointed  by  the  archbishop,  who  visited 
Trinity  Hall,  Clare,  Goiiville,  Michael  house,  Peterhouse,  Pem- 
broke, St  John's  Hospital,  St.  Rhadegund'a  Nunnery,  and  tLo 
House  of  the  WbitcCanons',  and  on  the  nineteenth  his  grace 
departed  for  Ely.  Before  bis  departure,  however,  he  had 
privately  put  to  the  chancellor  and  tho  doctors,  successively 
and  individually,  ten  questions,  having  reference  to  the  dis- 
cipline and  general  state  of  the  university.  Among  them  was 
one  which,  at  that  juncture,  possessed  no  ordinary  signifi- 


'  King's  B&ll  ani  Corpus  Christi 
do  not  app«af  to  have  beon  viaiteil. 
Cooper  obDcrvea  thut  the  master  of 
tba  latter  college,  Kicbnrd  Hilling- 
ford,  was  cliaucelloT  of  tbe  uuiver- 
rity  at  the  time.  AMHali.  1 1J7.  '  Aa 
toi  liostcis,  tlte  vonJer  is  not  so 
great,  vihy  those  coDimissioners  e  loop- 
ed not  down  to  visit  them.  First, 
because  de|ieiidcnt  hostels  were,  no 
doabt,   visitoi)  in   and  under  those 


eolleges  to  which  they  did  reUt«, 
Absolute  Lostets,  who  stood  b;  them- 
selves, lieiug  all  of  them  nneiidawed, 
by  coneeqiieDoe  had  no  ooiuiderkbl* 

sttttules,  the  breach  whereof  was 
the  proper  subject  of  this  visitaticoi. 
Besides,  tbe  gradnates  therein  maj 
be  presumed  for  their  personal  de- 
nieanoura  visited  in  the  collective 
body  of  the  university.'  Fullo!', 
HiJif.  of  the  Uttin. 


LOLUBDISM. 


259 


cance; — 'were  there  any,'  the  archbishop  asked, 'suspected  of 
Lollardism?'  The  ashes  of  Wyclif  had  not  yet  been  cast  into 
the  Swift,  and  his  memoiy  was  still  cherished  at  Oxford,  but 
the  preceding  year  had  seen  the  appearance  of  the  writ  2)« 
Hmretico  Comburendo,  and,  but  a  few  montlis  l)efore,  the  first 
victim  of  that  enactment,  William  Sautree,  had  perished  at 
tbc  stake.  Such  an  inquiiy,  therefore,  from  a  man  of  Arun- 
del's determined  character  and  known  views',  could  scarcely 
fail  to  strike  ominous  forebodings  into  the  minds  of  those 
students  who  favoured  the  doctrines  of  the  great  reformer*. 
The  number  of  these  at  both  the  English  universities  was 
already  far  from  contemptible ;  and  the  intimate  connexion 
of  Lollardism  with  the  whole  question  of  university  studies, 
as  it  presented  itself  to  the  theologian  and  the  canonist  at  this 
period,  will  here  demand  some  consideration,  as  aflFonling  one 
of  the  main  clues  to  the  ecclesiastical  and  intellectual  move- 
ments of  a  somewhat  obscure  century. 

In  our  brief  notice  of  the  career  of  William  of  Occam,  wa 
were  occupied  mainly  with  his  metaphysical  theory  and  his 
influence  in  the  schools,  but  his  opinions  with  respect  to  the 
political  power  of  the  pope  form  a  not  less  important  clement 
in  the  thought  of  the  fourteenth  century.  We  have  already 
adverted  to  the  fact  that  the  most  indefensible  pretensions  of 
Rome  were  undoubtedly  those  which  were  founded  upon 
the  successive  forgeries  and  impostures  which  make  up  so 
large  a  portion  of  the  canon  law.  Her  temporal  supremacy, 
in  the  days  of  Occam  and  Wyclif,  pointed  for  its  theoretical 
justification  to  the  cunningly  fabricated  system,  known  in  the 
barbarous  diction  of  that  age  as  the  Digeatum  Novum,  In/or- 
tiatam,  and  Vetaa, — the  massive  tomes  that,  with  the  labours 
of  the  commentators,  form  so  prominent  a  feature  in  our  most 


'  'It  nereTBeemitohaTe  occurred  to 
Amnderi  mind,  that  oppmition  could 
)w  met  b;  Bnythiug  efaort  ol  pb;- 
rioal  force  or  direct  legislation.  He 
WM  bimwlf  DO  BchoUr — he  woa  oulj 
a  tMchelor  oE  nrti ;  and  be  was  spo- 
ken of  at  Oilord  in  terms  similar  to 
tlMM  %hich  iToold  be  employed  in 
Um  preanit  iaj,  U  a  olerk  were  no- 
miniled  to  an  epiacopal  see  who  had 


□erer  graduated  at  either  of  ths 
nniveiBitiea.'  Hook's  I.irei,  n  *98, 
'  Ten  yeatB  later  when  Anmdel 
Tinted  Oiford  for  a  like  pnrpoae,  ho 
was  met  b;  the  most  determined 
opposition,  and  a  direct  denial  of 
bis  powers  of  visilation.  Bee  the 
amnaing  account  in  Wood-Ontcb,  i 


260  THE  FIFTEENTH   CENTURT. 

CBAP.  nL  ancient  college  libraries.  From  tlu'so  sources  were  dmwn  all 
.^'^  "•  those  subtleties  which,  from  the  days  of  Hincmar  to  those  of 
Bonifuce  viii,  gave  the  Church  such  formidable  advantages  in 
her  struggles  with  the  secular  power,  anil  it  was  against  the 
broad  principle  implied  in  the  whole  system  that  Oecara 
raised  the  standanl  of  insurgency  when,  in  his  l)e  PotesUite, 
he  propounded  as  an  optiii  question  for  discussion,  the  query, 
— dan  the  spiritual  and  Uty  power  dwell  in  the  same  person  T 
It  is  evident  that  inasmuch  as  the  assumed  affirmative  formed 
the  basis  of  the  Romish  polity  at  the  period,  the  mere  moot- 
ing of  such  enquiry  called  in  question  wliat  had  hitherto  been 
an  article  of  faith,  the  infallibility  of  the  papal  decrees,  and 
thus  again  opened  up  a  way  to  still  wider  and  more  important 
discussions.  It  was  of  course  impossible  that  a  code,  pro- 
nounced by  the  pope  to  be  the  binding  law  of  Christendom,, 
eould  be  challenged,  without  involving  the  far  wider  question  of 
belief  in  theological  dogma :  and  when  a  Franciscan  schoolman 
was  to  be  found  asking,  'Whether  the  pope  ci>uld  be  a  hcre- 
ui^tiSon  *'*^''  he  was  manifestly  calling  in  question  the  whole  theory 
J2J2S™!  ^f  allegiance  to  spiritual  anthority.  Nor  is  it  difficult  to  see 
{^uiilr  the  relevancy  of  such  discu.ssion  to  the  contending  theories  of 
euinisw.  academic  education.  If  the  canon  and  the  civil  law  were  to 
be  the  standard  to  which,  in  tho.se  unquiet  times,  all  disputes 
concerning  public  and  private  rights  were  to  be  referred, 
the  importance  of  those  two  codes  could  scarcely  be  exag- 
gerated; but  if  the  authority  of  either  one  or  the  other  could 
be  disputed,  the  value  of  both,  fmm  their  intimate  connexion 
at  that  time,  would  suffer  serious  diminution.  If  again,  all 
theology,  on  the  other  hand,  was  to  terminate  in  an  implicit 
acceptance  and  promulgation  of  aliieady  established  dogma, — 
to  be  no  longer  regarded  as  a  progressive  science,  and  to  be 
reduced  to  a  merely  traditional  interpretation  of  doctrine, — 
it  must  at  once  sink  into  secondary  importance,  for  it  lacked 
almost  entirely  that  objective  value  which  imparted  so  much 
significance  to  the  civil  and  the  canon  law.  It  was  in  op- 
position to  any  such  conception  of  the  theologian's  province, 
that  William  of  Occam  anil  hia  brother  Franciscan,  Marsilio 
of  Fadua,  waged  war  in  the  interest  of  the  sclioolmea 
against  the  canonists  of  Avignon. 


JOHN  WTCLIP. 


201 


As  we  have  already  seen,  the  application  of  his  own  me-  chap.  m. 
thod  to  specific  dognias,  was  not  nia<le  hy  William  of  Occam ;   ^1!^^JL 
nor  was  it  made  by  Wyclif,  who  may  fairly  be  reganled  as  the  ^"J'^r"" 
representative  of  Occam  in  his  assertioD  of  the  right  of  pri-  wj^in 
vate  judgement  against  priestly  authority.     Some  writers,  ule'tlopmi 
indeed,  have  spoken  of  Wyclif,  as  in  all  respecls  a  thiiiker  of  FipB.'i'toi" 
the  same  school  as  his  predeceasor.     '  He  was,"  says  James,  ^JJ*^_^ 
the  learned  librarian  of  the  Bodleian, '  a  professed  follower  of  SbS"rotata. 
Occam';'  such  a  statement  however  can  be  accepted  only  with 
an  important  reservation;  in  matters  of  ecclesiastical  polity 
and  religious  belief  Wyclif  undoubtedly  adopted  and  developed 
the  theories  of  Occam,  but  in  the  schools  of  Oxford  he  was 
known  as  a  leader  of  the  opposing  party,  being  an  upholder 
of  the  theories  uf  the  RealistF*.    While,  again,  Occam  wns  the  huruuihi 
champion  of  the  Franciscans,  Wyclif  wa-s  their  most  formidable  Huadicuu. 
opponent;  and  while  the  former  defended  the  solicitation  of 
alms,  the  latter  inatitut«d  his  'simple  priests,'  to  be  an  exam- 
ple to  the  world  of  evangelism  without  mendicity.     The  po- 
sition of  Wyclif  iu  relation  to  the  Mendicants  will  be  best 
Understood  by  the  light  of  the  more  important  passngis  in  their 
career  at  the  English  universities  in  the  fonrteeutli  century,  a 
period  wherein  the  corruption  and  demoralization  of  these 
orders  proceeded  with  ominous  rapidity.     The  salt  had  h>st 
its  savour ;   and  influences,  which  had  once  represented  an 
energising  impulse  in  the  direction  of  a  iiirfher  culture,  had 
degenerated   into   a   mischievous   and    disturliing   element, 
productive  only  cf  strife  and  animosity,  and  seriously  detri- 
mental to  the  pursuit  of  true  learning. 

With  the  latter  part  of  the  century  this  evil  had  reached  J;j^J^°' 
a  climax.     The  resistance  that  the  lOngliith  Franciscans  had 


'  Lift  of  Wickl'ffe,  uppeiiJod  to 
Tko  nhoTt  Trratiin  '"ja  'ml  Ihr  ordrri 
oftkt  Rfgaing  Friar/:  Oxford,  1008. 

1  'Ibe  imiDCUMi  services  which 
our  great  conntrjmui, -William  ol 
Oecam.  hnd  j'.i»t  ruiidvrcil  tu  Rcicnce, 
«onld  bnrdl;  have  been  uuknnBn  to, 
but  thry  dn  not  seein  tc  hove  been 
•|ipp«iatedbv,Wjclif.'  Mr.  ThouinB 
Arnold,  Thtolo-i.  Btr.  A|ir.  1M70. 
See  howeTer  Uio  p&axnge  cgiiutcLl  hj 
Prol.    Shirley    (Pn-(.    lo    yat-ic«U 


Zi;aiiiorum,  pp.  lii  und  Uii|  from  the 
MS.  Hcrmnnx  nf  Wvclif  preserved  in 
the  library  of  Triuity  CulleKe,  Cnm- 
bridi^:  whore,  so  fur  as  it  h  puHsiEila 
to  jndge  from  on  inolated  nnd  eor- 
iiQ,  the  philusiipliiciii  opin- 


3  of  the 


r  njipw 


nith  tliiii 


been  nenrlv  iiU'iilic 
Aquimi-.     HUOckii  ,      , 

the   editor,   '  Wjclif   alwnjH   »i>c.'.hi 
with  re^peut.' 


262  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 

CHAP.  ui.  offered  to  Boniface  viii,  though  it  wore  perhaps  at  the  time 
-^^  "'    an  air  of  patriotism,  was  in  reality  actuaied  by  little  besides  a 
keen  sense  that  their  own  interests  were  at  stake.   The  strug- 
gle with  John  XXII  was  also  at  an  end.   Their  differences  with 
Rome  had  been  composed,  and  they  had  betaken  themselves 
with  undiminished  energy  to  the  t^sk  of  pillaging  the  laity. 
Poi^jonhe  In  the  universities  their  activity  assumed  a  less  sordid  though 
JJJJ^^jy^  not  a  less  harmful  character,  and  Paris,  Oxford,  and  Cam- 
bridge were  each  in  turn  distracted  by  their  assertion  of  in- 
defensible  rights   and  of  equally   indefensible   immunitiea 
Neither  the  ambition  nor  the   interests  of  the  two  orders 
would  permit  them  to  forego  the  great  centres  of  education 
and  progressive  thought;  while  their  vows  and  their  aims 
were  incompatible  with  the  obligations  involved  in  tlie  oaths 
administered  by  the  universities.   It  was  their  object  accord- 
ingly to  create  an  imperium  in  imperio,  and,  while  availing 
themselves  of  those  centres  as  fields  of  propagandism,they  were 
really  intent  on  the  creation  of  a  rival  if  not  of  a  hostile  au- 
thority.    'The  battle  of  the  Mendicants,'  says  Huber,  'was 
fought  simultaneously  in  all  the  universities  of  Christendom.' 
It  began  however  at  Paris  long  before  it  assumed  any  consi- 
derable proportions  at  either  Oxford  or  Cambridge.     In  the 
ThePomini-  thirteenth  century  the  Dominicans,  supi>orted  by  pope  Alexan- 
^iKisM-    der  IV,  had,  after  a  protracted  stniggle,  been  admitted  to  a 
participation   in  the   scholastic  acts  and  privileges  of  the 
former  university,  and,  though  excluded  from  all  share  in  the 
government,  their  admission  had  led  to  important  changes, 
among  others  the  separation  of  the  faculty  of  theology  from 
the  faculty  of  arts.     The  annals  of  our  English  universities 
equally  attest  the  jealousy  of  the  academic  authorities  and 
taiSd  b?*tiio  *^®  pertinacious  intrusion  of  the  friars.     We  have  already 
SSSSr*     adverted  to  the  stringent  provisions  passed  at  Oxford  to  check 
the  widespread  evil  of  proselytism.     In  the  year  1311  the 
Mendicants  appealed  to  Rome  against  some  of  the  provisions 
enacted  for  the  limitation  of  their  independence,  and  in  the 
year  1314a  formal  decision  was  pronounced  by  a  Commission 
jointly  composed  of  representa-tives  of  the  university  and  of 
the  four  orders.     The  verdict  was  a  severe  blow  to  the  latter, 


THE  MBNDICAMT  ORDERa  '2€3 

for  it  involved  tbe  transfer  of  numerous  acts  and  disputations,  chap.  m. 
previously  held  at  their  different  houses,  to  the  church  of  tl!l^^ 
St.  Mary,  the  recc^ised  arena  of  academic  ceremonieB.  The 
sole  concession  U  favour  of  the  friars  required  that  every 
bachelor,  when  he  had  commented  on  the  Sentences  in  the 
public  schools,  should  be  bound  to  repeat  his  lecture  at  the 
school  of  the  Dominicans  before  ho  was  admitted  to  teach  in 
theology.  The  decision.  Wood  tells  us,  sorely  dejected  the 
Dominicans,  who  were  thus  compelled  to  witness  lai^e  num- 
bers of  the  students  diverted  from  their  doors  and  their  own 
sources  of  emolument  considerably  curtailed'.  In  the  uni-  eiuau. 
versity  of  Cambridge  we  find,  in  the  year  1359,  a  statute  "<ra-  ™ 
enacted  prohibiting  two  friars  of  the  same  order  from  incept- 
ing in  the  same  year;  a  subsequent  statute  required  that  two 
rc^nts,  whether  doctors  or  bachelors  of  divinity,  of  the  same 
house,  should  not  concur  in  their  'ordinary'  readinga,  whether 
of  the  Bible  or  the  Sentences,  but  that  one  of  them  must  read 
in  his  own  convent,  and  the  other  in  the  schools  of  the  univer- 
sity. *  These  statutes,'  says  dean  Peacock, '  would  seem  to  have 
been  framed  with  a  view  of  compelling  them  [the  friars],  if 
admitted  to  the  regency  in  the  university,  to  take  part  in  the 
public  duties  incumbent  upon  other  regents,  and  not  to  con- 
fine their  labours  within  the  walls  of  their  own  monasteries'.' 
Such  legislation  on  the  part  of  the  university  was  keenly  Tii*riM«>i 
resented  by  the  friars,  and  in  the  year  1366,  the  universities  i^ 
on  the  one  hand  and  the  Mendicants  on  the  other,  besieged 
parliament  with  angry  recriminations.  The  chancellor  and  the 
proctors,  and  the  provincials  and  niiniatere  of  the  four  orders, 
repured  to  Westminster  and  submitted  their  disputes  to  the 
royal  decision.  The  conclusion  arrived  at  by  Edward  ill,  to 
which  the  bishops,  dukes,  earls,  and  barons  all  signified  thoir 
assent,  was  so  far  favourable  to  the  Mendicants  that  it  re- 
scinded the  statute  forbidding  them  to  receive  into  their  order  JJj^SI* 

'  Wood-Ontch,  I  882— 381,    'No-  the  performance  of  them  Ihey  do  not 

thillg  was  granted  to  the  friars,  but  entrench   upon,    or   contradict,    the 

onl;  that  the;  should  enjoy   their  Btudenta  of  the  univer»ity.'     Ibid. 
•ebools  wiUiia  the  precincts  of  their         ^  Cooper.    Aiinali,    i   In5.     Fea- 

bona^  to  be  free   tor  lectures,    dis-  cock,  Obiemaliunt,    etc.   Apiieod.   A. 

pntatiims,  and  determinations,  and  xliii,  note, 
nothing  elae,  oonditioually,  that  in 


SM 


THE  FEFTBENTH   CENTUBV. 


kbiif  ■■! 


I.  echolors  under  eighteen  years  of  age,  and  forbade  the  enaot- 

.  ment  of  any  similar  Btatute:  a  far  more  important  provision 
however  was  that  whereby  all  bulls  and  procesfies  from  Rome, 
favouring  the  Mendicant*  in  their  relation  to  the  university, 
were  definitely  set  aside,  and  the  renunciation  of  all  advan- 
tages derived  therefrom  rendered  compulsory*.  But  the  per- 
tinacity of  the  friars  whs  not  easily  to  be  overcome ;  for  within 
nine  years  after  the  enactment  of  the  al>ove  provisions,  they 
obtained  through  the  assistance  of  Christ  Church,  Canterbury, 
a  bull  enabling  them  to  dispense  with  a  statute  which  re- 

M  quired  that  all  persons  should  be  regents  in  arts  before  pro- 
ceeding to  the  degrpc  of  doctor  of  divinity;  in  other  words, 
enabling  them  to  proceed  to  the  highest  academical  degree 
without  having  previoutily  borne  their  part  in  the  work  of 
university  instruction*. 

to  Other  events  occurring  about  this  time  sufficiently  indi- 
cate that  the  theory  advocated  by  Wilter  de  Merton  and 
Hugh  Balsham  was  encountering  considerable  opposition. 
It  is  generally  allowed  that,  for  a  short  though  not  exactly 
ascertained  period,  John  Wyclifwas  master  of  Balliol  Uolbge, 

^  then  known  an  Balliol  Hall ;  and  in  the  year  1361,  during  his 
tenure  of  that  office,  we  find  him  exerting  himself  on  behalf 
of  the  secular  clergy  maintained  on  the  foundation,  by  pni- 
curing  a  papal  bull  permitting  the  impropriation  of  the  living 

r  of  Abbotesley,  recently  presented  by  Sir  William  de  Felton  to 
the  college,  for  their  support.  In  the  recital  the  bull  sets 
forth  how  his  holiness  had  been  petitioned  by  the  clerks  and 

'  Cooper,  Annalu,  I  109. 

*  Lewis,  Li/f  o/n'ycH/,  p.  fi.  The 
object  of  Uie  MeuJiuants  apjieare  to 
have  1>0GU  to  obtain  the  privilege  of 
rending  nnd  lecturing  At  their  own 
BuhoolB  instead  ol  tLuee  belonging  to 
the  univoreity:  that  they  ilid  not 
claim  exemption  from  tlte  coulee  of 
iuabroctiiiu  that  pn.'CtiJed  the  gieriud 
of  regency  in  evident  from  the  Inn- 
guago  of  Urcgoiy: — 'Nob  igitur  vo- 
leutL'S  eoBtleiu  outitoJeni  et  collc;auiii 


BDDt  et  ernut  pro  tempore,  qunmTis 
nou  rexerint  in  hujunmcidi  nrtiuiD 
facilitate,  diimmodo  alias  in  primi- 
tivtH  Dcientiis  safficieote  fneriiit  in- 
struct i  BO  cuTBUB  8Q0S  feceHnt  in 
tbcoliif^ca  faeultato,  et  per  diligeu- 
tem  einmiiiationem.  jiixta  morem 
ipsiug  stndii,  gnflicii'iitea  et  idouoi 
ri'p^'rti  extittiiiit  od  umgisterium  re- 
cipicndam  in  eadcm,  ad  hujaamoili 
mHgisterii  huuorom  et  docendi  licen- 
tioiu  in  i)iHi(  theolugiea  tucultute  i:i 

favciro  pioBoqui,  ^atirwe  hujiismudi     studio  Hnpra.ticto sublatocu- 

HUp]ilicatiouiuuH   iiicUiiuti,   voliunuB     jnxlilwt  JiDiciillutiB  olnitiicalo,  libere 
Bc   vixdem  custo'.li  et  oolleRio  apn.      odmittnutur,   etc.'     See   Collfet,    of 
niolicit  auctoritate  coneodioinB.  quod     F^ptr*  and  Rnonli,  Jbid.  p,  8(H. 
tujtuB  et  Bculureii  dicti  colL'gii  qui 


WTCLIF  AND  THE   MENDICANTS.  265 

Bcholare  of  Balliol  Hail  who  ha<i  represented  that '  there  were  *^*''-  ^ 
many  students  and  clerks  in  the  said  hall, and  that  every  one   '"v  -•. 

of  them  had  anciently  received  only  pence  •  a  week,  and 

when  they  had  taken  their  decree  of  master  of  artfl  were 
immediately  expelled  the  said  hall,  no  that  they  coultl  not,  by 
reason  of  their  poverty,  make  any  progress  in  other  studies, 
but  sometimes  were  forced,  for  sake  of  a  livelihood,  to  follow 
some  mechanical  employment;  that  Sir  William  de  Fetton, 
having  compassion  on  them,  desired  to  augment  the  number 
of  the  said  scholars,  and  to  ordain  that  they  .should  have,  in 
common,  hooks  of  diverge  faculties,  and  that  every  one  of  them 
should  receive  sufficient  clothincr,  and  twelve  pence  every 
week,  and  that  they  might  freely  remain  in  tlio  said  hall, 
whether  they  took  their  master's  or  doctor's  degree  or  no, 
ontil  they  had  got  a  competent  ecclesia-stical  lieoefice,  and 
then  should  leave  the  hall'.'  On  the  16th  of  May  in  tlie 
same  year  that  Wyclif  exhibited  this  bull  to  Gynwell,  bishop  n-„i)fi„,o, 
of  Lincoln,  he  was  himaelf  in.stituted,  on  the  presentation  of  ""''"^ 
the  college,  to  the  rectory  of  Fylinghain,  in  Lin  coin, shire,  and 
shortly  after,  probably  as  soon  as  his  term  of  grace  was  ex- 
pired, resigned  the  mastership  of  the  college  and  went  to 
reside  on  his  living.  He  did  not  become  permanently  resi- 
dent again  in  Oxford  until  1874^;  but  in  October,  136'i,  he  is 
found  renting  rooms  in  Queen's  College,  and  in  13C8  he 
obtained  two  years'  leave  of  absence  from  his  living  for  the 
purpose  of  prosecuting  his  studies  at  the  university'.  It  was 
probably  therefore  when  at  Fylingliam  that  he  heard  the 
history  of  similar  efforts  to  his  own  on  iK'half  of  the  secular 
clergy,  in  connexion  with  Canterbury  Ifall.  It  was  in  llie 
year  1301,  the  same  year  that  Wyclif  obtained  the  pajwl  bull 
above  quoted,  that  Simon  Islip,  archbishop  of  Cavtfrbnry,  sinwniini, 
sought  to  carry  out  a  plan  resembling  th;it  conci-ived  hy ''""■'.tIj^ 
Hugh  Balsliam. — a  combination  of  the  seculars  and  the  rtli- 
gious  on  the  same  foundation.  He  had  founded  Canterbury 
Hall,  and  had  admitted  to  the  society  a  warden  and  three 

*  TIjb  amonnt  btauJH,  aa  nbovo.  a  of  Prtrrbori-iuih). 
UuiIe  in  LewU.  '  Kliirlrv,  I'rvf.  to  Fa.dculi  Zi.a- 

'  Lewin,  Li/t  •>(  Wielif,  \>.  4.  (fr..in  iiinnm.  p|..   xiv.   it.      Snti  on  Iht 

Jlannteripi  Collrttiun*  of  tlie  Ilithvp  Tu-a  J.,lin  IVyctii:  p.  ail. 


as"" 


266  THE  FIFTEENTH  CESTURT. 

scholars  who  were  monks  from  Christchurcb,  Canterbury, 
and  eight  other  scholars  who  were  scculai'  priests.  The  studies 
prescribed  were  logic  and  the  civil  and  the  canon  law.  But, 
as  at  Cambridge,  the  project  served  only  to  bring  out  more 
clearly  the  incompatibility  of  the  two  elements.  The  monks 
and  the  seculars  were  perpetually  at  variance,  and  SimoD 
Islip,  perceiving  that  harmony  was  hopeless,  in  1365  expelled 
the  warden  Woodhall,  together  with  the  other  monks,  and 
constituted  the  college  a  foundation  for  the  secular  clergy 
exclusively'.  The  successor  of  Simon  Islip  was  Simon  Lang- 
ham,  a  monk  by  education  and  entirely  monastic  in  hia  sym- 
pathies. Under  his  auspices  and  by  the  use  of  considerable 
influence  at  Borne,  the  monks  obtained  a  reversal  of  Simon 
Islip'a  decision.  The  secidars  were  all  expelled,  and  their 
places  filled  .by  their  rivals.  Such  a  result  must  have 
proved  a  bitter  disappointment  to  the  more  liberal  party 
at  the  university,  and  the  feelings  of  Wyclif  when  he  came 
up  to  Oxford  in  the  following  year,  having  obtained  the 
leave  of  absence  from  his  living  above  mentioned,  can  hardly 
have  been  those  of  much  friendliness  to  either  monk  or 
Mendicant. 

While  the  seculars  were  thus  contending  under  numerous 
disadvantages  against  their  powerful  foes,  the  laity  in  their 
turn  were  seeking  to  circumscribe  the  power  of  the  whole 
Church.  To  counteract  the  rapacity  of  Rome  the  Statute 
against  Provisors  was  re-onacted  six  times  in  the  course  of 
the  century;  while,  for  the  purpose  of  limiting  and  defining 
the  functions  of  the  ecclesiastic,  we  find  parliament  addressing 


'  TLix  fnct  is  not  brongbt  out  by 
Dean  Hook  io  hia  life  of  Simon 
Luiigbam  \Lii-fi,  it  210),  but  it  is 
diitioctly  atatoil  by  Lenis,  Life  0/ 
Wi/eii/,  p.  13,  and  byProfeBsor  Shir- 
ley, t'aieiculi  Ziiaaiorum,  p.  ^16. 
Bean  Hook  takes  notice  ol  the  de- 
positiou  of  Woodhood  or  WoodboU 
only.  Tlie  new  WBjden  appointed  on 
this  occftsiou  was  John  Wyclif  d/ J/ay- 
jieid,  whom  Prof.  SLirley  hiiB,  it  may 
be  cimBiilcred,  satiBfactorily  proved 
to  bave  beoii  also  the  fellow  of  Mcr- 
ton  Culleb'e  (see  Nolt  on  the   Ttco 


John  WytVift,  appended  to  the  Fate, 
Zit.);  Buch  a  couolnsion,  ol  conrte, 
cancelB  many  pages  in  the  Lije  hj 
LeTis,  and  iu  Uio  Monograph  of  Dr. 
Robert  Vangliaa.  The  testinumy  of 
Woileford,  on  which  the  latter  writer 
cliicfiy  relieB  in  endeaToniing  to 
prove  that  the  warden  ot  Canter- 
bnt7  Hall   asd   the  reformer  were 


JOHN  WTCLIP. 


267 


the  Crown,  in  the  year  1371,  with  a  general  remonstrance  cuap.  m. 
Bgainst  the  appointment  of  churchmen  to  all  great  dignities      *"    ■ 
of  the  state,  and  petitioning  that  laymen  may  be  chosen  for 
these  secular   offices.     The  movement    was   attributed   by 
many  to  John  of  Gaunt ;  but  that  Wyclif  was  the  adviser  of 
ha  patron  in  this  matter  we  have  no  evidence.     Such  data 
as  we  poRaess  would  rather  lead  us  to  the  couclusion  that  his 
career  as  a  reformer  had  scarcely  commenced'.     The  long 
neglect  into  which  his  Latin  treatises  have,  in  this  country, 
been  allowed  to  fall,  has  indeed  tended  to  create  considerable 
misapprehension  as  to  his  real  character.     Wyclif  with  all 
bis  noble  aims  in  the  direction  of  Cliurch  reform  and  tlie 
purification  of  doctrine,  bia  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  his  naichumc- 
English  tracts,  so  full  of  pathos,  irony,  and  manly  passion,  ^upu^' 
his   denunciations    of   Gomish    innovations,   was    still    the 
schoolman,  the  dialectician,  and  the  realist'.    '  He  was  second 
to  none,' says  the  monk  Knighton, 'iu  philosophy;  in  the  wjcuf^ 
discipline  of  the  schools  he  was  incomparable.'     '  He  was,'  ^'f^*^ 
says  Anthony  Harmer,  'far  from  being  condemned  at  Oxford, 
during  his  own  life  or  the  life  of  the  duke  of  Lancaster,  but 
was  bad  in  great  esteem  and  veneration  at  that  university  to 
the  last;  and  his  writings,  for  many  years  before  and  after 
his  death,  were  as  much  read  and  studied  there  as  those  of 
Aristotle,  or  the  Master  of  the  Sentences'.'     '  A  most  pro- 
found philosopher  and  a  most  distinguished  divine ;  a  man 
of  Burpaiising  and  indeed  siiperhtimau  genius,'  is  the  verdict 
of  Anthony  Wood.     When  such   is  the  testimony  of  preju- 
<licc<l  if  not  hostile  judges,  we  need  seek  for  no  farther  evi- 
dence to  shew  what  was  really  the  gonerally  accepted  repu- 


>  Hilmat),  TMiin  Chriitianily,  Bk. 
XIII  c.  6.  Dr.  Robert  Vanglian  has 
qnoted  Irom  the  Eeeleiiie  Rfijimin 
(Cotton  1185.  TitnH,  D.  1)  paiiiiHfjea 
which  deailj  shew  that  Wyclif  siib- 
■eqnentl;  Approved  the  riewH  urged 
on  this  occBFion;  the  date  ol  this 
maiiQBeript  it  uucertniu,  but  there  is 
vrerj  rPMon  for  sapposiDg  tlist  it  i» 
the  pmdnctioD  of  a  mach  later  poriud 
in  WfcUrii  lite,  when  he  luid  m-tn- 
■Uy  ■MtuDed  the  jmrl  ot  a  rulonuur. 

'  Lewis  hM  waerted  that  Chaucer. 


in  his  description  of  the  PariRh  Prient, 
'BeemB  to  haTe  had  him  (Wyclif), 
thix  friend  and  aci|uaiutunc<>  of  hin, 
in  his  tbonghta.'  Lift  of  IVycli/,  p. 
45.  Mr.  Itohert  Bell,  in  hia  preface 
to  Chaucer,  ohsen'es,  on  (he  other 
hand,  that  'the  antagooisu  ia  per- 
fect;' and  that  if  Chancer  meant  to 
apply  the  sketch  to  Wyclif.  it  niU!<t 
have  been  as  mnxked  tuirca><m  and 
nut  OS  a  pancKiric. 

'  Anthony  Harmer's  SptciMm,  p. 
15  (quoted  by  I*wi«). 


oifiwl" 


268  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 

tatioD  of  the  character  to  whom  they  refer.  It  would  seem 
indeed  that,  during  the  greater  part  of  his  life,  Wyclif  was 
chiefly  known  as  the  most  eminent  schoolman  of  his  day; 
even  his  memorahle  citation  before  tlie  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, at  St,  Paul's,  was  the  result  of  his  political  rather  than 
of  his  religious  tenets,  and  the  measure  was  probably  aimed 
at  hia  patron  rather  than  at  himself;  while  hia  general 
acceptance  of  the  doctrinal  teaching  of  the  Church  is  siifB- 
ciently  indicated  hy  the  fact  that  it  was  not  until  within  a 
few  years  of  his  death  that  his  bold  revival  of  the  doctrine 
held  by  Berengar  exposed  him  to  the  charge  of  heresy.  That 
doctrine  again  was  one  which  related  to  a  controversy  that 
had  agitated  both  the  eastern  and  the  western  Churches, 
and  which  was  peculiarly  calculated  to  attract  the  ingenuity 
of  the  schoolman  ;  and  whatever  of  mistrust  the  name  of  a 
refuted  heretic  might  awaken,  there  were  not  a  few  at  Oxford 
who  could  remind  those  around  them  that  the  arguments  of 
Berengar  had  been  those  of  the  true  logician,  and  who  could 
recognise  in  their  illustrious  contemporary  the  same  or  even 
yet  greater  mastery  over  the  acknowledged  weapons  of 
debate.  While  finally,  if  we  carefully  examine  the  origin  of 
'  his  hostility  to  the  Mendicants,  we  shall  find  good  reason  for 
inferring  that  had  they  suffered  his  teachings  in  the  schools 
to  pass  unchallenged,  the  fiercest  passages  and  the  heaviest 
indictments  that  proceeded  from  his  pen  would  never  have 
been  written.  A  highly  competent  critic,  the  most  recent 
editor  of  the   Triahgus,  is  even  of  opinion  that  Wyclifs 


"  '  If  Wj'clif  had  confined  his  toBoh- 
inR  to  tlie  Bchoola,  be  would  pro- 
liulily  hntv  nrnmined  ituiuulustid. 
Con  side  nil  lie  latitude  in  Biii-tulHlitin 
was  ulluweJ  tii  the  acliooliuvn;  itud 
the  LeiidH  of  tLo  Church  of  England 
at  that  tiuia  cored  little  fnr  thei). 
lugical  discaBBii)n!i.  The  ouivorsity 
was,  itralf,  reliemeutl}'  anti|iii|ml, 
long  iH'fore  Wyclit  wns  matriculatt-d; 
aud  Mh  Hntipiktby  to  the  Church  uf 
Itume  waH  an  inheiitauee  on  tlie  part 
of  ail  Oxonian.  In  npiiixinR  the 
pop',  a  creature  nf  Franco,  Wjiclif 
only    did    what    ovcry   patriot    naa 


doing,  so  lon)t  as  the  popes  remained 
at  Avignon.  In  mpoeing  Uie  hypo- 
crisy iif  tho  monks,  he  acted  with 
the  npiilauHe  of  the  biKhopii,  whose 
jurihdiutiuii  they  rejected  or  dexpised. 
He  hud  uot  only  the  tito  uniTervi. 
ties,  but  all  tho  clergy,  regular  and 
secular,  with  bun  vbeu  he  attacked 
tho  Mendicants.  Fitz-Balph,  who 
preceded  him,  and  was  equally  no- 
lent  in  his  attacks  npon  the  men- 
dicant orders,  had  bRen  rewarded 
with  the  arcbiepiacopal  mitre  of  Ar- 
nidKh.'  Hiiuk,  Livn  of  the  Arck- 
hulU)i>;  III  83. 


WYC'LIF  AND  THE  MENDICASTS. 


263 


original  setitiinents  towania  those  orders  were  certainly  not  < 
of  a  hostile  character'. 

It  wan  undoubtedly  an  evil  day  for  the  Mendicants  when  n 
the  great  itchorilinau  at  lost  )>ut  ou  the  annour  of  William  of  ^ 
St.  Amour.  Tlie  cla«3  hostility  of  the  lleuedictine  historian,  "■ 
the  honest  aveniion  of  Itogt^r  Bacon,  the  Harcasni  and  ci>n- 
tempt  of  Langlande  and  Chaucer,  evL-ii  the  hot  anger  of 
Arinachanus,  seem  tame  and  feeblu  when  compared  with  the 
glowing  diatribes  of  the  Oxford  schoolman.  Tht-y  had  but 
denounced  the  abuses  of  tliose  orders  of  whom  hu  tlcmanded 
the  extinction;  whoever  in  fact  wi.slies  to  know  the  worst 
that  could  be  said  against  the  Mendicants  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  unmodifieJ  by  any  pulUatiug  circumstaucea  or 
counter  considerations,  will  find  it  in  the  scholastic  pages  of 
the  Triatoffus  and  the  simpler  diction  of  the  English  tracts. 
With  much  of  exaggeration  in  detail  but  with  undeniable 
Bdelity  of  outline,  the  fault;,  vices,  inconsistencies,  and  short- 
comings of  his  adversaries  are  there  held  up  to  view,  and  it 
is  difficult  indeed  to  believe  that  we  have  before  lis  the  repre- 
ecntatives  of  those  whoiie  heroism  and  self-devotion  had  won 


'  The  late  Dr.  Bobi.  VanKlum,  in 
bit  work  entitled  John  dr  Wijclifff, 
D.D,,  a  ilvnograpli,  bajB  '  From 
vhat  we  know  of  the  eontroverev  as 
eoQilucted  bj  olliers.  aud  from'  all 
that  we  find  beariug  upon  it  iii  the 
later  works  of  the  lefnnuer.  it  in  not 
difficult  to  judge  of  the  manner  in 
vbich  be  acquitted  Limsulf  in  rela- 
tion to  it  at  tbiH  earlier  periiHl.' 
(See  p.  88.)  How  far  the  inference 
here  made  is  juHlilied  by  the  [outs 
may  be  seen  from  the  following 
vurda  of  Dr.  Leehler:—'  Sed  Wicli- 
(um  mm  a  primo  initio  de  *  fnitribna 
miDorihoB,'  '  pra>dircatiiribu)t,'  reli- 
qnii,  ita  nensi.sKe,  potius  ntuRni  eo« 
avtiiuaTiHse,  ntc  autequum  vtcpiHBet 
docliinie  de  '  trouBKubi^tantiulioDe' 
ceusniaiD  aijere,  mendicant  e^  im- 
Iiiiljnabse.  ijisiiui  opera  ti:sluntur. 
Com  enim  tlit-ulogi  illia  onUuibua 
•dseripti  pro!  ctterio  ip«i  mlversa. 
nntui  de  ductrina  ilia  ufctnli,  ^Vio- 
lifna  silii  peri>ua.lvrc  ca.']>it.  frati'eB 
■uendicantcH  omnium  crrurum  alque 
malomm  in  «ccle^ia  Bomaua  vigou- 


tium  accminna  esFe  patronoB  e( 
Tindireti.  Quod  cum  uon  Hiite  ou- 
□iini  l:'tHl  fagluin  e^ue.  el  alia  nionu- 
menta  el  libri  ejnii  uondum  tjpLB  ei- 
BcriptiteHtimunioi4int.lnceclariii»eiit, 
Tri-itofiuin  ant  hocaut  posteriori  anno 
editum  ease.'  Frol.  ail  Triniiiium.  p. 
3.  I>?wi<(,  on  the  autLorilf  of  Le- 
land.  Dr.  Seript.  Brit.  p.  379,  OKricitn 
that  Wyclif  begun,  bo  early  bb  13T2, 
to  Httack  the  Mendicanta,  in  hk  leo- 
toreH  aB  Uoctur  of  Divinity  at  Oxford. 
'In  theiie  lecturefl,*  he  Bays,  'ho  fre- 
quently took  notice  of  the  aorrup- 
tioua  of  the  beggiug  Friars,  vbicb  at 
fintt  he  did  in  a  livft  and  itmtle  man- 
Der.  milil.  finding  that  bis  detecting 
their  abuses  was  what  wut  accept- 
able t»  hiii  benrcTH,  hu  proceeded  to 
deal  more  ptaiiilv  and  openly  with 
them.'  Life  ,./  WueVif,  p.  il.  Ho 
admiti^,  linwo^er.  that  liie  tract  eJi- 
led  l>v  Junie^,  the  librarian  ut  the 
Bodleian,  iu  IPiUS,  wbieb  nilh  the 
TriaUifim  coutuiuE  the  gravamen  of 
Wyclif'B  attack,  waB  not  written  un- 
til about  ten  years  lutor.   ibid.  p.  32, 


270  THE  FtFTEENTH   CESTUBY. 

CHAP.  iiL  the  adiniratioi]  of  St.  Louia  and  uf  Robert  Grosseteste.  The 
''*^"'  vow  of  poverty  had  long  been  disregarded ;  the  residences  of 
the  orders  were  among  the  most  magDificent  structures  of  the 
time,  so  thickly  scattered  too  throughout  the  country  that 
a  coDtempomry  poet  was  scarcely  guilty  of  exaggeration  vheu 
he  declared  that  the  friar  might  make  a  tour  of  the  realm 
and  sleep  each  night  uuder  the  shelter  of  some  one  -or  other 
of  those  palatial  abodes'.  To  Wyclif  they  appeared  little 
better  than  those  ancient  strongholds  where  lawless  barons 
were  wont  to  set  law  and  order  at  defiuice,  issuing  forth  at 
intervals  only  to  spread  terror  among  the  quiet  homesteads 
of  their  neighbours ;  he  termed  them  'Caim's  Castles'.'  As 
for  the  mendicancy  which  supplied  the  place  of  force,  he 
declared  that  '  begging  was  damned  by  God  both  in  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  New ;'  while  the  proselytism  of  the 
ordei'S,  he  described  as  habitually  carried  on  by  '  faypocrisie, 
lesings  and  steling.'  In  short,  after  making  all  allowance  for 
the  plain  speaking  of  the  period,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive 
that  the  resources  of  our  Middle  English  could  have  supplied 
the  vocabulary  for  a  much  heavier  indictment  than  that 
wherein  he  stigmatises  liis  antagonists  as  '  irregular  procura- 
tors of  the  fende,  to  make  and  maintain  wairs  of  Christen 
men,  and  enemies  of  peace  and  charity,'  'Scariot's  children,' 
'a  swallow  of  simony,  of  usury,  extortion,  of  raveynes  and  of 
theft,  and  so  as  a  nest  or  hord  of  Mammon's  tresour,'  'both 
night  thieves  and  day  thieves,  entering  into  the  Church  not 
by  the  door  that  is  Christ,' '  worse  enemies  and  sleers  of  man's 
soule  than  is  tlie  cruel  fende  of  hell  by  himself,' '  envenymed 
with  gostly  sin  of  Sodom,' '  perilous  enemies  to  holy  Church 
and  all  our  lond'.'     We  need  scarcely  wonder  that  chaises 

>  'For  ;e   now   nenden   through  b;  Wyclil  u  a  l«na  of  reproaoh,  m 

the  realme,  and  ecb  night  will  lig  embodyiug  the  uulial  lettcm  of  the 

in  your  owne  conrtea,  and  bo  mow  uamea  ol  the  four  mendioant  orden, 

bat  right  few  lords  do.'  Jack  Upland  CormeliteB,   AagnstmiuiB,  Jaoobitee 

(qootod  by  Lewis).  or  DominioonB  (sailed  jMolrites  tram 

'  Ciii/met  Ciuleiu.  'That  is  Coin'*  the  Hue  St.  Jacques  in  Paiil,  vhsre 
Casttes;  tor  in  WyolyfFe'a  time  the  their  famous  oonveut  atood),  and  Mi- 
proper  Dams  Cuin  ajipeare  to  have  norites  or  FranciBoans,'  See  note  by 
been  cximiuool;  corrupted  into  Cairn.  Dr.  Todd  to  IiIb  edition  of  WyelifB 
Soiu  his  New  TeBlameiit:  "Abel  o[-  treatise i)«£ccl>>ja el  Jf«ttrii.^/w. 


LOLLABDISH  AT  THE  UMIVERStTlES.  271 

aod  epitheta  guch  as  th«ee,  made  moreovor  by  no  obscure  chap,  iil 
pariflh  priest  but  by  the  meet  eminent  English  sclioolman  of  -  ''*,^  ^\ 
hid  day,  should  have  called  up  the  undying  hatred  of  the 
four  orders.     Wyclifs  enemies  could  say  no  worse  of  him 
than  he  had  said  of  them.     Nettcr   and  Kynyugham   are 
models  of  courtesy  by  comparison'. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  point  out   the  relevancy  ofni*"™^* 
these  leading  features  in  Wyclifs  teaching  and  influence,  S;*£^'i^i 
to   the   developement   of   thought    and    education   in   the  {J;^"'^™'- 
UDiveruties ;  but  we  may  observe  that  we  have  here  decisive 
evidence  that  the  systematic  opposition  to  the  corruptions  of 
tite  Church,  which  had  begun  to  manifest  itself  in  Occam  and 
was  carried   out   by  Wyclif,   was   essentially   a  university 
movement.     While  conservatism  found  its  chief  support  in 
the  superstitious  zeal  of  the  provinces,  the  spirit  of  reform 
was  agitating  Oxford  and  Cambridge;  having  its  origin  Indeed 
in  a  widespread  sense  of  grave  abuses,  but  mainly  indebted 
for  its  chief  success  to  the  advocacy  of  the  most  distinguished 
schoolman  of  his  day,  whose  arguments  were  enforced  with 
all  the  subtleties  of  the  scholattic  It^c,  as  well  as  with  the 
aimple  rhetoric  of  bis  native  tongue.     The  universities  thus  Tiwunhn* 
became  the  strongholds  of  Wyclifism';  of  LoUardism,  that  Jj'^Jji^ 
is  to  say,  free  for  the  most  part  from  those  abuses  and  extra-  ■■"■ 
vagancies  which  brought  discredit  upon  the  cause,  as  seen  in 
socialists  like  John  Ball,  and  fanaticii  like  Swynderby,  hut 
firmly  holding  to  the  right  of  private  judgement  in  the  ac- 
ceptance of  tbeolt^cal  d<^mas.     The  views  of  Bercngar  were 


Junes,  Oitord.  160&    Lewis,  Li/e  of 
Wfclif,  pp.  23—80. 

>  Lingftrd  hu  iiBtiirally  sot  fai]ed 
te  tni  n  WycUrn  vitaperationti  an 
cunlpation  of  the  opposite  party: 
'It  will  not  eioite  siirprise,'  lie  ub- 


a  so  prejudicial  to  Ihuic  iii- 
tereitt,  alanoed  and  irritaled  the 
elergj.  Thay  apiiealed  ttir  proleo- 
tien  to  the  kiug  and  the  puutiff; 
iNit  though  their  reputatiou  nud  fur' 
tones  were  at  Htake  the;  waght  nut 
to  Tsrengs  themsclveH  on  tliiir  ail- 
VOTSMy,  but  were  content  with  an 
order  (oi  his  removal  ftum  the  uui- 


TerRity  to  reside  on  his  own  living. 
If  the  reader  allot  to  him  the  pntino 
of  euTLTBRe,  be  caunut  refuse  to  lArn 
the  praise  of  moderatiuu.'  Hiil.  uj' 
Eaylanil  in>  SOT. 

'  Of  its  prekeiice  at  Oxford  we  have 
a  Bigual  proof  in  the  fact  that  nith- 
in  a  few  yearn  af lor  the  foundation  ul 
New  Collie  in  IJISO,  ws  find  the 
courtiers  reproaching  William  lA 
Wykeham,  the  founder,  with  having 
rai>^  up  a  Kcniiiiary  of  hereayj  sa 
prevalent  had  the  now  doctriues  bo- 
cuinu  within  the  colk'fie.  Sue  K'it. 
lian  <•/  H'ykthant  and  hi$  CoUtjin, 
by  Uackoii£ie  K.  C.  Walcott,  p.  itua. 


2"2  THE  FIFTBENTH   CENTURT. 

CHAP.  Ill,  reassertc<I  byWyclif.  not  simply  in  connexion  with  a  specific 
-  "y  -■•  tenet  but  with  tlie  wliole  fiold  of  reli^ous  enquiry;  and  it 
was  this  spirit  that,  far  iiioic  than  the  lattcr's  opinions  con- 
cerning t'liurcli  and  State,  began,  soon  after  his  death,  to 
spread  with  such  rapidity  at  Oxfoni  and  Cambridge.  The 
prcamlflc  to  archbisliop  Arundel's  Constitutions,  published  in 
1108,  indicates  veiy  clearly  the  gravamen  of  the  offence 
u  given  by  the  party  of  refonn  to  the  ecclesiastical  authorities ; 
1  '  He  does  an  injury  to  the  most  reverend  synod,  who  examines 
I  its  determinations:  and  uince  be  who  disputes  the  supreme 
earthly  judgment  is  liable  to  the  punishment  of  sacrilege,  as 
the  authoriti)  of  the  civil  law  teaches  us;  much  more  grievously 
are  they  to  be  punished,  and  to  be  cut  off  an  putrid  members 
from  the  Church  militant,  who,  leaning  on  their  own  wisdom, 
violate,  oppose,  and  despise,  by  various  doctrines,  words,  and 
deeds,  the  laws  and  canons  made  by  the  k^y-keeper  of  eternal 

life  and  death when  they  have  been  published  according 

I  to  form  aud  cause,  and  observed  by  the  holy  fathera  our  pre- 
decessors, even  to  the  glorious  effusion  of  their  blood,  and 
dissipating  their  brains*.'  Id  the  same  Constitutions  it  is 
provided  (1)  that  no  master  of  arts  or  grammar  shall  instruct 
his  pupiU  upon  any  theological  point,  contrary  to  the  deter- 
mination of  the  Cliurch,  or  expound  any  text  of  Scripture  in 
other  manner  than  it  hath  been  of  old  expounded,  or  permit 
his  pupils  either  publicly  or  privately  to  dispute  couceming 
the  Catholic  faith  or  tlie  sacraments  of  the  Church  ;  (2)  that 
no  book  or  tract  compiled  by  John  Wyclif,  or  any  one  else  Id 
his  time  or  since,  or  to  be  compiled  hereafter,  shall  be  read  or 
taught  in  the  schools,  hostels,  or  other  places  in  the  province, 
until  it  has  first  been  examined  by  the  universities  of  Oxfoni 
and  Cambridge,  or.  at  least  by  twelve  persons  to  be  elected 
by  each  of  these  bodies,  and  afterwards  expressly  approved 
by  the  archbishop  or  his  successors ;  (3)  that  whoever  shall  read 
or  teach  any  book  or  treatise  contrary  to  the  form  aforesaid, 
shall  be  'punished  as  a  sower  of  schism  and  favourer  of 
heresy,  according  to  the  quahty  of  his  offence*.' 


LOLUBDIBM  AT  THE  UNIVERSITIES. 


273 


lotb  the  question  of  the  political  be&ringa  of  Wyclif's  c 
doctrines  we  are  not  called  upon  to  enter.  They  appear  to 
have  been  carried  to  dangerous  excesses  by  the  fanatics  who,  ^ 
under  the  general  designation  of  Lollards,  represeoted  not  l 
merely,  as  Professor  Shirley  observes,  'every  species  of  re- 
ligious malcontent,'  but  designs  inconsistent  with  the  then 
existing  form  of  government.  Against  these  the  statute 
De  Haretieo  Contburendo  was  really  aimed ;  but  the  eccle- 
Biastical  authorities  subsequently  found  their  advantage  in 
confimng  the  theological  and  political  aspects  of  the  toove- 
meot,  and  representing  them  as  inseparable.  Under  both, 
tiie  followers  of  Wyclif  strained  his  tenchings  to  conclusions 
that  could  scarcely  fail,  at  any  time,  to  excite  alarm,  and 
call  forth  vigorous  measures  of  repression' ;  and  while  we 
honour  the  integrity,  the  vigour  of  thought,  and  tlie  untiring 
leal  of  their  leader,  we  shall  not  the  less  lament  the  extrava- 
gancies which  obscured  the  original  lustre  of  his  design,  and 
eoDtributed  in  no  small  degree  to  the  defeat  of  a  noble  pur- 
pose. It  is  certain  that,  in  this  country,  measures  like  those 
which  Arundel,  Chicheley,  and  Beaufort  successively  carried 
oot  were  attended  with  almost  complete  success ;  and  the 
(rft-qu'jted  simile  of  Foxe  typifies  with  singular  felicity  the 
bistoiy  of  Wyclif's  influence.  As  the  ashes  of  the  great 
reformer  were  home  by  the  Avon  and  the  Severn  far  from 
the  spot  where  they  were  fii^t  consigned  to  rest,  even  so  his 
doctrines,  well-nigh  extinguished  in  England,  rose  i^in  in  JJS^SSiS 
new  purity  and  vigour  in  a  distant  land.  Amid  a  Sclavonic  i^rwmi>. 
nee,  in  the  cities  of  Bohemia,  the  son  of  John  of  Gaunt* 
directed  the  persecuting  sword  against  the  tenets  of  which 


>  'Another  dam,  u  tml;  alien 
from  hii  spirit  aa  an;,  and  vho 
htgtn  in  the  next  geDerstion  to  ap- 
paar  in  oooBiderable  nambec,  vera 
tba  man  wbo  rejected,  aa  unworthy 
ol  the  Christian  religion,  wbateTer 
did  not  appear  patent  at  onoe  to  the 
intelUgMM*  of  the  moat  ordiaaiy 
laamer.  For  them  human  nature 
had  no  hidden  depthi,  religion  no 
mjwittimt;  yet  of  the  Chriatian  ordi- 
imww,  that  whieh  alone  aeenu  to 


haie  thoroughly  approTed  itnelt  to 
them  was  that  whii:h  to  otbcra  ap- 
peared the  most  myBterioas  of  nil, 
the  expoxitioD  of  the  Bible  by  the 
moat  ignorant  ol  the  prieetbood. 
In  the  high  value  they  ut  on  tbil 
Diilettered  preavhing,  and  in  that 
alone,  they  conld  truly  claim  the 
authority  ol  Wyclil.'  Prof.  Shirlej, 
Fret  to  FoK.  Zii.  Jiviii. 
1  Cardinal  Beaulort. 

IS 


274 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 


XrGaiid- 
iMr'Bcritt- 


tolUurdton 
not  the  com- 

BMOOQIIlQOt 

Of  the 
Befonnatloii.  ^  « 


I 


cnAP.  iiL  his  illustrious  father  had  been  a  foremost  prot«ctor*.  But 
at  home,  Lollardism,  if  it  lived  at  all,  survived  rather  by  its 
secondary  effects  than  as  a  direct  tradition.  '  Notwithstand- 
ing/ says  a  writer  who  has  studied  this  period  with  special 
care,  Hhe  darkness  that  surrounds  all  subjects  connected 
with  the  history  of  the  15th  century,  we  may  venture  pretty 
safely  to  affirm  that  Lollardy  was  not  the  beginning  of  mo^ 
dem  Protestantism.  Plausible  as  it  seems  to  regard  Wyclif 
the  morning  star  of  the  Reformation,"  the  figure  con- 
veys an  impression  which  is  altogether  erroneous.  Wyclif 's 
real  influence  did  not  long  survive  his  own  day,  and  so  far 
from  Lollardy  having  taken  any  deep  root  among  the  English 
people,  the  traces  of  it  had  wholly  disappeared  long  before 
the  great  revolution  of  which  it  is  thought  the  forerunner. 
At  all  events  in  the  rich  historical  material  for  the  beginning 
of  Henry  the  Eighth's  reign,  supplied  by  the  correspondence 
of  the  time,  we  look  in  vain  for  a  single  indication  that  any 
such  thing  as  a  Lollard  sect  existed.  The  movement  had  died 
a  natural  death ;  from  the  time  of  Oldcastle  it  sank  into  in- 
significance. Though  still  for  a  while  considerable  in  point  of 
numbers,  it  no  longer  counted  among  its  adherents  any  man 
of  note ;  and  when  another  generation  had  passed  away,  the 
serious  action  of  civil  war  left  no  place  for  the  crotchets  of 
fanaticism.  Yet  doubtless  Lollardy  did  not  exist  in  vain. 
A  strong  popular  faith  does  not  entirely  die,  because  it  never 
can  be  altogether  unsound.  The  leaven  of  the  Lollard  doc- 
trines remained  after  the  sect  had  disappeared.  It  leavened 
the  whole  mass  of  English  thought,  and  may  be  traced  in 
the  theology  of  the  Anglican  Church  itself.  Ball  and  Swyn- 
derby  were  forgotten,  as  they  deserved  to  be ;  extravagance 
effervesced  and  was  no  more ;  but  there  still  remained,  and 


^  Antony  Wood  states,  I  have  been 
nnable  to  ascertain  on  what  grounds, 
that  Hnss  studied  at  Oxford,  where 
he  'made  it  his  whole  employment' 
*to  collect  and  transcribe*  Wyclif s 
doctrines.  The  generally  received  ac- 
count is  that  Hubs  became  acquaint- 
ed with  those  doctrines  through  writ- 
inflis  brought  by  one  of  his  scholars 
who  had  been  studying  at  Oxford. 


The  number  of  students  from  Bo- 
hemia at  the  English  univerBity  at 
this  period  is  a  noticeable  feature, 
and  IS  probably  attributable  to  the 
increas^  intercourse  between  the 
two  countries  that  followed  upon  the 
marriage  of  king  Wenzel's  sister  to 
Bichard  ii.  Wood-Outoh,  i  585, 584. 
BCilman,  Latin  CkrUtianity,  Bk.  zm 
0.8* 


LOLLUtDISH  AT  THE  imiTEBfllTIES.  875 

to  this  day  coDtinoes,  much  that  is  far  more  sound  than  chap.  m. 
unsound'.'  i^^ 
But  while  it  would  seem  indisputable  that  the  doctrines  ^^Sm" 
of  Wyclif  were  effectually  suppressed  iu  this  country,  it  is  huomd 
necessary  to  guard  against  a  tendency  to  refer  to  their  sup-  mminon 
pression  consequences  which  demand  a  wider  solution.     The  J^;|J^ 
following  passage  ttom  Huber,  for  example,  is  exaggerated  in 
its  conception  and  erroneous  as  a  statement  of  (act :  '  One 
might  hare  expected,'  he  says,  '  that  this  great  hattlc  should 
be  fought  out  at  the  universities,  and  that  the  emergency 
would  have  called  out  the  most  brilliant  talents  on  both 
udes.    It  might  have  been  so,  had  not  the  higher  powers 
from  without,  both  temporal  and  spiritual,  at  each  successive 
eriwa  crushed  the  adverse  party  in  the  universities ;   thus 
entailing  intellectual  imhecihty  on  the  other  side  likewise, 
when  a  battle  essentially  intellactual  and  spiritual  was  never 
allowed  to  be  Udtly  fought  out.     Thb  has  ever  been  the 
efiect  everywhere,  but  especially  at  the  Euglish  universities; 
and  it  explains  the  extreme  languor  and  torpor  which  pre- 
vailed in  them  at  that  time Almost  a  century  passed 

after  the  snppressicm  of  the  Wykliffite  outburst,  before  classi- 
eal  studies  were  adopted  in  England:  and  during  this 
whole  period  the  universities  took  no  such  prominent  part 
in  the  great  ecclesiastical  questions  as  might  have  been 
expected  from  their  ancient  reputation.  In  the  thirteenth 
and  fourteenth  centuries,  the  university  of  Oxford  had  reared 
and  sent  forth  sons  who  attracted  European  regard :  but  in 
the  great  Councils  of  the  Church  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
she  was  nowhere  to  be  found*,'  A  more  careful  consideration  nii  ■«■•»- 
ot  the  phenomena  of  the  Bceculum  Stfnodale,  and  a  more  '^•nra- 
intimate  acquaintance  with  our  university  history,  would 
jMvbably  have  led  the  writer  considerably  to  modify  if  not 

'  Fortnightly  Review,  vol.  n,  Bible  wu  to  hia  soiuitTTmen  bat  »  diort 

ThtmgU  in  iki  Fifteenth  Cmtury,  hj  faUie,    Boon  lUiiipied  «ad  itifled  bj 

Ahbm  OawdiwT.     Hilton,  long  after,  the  pope  uid  preUtea  for  six  or  Bevan 

noted  and  oomm«at«d  on  thia  andden  Kioga'   reigiu.'    Of  Reformation   in 

•stinetkn  of  nform  in  EngUnd ; —  England,  2k.  i.    Workt  by  Bt.  John, 

'indtUff*'*  pTMching,'  be  ■>;■,  >st  ii  8S8. 

iriiieh  all  tbs  aneaeediiie  lelbrmen  *  Hnber,   En^liih   Vnivertiliti,  I 

vton  dbetoidlr  U^ted  theii  Upen,  16<. 

18—2 


276  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTUBT. 

CHAP.  in.  altogether  to  cancel  this  passage.     In  the  first  place  it  is 
-  certain  that  both  Oxford  and  Cambridge  were  represented 

^f^tu  tit  the  council  of  Pisa* ;  and  when  the  deputation  from 
S'SHtelba  Oxford  was  passing  through  Paris,  it  was  addressed  by  Qerson, 
■WMtata-  then  chancellor  of  the  university  of  Paris,  and  complimented 
•*"*»■  on  the  spirited  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  Church,  which 
the  body  it  represented  had  displayed  at  so  important  a 
juncture*.  At  Constance,  where  the  suppression  of  Wyclifism, 
as  that  heresy  had  reappeared  in  the  movement  led  by  John 
Husa,  occupied  a  prominent  place  in  the  deliberations  of  the 
council,  Cambridge  was  represented  by  its  chancellor  and 
other  delegates,  and  Oxford  by  some  of  her  most  distinguished 
sons*.  Both  universities,  a^in,  were  addressed  by  the  uni- 
versity of  Paris  with  a  view  to  concerted  action  at  the  council 
of  Basel*;  and  the  fact  that  neither  would  seem  to  have  so 
far  responded  to  the  invitation  as  to  send  delegates,  is  satis- 
factorily accounted  for  by  the  comparatively  languid  interest 
which  the  whole  country,  on  the  eve  of  political  dbturbance 
at  home,  appears  to  have  taken  in  the  lengthened  proceed- 
ings of  that  councit 

That  the  suppression  of  Lottardism  acted  as  a  check  upon 

free  thought  at  the  universities  is  probable  enough,  but  it  is 

far  from  supplying  au  adequate  explanation  of  the  'torpor' 

and  '  languor'  to  which  Huber  refers,  and  which  undoubtedly 

prevailed.     Between   heresy   of  the   most   uncompromiung 

character  and  complete  subserviency  to  mere  tradition,  there 

was  yet  an  interval  that  afforded  sufficient  scope  foi*  vigorous 

speculation  and  active  organic   developeraent ;   of  this  the 

menoi.       position  occupied  by  the  university  of  Paris  during  the  earlier 

y^timn-      part  of  the  fifteenth  century  is  incontestible  evidence.     The 

^^'pr^    centre  of  intellectual  activity  had  again  been  shifted;  and 

during  that  period  Paris  was  again  what  she  had  been  in  the 

1  Labbe  and    Conurt,   U   3231;  PropoHtiafaetaaJ.GertmloesparU 

Wood-Gutch,  644.  filS.  Univertilatii  coram  Anglieii  Paritim 

'  "Ecce  qnid  prlBd»r«  nmverailaa  runtibut  ad  Saenm  CojuiliUM  Piti*. 

OxnnienHiB,   nude  Hibi   nkemit   oon-  Optra,  ed.  Dapia,  u  19iB. 

gntalari,  pridem  ad  hoc  CaDciliam  *  Cooper,  Amah,  i  ISB. 

petendum  determinavit   se  et  mint  '  MS.  LambetbiBiii,  Ko.  447,  to. 

iu  Fraccius,  soio  qni  prsBeilB  ioter-  143  (quoted  by  CJooper). 
fni  dnm  proponeretur  hiec  coDcInsio.' 


JBAK  CHA&LTEB  DE  OEBSOl). 


277" 


days  of  Albertus  and  Aqninas.  Never,  declares  Crevier,  had  chap.  m. 
she  been  consulted  and  listened  to  with  greater  deference ;  -^^"  "'- 
Bever  bad  she  taken  so  conspicuous  a  part  in  tbe  decision  of 
aSun  of  such  importance ;  while  the  namee  of  Nicholas  de 
Claman^B,  Pierre  d'Ailli,  and  Jean  Gerson  might  vie  with 
may  that' had  yet  adorned  her  academic  annals'.  It  was  the 
era  of  the  great  councils ;  and  hud  the  views  advocated  hy 
tbe  two  last-named  illustrious  scholars  of  the  College  of 
Navarre  obt^ned  a  permanent  triumph  over  papal  obstinacy, 
it  is  not  improbable  that  the  tierce  convulsion  of  the  six- 
teenth century  might  have  been  anticipated  by  more  mode- 
iBte  measures  in  the  fifteenth,  A  reformed  and  educated 
clergy,  and  the  admitted  right  of  synods  oecumenical  to  over- 
rule the  authority  of  tbe  pope  himself,  might  have  floated 
the  Romish  system  overthe  two  fatal  rocks  on  which,  in 
Germany  and  in  England,  it  went  to  pieces*. 

Of  Gerson  himself  it  has  been  truly  said  that  'he  does  jaocim- 
more  than  almost  any  other  man  to  link  the  thought«  ofomm, 
different  periods  tc^ther*;'  for,  though  essentially  a  repre-''-^'^ 
■tentative  of  mediaeval  thought,  he  presents  a  union  of  some 
of  its  most  dissimilar  phases  and  tendencies.    The  nominalist 
and  yet  the  mystic;  fiill  of  contempt  for  'the  fine  spun  cob- 
webs' that  occuiMed  the  ingenuity  of  tbe  schools,  full  of  re- 
ference for  Diouysins,  'the  holy  and  the  divine ;'  intent  on 
reformation  in  the  Church,  yet  consebting  to  the  death  of 
the  noblest  reformer  of  tbe  Bge ;  ever  yearning  for  peace,  and 
yet  ever  foremost  in  the  controversial  fight, — he  adds  to  tbe 
anomt^ies  of  a  transitional  period  the  features  of  an  indi- 
vidual eclecticism.     It  is  foreign  to  our  purpose  to  enter  here 
opOQ  any  discussion  of  the  views  which  find  expression  in  the 


'  CreTier,  iii  3. 

■  BimiUrlj,  of  &  Bomewhat  earlier 
period  in  Eugluul,  Hr  Fronde  ob- 
Mrrea,  'If  tha  Bluk  Frioce  had 
Ifvad,  or  if  Bichard  it  had  itifaerited 
Qit  temper  of  the  Plautai^netB,  the 
eedeuuBtical  ■jBtem  would  have  been 
(pared  the  miafortnne  of  a  loDger 
reprieve.  Its  wont  abases  would 
tlran  have  tenninated,  and  the  refor- 
nation  of  doctrine  in  tiie  16tb  cen- 
Inrj  would  hare  b«en  left  to  flj^l  ita 


independent  way  ncsopported  b;  the 
moral  corruption  ol  the  Cboroh  from 
which  it  received  it«  most  powerful 
impetOB.'     Hilt  of  England,  i  83. 

■  Prof.  Manrce,  Modirn  Philo- 
lopliy,  p.  16.  Similarly  Schmidt  ob- 
serreB,  'Gerson  marqae  one  pririode 
de  Irausilion;  il  est  1e  reprdsentant 
d'mie  (^poqne  ob  les  principes  les  pins 
contradicioireB  Be  oombalWnt.'  Ei>ai 
lur  Jean  Qmon,  p.  ZO. 


278  THE  FIETBOrra  CCNTUKT. 

CHAP.  to.  2>0  TripHci  Tkeologia  or  in  the  De  Monts  CctUemplationia ; 
•~i^ — '  but  in  two  of  Gerson's  shorter  and  comparatively  unknown 

IZS^  Dt  treatises,  the  De  Modia  Significandi,  and  the  De  Concordia 
fc  MetaphysiccB  cum  Loffica,  we  have  a  valuable  exposition  of 
the  state  of  metaphysical  science  at  Paris  at  this  period,  and 
an  incontrovertible  proof  of  the  progress  which  that  science 
had  made  since  the  time  of  Abelard.  la  the  fifty  propo- 
sitions  into  which  each  of  these  treatises  is  divided,  the 
nominalistic  conclusions  are  stated  with  a  conciseness  and 
clearness  that  far  exceed  what  is  to  be  found  in  any  other 
writer  of  the  century ;  it  may  not  indeed  be  easy  to  shew 
any  appreciable  advance  upon  the  views  arrived  at  by  Occam ; 
but  it  is  certainly  a  noticeable  fact  that  those  views  are  here 
reiterated  with  emphasis  by  one  who  bad  filled  the  office  of 
chancellor  in  the  same  univeraity  that  bad  seen  the  writings 
of  the  Oxford  Franciscan  given  to  the  flames.  It  is  to  be 
noted  also,  as  perhaps  the  most  significant  feature,  that  the 
I.  nominalistic  doctrines  are  here  identified  with  the  real  mean* 
ing  of  Aristotle,  while  the  positions  of  the  realists,  from 
Amalricus  down  to  John  Huss,  are  exhibited  as  instances  of 
philosophic  error'.  The  distinction  to  be  observed  between 
metaphysics  and  logic,  on  which  Occam  had  insisted,  is  also 
asserted  with  even  yet  greater  distinctness.  It  belongs  to 
the  metaphysician  alone,  says  Gerson,  to  iuvestigate  the 
essences  of  things;  the  logician  does  not  define  the  thing, 
but  simply  the  notion';  bis  object  being,  in  more  modem 
phraseology,  'to  produce  distinctness  in  coticepts,  which  are 
the  things  of  logic'  The  theory  to  which  the  realists  had 
adhered  with  such  tenacity,  that  in  some  yet  to  be  discovered 
treatise  of  the  Stagyrite  would  be  found  the  necessary  expo- 
sition of  the  functions  of  logic  as  concerned  with  the  definition 
of  things  themselves',  is  here  given  to  the  winds;  and  the 
position  taken  up  by  Occam  with  reference  to  theology  is 
Hanctioned  by  the  greatest  authority  of  the  fifteenth  centuiy, 

■  Opera,  ed.  Dapin,  iv  836,  827.  xignam   eat,    pneMrtim   in   kninu, 

*  'SiimatDr  ex  his  distinctionibaB  BpectatadftraiiiiiiAtiouiiTallogiiatm.' 

b«a  niiicn,  qaod  ooiuideratio  rei.  nt  Ibid,  n  839. 

res  ent.  8|iectat  ad  fflcUphysicam.  '  DeaalSwaatl,  ArtuLfgkaRnH. 

CoiiBide(»Uoveroi«i,utbuitimimodo  menla,  p.  U, note*. 


JK4H  CHASLIEB  DE  QKBapN, 


279 


Socfa  then  was  the  harvest  which  Bcholasticism  finally  reaped  c 
in  the  fields  of  philosophy !    After  the  toil  of  centurieB  it  bad  - 
St  last  succeeded  in  bringing  back  to  view  the  original  text 
of  the  great  master,  which  the  vagaries  of  mediieval  specula* 
tioa  bad  well-nigh  obliterated'. 

Cut  it  is  not  the  nominalist  only  that  appears  in  these  ^ 
pages ;  the  mystic  and  the  theologian  are  also  discernible.  „ 
The  grand  old  mediseval  conception  of  theology,  as  the  science  Hi 
of  sciences,  struggles  for  expression.     Theology  or   rather 
ontology,  in  Gertion's  view,  is  not  necessarily  a  terra  incognita 
for  the   intellect  because   nut   amenable  to  tbc  reasonings 
which  belong  to  the  province  of  the  dialectician.     '  Even,'  be  <■., 
says, '  as  the  sculptor  reveals  the  statue  in  the  block '  (a  simile  " 
borrowed  from  his  favorite  Dionysius)  '  not  by  what  he  brings  *•" 
but  by  what  he  removes,'  even  so  the  divine  nature  is  to  be 
apprehended  by  the  man,  only  as  he  ceases  to  be  the  logician 
and  soars  beyond  the  re^on  of  the  Cat^ories*  1     Of  the  dis- 
putes of  the  theol<^ians  GeiBon  appears  absolutely  weary ; 
aflSiming  that  it  were  better  controversy  should  cease  alto- 
gether than  that  discords  like  those  which  he  had  witnessed 
shoold  continue  to  scandalise  alike  the  faithful  and  the  in- 
fideL 

The  date  of  the  composition  of  these  two  treatises  ex- 


of  Bolntioii  tor  these  eonbsdielions. 

Je&n  Cfaarlier  Je  Geraon's  vork,  De 
itodU  Hinnificandi  and  De  Concordia 
iletuphytieir  cum  Logiea,  nuj  ba 
iaken  as  an  eiponenl  of  tlie  resnlte 
obtained  by  Scholasticitim ;  and  it  ia 
sarpriBint;  to  see  tbe  close  aRTeement 
belweeD  it  and  modrm  KanlJAU,  aud 
tbprefore  also  ol  mneb  post -Kantian, 
philoaophj.  It  is  the  rcsnlt  of  pre- 
vioQS  phiJoiiophy,  and  the  seed  of 
modern  phtloaophies.'  Shadvorth 
H.  HodgHon,  Time  and  Space,  p.  533. 
■  'Sin  Dionysius  doe«t  faeera  in 
myntica  theolORia  per  eiemplnm  d* 
Bcalptore  qui  facit  ogalma  palcbeni- 
mnm,  ideet,  imagiDem.  nihil  addfudo 
sed  remoTendo.  Seqaitnr  bob  Domi- 
ntu  Bonaventara,  Itinenrio  Ueutia 
iu  Deom,  el^anler  Talde.'     Optra, 


taliaii  IboD^t.  'The  metapbyairal 
fbiioiopby  of  the  Mi.ldle  A|^.  vith 
ita  Aomi Bating  eontroTerry  between 
naliam  and  nominalism,  that  is, 
b«t»e«ti  mctaphynic  mixed  nith  on- 
tciogj  and  metaphysio  pure,  is  a 
paiofiil  vorkiug  back  to  tbe  point 
of  Tie*  which  Aristotle  occnpied,  and 
*  rediseoverj  of  his  meaning.  Bnt 
at  the  same  time  it  was  a  reproduc- 
tion of  his  meaning  in  a  new  and 
original  moold,  so  that  the  form  was 
■implcT  and  clearer,  and  the  contra- 
dietiODB  which  Atistotle's  gy Btem  con- 
tained, in  ite  eombination  of  ontology 
with  metapbysie,  were   bron^t   to 


280 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 


Urcutn- 
■tanoM 
under  which 
tbe«c  tt^sail- 
MS  were 
written. 


CHAP.  iiL  plains  their  tone  and  invests  them  with  additional  interest. 
^^**  "•  Oerson  at  this  time  was  no  longer  chancellor  of  Paris.  The 
noblest  act  of  a  far  from  ignoble  career  had  made  the  duke 
of  Burgundy  his  mortal  foe.  In  1418  he  fled  from  the  city 
in  which  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say,  that  he  had  'for  a  time 
ruled  like  a  king*.'  He  first  took  refuge  in  Bavaria,  and 
finally  found  a  home  in  a  monastery  of  Celestines  at  Lyons, 
of  which  his  brother  was  prior.  It  was  here  that  on  the 
eve  of  the  Nativity,  in  142G,  he  summed  up  the  foregoing 
'conclusions.'  The  mediaeval  student  loved  to  bring  some 
cherished  labour  to  its  close  at  that  sacred  season  of  the 
year ;  and  Gerson,  as  towards  the  end  of  life  he  thus  enun^ 
ciated  his  philosophical  belief,  glanced  forward  to  a  time,  for 
him  then  very  near,  when  these  paths  of  thought  and  specu* 
lation,  which  now  crossed  each  other  with  bewildering  com- 
plexity or  vanished  from  the  mental  eye  in  widely  opposed 
directions,  should  be  found  harmonious  and  concentric ;  when 
he  should  discern  the  true  reconciliation,  not  merely  of  meta- 
physic  and  logic,  but  of  all  knowledge,  and  see  no  longer  as 
through  a  glass  darkly*. 

The  intercourse  between  Paris  and  the  English  univer- 

SS«?PMto   sities  appears  to  have  died  out  about  the  time  of  Gerson's 

and  the  ^*' 

w^vaitam.  ^^^^^^^l^orship,  and  we  have  failed  to  discover  any  evidence 
that  his  speculations  served  in  any  way  to  stimulate  the 
progress  of  philosophic  thought  in  England  throughout  the 
century.  Over  both  countries  the  storm  of  war  burst  with 
peculiar  severity :  and  when  the  fierce  feuds  of  the  Armagh 

thehiHuence  uacs  and  the  Burgundians,  the  struggle  between  the   two 

JSitoinUie    '^^^^^^'^s*  ^^^  ^^^  Wars  of  the  Roses  were  over,  the  supremacy 
JJ^2^*       of  Paris  as  the  chief  seat  of  European  learning  was  also  at 


CeenUionor 
tlietaiter- 


drram- 
ituioeithat 
bmu';:lit 
about  a  di- 


*  Prof.  Manrice,  Modem  Philo- 
sophy, p.  49. 

'  'Concordia  metaphysicie  cam 
theolopiia  fiet,  si  consideretnr  ens 
Eimpliciter  vel  ens  purnm,  vel  ens 
Tuiiyersaliter  perfectum,  quod  est 
Dens.  Ant  pi  con&ideretnr  generalis 
ratio  objectalis  entis.  Secnndnm 
Kpectat  ad  mctaphysjcam :  primnm 
))roprie  ad  theologiam,  iu  qua  Pens 
est  subjectnm.    Est  autem  theoiogia 


duplex,  scilicet  yiie  et  patriflB.  Theo- 
logia  visB  respicit  ens  primnm  at 
creditnm  cum  snis  attribntivis  non 
exclndendo  intelligentiam  de  mnltis. 
Theologia  autem  patrisB  respicit  ens 
primnm  ut  facialiter  ^dsum  et  objeo- 
talitnr  in  seipso,  non  in  speonlo  vel 
apnigmate.  Gratias  ipsi  qni  apernit 
banc  ooncordiam  hominibns  bonn 
voluntatis.*    Opera,  iv  829,  880. 


THE  SMCm,VU  STKODALE.  281 

«n  end.    It  may  appear  but  Datunti  that  such  a  result  should  chap.  m. 
have  followed  upon  the  reign  of  the  Cabockien  and  the  4cor-  ■  ■■"  ^ 
cA«ur;  it  maj  even  seem  a  fitting  nemesis  for  the  sentence 
whereby  the  university  consigned  the  Maid  of  Orleans  to 
her  fate;  but  bo  &r  as  it  is  within  our  power  to  assign  a 
cause,  it  would  rather  appear  that  the  decline  which  now 
came  over  the  prestige  of  the  university  of  Paris  must  be 
attributed  to  efforts  as  honorable  as  any  which  mark  the 
hist^  of  that  illustrious  body.     It  is  well  known  that  the  "^^^ 
policy  of  the  three  great  councils   of  Pisa,  Constance,  and 
Basel  rested  upon  the  recognition  of  one  fundamental  prin- 
ciple,— the  absolute  authority  of  such  assemblies  over  the 
fiat  of  the  pope  himself.     At  the  assembling  of  the  council 
of  Basel  however  the  course  of  events  had  given  a  different 
complexion  to  the  assertion  of  such  a  principle  in  the  eyes 
of  different  nations.     The   schism   of  the  West  had  been 
brought  to  a  termination ;  and  the  papal  authority  was  again 
concentrated  in  a  single  undivided  head  at  Rome.     English- 
men accordingly  no  longer  regarded  the  pope  with  the  sus- 
]ndon  that  had  attached  to  the  sole  or  rival  pope  at  Avignon ; 
and  when  the  French  deputies  at  Basel,  pledged  to  support  hh  i»i>^  >( 
and  carry  out  the  policy  of  Gerson,  demanded  measures  off|]!l^*'a. 
reform  to  which  Eugenius  IT  refused  his  sanction,  they  found  t^!" 
themselves  opposed  by  an  English  Ultramontane  party,  re-  ■»''»™'*'^ 
presented  by  John  Kemp,  the  archbishop  of  York,  who  sup- 
ported the  papal  supremacy.     This  opposition  was  successful. 
From  the  breaking  up  of  the  council  of  Basel  we  date  a 
new  theory  of  the  pontilical  power.     The  supreme  pontiff 
no  longer  appeared  as  episcopm  inter  pares,  but  as  the  uni- 
versal bishop,  from  whom  all  bishops  in  other  countries  re- 
ceived their  authority  and  to  whom  they  owed  allegiance. 
The  SoBcubim  Sffnodale  was  at  an  end*. 

But  before  the  council  of  Basel  had  ceased  to  sit,  France  Pnnu 
had  secured  for  herself  at  Bourges  that  independence  of  Rome  Jj^^SSJ" 
which  she  had  vainly  striven  to  assert  in  the  cecumenical 
counciK    The  Pragmatic  Sanction,  re-enacted  in  1438,  vested 
in  the  crown  the  most  valuable  church  patront^  of  the  king- 
>  Dean  Hook,  Lieei  of  Iht  Arehiuhopt,  v  316—319,     . 


tSi 


THE  FOTBEHTH  CE»fTUEY. 


our.  m.  dom ;  it  waa  to  France  far  more  than  the  statutes  of  Pro- 
-  *"  -  viaors  and  Prwmunire  had  ever  been  to  England ;  for  more 
than  half  a  century,  says  Banke,  it  was  believed  to  be  the 
^Dgjg^g^  pftllariiiim  of  the  realm'.  But,  in  the  mean  time,  her  ad- 
(£^?™  herence  io  the  poHcy  of  Qerson  drew  down  upon  the  univer- 
Pvk.  sity  of  Paris  the  enmity  of  successive  popes,  who  repaid  the 

attempted  limitation  of  their  authority  by  a  not  unsuccessful 
iuiT*nttka  endeavour  to  diminish  her  influence  and  prestige.  Hence 
tv>f_  the  encour^ement  now  so  coDSpicuotisly  extended  by  Rome 
to  the  creatiou  of  new  centres  of  learning.  In  the  thirteenth 
century  only  three  universities  had  risen  on  the  model  of 
that  of  Paris ;  the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth  centuiy  wit- 
nessed the  rise  of  the  same  number ;  the  second  half,  seven ; 
but  the  fifteenth  century  saw  the  creation  of  eighteen*.     We 


^  Milman,  Latin  Chriittanily,  Bk. 
sitl  c.  19 ;  fianke,  Hiitory  of  the  Popes, 
135,26. 

*  'Leg  diffjrenoes  Boot  encore  plm 
frappantea  ai  roc  euBaine  wnlenient 
le  nombre  des  Facultis  de  thfologie 
antoria^a  par  los  papea;  uii*  aibcle, 
1;  iiT*  aitele,  avant  1S78,  G;  de  1B7B 
i  ISOO,  27.  Si  Voa  tappipche  cea 
oMflrea  dea  ittaemejita  religietii  et 

Kliliqaea  aaiqueU  rUnlTenitd  de 
Tii  a  M  mf-Ue.'oD  tronvers  que 
lea  UniTcreiUs  se  sont  plna  particu- 
li^rement  multipliiea  k  ptutir  dn 
adjiame,  dea  concilea  de  BSJe  et  de 
CoQBtaDce,  de  la  guerre  dea  Armag- 
nacs  et  dea  Bourgiiigiioiia,  de  I'in- 
vaaiOD  anglaiae.  Oq  est  jioM  i  en 
condore  que  ee»  didnementa,  acoom- 
plia  entre  1378  et  1130,  n'onl  paa  6t6 
Bans  iuQueDce  aor  la  multiplication 
des  University.  L'^ude  des  faita 
coufirmece(teconcluHion...Lcspnpea, 
irritlJiidelaconduitederUniversit^de 
Paris  dauB  leB  oonciles  de  Coiiatiince 
et  de  Bale,  antoristreut  douze  Uni- 
Teniit£B  nouvelleti  pour  TAllemagne, 
la  HoDgrie,  la  Suide  et  le  Danemarck. 
En  France  roeme,  les  papea  et  lea 
roiB  n'occorder^nt  pour  (lapper  an 
cfflut  rUnivcrBitu  de  Paria.  CharleB 
ti  la  dftealait  poice  qa'elle  avait  iti 


lie  concile  de  Bile  donnait  pen  de 
aatisfuctioQ  aa  pape  Engine  iv.  En 
1437,  ila  autoriiAront  tons  deux  U 


tondation  d'one  UniTerBilA  oompl^te 
ft  Caen,  an  milieu  d'une  des  Nation* 
lea  plna  riehes  et  Les  pins  importantea 
de  rUniversit^  de  Paris.  Charlea 
VII,  reeotinn  rol  an  and  de  la  Loire, 
avail  iijl  antorii^  one  llnWersitd  i 
Poitiers  (1431).  Eugene  rv  accorda 
nneFacnltCdeth£DlogieiI>ole(US7>, 
et  nne  UniverBiteoomplbte  JtBordeaal 
(1141).  Lonia  ii  et  Pie  u  ne  pouvaient 
tnanquer  de  s'entendre  contra  I'Uui- 
versit^  de  Paris,  qui  contenait  des 
aniela  de  Charles-le-T^mdraiTe,  et  qui 
louleaait  la  fragmatique  foncfton. 
Deni  UniTerBitda  fnrent  antoris^ea 
dans  lea  deni  provinoea  qni  euToy- 
aient  le  pins  d'^tudiants  ft  la  Nation 
de  France,  en  Bretagne(N  antes,' 1460) 
et  en  Berrj  (Boorgea,  1461).'  Thnntt, 
De  I'Orgaiiiiatiim  de  i' EnirigneTnent, 
etc.  pp.  206,  206.  I  mar  obaerre 
that  the  foundation  of  tlie  coll/ginm 
tiiliiigiir  at  LoQyaiD,  in  1426,  which 
ia  among  those  enumerated  bj  U. 
Tharot,  is  hardl;  an  illuatralloc  ol 
bis  statement.  It  was  founded  nnder 
the  amtpices  of  the  Dnke  of  Brabant, 
and  designed  for  all  the  facnltiea 
lave  that  of  throlojry;  the  primat? 
objeet  beini!  to  create  a  jMdiun  getu- 
rnle  where  the  jrouUt  of  tbe  Low 
Gonntriea  tnight  reoeiTe  a  higbar  in- 
struction without  resorting  to  Paris 
or  Cologne,  and  enoonntering  the 
heav;  expeniea  and  namerooB  ternp- 
tationa  that  beeet  tbe  wealthier  stn- 
deals  in  btrge  eiUea.     Seo  mmoiret 


NEW  UNITERSITIES. 


289 


have  already  noted  that  the  English  '  nation'  at  Paris  was  c 
known  after  the  year  1430  as  the  German  'nation';  but  • 
within  ten  years  from  that  time  the  German  'nation'  had 
in  turn  become  temporarily  defunct,  for  neither  master  nor 
student  remained'.  The  new  universities,  it  is  true,  were 
constituted  at  a  trying  period,  when  schulasticism  was  begin- 
ning to  yield  before  the  new  learning,  and  an  age  of  revor 
Intion  was  not  that  in  which  young  institutions,  conceived 
in  conformity  with  old  traditions,  wei-e  likely  to  find  steady 
and  continuous  developement.  But,  notwithstanding,  they  "S, 
each  «xerted  more  or  less  influence  over  a  certaJa  radius,  5 
and  the  students  attracted  to  each  new  centre  were,  in  con- 
siderable proportion,  diverted  from  the  ecLools  of  Paris; 
others  agiun  were  driven  &om  France  into  Germany  by  the 
persecutions  which  Louis  xi  revived  against  the  nominalists; 
and  the  professors  of  the  Sorboune  and  of  Navarre,  as  they 
scanned  the  once  densely  crowded  lecture  rooms,  could  scarcely 
bare  fiuled  to  be  aware  that  the  representatives  of  the  Teu- 
tonic races  were  gradually  disappearing  from  their  midst, — • 
perhaps  sometimes  recalled,  not  without  misgiving,  bow 
laigely  the  teachers  whom  that  race  had  given  to  their  uni- 


rar  U$  devx  Prenuert  SiMet  dt  V  Uai- 
vtniU  dt  Lovvain,  par  1«  Baioo  da 
BcilknbeTg.  BrDielleB,  1829.  Nods 
of  IhMe  fifteenth  ccntory  nniTer- 
dtiM  (hew  an;  advance  in  theii  con- 
■aption  upon  the  traditiooal  ideaa. 
I^pzio,  foimded  in  1409,  adopted 
in  the  first  instance  the  course  of 
(tod;  at  Pngne  (founded  1318)  Kith 
iciTtely  auj  modiScation.  See  Bit 
SialutembuehfT  der  Univeriitiil  Leip- 
tie,  aut  den  EriUn  151  Jnhren  Ihret 
PetUKent.  Von  Friedricb  Zamcke, 
p.  311.  '  Item  die  et  loco,  qoibus  »a- 
pra,  placnit  magintriB  pio  tunc  faciil- 
talem  repnesentAntibuB,  qood  libri 
pro  gradibuB  magisteiii  et  baccalari- 
atiu  in  muTcmitate  PrsRensi  aimili- 
iter  hie  permanere  deli^int  sine  ad- 
dioioite  et  dimioucioiie  ad  annum. 
Qno  finito  poontt  fieri  mutacio,  ad- 
mcio  yel  diminucio  jnita  placitom 
tacaliatis.  Et  idem  plocait  de  parria 
lofealibnB  MaoUelt  pro  eierciciia  et 
ordinario  BerrandiB  ad  idem  (empns 
at  poatea  jnzta  volontatem  facultalis 


olterius  cnntinuandis  vel  immntandis 
in  alia  parva  ioycalia,  scilicet  Oceffin- 

Btein  vel  Marsilii  vel  alterioB.'  The 
aathon  and  subjects  reigiiired  both 
for  the  bachelor's  and  the  master's 
degree  are  enumerated,  and  Aristotle 
is  nearl;  the  Alpha  and  the  Omefft 
of  the  oouTBe:  in  the  first  the  candi- 
date  mast  have  attended  lectares  on 
the  logic  of  PetniB  Hispanus,  and  an 
abridgement  of  PriBrian;  the  whole 
of  the  Organon — specified  as  thel^elu* 
An,  the  Prior  and  Posterior  Analy- 
tics, and  the  Elenchi  Sopbistici;  the 
PbysicH,  the  De  Anima,  and  tha 
Sphiera  Materialie ;  in  the  second, 
the  Topica,  the  I>e  Cuelo,  De  (iene- 
ratione.  De  Meteoris,  and  Parr* 
N'Bturalia;  the  Ethics,  the  PoUtios, 
and  the  Economics :  common  per- 
spective, the  theory  of  the  planets, 
Euclid,  the  locic  of  fleebrUB,  com- 
mon arithmetic,  music,  and  meta- 
phyfii 


284 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 


CHAP.  iiL  versity  had  contributed  to  her  ancient  fame.  In  the  decline 
pakt  n.  ^j^^^  ^j^^g  l^£^j  ^j^^  university  of  Paris  the  English  univer- 
sities undoubtedly  shared ;  the  cessation  of  their  former  in- 
terchange of  thought  was  a  loss  to  both  nations ;  and  not 
least  among  the  disadvantages  that  resulted  to  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  is  the  fact  that  Gerson's  remarkably  able  expo- 
sition of  the  Aristotelian  nominalism  appears  to  have  alto- 
gether failed  to  arrest  the  attention  of  our  countrymen,  and 
that  nearly  two  centuries  elapsed  before  philosophy  in  Eng- 
land resumed  the  thread  of  speculation  as  it  had  fallen  from 
the  hands  of  the  great  chancellor  of  Paris. 

STsSSlteSf  Besides  the  forcible  suppression  of  Wyclif's  doctrines, 
udS^    and  isolation  from  the  continent,  a  third  cause  affected  yet 


E^ 


t1i«  uni- 


more  closely  the  material  prosperity  of  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge,— the  action  of  the  statute  of  Provisors.  That  statute, 
after  having  been  repeatedly  confirmed,  was  found  to  be  so 
inimical  in  its  operation  to  the  interests  of  learning  that  it 
began  to  be  regarded  with  disfavour.  Even  so  early  as  the 
year  1392,  the  council  of  state  had  advised  some  relaxation 
of  its  enactments,  their  recommendation  being  expressly 
urged  with  a  view  to  the  relief  of  the  universities.  In  the 
year  1400  the  house  of  commons  is  found  petitioning  the 
new  monarch  with  a  like  object;  and  in  the  year  1416  we 
are  confronted  by  the  somewhat  startling  fact,  that  the  de- 
pressed state  of  the  clergy  and  the  rise  of  *  great  and  in- 
tolerable heresies'  are  attributed  by  the  same  assembly  to 
the  operation  of  the  same  statute  \     Patronage,  it  had  been 


^  *Item  sapplioont  ires  hmnble- 
ment  voz  CommuneB,  que  come  jadys 
In  Clergie  de  la  Boialme  f  uist  cressant 
et  flourant  et  profitaut  en  yoz  Uiii- 
vereitees  d*Oxenford  et  Cautebregge, 
p  Doctours  en  Divinitee,  eu  lea  Leyes 
Canon  et  Ci  vill,  et  poor  atitres  de  meyn- 
dre  degree,  a  grauud  coufort,  conso- 
lation,  et  hant  profit  de  tonte  Seinte 
Eglise,  et  Totre  poeple  Cristian  d'En* 
gleterre  environ,  a  ore  en  coutraire  d' 
einsy,  que  Pestatuit  de  Provision  et  en- 
conutre  Provisonrs  f  nit  fait  par  Parle- 
tnent,  la  Clergie  en  les  ditz  Uuiver- 
sliees  lamentablement  est  extinote,  et 
eu  plusours  parties  despise,  a  graont 


anientiament  de  Seinte  Esglise,  et 
sor  een  par  defant  que  les  diz  Clerkes 
etudiantz  en  les  voz  ditz  Universitees, 
ne  Bonnt  pas  avaunciez,  promotz,  et 
naricez,en  leur  emprise  houesteetver- 
tue,  et  si  par  taunt  que  la  dite  Clergie 
n*eBt  comforte  et  nuricee.  grauntz  et 
intollerables  Errours  et  Heresyes 
envers  Dieu,  et  Homme,  et  rebellion 
et  obstinacie  encountre  Vous,  tres 
soverain  Sg'.  eutre  les  oommane 
pie  de  votre  Boialme  sount  uadgaira 
ensurdez,  enooantre  auucien  doctrine 
de  noz  Seiutz  Piers,  et  determination 
a  toat  Seint  Esglise;  et  si  Tavaunt 
ditz  Universities  oont  mys  en  haatz 


CHtTBCH  PATBONAGE.  285 

fiiand,  ooald  be  as  much  abused  in  England  as  at  Rome;  and  chap,  hl 
ita  exercise  by  their  fellow-countiynieD  had  proved  specially  -.-v-— <> 
disastrous  to  studenta.     The  prevalent  indifference  to  leam-  ^«wa 
ii^  sbewed  itself  in  the  nomination  of  uneducated  men  to  inu  Boh 
valuable  benefices ;  while  the  claims  of  tbose  truned  at  Ox- 
ford and  Cambridge  were  altogether  passed  by.     The  papal 
patronage  had  rarely  been  characterised  by  partiality  so  un- 
just :  foreigners  bad  indeed  been  generally  appointed  to  the 
more  valuable  beoeflces,  but  when  the  election  lay  between 
Englishman  and   Englishman,  the  pope   had   rarely  failed 
to  shfew  some  appreciation  of  merit,  though   it  might  be 
only  that  of  the  civilian  and  the  caoonist'.     But  at  home 
nepotism,  or  yet  more  mercenary  motives,  prevailed  over  all 
other  considerations,  and  the  predilections  of  the  English 
patron  proved  but  a  poor  exchange  for  those  of  Rome  and 
Avignon :  while  preferments  fell  all  around  the  universities, 
they,  like  Gideon's  fleece,  remained  unvisited  by  the  refresh- 
ing sbower*.     Precisely  similar  had  been  the  experieoce  ofjH; 
the  nniversity  of  Faria    In  the  year  1408,  we  find  Charles  Ti  ^ 
recognising  by  royal  letter  the  inefficient  working  of  home  ^ 
patronage.     It  had  been  determined  that  a  thousand  bene- 
fices should  be  set  apart  for  the  university,  and  four  prelates 
bad  been  selected  to  recommend,  from  time  to  time,  those 
graduates  whom  they  might  deem  most  worthy.  But  through- 
oat  the  country  tbo«e  on  whom  it  directly  devolved  to  carry 
out  these  recommendations  had  for  Uie  most  part  treated 
them  with  contempt,  and  presented  ignorant  and  unfit  per- 
sons*.    A  like  complaint  was  urged  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
century,  when  it  was  alleged  that  the  Pragmatic  Sanction 
had  utterly  failed  to  secure  a  fair  consideration  of  the  claims 
of  graduates  to  church  proferment*.     This  veiy  noteworthy 

luMiitatioD  dewiUtion,   et   diafaeri-  ^  Linganl,  Hiit,  of  England,  m 

Unee  de  wz  EBpiritaeli  liti  et  pro-  638. 

flUble8itaduuiz,»graiuitdes(»infort  *  Wood-Oatch,   I   G17.      Coopar, 

tt  prejudice  de  tonte  Seiate  EagliM  AmaU,  i  15B. 

nil  dite.  et  eztinctioii  de  foie  Cbiis-  *  fialaaB,  t  18A. 

Mien,  et  mile  eiemple  a  tontz  antrea  *  Ibid,  t  77G.  '  Lea  Prelati,  eoUa- 

CriatiaiiH  Boialmes,  ei  haatj  remedie  tenra,  et  patroni  eedSnaatiqaea  na 

ne  aoit  fait  en  ce«te  matete  ai  boaoin-  gardoient  ne  entrelenoient  la  Png- 

•Ue.'    Rol.  Pari,  tv  81.  aiAtiqne-3aiietioii,aiitantqiie  toodM 


9S^ 


286  THE  niTEEHTH  CENTDRT. 

L  phase  of  the  reli^ous  histoiy  of  the  fifteenth  century  has 
been  but  lightly  treated  or  wholly  slurred  over  by  most  of 
'i^"  our  recent  historians,  but  the  comment  of  Huber  places  it 
in  its  true  light : — '  It  is  not,'  he  says, '  to  be  inferred  that 
church  patronage  was  any  the  better  bestowed  when  con- 
fined to  native  holders  and  native  clergy ;  and  it  is  certain 
that  the  universities  in  particular  gained  nothing  by  the 
fmti-Romiah  system.  In  fact,  after  the  end  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  their  complaints  against  the  Pramunire  are  still 
more  frequent  and  violent  than  they  had  been  against  the 
papal  provisions;  insomuch  that  they  occasionally  extorted 
from  the  king  exceptions  in  their  own  favour.  These  were 
mere  temporary  alleviations ;  but  at  the  time  of  the  great 
assemblies  of  the  Church  the  grievance  wae  uiged  so  forcibly, 
that  the  king  and  prelates,  not  choosing  to  open  the  way 
again  for  Rome,  sought  for  another  remedy.  In  the  con- 
vocation of  1417,  the  patrons  of  livioga  were  ordered  to  fill 
up  their  appointments  in  part  from  university  studenta,  ac- 
cording to  a  fixed  arrangement  In  practice  however  the 
universities  were  the  first  to  object  to  the  working  of  the 
system ;  nor  did  the  patrons  adhere  to  the  rule  prescribed. 
The  same  orders  were  re-enacted  by  the  prelates  in  1438, 
but  without  effect;  which  is  not  strange,  considering  the 
political  aspect  of  the  times.  The  universities  gained  no 
relief,  and  continued  to  reiterate  their  complaints.  Thus 
both  the  Romish  and  the  national  systems  failed  to  co-operate 
uight  with  the  academico-ecclesiastical  institutions;  and 
whichever  system  was  at  work  appeared  by  far  the  more 
oppressive  of  the  two'.'  From  this  criticism  we  are  enabled 
to  underatand  more  clearly  how  it  was  that  the  university 

leg  Mnffiees  qui  estoient  et  seront  preBmUtioc    was    invkded    by    the 

denbB  et  eSeotez  sui  groduez  et  nom-  papa]    claims,    bad   originaUy    pto- 

mei  de  Umvenitez.'  voked   the    oompbuDla    vhioh    ibe 

'  Huber,   Engliih   Un!venltie$,   i  reader  haa  so  bequentl;  uotiMd,  uid 

17S,   174.     6«e  also  England  under  now  irere  readj  to  rabmit  to  ft  minor 

the  Htnue  of  Lajiea4teT,  pp.  18G,  13S.  aaerifloe,  rather  than  tUow  the  re- 

'  The  tn^th  ie,'  says  Lin^ard,   '  that  peal  ol  the  statatee  which  leonred  to 

the  perBonB  who  chiefly  soflered  from "  *      " 

(he  practice  of  proTisions,  and  who 
ohieflj  profited  by  the  atatntea  Hgainit 
them,  were  the  higher  orden  of  the 
olei^.     ThBa«,    as    their    li^t    o( 


CHDICH  PATRONAOE.  S87 

of  Farii,  fbHowing  in  the  steps  of  Gerson,  re-etiacted  the  char  m. 
Pragmatic  Sanctioa;  while  the  English  universities  led  by  ^-^^ — 
the  Ultramontane  party  sought  to  set  aside  the  statute  of 
Frorison.     At  Cambridge  indeed  there  can  be  no  question  ntn- 
that  the  influence  of  that  party  pretlomiiiated  throughout  J^|J|g^** 
the  century,  and  of  this  another  proof  is  afforded  by  the  cele- 
Imtted  Barnwell  Process  in  the  year  11^0. 

We  have  already  seen  that  one  of  the  earliest  measures  i^^*"- 
■acribed  to  Hugh   Balsham    had   for  its  object   the  more  •=•"■  i'^ 
■ccnrately    defining    the   jurisdiction    respectively   claimed 
by  his  own   archdeacon,   by   the   Magister    GlomeritB,    and 
the  chancellor   of  the   uuiversity.     The  equitable  spirit  in 
which  his  decision   was  conceived   bore   fruit  in   the  com- 
parative   absence    at    Cambridge    of    disputes    like    those 
whidi    harassed     the     university     of   Paris;     and    indeed 
throughout  the  history  of  our  uoiversities  the  absence   of 
vexatious  interference  on  the  part  of  the  diocesan  authori- 
ties is  a  noticeable  feature.     If  we  admit  the  preteDsions  ""r™  ^ 
UiUted  by  the  university,  the  immunity  was  founded  upon  '^j.'JiX? 
aucient  and  indefeasible  rights';  but  occasionally  a  bishop  ^°^'^,^ 
of  Ely  appeared  who  called  these  rights  in  question,  and  *"™'"'' 
endeavoured    to    establish    his   own   right   of  interference. 
In  this  manner,  during  the  tenure  of  the  see  by  Arundel, 
the  question  of  the  allegiance  of  the  chancellor  of  the  uni- 
▼eisity  to  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  had  been  raised  by  the 
refusal  of  John  de  Donewyc,  who  liad  a  second  time  been 
elected  chancellor,  to  take  the  oath  of  canonical  obedience 
to  the  bishop.     Arundel  was  not  tho  man  to  submit  to  any 
abatement  of  his  authority  without  a  struggle,  aud  be  cited 
the  chancellor  to  take  the  oaths  on  a  specified  day.     The 
dispute  was  finally  carried  before  the  Court  of  Arches  and 
decided  in  the  bishop's  favour'.     It  is  probably  as  the  result 

>  'Ilftj  ereD  «e  find  uchbinhopa,  wood,  p.  SOS,     This,  the  langiuge  of 

bUhopi,  ftrehdeMonB,  uid  their  offl-  the  prior  of  Bomvel],  ronrt  he  re* 

Mr*  to  have  tbemselveH  entirely  th-  guded  aa  Terj  emphatic  teatunonj. 

■tained  from  all  »iid  eterj  ki£d  of  *  Cooper,  Aniuilt,  i  113.     'Biahop 

jniudiction   wdeaiaatical    and    api-  Bamct's  omitting   the   naiul   oatha 

'    '  I  tlu    laid    aniTereit7  aiid  takm  by  the  ehancelloni  o 

■      isMOn    BJ   ' 


288 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 


CHAP.  iiL  of  the  recognition  thus  obtained  of  his  diocesiaii  authority, 
^^■*  "•  that  we  find  Anmdel  assuming  the  right  of  visitation  when 
metropolitan,  in  the  manner  already  described  at  the  com- 
mencement of  this  chapter.  The  exercise  of  such  right  was 
however  so  rare  that  it  invariably  gave  rise  to  criticism  if 
not  to  actual  resistance;  so  that  we  find  Fuller  in  his  His- 
tory asking,  with  reference  to  Arundel's  visitation,  'what 
became  of  the  privileges  of  the  university  on  that  occasion^?' 
Whatever  doubt  existed  respecting  these  privileges  was  now 
XibhldV  to  be  finally  set  at  rest.  In  the  year  1430  pope  Martin  V 
inS^9  issued  a  bull  recitins^  how  that  the  doctors,  masters,  and 
***«*«•  scholars  of  the  university  of  Cambridge  had  lately  exhibited 
to  him  a  petition,  '  setting  forth  the  bulls  of  Honorius  i  and 
Sergius  I,  that  by  virtue  thereof  the  chancellor  of  the  uni- 
versity for  the  time  being  had  been  accustomed  to  exercise 
exclusive  ecclesiastical  and  spiritual  jurisdiction;  that  the 
originals  of  these  bulls  had  been  lost  for  seventy  years  or 
more,  but  that  there  were  ancient  copies  in  the  archives  of 
the  university,  and  praying  that  he  would  of  his  apostolic 


but  fiimlly 


However,  bishop  Arnndel  and  some 
of  his  immediate  successors  did  not 
constantly  insist  on  the  chancellor's 
taking  the  oaths,  bat  sometimes  ad- 
mitted and  confirmed  them  without 
it:  nevertheUsXf  saving  fo  themselvet 
and  successors  the  right  of  exacting 
it  whenever  tfiey  sJiould  think  Jit  so  to 
do.*  Bentham,  Hist,  and  Autiq.  of 
Elyt  p.  165.  Anmdel  appears  to 
have  been  active  in  the  affairs  of  the  * 
auiversity  daring  his  tenure  of  the 
Bee  of  Ely:  see  Cooper,  Annals  i 
122,  128,  129.  In  the  year  1388  he 
was  appointed  by  the  king  to  act  as 
visitor  of  King's  Hall,  Cambridge, 
where  great  irregularities  had  taken 
place,  the  buildings  having  fallen 
mto  decay,  and  the  books  and  other 
goods  having  been  purloined.  Regis- 
trum  Aiundelf  fol.  106  (quoted  by 
Dean  Hook,  iv  409). 

^  *  Some  wiU  say,  where  were  now 
the  privileges  of  the  pope,  exempt- 
ing Cambridge  from  archiepiscopal 
jurisdiction?  I  conceive  they  are 
even  ppt  up  in  the  same  chest  with 
Oxfoiil  privileges  (pretending  to  aa 


great  immunities) :  I  mean,  that  the 
validity  of  them  both,  though  not 
cancelled,  was  suspended  for  the 
present.  If  it  be  true,  that  |he 
legate  de  latere  hath  in  some  cases 
equal  power  with  the  pope,  which  he 
represents;  and  if  it  be  true,  which 
some  bold  Cinnonists  aver,  that  none 
may  say  to  the  pope,  etir  ita  facts  t 
it  was  not  safe  for  any  in  that  age  to 
dispute  the  power  of  Thomas  Arun- 
del.  But  possibly  the  universities 
willingly  waved  their  papal  privi- 
leges; and  if  so,  ir^uria  non  Jit  vo- 
Untilms,  I  find  something  sounding 
this  way,  how  the  scholars  were 
aggrieved  that,  the  supreme  power 
being  fixed  in  their  chanceUor,  these 
lay  no  appeal  from  him  (when  in- 
jurious) save  to  the  pope  alone. 
Wherefore  the  students,  that  they 
might  have  a  nearer  and  choicer 
redress,  desired  to  be  eased  of  their 
burdensome  immunities,  and  sub- 
mitted themselves  to  archiepiscopal 
visitation.'  Fuller,  i7i>t.  of  the  Univ^ 
of  Cambridge^ 


VBS  BAANWELL   PROCESS. 


289 


lienignity  provide  for  the  indemnity  of  them  and  the  univer-  ohap.  ub 
sity  in  the  premises'.     He  therefore  delegated  the  prior  of  ■~^^Z~-' 
Semewell  and  John  Depyng,  canon  of  Lincoln,   or  one  of 
them,  to  hear  and  determine  upon  this  claim. 

'  On  the  tenth  of  October,  John  Holbrooke,  D.D,,  chan-_ 
cellor,  and  the  masters,  doctors,  and  scholars,  by  an  instru- 
ment under  the  common  seal  of  the  university,  constituted 
Masters  Ralphe  Duckwortbe,  John  Athyle,  William  Wraw 
bye,  and  William  SuU,  clerks,  or  either  of  them,  their 
proctors  in  this  affair. 

'  On  the  fourteenth  of  October  the  pope's  bull  was  ex- 
hibited by  William  Wrawbye,  in  the  conventual  church  of 
Bemewell,  to  the  prior  of  that  house,  who  assigned  the  six- 
teenth of  the  same  month  in  his  chapter  house,  for  proceed- 
ing in  the  business.  At  which  time  and  place,  William 
Wrawbye  exhibited  six  articles,asetting  forth  the  claim  of 
the  chancellor  of  the  university  to  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction, 
exclusive  of  any  archbishop,  bishop,  or  their  ojficiafs;  and 
produced  as  witnesses,  John  Dynne,  aged  79,  John  Thorp, 
aged  68,  Walter  Barley,  aged  58,  Thomas  Marklande,  aged 
40,  William  Lavender,  aged  48,  John  Thirkyll,  aged  40,  and 
William  Sull,  aged  26,  who  deposed  to  the  use  of  ecclesi- 
astical authority  by  the  chancellor,  as  far  as  their  respective 
memories  extended.  The  proceedings  were  then  adjourned 
to  the  same  place  on  the  19th  of  that  month,  when  there 
was  produced  an  instrument  attested  by  a  notary  and  others, 
setting  forth  the  bulls  of  John  xx.li  and  Boniface  ix,  and 
copies  of  the  bulls  of  Honorius  I  and  Sergius  i,  taken  from 
a  register  belonging  to  the  university;  also  various  statutes 
of  that  body.     On  the  20th  the  prior  in  the  chapterhouse 


'  '  Seing  mifllud  or  lost  through 
the  negligence  of  their  keepers  or  bj 
other  caioslties,'  is  tlie  farlhec  ei- 
plauition  offered.  The  wbole  pro- 
CMB  in  HD  omuBiDg  comliinatiiiti  of 
tbs  Btrict  obserVHuee  ol  l^iU  formikl- 
Hies  Tith  a  complete  iniliBerence  to 
the  value  of  the  etidence  ou  whioh 
Um  whole  of  the  UBDmption  rested. 
The  bnU,  it  may  be  observed,  implies 


that  Honorian  bimeelf  was  >  student 
in  the  uniTereity  when  yoong.  Dyer, 
the  lint  of  unr  university  historiuii 
in  whom  the  critical  laonlty  etercisM 
an}'  appreciable  weight,  mildly  auks, 
'  is  it  reaMiuable  to  snppoBe,  that 
Honorius,  vheu  a  buy.  slionld  be  sent 
from  Italy,  in  Ihf  Tift  ceniun/,  to  ba 
k  student  at  CambridgeT'  Privilegt$ 
aftht  Uniii.  ofCamb.  i  407. 

19 


290  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTUHT. 

CHAP.  m.  gave    his  definitive    sentence   in  favour  of  the  privileges 
>l*l  -  ^  claimed*.' 

When  we  note  that  this  bull  was  granted  by  a  pontiff 
"whose  most  vigorous  efforts  had  been  directed  towards  re* 
preasing  the  spirit  of  independence  in  England,  and  that  it 
was  confirmed  three  years  later  by  pope  Eugenius  IV,  who 
endeavoured  to  break  up  the  Council  of  Basle,  we  shall  be 
little  likely  to  mistake  this  impatience  of  home  jurisdiction 
for  any  real  growth  in  the  direction  of  intellectual  freedom*. 
In  fact  there  appears  to  have  been  a  decided  tendency  in 
both  universities  at  this  time  towards  Ultramontane  doc- 
trines, and  of  this  tendency  the  celebrated  Re^nald  Pecock, 
©f  Oriel  College,  Oxford,  affords  an  interesting  example. 
Reginald  Reginald  Pecock,  bishop  of  Chichester,  the  author  of  the 

SS&iSer  ablest  English  pamphlet  of  the  fifteenth  century,  was,  like 
d.i460(?).  Gerson,  an  eclectic;  and  an* eclectic  of  a  yet  more  puzzling 
description.  By  many  he  has  been  mistaken  for  a  follower 
of  Wyclif,  and  he  is  even  described  by  Foxe  as  one  of  those 
'who  springing  out  of  the  same  universitie,  and  raised  up 
out  of  his  ashes,  were  partakers  of  the  same  persecution;' 
while  he  appears  in  reality  to  have  been  as  he  is  character- 
ised  by  dean   Hook,  *an  ultrar papist,  a  supporter  of  that 

^  Cooper,  AnnaU,  i  282,  283;  Hey-  Martin  the  Fifth,  an.  1430,  his  hulls 

wood,  Early  Cambridge.  Statutes,  181  to  this  purpose,  directed  to  the  prior 

— 211.    Huber,  judging  from  his  Ian-  of  BamweU  and  John  Doping  canon  of 

guage,would  appear  to  have  been  igno-  Lincoln:    John  Deping  being    a   se" 

rant  of  this  document.    See  English  cxdar  was  not  fond  of  such  employ- 

Vniversities,  i  63.  ment,  but    the   prior    of    BamweU 

*  Baker,  in  his  Histonjf  seems  to  was   a  man   for  the   purpose,  who 

be  the  first  writer  who  has  grasped  sat  and  heard  the  process  alone,  and 

the  fact  that  the  BamweU  Process  the  bulls  of  Honorius  and   Sergius 

was    an  Ultramontanist  movement,  the  First  being  produced  ^who  had 

Speaking  of  the   comparative  indif-  no  more  authority  in  England  than 

ference  shewn  by  the  two  bishops  of  they  had   at  Japan)   he  very  learn- 

Ely,  John  Fordham  (bp.  1388 — 1426)  edly  gave  sentence  for  the  univers- 

and  Philip  Morgan  (bp.  1426 — 1435),  ity  upon   two  as  rank  forgeries   as 

to  the  affairs  of  the  Hospital  of  St.  ever  were;   for  the  whole  stress  of 

John,  he  says,  '  These  two  bishops  the  controversy  turned  upon  these 

had  some  reason  to  be  out  of  hu-  bulls.    But   the    present  pope   was 

mour  with  the  religious  as  well  as  willing   to   believe    there  haid  been 

with  the  university,  who  seem  to  have  such  a  power  exercised  in  England 

conspired  and  joined   in  the  same  by  his  predecessors  so  many  years 

design  of  procuring  exemptions  from  ago,   and  the  honest  prior  was   to 

episcopal    jurisdiction.    For   it   was  follow  his  instructions.    And  so  there 

under   this    bishop    that   the  great  was  an  end  of  ordinary  jurisdiction.' 

blow  was  given  to  the  see  of  Ely  by  Baker-Mayor,  i  43,  44. 
the  university,    by   obtaining   fronl 


BBOiyALD  PECOCK.  291 

'doctrine  which  would,  in  these  days,  be  called  Ultramon-  crap.  m. 
tane.'     In  some  important  respects,  indeed,  the  views  held   ■-*"— 
l^  Reginald  Pecock  were  identical  with  those  of  the  great  m, 
reformer.     Both    strenuously   contended    for    the   right   of       "^ 
private  judgement  and  the   necessity  of  approving  to  the 
reason    whatever   was    accepted    as   doctrine.     Under   this 
aspect  the  English  hishop,  like  his  predecessor,  offers  a  good 
example  of  the  effects  of  the  university  training  of  his  day. 
It  was  his  great  desire  that  every  man,  however  humble  liis 
station,  who  accepted  the  teaching  of  Christianity,  should 
have  a  rational  faith,  and  the  rational,  at  that  period,  it  is 
hardly  necessary  to  add,  was  regarded  as  almost  a  synonym 
for   the    formally   logical     It    was  his  belief  that    a   large 
amount  of  capricious  scepticism  and  unmeaning  declamation 
might  he  done  away  with,  if  a  knowledge  of  the  method  ""'^^„. 
nnfolded  in  the  Oryanon  were  to  become  general  among  the  llJH^'b«*'° 
laity.     The    Ars    Vetas  was   his    panacea    for    all    forms  ofHSM 
heresy,  from  Gnosticism  to  LollardLsm,  and  he  loudly  lament-  "'^" 
ed  that  it  wa.s  shrouded  from  the  apprehension  of  the  com- 
mon people  by  a  Latin  garb.     'Would  God,'  he  exclaimed, 
'that  it  were  learned  of  them  in  their  mother's  language, 
for  then  they  shoulden  be  put  fro  much  rudeness  and  boist- 
OBeness  which  they  have  now  in  reasoning.'     He  even  pro- 
posed himself  to  undertake  the  reme<iying  of  the  dcficieDcy, 
though  he  does  not  appear  to  have  ever  carried  his  purpose 
to  its  accomplishment'. 

Assuming  then  that  the  Scriptures  were  true,  and  t^^'''l!jM^^ 
all  truth  was  capable  of  being  approved  to  the  logical  faculty,  ^^SZ 
he  repudiated  the  notion  that  men  were,  in  any  case,  bound  **"■ 
to  an  implicit  acceptance  of  dogma     So  far  as  his  writings 
afford   an   indication,  it  may  be   doubted   whether  in   his 
opinion,  the  reason  could  ever  be  called  upon  to  abdicate  its 

1  • — and  tluime  wfanlden  tbci  not  npid  (or  al  the  coqiowd  peple  in  bar 

1«  M  obMinatogeiiBolerkismDdageiiB  modiriB  laugai^i  and  certis  to  men 

her  prelalis,  as  nomme  of  hem  now  of  coart.  lerruyDg  tb«  Kiagi<i  laws  at 

ben,  for  defant  of  prrcenTiijt  wbanne  Ynplonil  in  tb^e  dnieH.  tbilk  now 

an  ar^tmnent  prucfditb  iato  bis  con-  Bcid  scbort  compradiose  logik  «er« 

eliuioiin  n^dlB  and  whanne  be  not  fol  precioEie.     luto  whoe  makinR,  if 

■o   dootb   but    Henietb   ixiali   so    do.  God  wole  grannte  lene  and  leyser,  j 

And  niicbe  good  volde  come  forth  it  pncpone  anrntyme  aftir  taja  oth«n 

ft  Kboit  compendiooe  logih  voru  de-  buynea^  foito  aasaie.'  Beprtm>r,fi.9, 

19— a 


292  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTITRT. 

CHAP.  ra.  function,  and  to  veil  its  face  before  the  ineffable  and  tJre 
^■*v  -'«  divine.  In  respect  to  the  moral  law,  he  appears  to  have 
held  almost  precisely  the  same  view  as  that  which  Clarke 
and  Ciidworth  advociited  so  ably  at  a  later  period, — that  the 
principles  of  morality  are  not  derived  from  Revelation  but 
are  discoverable  by  the  unaided  reason, — if  only  that  reason 
be  rightly  and  honestly  employed.  Right  and  wrong  are  as 
patent  to  the  reasoning  faculty,  as  a  proposition  in  geometry; 
and  would  be  equally  perceived  if  the  Scriptures  did  not  exist. 
As  reason  is  sufficient  to  provide  man  with  a  law  of  moral 
action,  so  it  is  also  the  standard  whereby  he  must  decide 
upon  the  interpretation  of  Revelation.  'And  if,'  said  Pe- 
cock, '  any  seeming  discord  be  betwixt  the  words  written  in 
the  outward  book  of  Holy  Scripture,  and  the  doom  of  reason 
writ  in  man's  soul  and  heart,  the  words  so  written  without 
forth  oughten  to  be  expowned  and  interpreted,  and  brought 
for  to  accord  with  the  doom  of  reason  in  thilk  matter ;  and  the 
doom  of  reason  ought  not  for  to  be  expowned,  glosed,  inter- 
preted, and  brought  for  to  accord  with  the  said  outward  wri- 
ting in  Holy  Scripture  of  the  Bible,  or  anywhere  else  out  of 
the  Bible.*  How  he  proposed  to  provide  for  that  class  whom 
Aquinas  indicated, whom  natural  incapacity,  or  the  care«,  trials, 
and  temptations  of  human  life  shut  out  from  this  high  exercise 
of  reason,  does  not  appear:  but  it  is  evident,  from  various 
Hell  not  passages  in  his  writings,  that  he  was  prepared  to  set  aside 
to  question    both  the  Fathers   and  the  Schoolmen  if  their  conclusions 

tlie  authority 

J^«^^,]J^®"  appeared   to  him   erroneous.     Views   like    these    are    now 

Schoolmen,   neither  strange  nor  singular,  but  it  must  be  admitted  that 

such  an  adjustment  of  the  respective  provinces  of  faith  and 

reason,  could  hardly  fail  to  startle  the  ears  of  the  men  of 

the  fifteenth  century. 

Hjinotwitti-         The  anomaly  however  which  more  particularly  challenges 

JS^  J5**"  the  attention  of  the  modem  student,  is,  that  with  all  this  bold- 

JSrthSSt'S?^  ness  and  independence  of  thought,  Reginald  Pecock  should 

^^      have  been  as  much  the  advocate  of  unconditional  submission 

to  the  temporal  authority  of  the  pope,  as  Occam  had  been  its 

antagonist ;  and  that  his  'Repressor'  should  be  mainly  occupied 

with  a  confutation  of  Wyclif 's  leading  doctrines  and  a  vindica-. 


BBOWALD  PECOCE.  293 

tioB  of  the  prfttiticea  of  the  Mendicants,  whose  'Cain's  Castles'  chap,  nt 
find  in  him  an  ingenious  and  elaborate  apologist.     As  for  the    —v— ' 
claims  of  the  uncultured  Lollards  to  inter}>ret  for  themaeivea  udde- 
the   meaning  uf  ths  Scriptures,   he  declared  that  such  au  !> 
attempt,  for  an  intellect  untrained  by  AriHtotle,  was  a  work 
of  the  greatest  peril,    '  There  is  no  book,'  he  says,  'written  ia 
the  world  by  which  a  man  shall  rather  take  occasicm  to  err.' 
While  therefore  his  agreement  with  the  followers  of  Wyclif 
was  sofficieDt  to  alienate  him  from  the  Romish  party,  his 
^ivei^ences  from  them  were  such  bs  totally  to  preclude  the 
possibility  of  his  gaining  their  moral  support;  and  on  the 
ainglo  point  where  they  and  the  Mendicants  were  at  one,  he 
again  was  at  issue  with  both. 

Evaogelism,  or  the  popular  exposition  of  Scripture,  was  a 
cardioal  point  with  both  the  Lollards  and  the  friars;  with  the 
latter  it  had  been  the  weapon  which  had  given  them  the 
Tictory  over  their  earlier  antagonists  and  contributed  so  ma- 
terially to  their  widespread  success ;  and  a  noticeable  illustra- 
tion of  the  estimation  in  which  tlie  preacher's  art  was  held 
by  their  party,  is  aflfordcd  us  shortly  before  the  time  of  Pe- 
ouck,  about  the  commencement  of  the  century,  in  connexion 
with  the  university  of  Cambridge.  Among  those  who  taught 
at  the  university  at  that  period  wa^  John  BromyanI,  the  i"I^,„nj. 
author  or  compiler  of  the  Sttmma  Fradicaiitium.  He  was  a^^!^';^ 
Dominican,  was  both  Doctor  Utriiisqiie  Juris  and  master  of'"™ 
theology,  and  a  strenuous  opposer  of  Wychf's  teaching;  his 
sstimate  of  the  importance  of  the  preacher's  function  however 
is  clearly  attested  by  the  massive  volume  which  he  put  forth 
aa  a  professed  aid  to  thusc  who  were  called  upon  to  expound 
the  Scriptures  to  the  people.  The  work  represents  a  series 
of  skeleton  sermons,  arranged  not  under  texts,  but  under 
single  words  expressive  of  abstract  qualities,  such  as  Abulia 
neiitia,  Adulatio,  A rarttia,  Consctentia,  Fides,  Patientia, 
Paupertaa,  Trinitas,  Vucatio,  etc,  each  being  followed  by  a 
brief  exposition,  illustrated  by  frequent  (quotations  from  the 
Fathers,  and  occasionally  by  an  apposite   anecdote'.     The 


294  THE  FIFTEENTH   CENTURY. 

CHAP.  iiL  exegesis  is  cold,  formal,  and  systematic,  not  without  that 
^.1^^^^   amount  of  the  logical  element  which  finds  expression  in  con- 
clusions derived  from  a  series  of  observations  each  commanding 
the  moral  assent,  but  rarely  deducing  any  novel  aspect  of 
truth,  and  taking  its  stand,  for  the  most  part,  entirely  super 
antiquas  viae.     In  the  contrast  presented  by  this  laborious, 
careful,  and  learned  production  to  the  speculative  tendencies 
gjjj*j^    that  belong  to  the  doctrinal  expositions  of  Pecock,  we  may 
*'*''*■***"    perhaps  discern  the  earliest  instance  of  that  antithesis  which, 
TbeoontrMi  ^^^^   occasioual  cxccptions,  has  generally  characterised  the 
{^taSonc    theological  activity  of  the  two  universities;    that  however 
with  which  we  are  here  more  directly  concerned  isy«the  widely 
diflferent  implied  estimate  of  the  value  of  preaching  when 
compared  with  Pecock's  views  on  the  same  subject.   Neither 
Wyclifs  '  simple  priest,'  nor  the  eloquence  of  the  Dominican 
appears  to  have  found  much  favour  in  the  bishop  of  Chiches- 
Pfcockdto-    ter's  si£:ht.     He  seems  to  have  been  of  opinion  that  there  was 
JJJJ^j^^     a  great  deal  too.  much  preaching  already;  and  in  an  age 
when  the  great  majority  of  men  were  compelled  to  learn  by 
oral  instruction  or  not  at  all,  and  at  a  time  when  the  in- 
diflference  manifested  by  the  superior  clergy  to  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  lower  orders,  and  the  numbers  of  non-residents 
and   pluralists   were   exciting  widespread   indignation,   this 
eccentric   ecclesiastic  thought  it  a  favourable  juncture   for 
compiling  an  elaborate  defence,  half-defiant,  half  apologetic, 
of  the  conduct  of  his  episcopal  brethren.     It  can  hardly  be 
said  that  in  the  pages  of  the  '  Repressor '  the  author  shews 
much  confidence  in  the  resources  of  his  logic  to  produce  con- 
Hu  eccentric  viction;  rhctoric  plays  a  much  more  conspicuous  part.     At 
bia  order,      one  time  he  seeks  to  shroud  the  episcopal  functions  in  a  veil 
of  mystery, — the  bishop  has  duties  to  perform  which  the 
vulgar  wot  not  of;  at  another,  he  makes  appeals  ad  miseri" 
cordiam, — bishops,  after  all,  *ben  men  and  not  pure  aungels;* 
again,  only  those  who  enter  upon  the  office  are  aware  with  how 
many  difficulties  it  is  beset ;  no  man,  to  use  his  own  some- 
what too  familiar  simile,  knows  how  hard  it  is  to  climb  a  tree 

Cultoribus  longe  utilissima  ac  peme-     times  printed;  the  edition  I  have  used 
ee$saria»    The  work  has  been  several     is  that  printed  at  Antwerp,  in  1614. 


BKGiyALD  PBCOCK.  S95 

DC  to  deacead  a  tree,  save  the  man  that  liiioself  cssayeth  it',  c 
To  Uie  Lullards,  who  held  that  it  was  the  first  duty  of  a   . 
bishop  to  provide  fur  and  participate  in  the  spiritual  instruc- 
tion of  his  diocese,  such  argumeutii  could  only  iiav^  appeared 
an  audacious  piece  of  special  pleading  in  defunce  of  some  of 
the  worst  abuses  of  the  Church,  and  its  author,  much  as  he 
appears  to  dean  Hoot,  an  Ultramontaiiist  of  the  deep<«t  dye. 
It  is  eoKj  to  see  that  Reginald  Fccock  was  both  something  p, 
more  and  something  less  than  this ;  hut  lii^  self-con  tide  nee  led  tii 
him  to  sever  himself  from  both  parties,  at  a  time  when  such  >" 
isolation  was  unsafe  if  not  impossible*.    He  alienated  a  power-  u 
ful  section  at  home,  who  still  adhered  to  the  theoiy  of  the 
great  councils,  by  hU  assertion  of  the  absolute  authority  uf 
the  pope.     The  universities,  if  conciliated  by  his  sup[)ort  of 
tJie  theoiy  represented  by  the  Barnwell  Proces.saud  his  o])pi>- 
sition  to  the  statute  of  Provisors,  were  scandalised  by  Iiis 
att^ks  on  two  of  the  fathers,  St.  Ambrose  and  Ht.  Augustine, 
whose  teaching  was  enshrined  in  their  uui^cr^al  to.\t-bouk, 
the  Sentences.    While  the  bishops,  far  from  being  won  by  liia 
fantastic  defence  of  their  onler,  descried  heresy  in  the  man* 
Iter  in  which  he  had  called  in  question  such  doctrines  as  the 
Third  Person  in* the  Trioity,  and  the  descent  of  Christ  into 
Hades,     At   Cambridge  he  encountered  powerful  enemies. 
Among  them  were  William  Millington,  the  tirst  provost  of 
King's*, — a  man  of  honorable  spirit,  and  considerable  attaiu- 
ments,  hnt  of  violent  and  unscrupulous  temper;  Hugh  Dam- 
let,  master  of  Pembroke,  who  offered  to  prove  from  Pecock'a 
writings  that  he  was  guilty  of  the  worst  heresy,  and  who 
formed  one  of  the  commission  before  which  he  was  arraigned'; 


>  Sm  Thf  Rifrtuor  of  Orrr  ifixh 
Bbuming  of  tbt  CUrgi/,  edited  fur  I  lio 
BuUr  Sunia,  by  I'rol.  iJLurcLiU  Un- 

UogtOD,  B.II.  I  !<»— 11(1, 

•  '  Perfaapa  it  wualJ  ui.t  h«  gncitlj 


lull   I 


Iwtwe 


.    tli»   Chii. 


BuMG  uid  tiie  Church  uf  Kni-UMit.  i 
Uie;  uuv  eiUl,  the  tjgw  of  hiH  tuhul 
howevHi  b«iug  mthtr  Aui;lieuii  tlinu 
Ujinui.  01  Puritmiism,  in  all  itH 
phueK,  he  IB  the  decided  oiipimeut, 
Itien  wen  nuny  othcni  more  ui  U-jm 


like  bim.'    Ibid.  p.  ixvi. 

'  CapRTave  huvh  <'t  liiin.  'in  8cbo- 
Iniitii'is  iuqnieiciouibiiK,  et  prolundft 
littcrntiira.  uc  maturifl  iiiurihiiH,  mul- 
tuK  luitcweiHirvrt  huini  prvecllit.'  LirtM 
of  the  llriirit;  qiiottil  in  Comiaanica' 
iMiii  I,.  Ihr  Vamb.  AnlUi.  Sue.  I  Wl, 
by  Mr.  Wlllinnis  in  hii!  LV>ii)innuii-ii> 
tiuu.  Xolici-t  of  iniliaM  JlilliHglaii, 


296 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 


PowIblTA 

poHtieal 
flufferer. 


CHAP.  m.  Gilbert  Worthington,  and  Peter  Hirforde,  who  had  espoused 
^^  "■  and  subsequently  renounceil  the  doctrines  of  Wyclif*.  The 
Mendicants  whom,  in  spite  of  his  advocacy  on  their  behalf, 
he  had  made  his  bitter  enemies,  were  equally  zealous  in  their 
persecution.  His  arraignment  before  archbishop  Bourchier, 
his  humiliating  recantation,  and  subsequent  consignment  to 
that  obscurity  in  which  his  days  were  ended,  are  details  that 
belong  to  other  pages  than  ours. 

It  has  been  conjectured  that  political  feeling  had  its 
share  in  the  hostility  which  he  encountered*.  The  Lancas- 
trian party  was  distinguished  by  itf?  leaning  towards  Ultra- 
montanism,  and  it  was  within  two  years  of  the  fii*st  battle  of 
St.  Albans,  when  the  Yorkists  weVe  everywhere  in  the  as- 
cendant, that  Pecock  was  brought  to  trial.  It  is  certain  that 
in  both  universities  his  doctrine  attained  to  considerable 
notoriety  and  commanded  a  certain  following.  In  the  year 
1457  they  are  to  be  found  prominently  engaging  the  atteiU-ion 
JbrtMkSfS"  of  the  authorities  of  Oxford*.  In  the  early  statutes  of  King's 
titteik  ''^  College  is  one  binding  every  scholar,  on  the  completion  of  his 
year  of  probation,  'never  throughout  his  life  to  favour  any  con- 
demned tenets,  the  errors  or  heresies  of  John  Wyclif,  Reginald 
Pecock,  or  any  other  heretic*;'  and  this  prohibition  is  repeated 


1  Cooper,  AnnaU,  i  153.  Hare 
MSS.  II  26.  Lewis,  Life  of  Pecock^ 
p.  142. 

*  See  dean  Hook,  Live$  of  the  Arch- 
bishops, Y  308.  Pecock,  says  this 
writer,  '  had  suffered  in  the  cause  of 
the  pope.  He  had  maintained  the 
papal  cause  against  the  councils  of 
the  Church;  he  had  asserted,  with 
Martin  y,  that  the  pope  was  the  mo- 
narch of  the  Church,  and  that  every 
hishop  was  only  the  pope's  delegate: 
he  had  done  boldly  what  Martin  y 
had  called  upon  Chicheley  and  the 
bi  hops  of  his  time  to  do;  he  had 
protested  against  those  statutes  of 
provisors  and  praemunire  which  the 
clergy  and  liity  had  passed  as  a  safe- 
guard against  papal  aggression;  and 
surely  the  pope  would  not  desert  him 
in  h.s  hour  of  need.  If  the  pope 
possessed  or  c^aimel  the  supremacy 
for  which  Pecock  contended,  he  would 
liurely  exercise  it  in  behalf  of  one, 


who  was  enduring  hardship  in  the 
papal  cause;  already  a  sufferer,  and 
doomed  possibly  to  become  a  martyr. 
And  Pecock  was  not  mistaken.  Forth 
came  fulminating  from  Rome  three 
bulls,  directed  against  the  primate  of 
England,  in  yindication  of  the  bishop 
of  Chichester.'  These  bulls  arch- 
bishop Bourchier  refused  to  receive. 

»  Wood-Gutch,  I  603—606. 

*   *  Item    statuimus quod    qui- 

libet    scholaris jnret    quod    non 

fayebit  opinionibus,  damnatis  erro- 
ribus,  ant  hsresibus  Johannis  Wyck- 
lyfe,  Beginaldi  Pecocke,  neque  ali- 
enjus  alterius  hapretici,  quamdiu  yix- 
erit  in  hoc  mundo,  sub  poena  per- 
jurii  et  expulsionis  ipso  facto.'  Stat, 
Coll.  Rcgil.  Cantahr,  o.  ult.  in  fine. 
See  also  Prof.  Babington's  Introd.  to 
the  Repressor^  p.  xxxiv.  The  date 
assigned  to  the  aboye  statutes  in  the 
Documents  is  1443;  but  at  that  time 
Peoook's    doctrines   were   not  fully 


POGGIO  BRACCIOLINI.  297 

even  so  late  as  the  year  1475,  in  the  Statuta  Antiqtia  of  chap.  nr. 
Queens'  College*.  --^^^ 

The  literary  activity  of  the  fifteenth  century  furnishes 
but  little  illustration  of  much  value  with  respect  to  university 
studies  after  the  time  of  Reginald  Pecock.  The  quickening 
of  thought  which  had  followed  upon  the  introduction  of  the 
New  Aristotle  had  died  away.     Scholasticism  had  done  its  Torpor  of  th« 

universities 

work  and  was  falling  into  its  dotage.     Even  before  the  out-j^^^^ 
break  of  the  civil  wars,  Oxford,  in  a  memorable  plaint  pre- 
served to  us  by  Wood,  declared  that  her  halls  and  hostels 
were  deserted,  and  that  she  was  almost  abandoned  of  her  Oxford 

nearly  do* 

own  children*.     The  intercourse  with  the  continent  was  now  "^ed. 
rare  and  fitful.      Paris  attracted  but  few  Englishmen  to  her 
schools;  the  foreigner  was  seldom  to  be  seen  in  the  streets 
of  Cambridge  or  Oxford.     Occasionally  indeed  curiosity  or 
necessity  brought  some  continental  scholar  to  our  shores,  but 
the  gross  ignorance  and  uncultured  tone  that  everywhere  pre- 
vailed effectually  discouraged  a  lengthened  sojouni.     Among  i>^^^^^ 
those  who  were  thus  impelled,  in  the  early  part  of  the  cen-  t.lm?^^ 
tury,  was  the  distinguished  Italian  scholar,  Poggio  Bracciolini.  *^*^- 
He  came  fresh  from  the  discovery  of  many  a  long  lost  master- 
piece of  Latin  literature,  and  from  intercourse  with  that  rising 
school  of  Italian  literati,  represented  by  men  like  Aretino, 

known,  and  certainly  bad  not  been  filil  cognovemnt  earn.    Sic  sic  reve- 

condemned.     Tbis  is    tberefore   an-  ra  Patres  fremita  bellorum  aunonaa 

otber  instance  of   a    by  no    means  pecuniarumque    oaritate   depaupera- 

nnoommon  occurrence,  viz.  tbe  in-  tnm  est  regnum  nostrum  ;  tam  sera 

corporation  of  a  later  statute  in  tbe  insnper  ac  modica  virtutis  et  studii 

Statuta   Antiqua    of    our    colleges,  mentis  merces  quod  pauci  aut  nulU 

witbout  any  intimation  tbat  it  is  of  ad  nnivcrsitatem   accedendi   babent 

a  later  date  tban  tbat  wben  tbe  sta-  Toluntatem.     Unde    fit    quod    auIsB 

tntes  were  first  drawn  up.  atque  bospitia   obserata  vel    verius 

^  In  tbe  oatb  administered  to  tbe  diruta   sunt;    januie   atque    bospitia 

fellows  it  is   required    by  tbe   fiftb  scbolarum  et  studiorum  clausa,  et  de 

clause,  *  Jurabit  quod  non  fovcbit  aut  tot  miUibns  studentium  quae  fama  est 

defendet  bierescs  vel  errores  Joban-  istic  in  priori  letate  fuisse  non  jam 

nis  Wicklyf,  Keginaldi  Pecocke,  aut  unum  supersit.'     From  a  Memorial 

cnjnscunque    alterius    hsretici    per  addressed   to   arcbbisbop   Cbicbeley 

ecclesiam  damnati.'     MS.  Statutes  of  and  otber  bisbops  in  s^Tiod,  Apr.  28, 

1475  in  posnession  of  the  authorities  1438.  It  is  somewbat  remarkable  tbat 

of  Queens'  College.  we  also  find  in  Bulieus  (v  813),  tbe 

*  *  Jam  siquidemgloriosa  mater  olim  following  plaint  by  tbe  university  of 

tam  beata  prole  fcecunda,  pene  in  ex-  Paris  on  tbe  occasion  of  an  epidemic, 

tirminium  ac  desolatiouem  versa  est:  ' Nunc  mibi  de  multis  vix  extat  milli- 

sola  sedet  plangens  ac  dolens,  quod  bus  unut,^ 
non  modo  extranei,  sed  neo  sui  veutris 


298 


THE  FIFTEENTH   CENTURY. 


Bcantiness 
and  poverty 
of  our 
national 
literature. 


CHAP.  III.  Traversari,  Quarino,  and  Valla.    From  such  scanty  records  aif 
remain  of  his  impressions  we  might  condude  that  the  Roman 
poet  on  the  shores  of  the  Buxine  found  a  scarcely  less  conge- 
nial atmosphere \    If  indeed  all  that  the  fifteenth  century  pro- 
duced in  England  were  subtracted  from  our  libraries,  the  loss 
would  seem  singularly  small,  and  the  muses,  like  the  princess 
in  the  enchanted  castle,  might  be  held  but  to  have  slumbered 
for  a  hundred  years.     Whatever  still  survives  to  represent 
the  national  genius,  is  chiefly  imitative  in  its  character,  de- 
rived from  writers  like  Bocaccio  and  the  French  romancers, 
who  though  they  might  quicken  the  fancy  did  little  to  de- 
velope  and  strengthen  the  more  masculine  powers,  and,  in  the 
opinion  of  Roger  Ascham,  were  praised  by  those  who  sought 
to   divert  their  countrymen  from  that  more  solid  reading 
which,  while  it  developed  habits  of  observation  and  reflexion, 
could  scarcely  fail  at  the  same  time  to  direct  the  attention  to* 
the  necessity  for  ecclesiastical  refomi*.      The  few  original 
authors  of  tliis  period,  such  as  Capgrave,  Lydgate,  Pecock, 
and  Occleve,  seem  but  pale  and  inefl'ectual  luminaries  in  the 
prevailing  darkness.     *  Learning  in  England,*  says  Hallam, 
*was  like  seed  fermenting  in  the  ground  through  the  fifteenth 
century.'    Not  surely  a  very  happy  simile :  for  the  rich  sheaves 
that  were  afterwards  to  enter  our  own  ports,  were  the  fniit  of 
seed  sown  in  other  lands.    But  before  we  pennit  our  attention 
to  be  drawn  away  to  events  pregnant  with  very  momentous 
changes,  it  will  be  well  to  follow  up  the  course  of  external 
developement  at  Cambridge,  and  also  to  complete  our  survey 
of  those  institutions  which  may  be  regarded  as  taking  their 
rise  still  in  implicit  accord  with  those  theories  of  education 
which  were  shortly  to  undergo  such  important  modifications. 


^  Poggio  yisited  England  at  the 
inyitation  of  cardinal  Boaufort.  '  The 
motives,'  says  Shepherd,  *  which  in- 
duced him  to  take  this  step  seem  to 
be  concealed  in  studied  and  myste- 
rious silence.*  Life  of  Pogoioy  p. 
124.  Tiraboschi  says  *Ei  viag!:(io 
ancora  cira  il  1418  neiringhilterra, 
bench6  non  si  sappia  prt-cisumente 
per  quel  mottivo;  del  qual  viaggio 
fa  egli  stesso  piu  Tolte  menzioue; 
e  pare,  ohe  ci  ei  trattenesse  non  poco 


tempo,  perchiocchb  ogli  dice,  che 
dopo  Inngo  intervallo  tomo  final- 
mente  alia  Corto.*  vi  701.  *  Der  Hu- 
manist ergiug  sich  in  grossen  Ho£F- 
nungen,  theils  auf  dem  britischeu 
Boden  noch  manchen  vcrlorenen 
CInssiker  wicdcrzufinden,  theils  nnter 
dem  Schutze  des  koniglichon  Prii- 
laten  scin  (Hiick  zu  machen.'  Voigt, 
Die  Wiederbelebung  des  clastUciien 
Alterthums^  p.  371. 
'  Scholemaster^  ed.  Mayor,  p.  81. 


ERECTION  OF  SCHOOLS.  299 

It  will  be  remembered  tliat  tho  papal  decision  ia  tbe  c 
year  1314  with  reference  to  the  privileges  of  the  Mendicants 
in  the  univerKities.  was  regarded  by  them  as  a  great  blow  to 
their  order,  iDasniucli  as  they  were  no  longer  permitted  to 
receive  the  general  body  of  students  in   their  houses    for 
lectures  and  disputations'.     Up  to  the  fourteenth  century,  it  ^ 
does  not  appear  that  either  UDivei*sity  was  possewsed  of  schools,  * 
in  the  sense  of  buildings  expressly  erected  for  the  purpose;  d 
the  rooms  to  which  it  was  necessary  to  have  recourse  were 
those  in  tbe  ordinary  hostels';  and  when  larger  assemblies 
were  convened,  St.  Mary's  church,  or  that  of  the  Gray  Friars, 
supplied  tho  required  accommodation'.    Under  these  circum- 
stances the  imposing  dwellings  of  the  different  religious  or- 
ders had  given  them  an  advantage  of  which  they  wore  not 
slow  to  avail  themselves  in  their  [olicy  of  proselytism   and 
self-aggrandisement.     At  Oxford,  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
the  &culty  of  theology  had  been  indebted  to  the  Augustinian 
canons  for  a  local  habitation,  and  even  in  the  tifteenth  cen- 
tury the  university  h&d  been  fain  to  take  on  hire  rooms  which 

>  Seepp.262 — 3.  'TbegrcntMboolB  of  axtx,  bdiI  aach  m  are  called  tbe 

In  the  Hcfaool  street  of  (^lunbriilge  sre  great  exercises.     In  the  evening  were 

mentioned  in  a  Itafe  from  Jobn  de  tlie  e-iercilia  porta,  BomctimeH  cor- 

Crachal,  chaucellur  of  the  iiuiTemity,  raptty  calltil  paniiiarin,    taken  ont 

■nd   the    BBBcmlly  ol   tbe   nmstecij  of  tLeParra  Lo:ficaH,i.' Wood-Outoh, 

regent  and   non-reRent,    to    MuHter  ii   T'27— 6.     See    also  pp.    132,   123 

WlUinm  de  Alderf^<rJ,  iiriest.   M.A.  of  Lilt  of  Amhrou    Uonmickr,   ed. 

dated  15th  t'elirnarj,   20  Edw.  iii.  Ma} 


[1346-7].'  Cooper,  iltmorial', 

'  It  has  even  been  aaserted  (Hu- 
ber,  I  108).  Uiat  maslera  of  artii  were 
in  the    babit    of    ndtietnUlitig   the 


»  ■  The  nse  of  3t.  ilarj's  Church 
(or  miiversity  puipOBea  seems  to 
bare  been  fully  entublished  before 
"         il  ot  the  thirtecuth  eentnry. 


pupils  in  the  porches  of  houses,  but     In  ViTi  the  bells  of  St.  Bouet'a,  that 
the  inference  of  sueh  a  custinn  from  .... 

tbe  term  in  parriiio.  from  ji'irrit  i'r. 
from  jMirrufiwi),  a  meilia'vul  word 
denoting  a  'cliuich  porch,'  cnnuot 
be  BQBtained.    'In  my  opiiiiou,'  says 


moKt  jireciuud 
Cambridge,  appeiir  as  bring  rung,  ae 
a  siuuiiionit  to  university  meutiugs. 
Souit  afltr,  we  tiiid  those  of  St 
Mary'B  UKed  fur  tbe  soon.'  porpose. 


Wood, '  the  true  meaning  comes  from  aiul  in  12Tu  wo  have  a  distinct  a 
tbose  inferior  disputatious  that  are  count  of  a  university  grace  passed  at 
performed  by  the  juniors,  riumoly  a  congregation  Jield  iu  the  church. 
"generalln,"  wbiirb  to  tbi«  d:iy  nre  In  KI03  we  hcgiu  to  get  uotieed  of 
c^cd  and  written  iH'iniiniiMirg  in  anivcrsity  KcruKiiis,  and  in  I.'I47  a 
jiarrjiifif.  For  in  the  morning  were  nnivcritity  chuplaiu  was  founrird  to 
anciently,  as  now.  the  an^<Wl'rillg  of  cclelirate  daily  miiSTCri  in  this  elmrch 
quodUMi,  that  is  the  iiro)>i>^ng  uf  for  the  souls  of  benefactors.'  Article 
questions  in  pbilotiophy  and  other  in  Siit.  H-r.  July  8,  IKTl,  on  San- 
arts  by  certain  matttcrs  to  him  or  dor's  Iliiluricat  Xol<*  oh  Urtat  Si, 
them  Uiat  intend  to  commence  master  Alary'; 


800  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 

CHAP.  ni.  the  rich  abbey  of  Oseney  liad  erected  with  the  express  pnr- 
^  ■■  V  -'^  pose  of  letting  them  for  such  uses.     It  was  not  until  the 
year  1480  that  the  divinity  schools  were  opened;  and  then 
only  by  assistance  begged  from  every  quarter,  and  after  the 
lapse  of  many  years  from  the  time  of  their  foundation.     In 
striking  contrast  to  this  deficiency  in  the  resources  of  the 
university  were  to  be  seen  the  dwellings  of  the  Mendicants ; 
remarkable  not  merely  for  their  size  and  extent  but  for  the 
Superior  »d.  bcauty  of  their  details.      We  know  from   a  contemporary 
thulSpect    poet  how  the  whole  effect  must  have  been  calculated  to  over- 
ftereiigiou*  awc  and   attract  the  youthful  student;  how   the  curiously 
wrought  windows,  where  gleamed  the  arms  of  innumerable 
benefactors,  the  pillars,  gilded  and  painted,  and  carved  in 
curious   knots,  the  ample  precincts  with   private   posterns, 
enclosed  orchards  and  arbours*,  must  have  fascinated  many  a 
poor  lad  whose  home  was  represented  by  the  joint  occupancy 
of  some  obscure  garret,  and  who  often  depended  on  public 
charity  for  his  very  subsistence;  and  we  can  well  understand 
the  chagrin  of  the  Mendicants  at   finifing  themselves  pro- 
hibited from  reaping  the  advantage  which  such  opulence  and 
splendour  placed  within  their  reach.     With  the  fourteenth 
century,  however,  the  universities  began  to  seek  for  a  more 
effectual  remedy  than  was  afforded  by  mere  prohibitory  mea- 
Krectionof    sures.     In    the   latter  part  of  the  century  Sir  Robert   de 
echooiHat     Thorpe,  lord  chancellor  of  En<jland,  and  sometime  master  of 

Cunbridge, 

1886.  Pembroke,  had  commenced  the  erection  of  the  divinity  schools*, 

which  was  carried  to  completion   by   the  executors  of  his 
Erection  of    brother,  Sir  William  de  Thorpe,  about  the  year  1398'.     But 
fitehooS*ftnd  the  grand  effort  was  not  made  until  the  latter  half  of  the 
Schools,  drc.  foUowing  ccutury,    when   Lawrence   Booth,   the  chancellor, 
resolved  on  raising  a  fund  for   the  building  of  arts  schools 
and  schools  for  the  civil  law.     Contributions  were  accord- 
ingly levied  wherever  there  appeared  a  chance  of  success :  on 
those  who  hired  chairs  as  teachers  of  either  the  canon  or 

*  Crerd  of  Piers  Ploughman,  ed.  room.   '  Tonjoors  le  plariol,  *  observes 
Wright,  II  4(>0,  461.  Thurot,    'meme  poor  designer  nua 

*  Cooper,  Annals,  i  111.   It  Ih  to  be  salle  unique.* 
observed  that  the  use  of  the  plural  *  Ibid.  1 143. 
does  not  imply  more  than  one  lecture- 


EEECnON  OP  SCHOOLS.  301 

civil  law,  upon  every  resident  religious,  whetber  like  the  chap,  m, 
Benedictines  and  the  canonsi  recognised  owners  of  worldly*  __^_^ 
wealth,  or  like  the  Mendicants  avowfdiy  sworn  to  poverty; 
on  the  wealthier  clergy,  and  on  the  higher  dignitaries  of  the 
Church, — though  in  the  last  case  assistance  was  besought 
rather  than  authoritatively  enforced.  By  efforts  like  these 
the  iiniversity  began  to  attain  to  a  real  as  well  as  legal 
independence  of  the  friars;  and  it  was  probably  about  this 
time  that  a  statute  was  formed  making  it  obligatory  on  all 
who  lectured  on  the  canon  or  the  civil  law,  to  hire  the  new 
rooms  and  deliver  their  lectures  there'. 

Slowly,  but  surely  and   inevitably,  the  tide  of  learning  ^SSafth* 
was  rolling  on  away  from  the  friary  and   the   niona-stery.  "™™''^- 
From  an  attempted  combination  of  the  secular  and  roligioua 
elements  like  that  represented  in  the  Hospital  of  St.  John 
and  Pembroke  College,  and  a  vigorous  effort  at  independence 
on  the  part  of  the  university  like  that  illustrated  in  the  fore- 
going details,  we  pa.ss  to  a  fresh  stage  in  the  same  movement, 
— the  direct  diversion  of  property  from  the  religious  orders 
to  the  universities.     It  is  evident  that  with   the  fifteenth 
century  a  new  feeling  began  to  possess  the  minds  of  many 
with  respect   to  the  monastic  foundations, — the  feeling  of 
despair.     There  appears  to  have  been  as  yet  no  distinct  sen-  The  iwinnii 
timent  of  aversion  to  monasticism  as  a  theory,  but  even  the  ';^^5^^ 
lover  of  the  mona.'itery  began  to  despair  of  the  monk ;  and  it  J^j^™*  "* 
is  among  the  most  significant  proofs  of  the  corruption  of 
the  different  religious  orders  at  this  period,  that  the  foun- 
dations that  began  to  rise  at  both  universities  are  to  he  re- 
ferred not  to  any  dislike  of  the  system  which  those  orders 
represented,  but  to  the  conviction  that  the  rule  they  bad 
received  was  habitually  and  wilfully  violated.     In  the  foun- 
dation, at  Oxford,  of  New  College  by  William  of  Wykeham  we  J"£;£^ 
have  a  signal  proof  of  this  state  of  feeling,    The  college  ^^ 
itself,  though  built  up  as  it  were  out  of  the  ruins  of  monastic 

*  Hence  the  treqnent   enlrica   in  bistor;  of  the   Bcliools   sec   Cooper, 

the  Grace   Buok;   uf  paymvute  pro  Slfmorialt,  iii  o'i—tS.     A  !iir);e  por- 

tchoUt  in  jure  clrili.    iteeO race  Book  tion  of  tUe  olil  gnlewnj  now  iormc 

A  6b:  Grace  llnok  B  p.  lid.    Fur  •  the  entrance  to  the  baase-ooui  at  Ma- 

deUiled  mcoudI  oI  the  arcliitcotimJ  dinglejr  UalL 


302 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 


-CHAP.  iiL  foundations,  retained  more  than  any  similar  society,  the  disci- 
^•IJ^-J.  pline  of  the  monastic  life.    It  was,  in  fact,  half  as  a  substitute 
of*N«i!rcSu.  for  the  monastery  that  the  college  appears  to   have  been 
"****      *    designed.     Long  before  it  was  constituted,  William  of  Wyke- 
ham  had  soudit  amon^  monks  and  mendicants  to  find  a  less 
glaring  discrepancy  between  theory  and  practice,  and  he  had 
sought  in  vain.      *He  had  been  ol)liged,'   says  one    of  his 
biographers,  *  with  grief  to  declare,  that  he  could  not  any- 
where find  that  the  ordinances  of  their  founders,  according  to 
their  true  design  and  intention,  were  at  present  observed  by 
any  of  themV 
2£)^wtth        '^^^  extension  given  by  this  eminent  prelate  to  the  con- 
rfuS/fiim  ception  of  Walter  de  Merton  is  represented  by  the  fact  that 
houaw!!*       he  endowed  his  college  with  lands  purchased  from  religious 
bouses,  and  though  there  was  nothing  in  such  an  act  which 
the  most  strenuous  supporters  of  monastic  institutions  could 
directly  impugn,  inasmuch  as  the  new  foundation  was  de- 
signed for  the  secular  clergy,  we  may  be  quite  sure  that  the 
alienation  of  the  property  from  the  communities  to  which  it 
originally  belonged,  was  a  measure  regarded  by  many  with 
distrust  and  suspicion.     It  needed  the  stainless  reputation, 
the  noble  descent,  and  the  high  position  of  the  founder  to 
sanction  such  an  innovation,  and  the  precedent  probably  had 
weight  in  those  more  decisive  acts  in  •the  same  direction 
which  belong  to  the  two  succeeding  centuries.   But  there  was 
nothing  of  an  arbitrary  character  in  William  of  Wykeham  s 
procedure;  the  lands  which  he  purchased  from  Oseney  Abbey, 
the  priory  of  St.  Frideswide,  and  St.  John's  Hospital,  were 
bought  with  the  full  consent  of  the  proprietaries ;  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  proceeding  consisted  in  the  fact  that  such  large 
estates  should  be  appropriated  by  one,  whose  example  was 
so  potent  among  his  countrymen,  to  such  a  purpose. 

The  scheme  of  his  noble  foundation  threw  into  the  shade 
every  existing  college  whether  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  and 
was  the  first  in  our  own  country  which  could  compare  with 


statutes  of 
the  founda- 
tton. 


»  Lowth,  Life  of  William  of  Wyke- 
hanit  p.  21.  To  exactly  similar  effect 
is  the  language  of  Oolet's  biographer: 
-^'Not  that  he  hated  any  one  of  their 


several  orders ;  but  because  he  found  , 
that  few  or  none  of  them  lived  up  to 
their  vows  and  professions.*    Knight, 
Life  of  CoUt,  p.  72. 


'  HEW  COLLEGE,   OXFORD.  303 

'tliatof  KavaTfe.  It  was  inteoded  to  promote  all  tlie  recognised  chap,  nt 
braDchea  of  learning.  The  society  was  to  oousist  of  a  warden  -^v— ' 
and  seventy  fellows,  of  wbom  fifty  were  to  lie  students  in  arts 
or  divinity,  two  being  permitted  to  study  medicine  and  two 
astronomy.  The  remaining  twenty  were  to  be  trained  for 
the  law, — ten  as  civilians,  ten  as  canonists.  All  were  to  be 
in  priest's  orders  within  a  fixed  perioil,  except  where  reason- 
able impediment  could  be  shewn  to  exist.  There  were  more- 
over to  be  ten  conduct  chaplains,  three  clerka  of  the  chapel, 
and  sixteen  choristers.  By  rubric  58,  one  of  the  chaplains 
was  required  to  learn  grammar  and  to  be  able  to  write,  in 
order  to  assist  the  treasurer  in  transcribing  Latin  evidence. 

'  From  this  princely  and  accomplished  man,'  says  his  >Ilt"i'i™ 
latest  biographer,  'not  only  Henry  vi  at  Eton  and  King's,  SiiiS^il^i'" 
but  subsequent  founders  derived  the  form  of  their  institution. 
The  annexation  of  a  college  in  the  uuiversity  to  a  dependent 
school,  was  followed  by  Wolsey  in  his  foundation  of  Cardinal 
College  and  Ipswich  School;  by  Sir  Thomas  White  at 
St.  John's  College  and  Merchant  Taylors'  School;  and  by 
Queen  Elizabeth  at  Westminster  and  Christ  Church '. 
Chicheley  and  Waynflete  almost  literally  copied  his  statutes. 
The  institution  of  college  disputations,  external  to  the  public 
exercises  of  the  university,  in  the  presence  of  deans  and 
moderators  ;  the  cotemporaneous  erection  of  a  private  chapel ; 
the  appropriation  of  fellowships  for  the  encouragement  of 
students  in  neglected  branches  of  learning,  were  among  the 
more  prominent  signs  of  that  which  must  be  viewed  more  as 
a  creation  of  a  new  system,  than  as  the  revival  of  literature 
in  its  decline'.' 

The  next  foundation  that  claims  our  attention  discloses  a  ^^^JJJT 
furtber  advance  in  the  direction  marked  out  by  William  of  ^'[^SS"' 
Wykeham;   from   the   simple   conversion,   by  purchase,   of IlliJiiniaot 
monastic  property  into  college  property,  we  arrive  at   the  o>fc* 
gta^e  of  direct  and  forcible  appropriation.     The  alien  priories 
were  the  first  to  suffer,  the  wars  with  France  affording  a 
plau^ble  pretest  fur  -the  seizure  of  wealth  which  went  mainly 


804  THE  FIFTEENTH    CENTURY. 

CHAP.  UL  to  enrich  the  foreigner.     '  These  priories/  says  Gough, '  were 
^— v-^-^   cells  of  the  religious  houses  in  England  which  belonged  to 

SJSKfthi  foreign  monasteries :  for  when  manors  or  tithes  were  given  to 

oillS?^'**     foreign  convents,  the  monks,  either  to  increase  their  own 
rule,  or  rather  to  have  faithful  stewards  of  their  revenues, 
built  a  small  convent  here  for  the  reception  of  such  a  number 
as  they  thought  proper,  and  constituted  priors  over  them. 
Within  these  cells  there  was  the  same  distinction  as  in  those 
priories  which  were  cells  subordinate  to  some  great  abbey ; 
some  of  these  were  conventual,  and,  having  priors  of  their 
own  choosing,  thereby  became  entire  societies  within  them- 
selves, and  received  the  revenues  belonging  to  their  several 
houses  for  their  own  use  and  benefit,  paying  only  the  ancient 
apport,  acknowledgment,  or  obvention  (at  first  the  surplusage), 
to  the  foreign  house;  but  others  depended  entirely  on  the 
foreign  houses,  who  appointed  and  removed  their  priors  at 
pleasure.     These  transmitted  aU  their  revenues  to  the  foreign 
head  houses;  for  which  reason  their  estates  were  generally 
seized  to  carry  on  the  wars  between  England  and  France, 
and  restored  to  them  again  on  return  of  peace.     These  alien 
priories  were  most  of  them  founded  by  such  as  had  foreign 
abbeys  founded  by  themselves  or  by  some  of  their  family^' 

Bequeitn-  The  first  scizure  appears  to  have  taken  place  in  1285,  on 

tlons  of  their     ,  ii/.  \  t-i  i-^ii  j* 

Mtotes  under  the  Outbreak  of  war  between  France  and  England ;  and  m 
monaidu.  1337  Edward  iii  confiscated  the  estates  of  the  alien  priories, 
and  let  them  out,  with  their  tenements  and  even  the  priories 
themselves,  for  a-term  of  23  years ;  but  on  the  establishment 
of  peace  they  were  restored  to  their  original  owners.  Other 
sequestrations  were  made  in  the  reign  of  Richai-d  li,  and 
under  Henry  iv,  in  the  parliament  of  1402,  it  was  enacted 
that  all  alien  priories  should  be  suppressed';  the  Privy 
Council  indeed  actually  received  evidence  in  his  reign,  con- 
cerning the  different  foundations,  with  the  view  of  carrying 
the  enactment  into  effect :  but  the  final  blow  did  not  come 

*  Some  Account  of  the  Alien  Priories  by  Gough  in  his  brief  sketch,  where 

and  of  such  Lands  as  tJiey  are  known  he  speaks  of  the  policy  of  Heniy  r7 

to  have  possessed    in  England  and  as  more  favorable  to  the  mainie-    ■ 

Wales.    Lond.  1779.   Pref.  to  Vol.  i.  nance  of  the    foreign  interests,     z 

s  This  important  fact  is  omitted  ix,  x. 


THE  ALIEy   PRIORIEa 


305 


tintil  the  war  with  France  in  the  roign  of  Henry  v ;  when  in 
the  year  1411,  in  prospect  of  that  great  stniggle,  no  less 
than  122  priories  were  confiscated  undor  the  direction  of 
archhishop  Chicheloy,  and  their  revennea,  for  the  time,  ab- 
sorbed in  the  royal  exchequer'.  From  this  extensive  confis- 
cation were  derived  the  revenues  of  that  princely  foundation, 
which,  thirty  years  later,  rose  under  the  auspices  of  Henry  VI 
at  Cambridge. 

It  is  a.sserted  that  it  hod  been  the  original  intention  of 
Henry  V  to  appropriate  the  whole  of  the  revenues  to  the 
endowment  of  one  great  college  at  Oxford  ;  his  son  however 
determined  that  there  should  be  two  colleges,  and  that  of 
these  one  should  be  at  Eton  and  the  other  at  Cambridge'. 
In  turning  to  trace  the  origin  of  one  of  our  greatest  colleges 
and  of  our  greatest  public  school,  we  are  accordingly  con- 
fronted by  the  names  of  those  yet  more  ancient  institutions, 
which  superstition  or  philanthropy  had  reared  on  the  plains 
of  Normandy  when  the  universities  themselvts  had  no 
existence.  From  the  venerable  abbey  of  Bee  was  wrested 
the  priory  of  Okebumo,  the  wealthiest  cell  in  England';  a 
manor  at  Tyldeshyde  in  Cornwall  and  another  at  B'elsted  in 
Essex,  represented  the  alienated  wealth  of  the  abbey  at 
Caen ;  the  monastery  of  St.  Peter  de  Conches  forfeited  many 
a  broad  acre  in  Warwickshire,  Worcestershire,  and  Norfolk ; 
estates  in  Lincolnshire,  once  owned  by  the  abbey  of  St. 
Nicholas  in  Angers,  and  others  that  bad  enriched  the  prioiy 
of  Brysett  in  Suffolk, — a  cell  to  the  priory  of  Nobiliac  near 
limoges, — numerous  reversions  from  estates  of  minor  impor- 


'  Ouljtlioaa  piioiifB  vere  spared 
which  had  already  nhalien  off  their 
dependence  n|ion  the  continental 
hoQites  and,  by  t-lectiu^  their  oiva 
bead,  had  hecume  indepeudeut  monaa- 


liwSi^ 


'  Heory's  intent.  iiajB  Wood,  '  was 
to  have  built  a  oolleRs  in  the  eaittla 
ot  Oxlcinl  nhcrpiu  the  Hoven  Rcieucei 
■bould  have  l>eeu  luiiRht,  and  there- 
nuto  to  have  nniiecteil  nil  the  iilioD 

EriurieK  in  EnRlnnd.  and  vithol  to 
ate  refarmed  the  hlatuten  o[  the 
tuuTenity;  bat  being  prevented  by 


death,  bin  hod  King  Henry  vi  be- 
Blowed  many  o[  the  said  priorieB  on 
bia  college  at  Eaton  and  that  ut  Cam- 
bridge.'     Wood-Uutch,  i  S(>6. 

*  Gougb  Aays,  'Some  of  the  landnin 
England  belongini;  to  the  cells  of  the 
abbe;  of  Ilec,  and  tn  other  alien  ])riu- 
rieB,  were  pnrchaRvd  temp.  Richard  ll 
bj  William  of  Wykeham  for  bis  col- 
lege at  Wiiicb<'Bter. '  Alien  Prioriet, 
I  IGT.  PuTchaMi  in  the  fourteenth 
centory  became  confiscation  in  the 
fifteenth. 

SO 


306 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 


CHAP.  lU. 
Pakt  IL 


BtatutM 

oTKing*! 

College. 


The  flint 
Commift- 
■ionen. 


Their  retlg- 
uUioii. 


Wllllun 
MUlington 
thetlrat 
ProToeL 


Refoseshii 
atsentto  the 
new  itatutee. 
Ills  ejection. 


tancc  and  various  hostels  in  the  town,  completed  the  long 
roll  of  the  revenues  of '  The  King's  College  of  Our  Lady  and 
St.  Nicholas**  at  Cambridge. 

The  history  of  the  new  foundation  affords  another  illustra- 
tion of  the  way  in  which  Ultramontanist  theories  were  at 
this  time  successfully  contending  for  the  predominance  in 
our  universities,  and  the  principle  asserted  in  the  Barnwell 
Process  receiving  further  extension.  The  commissioners 
originally  appointed  to  prepare  the  statutes  were  William 
Alnwick,  bishop  of  Lincoln,  William  Aiscough,  bishop  of 
Salisbury,  William  Lyndewode,  keeper  of  the  privy  seal, 
John  Somerseth,  chancellor  of  the  exchequer,  and  John 
Langton,  chancellor  of  the  university ;  but  in  the  year  1443 
this  commission  was  superseded,  the  king  himself  under- 
taking to  provide  the  rule  of  the  foundation.  There  seems 
to  be  good  reason  for  supposing  that,  in  some  way  or  otlier, 
the  proposed  scheme  had  failed  to  command  the  commis- 
sioners' approval,  for  it  was  at  their  own  request  that  the 
work  was  confided  to  other  hands ;  they  themselves  being,  as 
they  pleaded,  fully  occupied  with  other  business,  negotiis  et 
occiqyationihus  impeditL  But  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that 
the  design  of  so  important  a  foundation  could  have  failed  to 
be  a  matter  of  lively  interest  to  the  bishop  of  a  neighbouring 
diocese  and  to  a  chancellor  of  the  university ;  and  indeed  we 
know  that  Langton  had  been  the  first  to  suggest  the  creation 
of  the  new  college  to  the  royal  mind.  At  the  same  time 
that  the  king  undertook  to  provide  for  the  preparation  of 
the  new  statutes,  William  Millington,  the  rector  of  the 
original  foundation,  had  been  retained  in  his  post  under  the 
name  of  provost;  but  when  the  new  statutes  had  received 
the  royal  sanction,  he  found  himself  unable  to  give  a  con- 
scientious assent  to  their  provisions  and  was  accordingly 
ejected  by  the  commissioners".     It  will  be  desirable  to  point 


^  The  birthday  of  king  Henry 
being  on  the  feast  of  St.  Nicholas. 

'  Cole  says,  '  the  true  reason  of  his 
remoyal  seems  to  proceed  from  him- 
self and  a  point  of  conscience,  he 
having  taken  the  oaths  to  the  chan- 
cellor of  the  university  before  he  was 


made  provost,  and  which  the  new 
drawn  statutes  exempted  him  from; 
besides  he  was  not  Uioroughly  satis- 
fied that  the  scholars  should  all  come 
from  Eton  School.*  Mr  Williams, 
who  has  carefully  investigated  the 
whole  evidence  concerning  the  first 


king's  college. 


307 


out  the  character  of  those  innovations  with  i 
his  difficulties  arose. 

The  elaborate  nature  of  the  code  now  given  to  the 
foundation  corresponds  to  the  grandeur  of  its  endowmehts, 
and  presents  a  striking  contrast  to  the  statutes  of  the  colleges 
founded  at  Cambridge  in  the  preceding  century.  It  is  how- 
ever entirely  devoid  of  originality,  being  little  more  than  a 
transcript  of  the  statutes  which  William  of  Wykeham,  after 
no  leM  than  four  revisions,  left  to  be  the  rule  of  NewThaMi 
College*;  but  the  minuteness  of  detail,  the  small  disere- rnm'ii 
tionary  power  vested  in  the  governing  body,  the  anxiety  (wnw 
shewn  to  guard  against  all  possible  innovations,  must  be 
regarded  as  constituting  a  distinct  era  in  the  history  of  the 
theory  of  our  own  collegiate  discipline.  The  Latinity,  it  is 
worthy  of  remark,  is  more  correct,  and  copious  to  a  fault; 
and  there  is  also  to  he  noted  an  increased  power  of  expres- 
sion which  makes  it  difficult  not  to  infer  that  a  greater 
advance  must  have  been  going  on  in  classical  studies  during 
the  preceding  years,  than  writers  on  the  period  have  been 
inclined  to  suppose. 


prOTOSt  of  his  college,  endorsra  this 
sccoQiit,  and  obserreB,  'that  the 
totmdeT  had  nothing  to  do  with  bit 
ejection,  and  was  eitremely  ttorry  for 
it,  is  confirmed  by  a  lact  which  Mr 
Searlebas  biouglit  to  m;  notice,  viz. 
that  in  lUS,  onl<r  two  years  aftcF  his 
Temoval,  he  was  sppainted,  in  coQ- 
junetion  with  others,  to  draw  up  stB- 
tnUia  for  Queens'  College  ;  and  that 
this  appointment  was  twice  renewed.' 
See  tiolieti  of  William  MilliHgton, 
Firtl  PrpPiul  of  King't  Cotlrge,  by 

George  Williaois,  b.p..  Fellow  of 
King's  College,  Conmunicalioni  of 
Cambridge  Antiquarian  Soeiet>i,iW7. 
Ct.  DoeumfiiU,  iii  4. 

'  Messrs  He^wood  and  Wright  at- 
tribute them  to  Chedworih  (see  Pref. 
to  Kiag'i  ColUge  Statutfi.  p.  vii), 
Mr  Williams,  who  is  folloved  by 
Cooper  {Mrmorialt,  i  182).  says  '  Hy 
own  belief  is  that  Ihe  provost  of  Eton 
(Wainfleet)  was  the  framer  of  the 
existing  code,  or,  I  should  rather 
M7.  that  be  it  wm  who  adapted  the 
stktDtea  of  the  two  foimdatiani  ot 


WiUioin  otWyliebam  to  the  two  kin- 
dred fonndations  of  Henry  vi.  Wil- 
liam of  Wainfleet  bad  been  educated 
at  Winchester,  and  on  the  first  found- 
ation of  Eton  (A.D.  14411  had  been 
transferred,  w.th  half  the  wtncbeater 
scholars,  to  Eton  College,  as  its  first 
bead  maetor,  and  became  (*.d.  1143) 
ita  second  or  third  provoat.  He  IB 
known  to  have  enjoyed  the  confi- 
dence of  the  foQuder  in  the  fullest 
measure,  and  Capgiave's  witness  to 
this  fact,  and  the  cause  of  it,  ma;  be 
slated,  from  the  passage  following 
that  which  relates  to  MillinKton ; 
Alttr  auttm  dtttut  Majiiter  WiUitl- 
mut  WaymJUte  mm  multvm  pn'orl 
diuimilit,  earxu  ul  putatnr  domimt 
Regi  habflur,  non  tam  pritptrr  tritn- 
Ham  ialttlarrm  qaam  vilam  Cflibfm. 
The  verbal  agreement  of  most  of  the 
Ktstntes  of  Eton  and  King's,  with 
those  of  Winchester  and  New  College 
respectively,  would  be  fuUy  accounted 
tor  by  the  long  and  intimate  connec- 
tion of  Waii^eet  with  the  eorliu 
fonndatioiu.'    Ibid.  p.  29S. 

20—2 


308 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 


CHAP.  III. 
Pakt  n. 


tiont  of 
■cholart: 

Poverty. 


Af«. 


The  college  is  designed  for  the  maintenance  of  poor  and 
needy  scholars,  who  must  be  intending  to  devote  themselves 
to  the  sacred  profession,  at  that  time  (says  the  preamble)  '  so 
severely  weakened  by  pestilence,  war,  and  other  human 
calamities*;'  they  must  wear  the  'first  clerical  tonsure,'  be 
Attainments,  of  good  morals,  Sufficiently  instructed  in  grammar*,  of  honest 
conversation,  apt  to  learn,  and  desirous  of  advancing  in 
knowledge.  A  provost,  and  seventy  scholars  (who  must  have 
already  been  on  the  foundation  of  Eton  for  a  period  of  not 
less  than  two  years)  whose  age  at  admission  must  be  between 
fifteen  and  twenty,  are  to  be  maintained  on  the  foundation. 
The  curriculum  of  study  is  marked  out  with  considerable 
precision: — theology  {sacra  scriptura  seu  pagina),  the  arts, 
and  philosophy,  are  to  constitute  the  chief  subjects  and  to 
form  the  ordinary  course ;  but  two  masters  of  arts,  of  superior 
ability  (vivacis  ingenit)  may  apply  themselves  to  the  study  of 
the  civil  law,  four  to  that  of  the  canon  law,  and  two  to  the 
science  of  medicine;  astronomy  (scientia  astrorum)  is  per- 
mitted as  a  study  to  two  more,  provided  that  they  observe 
the  limits  imposed  by  the  provost  and  the  dean, — a  pre- 
caution, we  may  infer,  against  the  forbidden  researches  of  the 
astrologer.     The  transition  from  the  scholar  to  the  fellow  is 


Btadiet 
prescribed  or 
permitted. 


^  These  statntes  are  remarkable 
for  their  verbosity  and  pleonastio 
mode  of  expression : — e.  g.  *  ac  prreci- 
pne  at  ferventius  et  frequentius 
Christus  evangelizetur,  et  fides  cul- 
tusque  divini  nominis  augoatnr,  et 
fortius  sustentetur,  sacrse  insuper 
theologia)  ut  dilatetur  laus,  gnbeme- 
tur  ecclesia,  vigor  atque  fervor  Chris- 
tianae  religionis  coalcscant,  scientisB 
qaoque  ac  virtutes  amplins  conva- 
lescant,  uecnon  ut  generalem  mor- 
bum  militiae  clericalis  qnam  propter 
paucitatem  cleri  ex  peatilentiis,  guer- 
ris,  et  aliis  mundi  miseris,  graviter 
vulnerari  couBpeximus,  dcsolatioui 
compatientes  tam  tristi,  partim  allo- 
vare  possimus,  quern  in  toto  sauare 
veraciter  non  valemus,  ad  quod  re- 
vera  pro  nostrae  devotionis  animo 
nostros  regies  apponimus  libeuter 
labores.'  Statutes^  by  Heywood  and 
Wright,  p.  18. 

^  It  is  assumed  that  the  first  stage 


of  the  tritium  will  have  been  accom- 
plished at  Eton: — 'Et  quia  summe 
affectamus  et  yolumus  quod  nnmems 
Bcholarinm  et  sociorum  in  dicto  nos- 
tro  Begali  Collegio  Cantabrigiae  per 
nos  Buperins  institntns,  plene  et  per- 
fecte  per  Dei  gratiam  perpetius  futu- 
ris  temporibus  sit  completus:  ao 
oonsiderantes  attente  quod  gram- 
matica,  quts  prima  de  artibus  sen  sci- 
entiis  liberalibns  reputatur,  funda- 
mentum,  janua,  et  origo  omnium 
aliarum  artium  liberalium  et  scien- 
tiarum  existit ;  quodque  sine  ea  etc- 
terse  artes  seu  scientise  perfeote  sciri 
non  possunt,  nee  ad  earum  veram 
cognitionem  et  perfectionem  quis- 
quam  poterit  pervenire:  ea  propter, 
divina  favente  clfmentia,  de  bonis 
nostris  a  Deo  collatis  unum  aliud 
Kegale  coUegium  in  villa  nostra  de 
Eton  a  ut  superius  memoratur  insti- 
tuimus  etc'    Ibid.  p.  21. 


king's  college.  309 

here  first  clearly  defined.  It  is  not  until  after  a  three  years'  aiAP.  iil 
probatiun,  during  which  tiiue  it  has  heen  ascertained  whether  ->_.y_J' 
the  scholar  be  ingenio,  capacitate  seneus,  moribaa,  condition!-  [^^"Sf^ 
bus,  et  scientia,  dignus,  hahilia,  et  tdoneus  for  furiher  study,  ""SmiE^w 
that  the  provost  and  the  fellows  are  empowered  to  elect  liim '  "  ^ 
one  of  their  number. 

'In  addition  to  the  various  privileges  granted  by  himJ|J^^}^ 
with  the  sanction  of  Parhament,  to  the  college,  the  kiugSMilSS* 
obtained  bulls  from  the  pope  exempting  the  college  and  (oumiuioii. 
its  members  from  the  power  and  jurisdiction  of  the  arch- 
bishop of  Ganterhuiy,  the  bishop  and  archdeacon  of  Ely,  and 
the  chancellor  of  the  university ;  and  on  the  Slst  of  January, 
1448—9,  the  university  by  an  instrument  under  its  common 
seal,  granted  that  the  college,  the  provost,  fellows,  and 
scholars,  their  servants  and  ministers,  should  be  exempt  from 
the  power,  dominion,  and  jurisdiction  of  the  chancellor,  vice- 
chancellor,  proctors  and  ministers  of  the  university ;  but  in 
all  matters  relating  to  the  various  scholastic  acts,  exercises, 
lectures,  and  disputations  necessary  for  degrees,  and  the 
sermons,  masses,  general  processions,  congregations,  convoca- 
tions, elections  of  chancellor,  proctors,  and  othgr  officers  (not 
being  repugnant  to  their  peculiar  privileges),  they  were,  us 
true  gremials  aud  scholars  of  the  univei'sity,  to  be  obedient 
to  the  chancellor,  vice-chancellor,  and  proctors,  as  other 
scholars  were.  To  this  grant  was  annexed  a  condition  that 
it  should  be  void,  in  case  the  bishops  of  Salisbury,  Lincoln, 
and  Carlisle,  should  consider  it  inconsistent  with  the  statutes, 
privileges,  and  laudable  customs  of  the  university'.' 

It  will  be  seen  that,  just  as  the  Barnwell  Process  had  o)4«>  •'^"^ 
exempted  the  university  from  ecclesiastical  control,  it  was™^*''- 
now  sought  to  render  the  college  independent  of  the  uni- 
versity ;  to  obtain  for  the  new  foundation,  in  short,  an 
independence  similar  to  that  enjoyed  by  the  different  friaries ; 
such  was  the  provision  to  which  William  MilUogton  found 
himself  unable  to  assent ;  it  abo  afibrds  a  sufficient  explana- 
tion of  the  resignation  of  Langton,  who,  if  such  an  idea  had 

>  Cooper,  MtmoriaU,  t  103,  103.     M8.  Bwe  n  189. 


310 


THE  FIFTEENTH   CENTURY. 


Objections 
ofWUliuii 
MUUngton. 


Beaufort's 
bequest. 


CHAP.  III.  been  in  any  way  foreshadowed,  could  hardly  have  approved 
*"  '  a  proposal  to  render  any  college  independent  of  the  jurisdic- 
tion he  personally  represented,  and  whose  privileges  he  was 
bound  to  guard.  Another  and  equally  valid  objection  urged 
by  Millington,  appears  to  have  been  the  limitation  of  the 
advantages  afforded  by  so  splendid  a  foundation  to  the  scholars 
of  Eton  exclusively. 

The  countenance  given  to  the  new  scheme  illustrates, 
not  less  than  the  opposition  it  encountered,  its  true  nature. 
Within  three  years  after  (he  foregoing  statutes  had  been 
given,   cardinal  Beaufort,   the  leader  of  the   Ultramontane 

sMtniflcMUM  party*,  bequeathed  the  large  sum  of  £1000  to  augment  the 
already  princely  revenues  of  King's  College  and  the  founda- 
tion at  Eton.  His  own  student  life  had  been  passed  chiefly 
at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  where  he  was  distinguished  by  his  attain- 
ments in  the  civil  law ;  but  he  had  been  a  scholar  at  Peter- 
house  in  1388,  and  studied  at  Oxford  in  1397,  and  the 
preference  thus  shewn  for  the  new  society  over  his  own 
college  is  a  fact  of  no  little  significance*. 

Within  live  years  of  these  enactments  the  university 
made  a  strenimus  effort  to  reassert  its  rights  of  jurisdiction, 
and  the  scholars  of  King's  College  were  prohibited  from 
proceeding  to  degrees  until  they  should,  in  their  collective 
capacity,  have  renounced  their  exclusive  pretensions.  This 
prohibition  however  was  immediately  followed  up  by  the 
royal  mandate  compelling  the  university  to  rescind  its  reso- 
lution'. Eventually,  in  the  year  1457,  an  agreement  was 
entered  upon  by  the  chancellor  and  the  doctors  regent  and 
non-regent  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  provost,  fellows,  and 
scholai"s  of  the  college  on  the  other ;  and  as  the  result  of  this 
composition  the  college  succeeded,  after  some  unimportant 


IneffectuAl 

efTorts  or  the 

unlrenity 

to  annul  the 

forugoing 

exclusive 

privileges. 


^  *  Bcaafort,  though  quiescent,  was 
undoubtedly  the  main  iuHtrumeut  in 
introducing  the  new  papal  usurpa- 
tion.'    Dean  Hook,  Livcs^  v  155. 

*  Gough,  Monuuu'fita  Vettmtaf  ii 
xi.  Beaufort's  bequest  is  in  a  second 
coklicil,  bearing  date  April  9,  1447. 
The  preamble  is  as  follows :— '  Iain 
tamen  reminiscons  illorum  notabi- 
lium  et  iusignium  collegiorum,  viz. 


beate  Mario  de  Eton  juxta  Windesor, 
et  sancti  Nicholai  Cantabrigg\  per 
dictum  dominum  meum  Begem  ex 
singulari  et  prteoipua  sua  devocione 
ad  divini  cultus  augmentum  catholi- 
ceque  fidei  exaltacionem  sancte  ao 
salubritcr  fundatorum,  etc.*  Nichols, 
Royal  and  Noble  mils,  p.  338. 
>  Cooper,  Annals,  i  205. 


KINGS  COLLEO& 


SI  I 


cODCCSsioDS,  in  retaining  tboae  privil^ea  which  have  formed  chap.  in. 
the  distinctive  feature  of  the  foundation  up  to  our  own  day'.  ^— v^ 
It  has  been  conjectured,  and  the  conjecture  is  aufficientlj  a^^^ 
plausible,  that  this  imperium  in  imperio  which  thia  society  iJJJI^^^J'S 
succeeded  in  establishing,  took  its  alleged  justi&cation  in^lJ^'"™^ 
those  ioiniunitiea  and  privileges  which  the  Mendicants  so 
long  enjoyed  and  for  which  they  so  strenuously  contended*. 
However  this  may  have  been  it  will  scarcely  be  denied  by 
the  most  enthusiastic  admirera  of  the  conception  of  William 
of  Wykeham,  that  the  triumph  gained  by  the  fellows  of  King's 
College  largely  partook  of  the  character  of  a  Cadmaean 
victory,  and  it  reflects  no  little  honour  on  the  integrity  and 
sagacity  of  its  first  provost  that  he  protested  so  vigorously 
against  so  suicidal  a  policy.  It  would  indeed  be  useless  to 
assert  that  a  society  which  has  sent  forth  scholars  like  Sir 
John  Cheke,  Richard  Croke,  Walter  Kaddon,  Winterton, 
Hyde,  and  Michell,  mathematicians  like  Oughtred,  moralists 
like  Whichcote,  theologians  like  Pearson,  antiquarians  like 
Cole,  and  even  poets  like  Waller,  has  not  added  lustre  to  the 
university  of  which  it  forma  a  part ;  but  it  would  be  equally 
useless  to  deny  that  when  its  actual  utility,  measured  by  the 
number  and  celebrity  of  those  whom  it  has  nurtured,  is 
compared  with  that  of  other  foundations  of  far  humbler 
resources,  its  princely  revenues  and  its  actual  services  seem 
singularly  disproportionate.  For  more  than  a  century  from 
its  commencement  this  royal  foundation  was  by  iar  the 
wealthiest  in  the  university.  In  the  survey  of  the  commis- 
sioncrs,   Parker,   Redman,  and  Mey,  in  the  year  1546,  its 


'  A  Bingular  illuatration  of  tbe  jm- 
mimitiea  gnuited  to  the  college  dur- 
ing the  lifetime  of  tbe  louDder  is  to 
bo  found  in  au  act  passed  In  tbe  year 
1158  for  r&ising  lU.OUO  orcben  for 
the  king's  service,  wberein  a  cUose 
expresaly  eiempta  the  provost  and 
ecboUii  of  this  foundation  from  tbe 
obligation  of  famishing  their  qnota 
to  the  levy  imposed  on  the  eonnty  ol 
Cambridge.  Rot.  rarliamtitl.  V  23S. 
Cooper,  Annali,  i  205. 

•  Hook,  Lir«o/(ft(ircMip..,  1*4. 
It  is  ceitMQ  that,  in  the  ipin't  in 
nhich  ita  statates  w«rs  eonc«iTeil, 


King's  College  made  a  closer  itp< 
prooch  to  the  monastic  couceptiioi 
than  Koj  other  college  at  Cambridge. 

'  Some  of  their  most  remarkable 
characteristics,'  observe  the  e^tors, 
'were  taken  from  the  old  monastio 
discipline,  such  as  the  wish  to  pre- 
serve the  inmates  from  external  con- 
DoctiooB,  tbo  extensive  power  given 
to  the  provost,  tbe  lengthy  oaths  at 
every  step,  and  tbe  argent  manner 
in  which  every  member  was  desired 
to  set  as  a  spy  apon  the  conduct  at 
bia  fellowH.'  Pnfaet  by  Heywood 
and  Wright. 


312 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 


CHAP.  III.  revenues  were  double  those  of  St.  John*s,  which  stood  second, 


Pakt  IL 


and  were  only  surpassed  when  the  large  endowment  of 
Trinity  arose  at  the  end  of  the  same  year'.  The  compara- 
tive wealth  of  tliese  three  colleges  remained  nearly  the  same, 
until  the  far  wider  activity  of  the  two  younger  foundations 
reaped  a  natural  and  honorable  reward  in  the  grateful 
munificence  of  their  sons  and  the  generous  sympathy  of 
strangers;  while  the  foundation  of  Henry  Vl,  shut  in  and 
narrowed  by  endless  restrictions,  debarred  from  expansion 
with  the  requirements  of  the  age,  and  self-excluded  from 
cooperation  and  free  intercourse  with  the  university  at  large, 
long  remained,  to  borrow  the  expression  of  dean  Peacock,  '  a 
splendid  cenotaph  of  learning,' — a  signal  warning  to  founders 
in  all  ages  against  seeking  to  measure  the  exigencies  and 
opportunities  of  future  generations  by  those  of  their  own 
day,  and  a  notable  illustration  of  the  unwisdom  which  in  a 
scrupulous  adherence  to  the  letter  of  a  founder's  instructions 
violates  the  spirit  of  his  purpose. 

Another  royal  foundation  followed  upon  that  of  King's. 
In  the  year  1445  the  party  led  by  cardinal  Beaufort  had 
succeeded  in  bringing  about  the  marriage  of  the  youthful 
monarch  with  Margaret  of  Anjou,  daughter  of  R^n^  titular 
king  of  Sicily  and  of  Jerusalem.  It  was  hoped  that  the 
policy  of  the  vacillating  and  feeble  husband  might  be 
strengthened  by  the  influence  of  a  consort  endowed  with 
many  rare  qualities.  The  civil  wars  were  not  calculated  for 
the  exhibition  of  the  feminine  virtues,  but  there  is  suflScient 
Margaret  of  Tcason  for  believing  that  Margaret  of  Anjou,  though  her 
name  is  associated  with  so  much  that  belongs  to  the  darkest 
phase  of  human  nature,  was  cruel  rather  by  necessity  than 
by  disposition  or  choice".     But  whatever  may  have  been  the 


Fonndmtion 
of  Qcuvs' 
CoLLiaB. 
1448. 


Ai^jou. 


'  The  revennes  of  King's  College 
amounted  to  £1010.  12«.  114^. ;  those 
of  St  John's  to  £536. 17«.  44^/.;  those 
settled  on  Trhiity  College,  on  the 
24th  of  December  in  the  same  year, 
amounted  to  £1078.  Ss.  9id. 

•  *  There  was  nothing  in  her  early 
years/  says  a  recent  writer,  •  which 
marked  her  out  for  an  Amazon, 
though  there  certainly  were  some  in- 


dications of  that  unyielding  spirit 
which  afterwards  hurried  her  into 
acts  of  perfidy,  violence,  and  crime. 
When  goaded  into  madness  by  the 
unmanly  assaults  of  men  who  sought 
to  blacken  her  chaste  character,  to 
insult  her  husband,  and  to  bastardize 
her  child,  she  mistook  cruelty  for 
firmness ;  and  she  who,  at  this  time, 
iamted  at  the  sight  of  blood,  could 


queens'  colleoe.  313 

merits  or  demerits  of  her  personal  character,  it  is  certaio  that  chap,  iil 
her  sympathies  were  entirely  with  the  Ultraraontanists,  and  .,  ^  _. 
her  policy  was  systematically  directed  to  the  encouragement  S'nii'*"" 
of  friendly  relations  with  her  own  country,  in  opposition  to  •J""'^"'* 
the  popular  party  represented  by  the  duke  of  Gloucester. 

It  was  during  a  brief  lull  in  that  tempestuous  century, 
when  the  war  in  France  had  been  suspended  by  a  truce,  and 
the  civil  war  at  home  had  not  commenced,  that  the  following 
petition  was  addressed  by  this  royal  lady  to  her  husband : — 

To  the  King  my  souverain  lord.  Herortiijm 

BesecuETH  mekely  Margarote  quene  of  Englond  yoiire  hu-i""!- 
humble  wif,  forasmuche  as  youie  moost  noble  grace  hath 
ncwely  ordeined  and  stablisshed  a  collage  of  seint  Bernard  in 
the  Universite  of  Cambrigge  with  multitude  of  grete  and 
faire  privilages  perpetuelly  appurtenj-ng  unto  the  same  as  in 
youre  hes  patentes  therupon  made  more  plainly  hit  apperetb 
In  the  whiche  universite  is  no  collage  founded  by  eny  quene 
of  Englond  hider  toward,  Plese  hit  therfoure  unto  youre 
highnesse  to  geve  and  graunte  unto  youre  seide  bumble  wif 
the  foudacon  and  determinacon  of  the  seid  collage  to  be 
called  and  named  the  Queues  collage  of  saintc  Margarcte  and 
saint  Bernard,  or  ellia  of  sainte  Margarete  vergine  and  martir 
and  saiut  Bernard  confessour,  and  therupon  for  ful  evidence 
thereof  to  have  licence  and  powir  to  ley  the  furst  stone  in  her 
owne  persone  or  ellis  by  other  depute  of  her  assignement,  so 
that  beside  the  mooste  noble  and  glorieus  collage  roial  of  our 
liady  and  .saint  Nichola.s  founded  by  your  highnesse  may  be 
founded  the  seid  so  called  Quenes  collage  to  conservacon  of 
oure  feitb  and  augmeutacon  of  pure  clergie  namely  of  the 
imparesse*  of  alle  sciences  and  facultees  theologic.to  the'^-p""- 
ende  there  accustumed  of  plain  lecture  and  esposicon  bo- 
traced*  with  docteurs  sentence  aiitentig'  perfonned  daily  *''""'*'«* 
twyes  by  two  docteurs  notable  and  wel  avised  upon  the  bible 
aforenoone  and  maistre  of  the  sentences  afteraoone  to  the 


BfteriraFtlB  command  its  effusion  with-  ginal  iliapoBition  ceassoiieil  its  n^iccn- 

out  iemoT*e.      But  when   ehe  was  dancy;  auil  thii>  wan  not  malignant 

aliine  in  the  world,  no  hnaband  to  or  BtlUHh.'    Dean  Hook,  Liva  of  tA« 

protect,  no  son  to  fi|{bt  foi,  hei  ori-  Archbiiliopt,  t  163. 


314  THE  FIFTEENTH   CENTURY. 

CHAP.  iiL  publique  audience   of  alle  men   frely  bothe   secullers   and 

^-  y  J'  religieus  to   the   magnificence  of  denominacon  of  suche  a 

Quenes  collage  and  to  laud  and  honneure  of  sexe  femenine, 

like  as  two  noble  and  devoute  contesses  of  Pembroke  and  of 

Clare  founded  two  collages   in   the   same   uuiversite  called 

Pembroke  halle  and  Clare  halle   the  whiche   are   of  grete 

reputacon   for  good   and   worshipful   clerkis  that  by  grete 

multitude  have  be  bredde  and  brought  forth  in  theym,  And 

of  youre  more   ample  grace  to  graunte  that  all  privileges 

immunities   profits   and    comodites    conteyned    in   the   Ires 

patentes  above  reherced  may  stonde  in  theire  strength  and 

pouoir  after  forme  and  eflfect  of  the  conteine  in  them.    And 

she  shal  ever  preye  God  for  you*/ 

Paiier*i  '  As  Miltiadcs'  trophy  in  Athens/  says  Fuller, '  would  not 

critidam.      guffgr  Thcmistocles  to  sleep,  so  this  Queen  beholding  her 

husband's  bounty  in  building  King's  College  was  restless  in 
herself  with  holy  emulation  until  she  had  produced  some- 
thing of  the  like  nature,  a  strife  wherein  wives  without 
breach  of  duty  may  contend  with  their  husbands  which 
should  exceed  in  pious  performances.'  The  college  of  St 
S  tolA»D.  ^rnard,  to  which  reference  is  made  in  Margaret  of  Anjou's 
petition,  was  but  a  short-lived  institution.  We  find,  from 
the  enrolment  of  the  charter  of  the  first  foundation  preserved 
in  the  PubUc  Record  Office,  that  it  was  designed  'for  the 
extirpation  of  heresies  and  errors,  the  augmentation  of  the 
faith,  the  advantage  of  the  clergy,  and  the  stability  of  the 
church,  whose  mysteries  ought  to  be  entrusted  to  fit  persons.' 
But  before  it  had  taken  external  shape  and  form,  the  society 
had  acquired  land  and  tenements  on  a  different  site  from 
that  originally  proposed, — ^the  site  of  the  present  first  court, 
cloister  court,  and  part  of  the  fellows*  building  of  Queens' 
College.  The  original  charter  was  accordingly  returned  into 
the  chancery  with  the  petition  that  it  might  be  cancelled  and 
another  issued,  authorising  the  erection  of  the  college  on  the 
newly  acquired  site  next  to  the  house  of  the  Carmelite  friars, 
where  greater  scope  was  afforded  for  future  enlargements. 

1  Iliat  of  the  QtieenM'  CoJUge  of     W.  G.  Searle,  M.A.,  pp.  15, 16. 
St,  Margaret  and  St.  Bernard,  by 


queens'  college.  315 

The    petition  was  granted    and    another   charter,  that  of  chap.  m. 
August  21,  1447,  was  accordingly  prepared,  permitting  the   ->!!,,—> 
fouadatiou  of  the  college  of  St.  Bernard  on  the  new  site.     '  In 
this  charter,'  sayn  Mr  Searle,  '  th«  kiug  a])pcars   in  some  FaD»i«i  iv 
degree  to  claim  the  credit  of  being  the  founder  of  the  college,  S^ami. 
as  the  reason  for  its  exemption  from  all  corrodies,  pensions, 
etc.   (which  might  be  granted  by   the   king,  ratione  dicte 
/undationia  nostri)  is  expressed  in  the  words,  eo  qitod  colle- 
gium predictiim  de/andatione  nostra,  nt  premittitur,  existit^.' 

It  was  at  this  juncture  of  affairs  that  Margaret  of  Anjou  {Jj^"* 
presented  her  petition,  and  as  the  result,  the  charter  of  1447  ™"»'*^ 
was  like  its  predecessor  cancelled*,  and  the  new  site  with  the 
tenements  thereon  was  transferred  to  the  queen,  with  licence 
to   make   and   establish   another  college  to  be   called   the 
'  Queen's  College  of  St.  Margaret  and  St  Bernard  in  the  Jj'SjllST 
university  of  Cambridge.'     In  exercise  of  the  permission  thus  co^^"* 
conceded   the   royal   lady,  by   an  instrument  bearing  date 
15  April,  1448,  founded  a  new  society,  for  a  president  and  four 
fellows ;  she  was  at  this  time  scarcely  twenty  years  of  age, 
but  her  abilities  and  enet^tic  temperament,  combined  with 
her  commanding  position,  had  already  made  her  perhaps  the 
foremost  person  in  the  realm.     The  archives  of  the  college 
still  preserve  to  us  the  aspect  under  which  the  work  pre- 
seated  it«elf  to  her  mind,  and  the  motives  that  led  to  its  vim  ud 
conception.     It  is  as  the  world  advances  to  its  old  age  and  |J|!J|f'^ 
as  virtue  is  fading  away,  as  the  wonted  devotion  of  mankind 
is  becoming  lukewarm,  the  fear  of  God  declining,  and  under 
the  conviction  that  the  sacred  lore  of  Cambridge,  'our  fair 
and  immaculate  mother,' '  under  whwte  care  the  whole  Church 
of  England    lately    flourished,'   is    fast    deteriorating,    that 
Margaret  of  Anjou  seeks  to  lay  the  foundation  stone  of  the 
College   of  St.   Maigaret  and  St.   Bernard.     We   have  no 
evidence  that  any  statutes  were  given  to  the  new  society 
during  the  reign  of  Henry  vi,  and  it  is  probable  that  the 
outbreak   of  the   civil   wars   called   away  the   attention   (tf 
royalty  to  more  urgent  matters ;  but  in  the  year  1475,  whenff ' 
the  sanguinary  struggle  had  been  brought  to  a  temporary 
'  Hitl.  of  the  dMta*'  CoUtfe,  p.  7.  •  Ibid.  p.  16. 


316 


THE  FIFTEENTH   CENTURY. 


CHAP.  IIL 
Pakt  II. 


Stetatet 

fiven  by 
Uinbeth 
WoodviUe. 


GnmtedAt 

the  petition  of 

Anuivw 

Dukek, 

tlntPresi- 

dent  of 

Uueena*. 


Status  requi- 
dtctn 
candidates 
for  fellow- 
sblps. 


.  Btudies  to 
bepunued. 


Lectttroships 
terminable 
at  the 
expiration 
of  three 


conclusion,  a  code  was  given  to  the  college  by  Elizabeth 
Woodville',  the  queen  of  Edward  iv,  who  however  reserved 
to  herself,  the  president  and  five  of  the  senior  fellows,  full 
power  to  alter  or  rescind  any  of  the  provisions  during  her  life- 
time. Elizabeth  Woodville  had  once  sympathised  strongly 
with  the  Lancastrian  party :  she  had  been  one  of  the  ladies 
in  waiting  attached  to  the  person  of  Margaret  of  Anjou,  and 
her  husband  had  fallen  fighting  for  the  Lancastrian  cause  ;  it 
is  not  improbable  therefore  that  sympathy  with  her  former 
mistress,  then  passing  her  days  in  retirement  in  Anjou,  may 
have  prompted  her  to  accede  to  the  prayer  of  Andrew  Doket, 
the  first  president  of  the  society,  and  to  take  the  new  found- 
ation, henceforth  written  Queens*  College,  under  her  pro- 
tection. 

'The  duties  of  our  royal  prerogative,'  says  the  preamble, 
'require,  piety  suggests,  natural  reason  demands,  that  we 
should  be  specially  solicitous  concerning  those  matters  where- 
by the  safety  of  souls  and  the  public  good  are  promoted,  and 
poor  scholars,  desirous  of  advancing  themselves  in  the  know- 
ledge of  letters,  are  assisted  in  their  need.'  At  '  the  humble 
request  and  special  requisition'  of  Andrew  Doket,  and  by  the 
advice  of  the  royal  counsellors  assembled  for  the  purpose, 
statutes  are  accordingly  given  for  'the  consolidating  and 
strengthening'  of  the  new  society.  The  foundation  is  de- 
signed for  the  support  of  a  president  and  twelve  fellows, — 
all  of  whom  are  to  be  in  priest's  orders.  Every  fellow  must, 
at  the  time  of  his  election,  be  of  not  lower  status  than  that  of 
a  questionist  if  a  student  in  arts,  or  a  scholar,  if  in  theology. 
When  elected  he  is  bound  to  devote  his  time  either  to 
philosophy  or  to  theology,  until  he  shall  have  proceeded  in 
the  intervening  stages  and  finally  taken  his  doctor's  degree. 
On  becoming  a  master  of  arts  he  is  qualified  to  teach  in  the 
tHvium  and  qicadrivium  for  the  space  of  three  years ;  a 
function  which,  as  it  appears  to  have  been  a  source  of 
emolument,  being  rewarded  by  a  fixed  salary  from  the  college, 


^  I  am  indebted  to  the  oonrtcRy  of 
the  President  of  Queens',  the  Bev. 
George  Phillips,  d.d.,  for  permisbion 


to  use  the  manuscript  copy  of  these 
statutes,  vhich  have  never  been 
printed. 


ST  CATHERINE'S   HALL.  317 

is  limited  to  that  period ;  its  exercise,  on  the  other  hand,  is  chap,  in. 
not  obligatory,  provided  that  the  fellow's  time  be  devoted  to   ■-  y  -■ 
the  study  of  the  liberal  sciences,  or  to  that  of  the  natural, 
moral,   or   metaphysical    philosophy   of   Aristotle.     On    the 
completion  of  these  three  years,  if  a  fellow  should  have  no 
desire  to  study  theology  or  to  proceed  in  that  faculty,  he  ia 
permitted  to  turn  his  attention  to  either  the  canon  or  thewuarrfiiM 
civil  law :  but  this  can  only  be  by  the  consent  of  the  master  323"  "•• 
and  the  majonty  of  the  fellows,  and  the  concessive  character  i*™"^ 
of  the  clause  would  incline  us  to  infer  that  such  a  course 
would  be  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule. 

Respecting  Andrew  Doket,  the  first  president  of  Queens',  n»™e««iif 
we  have  sufGcient  information  to  enable  us  to  surmise  the  oom. 
character  of  the  influence  that  prevailed  in  the  college  of 
St.  Bernard  and  subsequently  in  Queens'  College  during  the 
thirty-eight  years  of  his  energetic  rule.  He  had  before  been 
principal  of  St.  Bernard's  hostel,  and  incumbent  of  St.  Botolph's 
church,  and  within  four  yeara  from  the  time  that  the  fore- 
going statutes  were  given  by  Elizabeth  Woodville,  we  find 
him  executing  a  deed  of  fraternisation  between  the  society 
over  which  he  presided  and  the  Franciscans,  whose  founda- 
tion then  occupied  the  present  site  of  Sidney.  We  have 
evidence  also  which  would  lead  us  to  conclude  that  he  was 
a  hard  student  of  the  canon  law,  but  nothing  to  indicate  that 
be  was  in  any  way  a  promoter  of  that  new  learning  which 
already  before  his  death  was  banning  to  be  heard  of  at 
Cambiidge '. 

A  far  humbler  society  was  the  next  to  rise  after  the  two  pmniiatiiia 
royal  foundations.  Among  the  scholars  on  the  original c.nm«i 
foundation  of  King's  College,  was  Robert  Woodlark,  afterwards 
founder  and  master  of  St.  Catherine's  Hall.  On  Chedwortb's 
retirement  from  the  provostship  of  King's,  when  elected  to 
the  bishopric  of  Lincoln,  Woodlark  was  appointed  his  suc- 
cessor, and  iinder  his  guidance  the  college  wrung  from  the 
university  those  fatal  concessions  which  have  already  engaged 
our   attention.     That  he   was    an   able   administrator   may 

'  Hi«(.  of  Quttnt'  CotUgt,  by  Bev.  W.  G.  Bewle,  pp.  63. 64. 


318  THE  FIFTEENTH   CENTURY. 

CHAP.  TIL  be  inferred  from  the  prominent  part  assigned  to  him  on 
^-v-^   diflferent  occasions.     His  name  appears  foremost  among  those 

StSSSr*^  of  the  syndicate  appointed  for  the  erection  of  the  new 
schools ;  he  was  clerk  of  the  works  at  King  s  College,  and  the 
spirit  with  which  he  carried  on  the  buildings  during  the  civil 
wars,  when  Henry  vi  was  a  prisoner,  earned  him  but  an 
indiflferent  recompense :  for  confiding  in  the  fortunes  of  the 
bouse  of  Lancaster,  and  relying  probably  on  his  royal  master 
for  reimbursement,  he  was  left  to  sustain  a  heavy  deficit  of 
nearly  £400  which  he  had  advanced  from  his  private  fortune*. 
Such  public  spirit  would  alone  entitle  his  memory  to  be  had 
in  lasting  remembrance  in  the  university,  but  *  herein,'  says 
Fuller,  'he  stands  alone,  without  any  to  accompany  him, 
being  the  first  and  last,  who  was  master  of  one  college  and  at 
the  same  time  founder  of  another.' 

]^nllidlth•         There  is  little  in  the  statutes  given  by  Woodlark  to  the 

dYii  And       college  which  he  founded,  deserving  of  remark,  beyond  the 

Ganon  Uw  at  ®  *^.    .  . 

SL?h2i  ^^^  ^^^^  '^^^^  ^^^  canon  and  the  civil  law  were  rigorously 
excluded  from  the  course  of  study.  The  foundation  was 
designed  to  aid  '  in  the  exaltation  of  the  Christian  faith  and 
the  defence  and  furtherance  of  holy  church  by  the  sowing 
and  administration  of  the  word  of  God.'  It  appears  to  have 
been  the  founder's  design  that  it  should  be  exclusively  sub- 

Th«  found*-  Servient   to   the   requirements   of  the  secular  clergy.     The 

Hon  intended  -,,        .  ,  ,,..  ■,  ini         JT,, 

to  benefit  tbe  followmg  oath,  to  be  administered  to  each  of  the  fellows  on 
clergy.  bis  election,  shows  how  completely  the  whole  conception  was 
opposed  to  that  of  bishop  Bateman : — Item  juro  quod  nun- 
qwam  comentiam  ut  aliquis  socius  hujus  collegii  sive  aulce  ad 
aliqiuim  aliam  scientiam  sive  facvltatem  ullo  unquam  tempore 
se  divertat  propter  aliquem  gradum  infra  universitatem  ausci- 
piendum,  proeterquam  ad  philosophiam  et  sacram  theologiam, 
sed  pro  posse  meo  resistant  cum  effectu'. 

^   'In  prosecntion    of   the    royal  Hardwicke,  m.a.,    Cam,  Antiq.  Soc. 

floheme,  it  was  originally  commanded  Pub.  No.  xxxvi. 

that  £1000  per  annum   shotild  be  '  Accordingly,  in  the  library  which 

paid  to  Woodlark  out  of  the  estates  Woodlark  bestowed  on  his  foonda- 

of  the  duchy  of  Lancaster;  but  owing  tion,  not  a  single  volume  of  the  canon 

to  the  change  of  dyuasty  and  other  or  civil  law  appears.     See  Catalogue 

causes,  a  large  balance  was  at  last  of  the  Books  fete.  edUedhyDrCoTne; 

remaining  due  to  the  magnanimous  Cam.  Antiq.  Soc.  Pub.  No.  i. 
provost.*  Robert  Woodlark^  by  Charles 


ST  CATHERINES  BALL. 


319 


If  iQ  addition  to  this  fact,  we  observe  that  among  the  few  chap.  m. 
alteratioDs  introduced  by  Chedworth,  or  Wainfleet,  into  the   ■ — ^ — ■ 
statutes  given  by  William  of  Wykeham  to  New  College  at  ^JJ^JoJT 
Oxford,  the  most  important  was  that  whereby  the  students  in  J^t^"" 
civil  law  were  reduced  from  ten  to  two,  and  in  the  canon  law  Z^^u 
from  ten  to  four, — that  in  the  statutes  of  Queens'  College  the  uoadn 
study  of  both  these  branches  appears  to  have  been  permitted  gj  3jJ{^ 
rather  than  encour^ed, — and  that  in  the  statutes  of  Jesus  **'"'■''■ 
College,  which  nest  demand  our  attention,  the  study  of  the 
canon  law  was  altogether  prohibited,  while  only  one  of  the 
fellows  was  allowed  to  devote  himself  to  the  civil   law, — 
we   shall   have  no  difficulty  in  arriving  at  the  conclusion 
that  at  Cambridge,  at  least,  a  manifest  reaction  with  refer- 
ence  to  these  studies  had  set  in',  and  that  it  had  become 
evident  to  those  who  sought  to  foster  true  learning  in  her 
midst,  that  acquirements  which  well  subserved  the  purposes 
of  worldly  ambition  and  social  success  needed  but  little  aid, 
but  that  it  was  far  from  unnecessary  to  guard  against  their 
attaining  to  such  predominance  as  to  overshadow  that  higher 
culture  which  could  only  really  prosper  when  pursued  as  an 
end  in  itself  and  bringing  its  own  reward*.' 


'  Tbe  (oUoiriiiKluli  from  the  Grace 
Books  of  tbe  Dumber  of  t(i»diuUa  for 
tbe  jeait  1JS9  aad  1499,  in  tbe  dif- 
ferent focnltieii,  ore  wortbv  of  note  ; 
the;  haTe,  probably  bj  a  clerical  error, 
h«eD  tranapiH^  in  dean  Peacock's 
pages.  Appendix  A,  p.  iliz. 

(1489) 
BO  DetenninaloTes  in  qnadragesuna 

(B.A.). 
S4  Mifiiatri  arbnm. 
22  Baccalanrei  jaris  canooid. 
10  IntranleH  ad  lectnram  eententia- 
ram  (B.D.)  inclnding  one  canon 
legalar,   tvo   Dominicaua,   and 
one  Fianciscan. 
(1499) 
S2  Detenninatores  in  qDadrageaima. 
16  Inceptoieg  sea  prolessores  utiiun. 
12  Intnntea  in  jnre  canooieo. 
8  Intrantes  in  jnre  cirili. 
3  Commenaantea   in   tbeolopa 
(B.D.). 
■  The  oommenU  of  FogKio  Brae- 
(nolini  npon  the  qiirit  in  which  these 
■tadies  were  pnrtned  in  Italy  in  the 


fifteenth  centorj,  is  to  almoat  pre- 
ciaelj  tbe  same  effect  as  thote  of 
Roger  Bacon   in   tbe   IbirteeDtfa : — 

'Dili  panlo  ante,  eos  qui  jori  eiTili 
et  canon  ibna  operam  duent,  mm 
iritudi,  ifd  liicrandi  eupiditale  ae  ad 
eonira  coRnitionem  confene.  Ei  eo 
Tidetis  qnantuB  Sat  ad  baa  diacip- 
linaa  concnmuB  tauqoam  ad  certam 
anrifodinam.  At  hi  cnm  qon  appel- 
lantor  insignia  doctorom  (licet  plnrea 
sint  indocti)  HOsceperont.  hoe  est, 
qntestas  et  aTaritic  xigna.  scitis  qnam 
freqaententnr,  qnam  bonoientnr  ah 
ommbns,  qnam  colontnr,  omaotat 
qnoqne  precioxioribns  Teftibna,  Miali 
anrei  gjeetandi  jus  datnm  eat,  nt  plane 
intelligant  hommes  id  genns  facolta-  . 
tnm  Bolmn  aori  corrodendi  causa  ma- 
ceptmn.'  Dt  Ararilia,  Opera,  ed. 
Basil.,  p.  4.  In  tbe  year  19^  a 
scnitinv  was  held  at  Merton  College, 
on  which  occasion  we  find  a  fonnal 
demand  made  b;  the  fellowi  of  the 
' qnod  ponan ' 


oieta  et  deeietalia  il 


lilmuio.* 


320 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 


CHAP.  IIL 
Pabt  II. 

FouiHUtioii 

of  JK8CB 
Ck)LUEOB, 

1497. 

The  nunnery 
of  8t  KhAde- 
gund. 


The  nunnery 
under  the 

Brotectionof 
lebishope 
of  Ely. 


Iti  corrupt 
Itateand 
linal  disso- 
lution with 
the  close  of 
the  fifteenth 
century. 


Charter  of 
the  founda- 
tion of  Jesus 
CoUege,  1498. 


The  circumstances  attendant  upon  the  foundation  of 
Jesus  College,  the  fourth  and  last  college  founded  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  illustrate  both  the  degeneracy  and  the 
higher  aims  of  the  age.  Among  the  most  ancient  religious 
houses  in  the  town  was  the  nunnery  of  St.  Rhadegund, 
which,  if  tradition  may  be  trusted,  referred  back  its  origin 
so  far  as  the  year  1133,  or  not  more  than  forty  years 
later  than  the  foundati<  n  of  the  priory  of  St.  Giles  by  the 
wife  of  Picot  the  sheriflF.  The  nuns  of  St.  Rhadegund  often 
come  under  our  notice  in  the  early  annals  of  Cambridge. 
The  foundation  appears  at  one  time  to  have  enjoyed  a  fair 
share  of  public  favour ;  it  was  enriched  by  numerous  bene- 
factions, and  derived  additional  prestige  from  its  close 
connexion  with  the  see  of  Ely :  even  so  late  as  the  year 
1457,  we  find  William  Gray,  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
of  the  many  able  men  who  successively  filled  the  chair  of 
Hugh  Balsham,  granting  a  forty  days'  pardon  to  all  who 
should  contribute  to  the  repair  of  the  conventual  church \ 
But  the  corruption  that  so  extensively  prevailed  among  the 
religious  houses  of  every  order  towards  the  close  of  this 
century  invaded  likewise  the  nunnery  of  St.  Rhadegund; 
the  revenues  of  the  society  were  squandered  and  dissipated  ; 
the  conduct  of  the  nuns  brought  grave  scandal  on  their 
profession ;  and  in  the  reign  of  Henry  vil  not  more  than 
two  remained  on  the  foundation,  so  that,  to  borrow  the 
language  of  the  college  charter,  *  divine  service,  hospitality, 
or  other  works  of  mercy  and  piety,  according  to  the  primary 


was  nearly  the  only  lore  that  the 
majority  cared  about  in  those  days ! 
See  Prof.  Bogers,  Hist,  of  Prices,  ii 
671—4. 

The  following  lints  give  the  admis- 
sions of  bachelors  in  civil  law  and 
canon  law  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
century : — 
Canon  Law,  Civil  Law. 


U59... 
1460... 
1461... 
1462... 
1403... 
1466... 


9 
8 
1 
2 
1 
12 


1467...  8 


1467...  2 


Canon  Law. 

Civil  Law, 

1470...  8 

1481.. .14 

1481...  2 

1483...  5 

1483...  1 

1484...  4 

1484...  5 

1187...  7 

1487...  1 

1488...  3 

1488...  4 

1489... 22 

__       —^ 

1490...  9 

1490...  1 

1491...  6 

1491..    1 

1492...  1 

1492...  8 

1493...  1 

1493...  1 

1494...  6 

—      — 

1496...  3 

1496...  9 

1499...  12 

1499...  8 

1  Cooper,  Annals, 

I  208. 

JESUS  COLLGOE. 


S21 


foundation  aod  ordinance  of  their  founders  there  used,  could 
not  be  dischai^ed  by  them'.'  In  the  year  1497,  through 
the  exertions  of  John  Alcock,  bishop  of  Ely,  the  nunnery 
was  accordingly  suppressed  by  royal  patent ;  the  bishop  was 
a  munificent  encourager  of  the  arts,  and  to  his  liberality  and 
taste  the  church  of  Great  St.  Mary  and  his  own  chapel  in  the 
episcopal  cathedral  are  still  eloquent  though  silent  witnesses*; 
and  under  his  auspices  Jesus  College'  now  rose  in  the  place 
of  the  former  foundation.  The  historian  of  the  college, 
a  fellow  on  the  foundation  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
remarks  that  it  appears  to  have  been  designed  that,  in  form 
at  least,  the  new  erection  should  suggest  the  monastic  life*; 
and  to  this  resemblance  the  retired  and  tranquil  character 
of  the  site,  which  loag  after  earned  for  it  from  kiug  James 
the  designation  of  mv^arum  Cantahrigiermum  museum,8ti\l 
further  contributed. 

The  original  statutes  of  the  college  were  not  given  until 
early  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Their  author  waa  Stanley, 
the  successor,  one  removed,  to  Alcock,  in  the  episcopal  chair  at 
Ely,  and  son-in-law  of  Margaret,  countess  of  Kichmood: 
they  were  subsequently  considerably  modified  l^  his  illus- 
trious successor  Nicholas  West,  fellow  of  King's,  and  the 
friend  of  bishop  Fisher  and  Sir  Thomas  More'.     The  new 


^a' 


TbeiHa 
DFtelnBllr  not 
InJuladiii 
CualnUf 


brir 


s^ 


>  Cooper,  3TriaoTial$,  i  3ftj.  Do- 
eumenti,  ill  91.  Sturnianni  Hiito- 
ria  Vollegii  Jetu  Canfabrij/itntit,  ed. 
Ealliwel^  p.  20. 

*  Alcock  vraa  sIbo  a  oonBJderable 
benefactor  to  Peterhouse  (Cooper, 
MeiRoriali,  I  3G3):  be  was  tntor  to 
tlie  nntortuiiate  Edward  t  ontil  le- 
moved  from  that  post  by  the  Pro- 
ttotor,  Bentham,  HUt.  and  Aiitiq. 
of  Ely  Cathedral,  p.  182, 

■  '  The  college  nas  to  have  been 
called  "  the  Coliege  of  the  Bleesed 
ViTKin  Mary,  St  John  the  Evaonteliat, 
and  8t  Hadegond,  ruar  Cambridge  : " 
to  be  governed  by  such  Btatntoa  ae  he 
or  his  sncceesora  iihoiilil  think  proper 
to  make  and  ordikiu.  BQt  the  bishop 
banag  tboaght  proper  to  add  to  this 
title,  that  of  the  holy  name  Jesaa,  it 
was  even  in  his  time  commonly  called 
Jenia  College.'    Ibid.  p.  1S3. 

*  '  finllaginm    ««    figon    ftb    ip«U 


plane  fnndamentis  oonBtrnxit  qua 
monasterinm  etiamnnm  refera^  et 
qoantom  ad  Bitam,  id  sane  loei  oe- 
cnpat,  quod  mosis  est  acoommoda- 
tiBBimoni,  Tiz.  ab  oppidanomm  stre- 
pitu  et  tumnltn  remotiaaimiim,' 
Shemuaaii  Hiitoria,  p,  33. 

*  '  Statata  inanpet  Jtoobns  [Sfan- 
leyi  consilio  too  condidit,  qiue  Julins 
Becondus  pontifei  Itomanua,  aimnl 
et  collegii  tundationem,  anthoritate 
ApoHtolica  eancivit.  Joannes  {Al- 
eock\  episoopoB,  cnjns  nomen  sit  be- 
nedictionibaa,  vivendi  rationem  sab- 
mini«traTit,  Joanna  marie  repentin* 
snblato,  Jaoobos  dein   vivendi   nor- 

mam  adhibuit:  Niobolaus  epia- 

oopna  Eliensis  Jaoobi  statata  rerimt, 
mtilta  immatavit,  revooavit  """""'1b. 
oetera  sauit,  et  Htatntis  ab  eo  oon- 
ditii  hodie  atimnr,  qnornm  etiam 
qnatnor  copiaa  habemna,  omnes  tant 
dale,  ImpeifootM  qnoqaa  onmas,  ia.- 

n 


822  THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURT. 

CHAP.  iiL  statutes  however  were  in  professed   conformity  with  the 

-^■^V  i"*-   presumed  intentions  of  the  founder*;   it  is  coDsequently  all 

cSSi tow*  the  more  significant  that,  though  both  Alcock  and  West 

forirfddfla.     -^Qxe  distinguished  by  their  acquirements  in  the  canon  law, 

of  the  twelve  fellows  to  be  maintained  on  the  foundation 

not  one  is  permitted  to  give  his  attention  to  that  branch 

of  study,  and  only  one  to  that  of  the  civil  law ;  the  others, 

80  soon  as  they  have  graduated  and  taught  as  masters  of 

arts,  being  required   to  apply  themselves  to  the  study  of 

theology. 

But  though  the  injurious  effects  of  such  encouragement 

to   students  as  that  extended  by  bishop  Bateman  had  by 

this  time  become  apparent  to  nearly  all,  and  though  it  is 

evident  that  the  founders  of  the  fifteenth  century  were  fiiUy 

sensible  of  the  necessity  for  a  different  policy  if  they  desired 

to  stimulate  the  growth  of  honest  culture,  we  shall  look  in 

vain   within  the  limits  of  this  century  and  of  our  own 

university  for  much  indicative  either  of  healthy  intellectual 

activity  or  true  progress.    The  tone  of  both  the  patrons  and 

i>«p«Bj^  the  professors  of  learning  is  despondent,  and  the  general 

»5J|j5j2j  ^  languor  that  followed  upon  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  lasted 

SJ^SlJi    nearly  to  the  end  of  the  reign  of  the  first  of  the  Tudors. 

Before  however  we  turn  away  from  this  sombre  period,  it 

will  be  well  to  note  not  merely  the  studies  enjoined  upon 

the  student  but  the  literature  within  his  reach ;  to  examine 

the  college  library  as  well  as  the  college  statutes ;  and  briefly 

survey  the  contents  of  the  scantily  furnished  shelves  as  they 

appeared  while  the  new  learning  still  delayed  its  onward 

flight  from  its  favoured  haunts  in  Italy. 

LOmries.  In  a  previous  chapter'  we  have  devoted  some  attention 

terpolatas,  amanaenBinin  incnria  er-  vivendi  ordine,  servaDda  Btatnta  ant 

ratis  Boatentes,  inter  se  disoordantes,  ordinationes  aliqoas  perfeote  vel  raf- 

nulla  aathoritate  episcopal!  monitaB.'  fidenter  ediderit:   Nos  igitor  opiiB 

llnd,  p.  24.        ^  tarn  piom  tamqae  deyoti  patris  ei 

1  *  Oetemm    qnia    tantos    pater  optimi  presoliB  propositmn,  instino- 

morte  prfeventas,  quod  pio  ooncepe-  tu  divino,  at  Bperamns,  inoeptnm, 

rat  animo,  ezplere,  et  opus  tarn  me-  qnantmn  cam  Deo  posBamaa,  et  spi- 

morabUe  absolvere  non  potait,  qao  ritaaliter   et   temporalitor    firmiter 

fit,  at  neo  pro  tanto  nomero  sasti-  stabiliri  patemo  afleota  intendentes 

nendo  oollegiam pnedictoxn  sofficien-  et  magnopere  oapientes,  etc*   Doai^ 

ter  dotaverit,  neo  pro  bono  Btaden-  menttf  ui  94. 

tiom    regimine  ac  recto  et  qoieto  *  See  Bopra  pp.  101 — 8. 


CUCBBtDOE  LIBRABIES.  3S3 

to  the  catalogues  of  two  libraries  of  the  period  when  the  chap.  ra. 

earliest  universities   were  first  rising  into   existence ;   the  ^^^^2!^ 

period,  that  is  to  say,  when  so  many  of  the  authors  known 

to  Bede  and  Alcuin  had  been  lost  in  the  Danish  invasions, 

but  when  the  voluminous  literature  to  which  the  Sentences, 

the   Canon   Law,  the  Civil   Law,   and   the  New  Aristotle 

respectively  gave  birth  was  yet  unknown.    A  comparison 

of  these  two  catalogues  with  those  of  libraries  at  Cambridge 

in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  will  present  not 

a  few  points  of  interest. 

It  was  on  a  certain  seventeenth  of  November,  the  feast  PimdMioa 
of  St.  Hugh  in  1444,  that  Dr  Walter  Crome  presented  to  the  ™^  "■ 
university  a  collection  of  books  designed  to  increase  the 
slender  stores  of  s  new  room,  just  finished  and  ready  for 
use,  erected  for  the  purpose  of  giving  shelter  to  the  recently 
founded  common  library'.  The  library  appears  to  date  from 
the  earlier  part  of  the  same  century,  and  a  Mr  John 
Croucher,  who  presented  a  copy  of  Chaucer's  translation  of 
Boethius  D«  Gonsolatume,  seems  entitled  to  be  regarded  as 
the  original  founder.  One  Richard  Holme,  who  died  in  d 
1424,  appears  as  the  donor  of  several  volumes ;  many  others 
presented  single  works;  and  in  this  manner  was  formed, 
withiu  the  first  quarter  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the  little 
library  of  fifty-two  volumes,  the  catali^ue  of  which  we  still  j^^;^^ 
possess.  Next  to  this  catalogue  comes  one  drawn  up  by 
Ralph  Songer  and  Richard  Coclceram,  the  outgoing  proctors 
in  the  year  1473,  containing  330  volumes.  This  later  cata- 
logue possesses  a  special  value,  for  it  shews  us  the  volumes 
as  classified  and  arranged;  and  we  have  thus  brought ntibnir 
before  us  the  single  room  (now  the  first  room  on  entering 
the  library)  where  these  scanty  treasures  lay  chained  and 
displayed  to  view,  with  stalls  on  the  north  side  looking 
into  the  quadrangle  of  the  Schools,  and  desks  on  the  south 
side  looking  out  upon  the  rising  walls  of  King's  Collie 
chapeL     These  two  catalogues  do  not  include  the  splendid 

>  Two  LUU  of  BookM  In  the  Uni-  BndihAV,  m.a.  8m  alw  Tlte  Unl- 
vmitj/  Library.  Cam.  Ant.  3oe.  Pub,  vertity  IMrary,  utiola  by  the  mna 
No.  xzn,    Comiiiiii]ie*ted  bj  HeiU7      in  Com.  Vmiv,  OattUe,  No.  10. 

21—2 


324 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 


Thoouu 
Rotberain, 
an  eminent 
ben«flKtor 
oTtliouni- 

TWlltJ. 


RulT 

cataim 


CHAP.  iiL  addition  of  some  two  hundred  volumes,  made  by  Thomas 
paet  II.  jjQ^heram  very  shortly  after ;  but  the  liberality  of  that 
eminent  benefactor  of  the  university  was  already  conspicuous 
in  the  .completion  of  the  library  and  of  the  east  part  of  the 
quadrangle ;  and  the  new  buildings,  bright  as  they  appeared 
to  that  generation,  'with  polished  stone  and  sumptuous 
splendourV  were  already  evoking  those  sentiments  of  grati- 
tude towards  the  illustrious  chancellor,  which,  two  years 
later,  led  the  assembled  senate  to  decree  that  his  name 
should  be  for  ever  enrolled  among  those  of  the  chief  bene- 
factors of  the  university. 

The  two  above-named  catalogues  alone  constitute  valua- 
ble evidence  respecting  the  literature  at  this  time  most 
TrtStTiwii,  esteemed  at  Cambridge,  but  other  and  ampler  evidence 
o.i'^'nv.iind  remains.  It  was  on  Christmas  Eve,  1418,  exactly  eight 
***"•  years  before  Gerson  drew  up  his  JDe   Concordia,  that  an 

unknown  hand  at  Peterhouse  completed  a  catalogue  of  the 
library  belonging  to  that  foundation*.  As  libraries,  in  those 
days,  were  almost  entirely  the  accumulations  of  gifts  from 
successive  benefactors,  the  most  ancient  college  had,  as  we 
should  expect  to  find,  acquired  by  far  the  largest  collection 
and  possessed  no  less  than  from  six  to  seven  hundred  distip 
treatises.  The  library  given  by  bishop  Bateman  to  Trinity 
Hdll  has  already  come  under  our  notice*.  If  to  these  col- 
lections we  add  a  catalogue  of  140  volumes  presented  to  the 
library  of  Pembroke  College  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries*,— one  of  the  library  of  Queens'  College  in  the  year 


lugoas 
of  the 
llbnuiet  of 
Peierboute, 


^  '  Qaoniam  ratio  humanitasque 
requirere  videtur  at  anperioribas  no- 
bis benefactoriboB,  etsi  non  con- 
dignas,  saltern  utcnnque  congmas 
releramns  gratias,  eisqne  jnxta  yi- 
rinm  exilitatem,  at  possumns,  meri- 
toria  obseqoia  reddamus,  hinc  est 
qnod  merito  onm  probitatis  turn  bo- 
nonim  operom  ezliibitione  reveren- 
das  in  Christo  pater  ac  dominas  domi- 
nns  Thomas  Botheram  divina  misera- 
tione  Linoolniensis  episcopas  ac  mag- 
nas  An^fB  generalis  bajasqae  almsB 
nniyersitatis  prsBcipaas  dignosqae 
canoellarias  et  singalaris  patronas 
turn  in  honorem  Dei,  inerementom 
rtadii,  et  uniyersitatifl  noetrs  pro- 


fectom,  scholcLS  novamque  superius 
librariam  polite  lapide^  sumptuosa 
pompaf  ac  dignis  adificiis  p^feceriU 
eamqae,  omnibas  at  decait  rebus 
exornatam,  non  paucis  yel  vilibus 
libris  opaleutam  reddidit,  plurimaquo 
insuper  alia  bona  eidem  universitati 
procaravit,  etc.*  Be  exequiis  Thomce 
Rotheram^  Documents^  i  414. 

'  This  catalogue  is  still  in  manu- 
script :  I  am  indebted  to  the  autho- 
rities of  Peterhouse  for  permission 
to  consult  the  volume  in  which  it  is 
contained. 

'  See  supra  pp.  243,  244. 

*  A  List  of  Books  presented  to  Pern- 
brok$  College,  Cambridge,  by  different 


CAHBEIDOE  LIBBARIEB.  325 

1472',  amoanting  to  224  volumes, — and  one  of  the  library  of  < 
St  Catharine's  Hall  \a  the  year  1475,  amouatiog  to  137 
volumee  *, — our  data,  so  far  as  Camlmdge  is  coQcerned,  will 
be  sufficieotly  extended  for  our  purpose. 

A  systematic  study  of  these  several  catalc^es  and  an 
enquiry  into  the  merits  of  each  author,  however  interesting 
such  researches  might  he,  is  evidently  not  needed  at  our 
hands,  but  it  will  be  desirable  to  state  some  of  the  general 
conclusions  to  be  derived  from  a  more  cursory  view.  On 
referring  to  the  contents  of  each  catalogue  it  will  be  seen 
that  they  represent,  in  much  the  same  proportions,  those  j 
new  contributions  to  rnediseval  literature  which  have  already  | 
80  long  engaged  our  attention.  Anselm,  Albertus,  Aquinas, 
Alexander  Hales,  Boethius,  Bonaventura,  Walter  Burley, 
Duns  Scotus,  Holcot,  Langton,  John  of  Salisbury,  Qrosse- 
teste,  and  Richard  Middleton ;  Armachanus  against  the 
Franciscans,  Wodeford  gainst  Armachanus ;  the  discourses 
of  Reppington,  bishop  of  Lincoln,  once  a  Lollard,  but  after- 
wards one  of  the  fiercest  opponents  of  the  sect ;  Historia 
Chroaicales,  or  metrical  histories,  after  the  manner  of  Laya- 
mon  and  Robert  of  Gloucester,  such  as  it  was  customary  to 
cite  in  the  college  hall  on  days  of  festivity ; — ^none  of  these 
are  wanting,  and  they  constitute  precisely  the  literature 
which  our  past  enquiries  would  lead  us  to  expect  to  find. 
But  besides  these,  other  names  appear,  names  which  have 
now  almost  passed  from  memory  or  are  familiar  only  to 
those  who  have  made  a  speciat  study  of  this  period.  Ag^n 
and  again  we  are  confronted  by  the  representatives  of  that 
great  school  of  medissval  theology  which,  though  it  aspired 
less  systematically  to  the  special  task  of  the  schoolmen, — the 
reconciliation  of  philosophy  and  dogma, — was  scarcely  less 
influential  in  these  centuries  than  the  school  of  Albertus  and 
Aquinas.     Divines  from  the  famous  school  of  St.  Victor  at 


DrmoTt.daritg  tht  Foarttenth  andFif- 
teenth  Centurits.  By  the  Ber.  G.  E. 
Conie,  d.  d.  ,  Uaster  of  leant  CoUege. 
Cam.  Ant.  Soc.  Pub.  So.  ill. 

'  Catalngue  of  tht  Library  of 
Qatftu-  College  in  1473 ;  wmmnu- 
oatedb;  the  Bar.  W.G.  Buda.iLL, 


l&te  Fellow  of  Qneens'  CoUege.  Cam, 
Jttl.  Sac.  Pub.  So.  CT. 

■  A  Catatogvf  of  thi  oriffinal  Li- 
brary of  St.  Calliariae't  Hall,  1475; 
oommniiieated  b;  the  Rev.  O.  B 
Come,  D-D.  Cam.  A*t.  Soe.  Pub. 
Ho.  I.    («o  SeriM.) 


B. 


^^#.#  » »     f.  w * , 7 •  h  tj  t,\'.f  i'  » ;. '*  *^, ■-» / ;. •  V.  : - ;^. . :. . . .  -:  •. :.  -,    . . t ■: rj -.- - '  i-ic- 

.••'/t  J/ «w:  in  t\:U'ftii  iStiiti  ilu'//f  '/f  .Sr.   Vicror,  '*.*.-:  the  D«>ini- 

**  ♦'^'         Mi'/fi;/h  jf,  ituU*\  \f*f't$*:  th':  y-f.  '^n-.iiU-.r  li;(ht.i  of  Li"?  order, 

I'ffi^  ♦tijrviv<''l  /wt  thuf.  of  Ui<;  fafJi<:r  of  t.h<;  T'onconlaniL-jta  and 

l\n-  nuflior    of  1,1  111    Hjn'JiuliniL  l*J:cle^ntii*,      WJjile  inferior  to 

fiMflii-r  of  tjii'^i-  III  Uiuii:  or  liramiiji;  cornos  the  Franciscan, 

mumiim       Niflioliiii  i|<(  Kyiii,  who  tVu-A  towanis  th<}  middle  of  the  four- 

"  f^t^ '       hmiilJi    ritiitiiiy    in    hi;{h    ti;|iiit(:    hoth    us   a    Hebraist   and 

H  (liiii'li  iii'hohii  ;  in  wh«m(i  |Ni^rK  ant  to  ]>e  found,  most  fully 

iihihuiiihtd,  th<'   rhanu't^'i'ihtir  nu'di.'i^val    distinctions  of  the 

/i/ii/fi/i   ihn   niin'iil,  Ihn  uUt'iforlral,  and   the  aiuigoyic  sense 

III'  Ihn  ihri|iiiiM|  pii^n,     diNtinctionH  which  Puritanism,  though 

all  i>«ih(i'iii|ihioUM  of  nirdiirval    thou^^ht,   n^produced  in  un- 

(MiiirtrioUM  ihiiliitioii.— tho  familiar  commentator  of  his  day, 

v\lioiii>    l\»s(illit  rommniided.   rvm    down  to    the    eighteenth 

orntuiN,  (lio  Mimo  kind  of  regard   that    in  a  hiter  age  has 

^ittvtiH'iii     wmiIimI  on  (lio  JMhonis  of  a  li«*i«;hton  or  a  Soott.     In  contrast 

i-^^ittw^iMU     (o    I  no   fi\\\\\\    ol    tiio    Italian    nnivii-sities    throu^rhout    tnis 

•^'***'  I^oiuhIi  wo  ma\  n\>te  tlie  entire  alK^^enoe  of  the  ^-Vrahiau  com- 

nu'ntatoiH  fi\»m  the  w^lloije   lihiiuies,  and  tlie  solitary  copy 

\\i  i\  t*va(»»e  l»\   A\i\vnua  iuul  of  anollier  bv  Avemvs  in  the 

H«\^«t«i«  \HU\\')M(\    Ubiatx.     In  the  latter,  a^r^iin.  Mr  Bnid^haw  has 

•v»»^Mv^      is^\(Ue\l    \»ut    ihe    xvuiuinitivclv    snu\ll   i^rv»ivrtion   of  lilyri 

^'•^  i\  uxsuN  xsju.^lU  ;*\*p';v\^Me  iv»  the  .Mti^i.^.u^  ..r"  ::-t^  r.nner. 

t»x4.\ »% 4>i. s     ( u M II x! \xM  'e\  v\^ i :  •. X ; \'  » ■ '. x" I ;* : u : v .      A :i . .  r,  c^^ .  L : :  c  r v .  . • :;  r  :L.t . 

..  t  .>•  -» 

...    .       %•■    >ki^'*t>    »       •  '>.  »     *■»•     k      »*►»■*'  ■«•"      '^^  •       "■_*  — -.         I       -■■^■r" 


*            *%    %*s.'.:      *^X*     V      hWV 

,  »>«.  i  •  ^  S 

■•'.;•'     "Jr  a»     ■.■:>:_    it:,  z      ;  L"*.2^    "i.rf 

^ty         %    \  .'*     '•■vU'i'        -'■.          .     H     ■»"• 

H    U        .!.,-k 

.'1  .     ".:    »-••."      •■.-._    .>L:~L.-r:-*    1-- 

♦  ».^\    \.'.%i'v»»  v\*     •'■V      '  .•■■     • 

W*.   *      .  k 

u   I  ;■    ■    ,_^-.^        >.„-  •  ««.    t 

V**«*»    ^» A  .♦*'»».    <.U      \*i.\i'. 

,  *      .     .  :v 

.    -.   ■•.    •-'     ■•". 

K«Wvv>\»M  .        A*     *\v»S**'*'^ 

..'.V           ?- 

"•  i^'.  •     "N    .             .'     -la.     I^  *• 

k: ^  K.         L^         .^%.vi      ^^\l.Vkk        <•! 

k.iA«    .L  k^^ 

■»        •  ..  "--^ 

CHAPTER  IV. 

STUDENT  LIFE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

CHAP.  IV.  Our  researches  into  our  university  history  during  the  Middle 
changet  Agcs  are  now  approaching  their  completion.  We  have  ar- 
^l^^na^  rived  at  the  boundary  line  which,  by  general  consent,  has 
been  drawn  between  the  old  and  the  new  order  of  things, — 
the  time  when  the  traditions  of  the  past  began  to  give  place 
to  those  widely  diflFering  conceptions  which  the  fifteenth 
century  ere  it  closed  saw  rising  upon  Europe.  Momentous 
and  startling  as  have  been  the  changes  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, it  may  yet  be  questioned  whether  they  do  not  yield 
in  importance  to  those  that  ushered  in  the  Reformation. 
The  downfall  of  dynasties,  the  manifest  shifting  of  the  centres 
of  political  power,  even  the  triumphs  of  modem  science  and 
art,  can  scarcely  compare  with  influences  like  those  that 
readjusted  the  whole  range  of  man's  intellectual  vision,  and 
transformed  his  conception  of  the  universe.  It  was  then 
that  the  veil  was  lifted  from  the  face  of  classic  Greece,  and 
the  voices  which  had  slumbered  for  centuries  woke  again ; 
that  the  accents  of  ancient  Hellas  blended  with  those  of 
regenerated  Italy ;  while  Teutonic  invention  lent  its  aid  in 
diffusing  with  unprecedented  rapidity  both  the  newly  dis- 
covered and  the  nascent  literature. 

<  Another  natoro  and  a  new  mankind' 

stood  revealed  beyond  the  Atlantic  wave.  The  habitable 
globe  itself  dwindled  to  but  a  point  in  the  immensity  of 
space;  and  the  lamps  of  heaven  now  glimmered  with  a 
strange  and  awful  light  from  the  far  recesses  of  infinity.  But 
.  before  we  turn  to  trace  out  and  estimate  the  changes  thus 
brought  about  in  the  culture  and  mental  tendencies  of  the 


age,  it  yet  remiuns  to  attempt  a  aomewhat  more  connected  chap.  iv. 
view  than  we  have  as  yet  been  able  to  gain  of  the  charac-  *~^' 
teristics  of  university  life  in  the  period  already  traversed. 
Hitherto  we  have  passed  by  many  interesting  minor  facta 
in  order  to  bring  out  more  distinctly  the  general  outline, 
— the  principle  indeed  vrhich  ha»  guided  our  whole  treat- 
ment  of  the  subject.  We  shall  now  endeavour  to  bring 
together  a  variety  of  details  which  tend  to  illustrate  the  life 
and  habits  of  those  times,  and  to  give  a  portraiture  of  the 
ordinary  student's  experiences  at  Cambridge  in  the  Middle 
Ages.  Such  a  piecing  tc^ther  will  form,  at  beat,  but  a  very 
defective  whole.  The  mosaic  will  be  wanting  both  in  colour 
and  completeness.  But  we  shall  but  share  the  difficulties 
that  beset  all  similar  endeavours  to  revivify  the  forms  and 
fashions  of  a  distant  age. 

A  brief  survey  of  the  physical  aspects  of  the  locality  will  oouimi'Uw 
not  be  irrelevant  to  the  sket«h  we  are  about  to  attempt.  ^'1^ 

The  river  Cam',  formerly  kuown  as  the  Qrant,  is  formed  by 

the  union  of  two  minor  streams;  of  which  one,  the  Bhee, 
rises  near  Ashwell  in  Hertfordshire,  the  other  at  little  Hen- 
ham  in  Essex.  The  point  of  junction  is  between  Hauxton 
and  Grantchestcr.  As  it  approaches  Cambridge  the  stream  i 
widens,  but  rarely  attains  to  much  depth  until  the  town  is 
passed,  after  which  it  flows  on  in  greatly  increased  volume 
by  Chesterton,  Waterbeach,  Upware,  and  Harrimere,  until 
Ely  is  reached.  At  Harrimere  it  changes  its  name  to  that 
of  the  Ouse,  a  change  however  which  no  longer  represents 
the  actual  point  of  confluence ;  at  the  present  time  the 
stream  still,  save  on  the  occurrence  of  unusual  floods,  pursues 
its  course  by  way  of  Ely  and  Prickwillow  to  Denver  before  a 
drop  of  Ouse  water  mingles  with  its  current  The  cause  of 
this  deviation  is  an  important  fact  in  the  history  of  the  river 
system  of  the  whole  district.     The  tract  known  as  the  Fen 


'  The  Celtic  vord  ^<im,  wMch  lonn  whn^npon  Brntns   ftdds,    'Merely' 

BuiTiveci  in  EiiRliah,  meoiiB  crookrd.  (that  U,  completely) '  awrj."    Act  in 

In  ShakeHpeare'B  CoriolanVM.  Sicmitu  M.  1.   So  also  Hooker  in  his  wnnonH, 

M.TH  of  the  loffio  ol  Heneoiua  Agrip-  Epealu  of  a  mind  th«t  in  '  cam  aiul 

pt'eaigumenbi, 'Thisisdeui  ton;'  erooked.'    irorib,  loL  ed.,p.  563. 


830  MEDIEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 

CHAP.  nr.  country  is  traversed  by  the  Nen,  the  Great  Ouse,  and  the 
jjjl^^*^  Little  Ouse.  Of  these  the  first,  which  now  flo^vs  in  a  navi- 
whichttii     gai^ie  stream  by  March,  Upwell,  and  Outwell,  and  discharges 


itself  into  the  Ouse  near  Denver  sluice,  formerly  on  arriving 
AndMd  a^  Peterborough  turned  to  the  right,  and  making  a  circuit 
SSr^  **•  through  Whittlesey,  Ugg,  and  Ramsey  Meres,  passed  them  in 
a  nearly  direct  course  by  March  to  Wisbeach.  The  second 
enters  the  fens  near  Earith.  At  this  place  it  formerly  bifur- 
cated: the  larger  stream  flowing  by  Harrimere,  Ely,  and 
Littleport,  then  by  what  is  now  called  the  Welney  river  to 
Wisbeach,  where  in  conjunction  with  the  Nen  it  flowed  on 
to  the  sea.  The  other  stream  flowed  towards  the  west,  and 
is  now  known  as  the  West  Water:  its  course  is  from  Earith 
to  Benwick,  where  it  formed  a  junction  with  the  Nen.  At 
the  present  time  however  both  these  channels  are  closed  to 
the  Ouse,  which  is  conveyed  in  a  straight  line  by  the  Bedford 
rivers  to  Denver,  where  they  form  a  junction  with  the  Little 
Ouse  and  are  conveyed  in  its  channel  to  the  sea\  Wisbeach' 
accordingly  constituted  the  natural  outlet  of  the  principal 
waters  whose  course  lay  through  the  great  tract  known  as 
the  Bedford  Level ;  and  such  was  the  'plenteous  Ouse'  when 
TtMMgttwe    Spenser  in  his  Faery  Queene  described  it  as  coming 

Spcbaer. 

*iar  from  land, 

By  many  a  city  and  by  many  a  town, 

And  many  rivers  taking  under-hand 

Into  his*  waters  as  he  ffasseth  downe, 

The  Gle,  the  Were,  the  Grant,  the  Store,  the  Bownc. 

Thenoe  doth  by  Huntingdon  and  Cambridge  flit. 

My  mother  Cambridge,  whom  as  with  a  crowne 

He  doth  adome,  and  is  adom*d  of  it 

With  many  a  gentle  Muse  and  many  a  learned  wit'.' 

TiM  Bedford        Of  the  Bedford  Level,  the  whole  extent  of  which  amounts 

LervL 

to  some  400,000  acres,  nearly  half  lies  in  the  county  of 
Cambridge,  representing  the  fen  country.  Originally,  it  is 
probable,  the  inundations  to  which  it  was  exposed  were  far 

^  See  paper  by  Prof.  C.  C.  Babing-      oonjeotured,  is  a  corruption  of  Onee- 
ton,  Cam.  Anti^,  Soe.  Pub,  iii  69.  beach. 

'  The  name,  it  has  been  plausibly         *  Faery  Queene,  rr  zi  34. 


THE  FEN  COUHTBT.  SSI 

leas  exteoBive  and  disastrous  tbao  those  of  a  later  period,  crap.it. 
The  Romans,  it  has  been  conjectured,  brought  their  sdence  '  ' 
to  bear  upon  the  difficult;  and  mitigated  the  evil.  Otheni 
have  supposed  that  the  gradual  silting  up  of  the  channel 
directly  communicating  ■with  the  Wash  sufficiently  accounts 
for  the  increase  of  the  inundations  in  the  fourteenth,  fif- 
teenth, and  sixteenth  centuries.  It  would  seem  certun  that 
with  the  suppression  of  the  monasteries  by  Henry  Till 
many  of  the  precautions  which  the  monks  had  vigilantly 
enforced  were  no  longer  observed,  and  the  evil  became 
greatly  ^gravated.  'The  fens  of  England,'  it  has  been  said, 
'enter  largely  into  its  early  history,'  and  the  remark  is 
specially  true  of  Cambridgeshire  and  its  university.  In 
Dugdale's  elaborate  work,  the  History  of  EmbanJang  andsa^tigibn 
Draining,  there  is  a  map  representing  the  Bedford  Level  at  ^^™' 
the  time  of  an  inundation.  The  waters  are  to  be  seen 
extending  in  one  continuous  sheet  from  Downham  Market 
to  Homingsey  Common,  from  Peterborough  to  Mildenhall, — 
a  few  tracts  of  higher  ground  about  Ely,  Littleport,  Soham, 
Haddenham,  Wingford,  Chatteris,  and  Whittlesea,  appearing 
like  islands  in  the  midst'.  On  the  frontier  of  this  cotmtiy 
Cambridge  stands,  and  often  shared,  Uiough  in  a  less  d^ree, 
the  disastrous  consequences  of  such  visitations.  In  the  year 
1273  the  waters  rose  five  feet  above  the  bridge  in  what  is 
now  known  as  Bridge  Street ;  in  1290  the  Carmelite  Friars 
removed  from  Newnham  into  the  parish  of  St  John's,  driven 
from  their  extensive  precincts  in  the  former  locality  by  floods 
which  frequently  rendered  their  attendance  at  lectures  or  at 
market  impracticable;  in  1520,  Qarret  Hostel  bridge,  now 
known  as  the  town  bridge,  was  carried  away  by  the  waters. 
Even  so  late  as  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when 
l^islation  had  but  feebly  grappled  witit  the  growing  evil*, 

1  The  termiii&tioii  -ey  or  -v  ia-  ■  'The  mMt  ImpoiUnt  woik  u  to 

notes  in  Saion  on  island;  •nd  incli  pnblia  atililr,  prior  to  the  Befonna- 
verefQrnierlyChilderiej',Deim;,Ely,  tioa,  «u  Uie  great  ehuuMl  mads 
Homingse;,  Bamaey,  Sathrey,  Thor-  by  bishop  Uortim,  wbieh  served  (fas 
Dey,  Wittieses,  eta.;  while  the  pu-  double  purpose  of  disehBr^ng  the 
■      '       "   '  overflowing  of  the  Nene,  wid  Word- 

ing the  eontenMnoe  of  water-ew- 
riage  Irom  Wiabeoh  to  FeteifaoTOiigh. 


832 


MEDIiEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 


CHAP.  TV,  tradition  was  wont  to  foretell  that  all  Holland  was  destined 
""'^''^^   to  be  submerged  by  the  waters  of  the  Welland  and  the  Ouse, 
and  that  the  abode  of  learning  would  be  transferred  from 
Cambridge  to  Stamford  \ 
ondoMi  From  facts  like  these  we  are  better  able  to  understand 

Swnof  how  it  was  that,  in  times  before  the  university  existed,  the 
town  that  still  represented  the  Camboritum  of  the  Romans 
was  confined  to  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  where  upon  the 
yising  ground  above,  secure  from  inundations,  rose  the  little 
church  of  St.  Peter  (St.  Peter's  juxta  castra),  which  together 
with  some  three  or  four  hundred  tenements,  many  of  them 
fallen  into  decay,  composed  the  Grantbrigge  of  the  time  of 
the  Norman  invasion.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  there  is 
nothing  in  Domesday  Book  that  lends  the  slightest  counte- 
nance to  the  theory  that  anything  resembling  a  university 
existed  in  those  days.  The  Norman  occupation  gave  how- 
ever additional  importance  to  the  town.  Twenty-seven 
houses  were  pulled  down  to  make  way  for  the  new  castle ; 
then  followed  the  erection  of  the  church  of  St.  Giles  by 
Picot,  the  sheriflf  of  the  county ;  and  probably  soon  after, 
th^t  of  the  'school  of  Pythagoras,'  undoubtedly  a  structure 
of  this  period,  and  probably  the  residence  of  a  Norman 
gentleman.    But  the  attractions   of  a  river  in  those  days 


It  has  been  said  that  after  the  dis- 
solution of  monasteries,  the  fenny 
country  became  more  overflowed  than 
it  had  formerly  been,  the  sewers  and 
banks,  which  through  the  care  of  the 
religious  houses  had  been  kept  in  a 
state  of  good  repair,  having  been 
neglected  by  the  new  proprietors  of 
the  monastic  estates.  The  first  pro- 
ject of  a  general  drainage  (which  in- 
deed was  before  the  making  of  bishop 
Morton's  canal)  appears  to  have 
been  in  the  reign  of  Henry  vi,  when 
Gilbert  Haltoft,  one  of  the  barons  of 
the  exchequer,  who  resided  near  Ely, 
had  a  commission  for  that  purpose, 
under  which  he  proceeded  to  make 
laws,  but  nothing  effectual  was  then 
done.'  Lysons' Cambridgeshire ^-p,  32 . 
^  *  And  after  him  the  fatal  Welland 
went,  I  That,  if  old  saws  prove  true, 
(which  God  forbid!)  |  Shall  drowne 
fdl  QoUand  with  his  excrement,  |  And 


shall  see  Stamford,  though  now 
homely  hid,  { Then  shine  in  learning, 
more  then  ever  did  |  Cambridge  or 
Oxford,  England's  goodly  beames.* 
Spenser,  Faery  Queene,  iv  xl  35. 
The  *old  saws*  here  referred  to  are 
those  mentioned  by  Antony  Wood, 
see  p.  135.  *  Holland ',  or  *  Little  Hol^ 
land,'  as  it  was  sometimes  called,  is 
a  division  of  the  county  of  Lincoln, 
the  S.E.  portion,  having  the  North 
Sea  on  the  east.  The  poet's  mean- 
ing, I  apprehend,  is  that  inasmuch 
as  an  inundation  of  this  country 
could  not  fail  to  extend  southwards, 
and  greatly  to  aggravate  the  evils  to 
which  Cambridgeshire  was  periodi- 
cally liable,  the  latter  county  would 
be  rendered  comparatively  uninhabit- 
able; while  Stamford,  as  lying  with- 
out  the  Bedford  Level  and  on  the 
rising  land  above  the  Welland,  would 
be  beyond  the  reach  of  the  waters. 


THE  FEN  COUNTHT.  333 

were  all  powerful,  and  by  and  bye  a  suburb  was  formed  cii*f- " 
on  the  opposite  bank ;  this  suburb  gradually  extended  itself 
until  it  incorporated  what  was  probably  a  distinct  village 
encircling  the  cliurch  of  St.  Benet  Then  the  society  of  secular 
canons,  founded  by  Ficot,  crossed  the  river,  as  Augusttnian 
canons,  to  Barnwell ;  private  dwellings  began  to  multiply ; 
numerous  hostels  were  erected ;  the  period  of  college  founda- 
tions succeeded ;  and  at  last  the  new  town  completely 
eclipsed  the  old  Grantbrigge,  which  sack  into  an  obscure 
suburb'. 

Such  may  be  regarded  as  a  sufficiently  probable  theory  of  Thgquntia 
the  early  external  growth  of  Cambridge,  but  it  still  remains  1^"^,,™ 
to  explain  how  such  a  locality  came  to  be  selected  as  the  [j,j'^™ 
site  of  a  university.    Compared  with  Stamford,  Northampton,  "*"'• 
or  even  Huntingdon,  all  of  them  seats  of  monastic  education, 
Cambridge,  to   modern  eyes,  would  have  appeared  an  un- 
healthy and  ineligible  spot*.     It  was  the  frontier  town  of  a 
country  composed  of  bog,  morass,  and  extensive  meres,  inter- 
spersed with  occasional   tracts  of  arable  and  pasture  land, 
and  presenting  apparently  few  recommendations  as  a  resort 
for  the  youth  of  the  nation;   the  reasons   therefore  which 
outweighed  the  seemingly  valid  arguments  in  &vour  of  a 
more  inviting  and  accessible  locality  have  often  been  the 
subject  of  conjecture.     Fuller   himself  seems  at  a  loss  to 
understand  why  the  superior  natural  advantages  of  North- 
ampton did    not   win  for  that  town  the  preference  of  the 
academic  authorities. 

As  regards  the  first  commencement  of  the  univeraity,  an  iSJjr^ 
obvious  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that,  in  all  JJ^^JJ,^ 
probability,  no  definite  act  of  selection  ever  took  place.   Like 
Paris  and  Oxford,  Cambridge  grew  into  a  centre  of  learning. 
Somewhere  in  the  twelfth  centuty  the  university  took  its 


bridge,'  w;s  Harrieoo,  vrituig  in 
1577,  'is  someirhBt  lowe  uid  oeere 
nuto  the  leDnes,  whereby  the  hol- 
Botneneue  of  the  ayre  theie  ie  not  a 
little  comptad.'  HoUnaheil'i  Ckto- 
ntch,  78  b. 


324 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 


Thoouu 
Rothermm, 
an  emtnent 
boielkctor 
of  Uiouni* 
TMiitjr. 


CAtalui 


lugoas 
of  the 
Ifbraiietof 
Peierho 


CHAP.  lu.  addition  of  some  two  hundred  volumes,  made  by  Thomas 
paet  II.  jjQtheram  very  shortly  after ;  but  the  liberality  of  that 
eminent  benefactor  of  the  university  was  already  conspicuous 
in  the  .completion  of  the  library  and  of  the  east  part  of  the 
quadrangle ;  and  the  new  buildings,  bright  as  they  appeared 
to  that  generation,  *  with  polished  stone  and  sumptuous 
splendourV  were  already  evoking  those  sentiments  of  grati- 
tude towards  the  illustrious  chancellor,  which,  two  years 
later,  led  the  assembled  senate  to  decree  that  his  name 
should  be  for  ever  enrolled  among  those  of  the  chief  bene- 
factors of  the  university. 

The  two  above-named  catalogues  alone  constitute  valua- 
ble evidence  respecting  the  literature  at  this  time  most 
^Sty^BSi,  esteemed  at  Cambridge,  but  other  and  ampler  evidence 
o.i-en<iuid  remains.  It  was  on  Christmas  Eve,  1418,  exactly  ei<jht 
***"•  years  before  Gerson  drew  up  his  JDe   Concordia,  that   an 

unknown  hand  at  Peterhouse  completed  a  catalogue  of  the 
library  belonging  to  that  foundation'.  As  libraries,  in  those 
days,  were  almost  entirely  the  accumulations  of  gifts  from 
successive  benefactors,  the  most  ancient  college  had,  as  we 
should  expect  to  find,  acquired  by  far  the  largest  collection 
and  possessed  no  less  than  from  six  to  seven  hundred  distin 
treatises.  The  library  given  by  bishop  Bateman  to  Trinity 
Hall  has  already  come  under  our  notice*.  If  to  these  col- 
lections we  add  a  catalogue  of  140  volumes  presented  to  the 
library  of  Pembroke  College  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries*,— one  of  the  library  of  Queens'  College  in  the  year 


1 '  Quoniam  ratio  hmnanitasqae 
requircre  videtnr  uf  snperioribus  no- 
bis benefactoribus,  etsi  non  con- 
dignae,  saltern  ntcnnqiie  congrnas 
releramas  gratias,  eisqne  jnxta  vi- 
riiim  exilitatem,  at  possumus,  meri- 
toria  obseqnia  reddamns.  bine  est 
qaod  merito  cum  probitatis  turn  bo- 
nomm  openim  ezbibitione  roveren- 
das  inChristo  pater  ao  dominus  domi- 
nns  Thomas  Botheram  divina  misera- 
Hone  Lincolniensis  episcopus  ac  mag- 
nas  AnglifB  generaUs  hnjasqae  almsB 
oniversitatis  praBcipuns  dignusque 
canoellarias  et  singularis  patronns 
turn  in  honorom  Dei,  incrcmentum 
rtadii,  et  nniTendtatiiB  nostriB  pro- 


fectam,  scholas  novamque  superivs 
librariam  polito  lapide^  sumptttosa 
pompaf  ac  dignis  adijiciU  pStfecerit^ 
eamque,  omnibas  ut  decait  rebus 
exomatam,  non  pancis  vel  vilibus 
libris  opalentam  reddidit,  plorimaqiie 
insnper  alia  bona  eidem  uniyersitati 
proourayit,  eto.*  De  exequiis  Thoma 
Rotlieram^  Documents^  i  414. 

^  This  catalogue  is  still  in  manu- 
script :  I  am  indebted  to  the  autho- 
rities of  Peterhouse  for  permission 
to  consult  the  volume  in  which  it  is 
contained. 

'  See  supra  pp.  243,  244. 

*  A  List  of  Books  presented  to  Pern- 
hroks  College t  CanibHdge,  by  different 


CAHBEIDOE  LIBIUSIE8.  325 

1472',  amounting  to  224  volumes, — and  one  of  the  library  of  oiap.  ul 
St.  Catharine's  Hall  in  the  year  1473,  amounting  to  137   ?;^^- 
volumes*, — our  data,  so  far  aa  Cambridge  is  concerned,  will 
be  sufBcieotly  extended  for  our  purpose. 

A  systematic  study  of  these  several  catalogues  and  ao 
enquiry  into  the  merits  of  each  author,  however  interesting 
such   researches  might  be,  is  evidently  not  needed  at  our 
hands,  but  it  will  be  desirable  to  state  some  of  the  general 
conclusioas  to  be  derived  from  a  more  cursory  view.     On 
referring  to  the  contents  of  each  catalogue  it  will  be  seen  nioMnMsd 
that  they  represent,  in  much  the  same  proportions,  those  i^J^"  "> 
new  contributions  to  niediseval  literature  which  have  already  ^^£~ 
so  long  engaged  our  attention.     Anselm,  Albertiis,  Aquinas,  "'•'"•''^ 
Alexander  Hales,   Boethius,   Bonaventura,   Walter  Burley, 
Duns  Scutus,  Holcot,  Laogton,  John  of  Salisbury,  Grosse- 
teste,   and    Richard    Middleton ;    Armachanus   against  the 
Franciscans,  Wodeford  against  Armachanns ;  the  discourses 
of  Reppington,  bishop  of  Ljncoln,  once  a  Lollard,  but  after- 
wards one  of  the  fiercest  opponents  of  the  sect ;  HiatoruB 
Chronicales,  or  metrical  histories,  after  the  manner  of  Laya- 
mon  and  Robert  of  Gloucester,  such  as  it  was  customary  to 
cite  in  the  college  hall  on  days  of  festivity ; — none  of  these 
are   wanting,   and   they  constitute   precisely  the   literature 
which  our  past  enquiries  would  lead  us  to  expect  to  find. 
But  besides  these,  other  names  appear,  names  which  have  iMdnair- 
now  almost  passed  from  memory  or  are  familiar  only  tOTHpcetm 
those  who  have  made  a  special  study  of  this  period.     Again  JH^JJ" 
and  again  we  are  confronted  by  the  representatives  of  that  *" 
great  school  of  medissval  theology  which,  though  it  aspired 
less  systematically  to  the  special  task  of  the  schoolmen, — the 
reconciliation  of  philosophy  and  dc^ma, — was  scarcely  less 
influential  iu  these  centuries  than  the  school  of  Albertus  and 
Aquinas.     Divines  firom  the  famous  school  of  St.  Victor  at 

Donort,duriyui  thePottrttenthandFif-  late  Fellow  ol  Queenfl'  College.  0am. 
Uenlh  Centuriti.     By  the  Rev.  O.  E.  Anl.  Soe.  Pab.  No.  xy. 
Corria,  D.D.,  Master  of  Jesus  College.  '  A  Calalogvr  of  the  original  Li- 
Cam.  Ant.  Soc.  Pub.  No.  in.  brary  of  SI.  Calkarine't  Hall,  1476; 

>  Catalogue    of    the    Library   of  oommnoiMUd  by  the  Bav.    O.   E. 

.  *i.ii._.  j_  uro.  --,„—„„,'  Come,  D.D.     Com.   Ant.  Soe.  Pui. 

No.  I.    (4to  Seriw.) 


326 


THE  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY. 


CUAP.  IlL 
Paet  II. 

Hufoof 
Bt  Vktor, 


Hugo  of 
81  Cher, 
d.U60. 


Niebolu 
deLyra, 
d.UM. 


Absence  of 
tbe  Arabian 
coaumenta- 
ton  on  Ari- 
stotle. 


FeimrworkB 
than  we 
■hould  ex- 
pect on  logic 
and  contro- 
TOTtlal  theo- 
logy. 

The  Fathers 
▼ery  impcr- 
foeUy  repre- 
lented. 


Paris^;  and  preeminently  Hugo,  'the  Augustine  of  the 
twelfth  century/  who  sought  to  reconcile  the  divergent  ten- 
dencies exemplified  in  Abelard  and  St.  Bernard,  and  who 
though  carried  off  at  the  early  age  of  forty-four  left  behind 
him  a  whole  library  of  annotations  on  the  sacred  writings. 
Not  less  in  esteem  than  Hugo  of  St.  Victor,  was  the  Domi- 
nican, Hugo  of  St.  Cher  (or  of  Vienne),  whose  reputation, 
though  it  paled  before  the  yet  greater  lights  of  his  order, 
long  survived  as  that  of  the  father  of  the  Concordantlsts  and 
the  author  of  the  Specidum  Ecclesice*.  While  inferior  to 
neither  of  these  in  fame  or  learning  comes  the  Franciscan, 
Nicholas  de  Lyi-a,  who  died  towards  the  middle  of  the  four- 
teenth century  in  high  repute  both  as  a  Hebraist  and 
a  Greek  scholar ;  in  whose  pages  are  to  be  found,  most  fully 
elaborated,  the  characteristic  mediseval  distinctions  of  the 
literal,  the  moral,  the  allegorical,  and  the  anagogic  sense 
of  the  inspired  page, — distinctions  which  Puritanism,  though 
all  contemptuous  of  mediaeval  thought,  reproduced  in  un- 
conscious imitation, — the  familiar  commentator  of  his  day, 
whose  Postilla  commanded,  even  down  to  the  eighteenth 
century,  the  same  kind  of  regard  that  in  a  later  age  has 
waited  on  the  labours  of  a  Leighton  or  a  Scott.  In  contrast 
to  the  spirit  of  the  Italian  universities  throughout  this 
period,  we  may  note  the  entire  absence  of  the  Arabian  com- 
mentators from  the  college  libraries,  and  the  solitary  copy 
of  a  treatise  by  Avicenna  and  of  another  by  Averroes  in  the 
university  library.  In  the  latter,  again,  Mr  Bradshaw  has 
pointed  out  the  comparatively  small  proportion  of  libri 
logicales  and  libri  Hieologiod  disputatoB,  and  the  observation 
is  nearly  equally  applicable  to  the  catalogues  of  the  former. 
It  is  important  also  to  observe  how  small  is  the  clement 
furnished  by  patristic  literature.  Ambrose,  Gregory,  Jerome, 
and  Augustine,  the  four  great  doctors  of  the  Latin  Church, 


1  *  It  would  not  be  easy/  observes 
the  archbishop  of  Dnblin  (who  has 
ably  vindicated  the  Latin  poetry  of 
tihese  ages  from  the  contempt  of  the 
olas8iciBt)f  *to  exaggerate  the  in- 
fluence lor  good  which  went  forth 


from  this  institution  during  tlie 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  ceuturieH  u])- 
on  the  whole  Church.'  JSacred  Latin 
Poetry,  p.  65. 

•  Fabricins,  Dibliotheca  Lat,  Med, 
et  Inf,  JitaiU, 


CAHBBIDQB  U8BASIBS.  327 

are  indeed  repiesented,  but  only  partially,  while  Bcarcely  c 
another  name  of  importance  appears.    The  entire  absence  . 
of  Greek  authors,  and  the  almost  equally  entire  absence  ofB) 
all  that,  in  the  eyes  of  the  classical  scholar,  gives  its  value  ^ 
to  the  Latin  literature,  are  the  remaining  features  which 
it  is  sufficient  simply  to  point  out  in  concluding  these  few 
comments  on  the  learning  that  nurtured  the  mind  of  the 
Cambridge  student  at  the  time  when  mediaval  history  was 
drawing  to  its  close. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


STUDENT  LIFE  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


CHAP.  IV.  Our  researches  into  our  university  history  during  the  Middle 
Changes  Ages  are  now  approaching  their  completion.  We  have  ar- 
SSI^^ITand  rived  at  the  boundary  line  which,  by  general  consent,  has 
been  drawn  between  the  old  and  the  new  order  of  things, — 
the  time  when  the  traditions  of  the  past  began  to  give  place 
to  those  widely  diflFering  conceptions  which  the  fifteenth 
century  ere  it  closed  saw  rising  upon  Europe.  Momentous 
and  startling  as  have  been  the  changes  of  the  prasent  cen- 
tury, it  may  yet  be  questioned  whether  they  do  not  yield 
in  importance  to  those  that  ushered  in  the  Reformation. 
The  downfall  of  dynasties,  the  manifest  shifting  of  the  centres 
of  political  power,  even  the  triumphs  of  modem  science  and 
art,  can  scarcely  compare  with  influences  like  those  that 
readjusted  the  whole  range  of  man's  intellectual  vision,  and 
transformed  his  conception  of  the  universe.  It  was  then 
that  the  veil  was  lifted  from  the  face  of  classic  Greece,  and 
the  voices  which  had  slumbered  for  centuries  woke  again ; 
that  the  accents  of  ancient  Hellas  blended  with  those  of 
regenerated  Italy ;  while  Teutonic  invention  lent  its  aid  in 
diffusing  with  unprecedented  rapidity  both  the  newly  dis- 
covered and  the  nascent  literature. 

<  Another  natoro  and  a  new  mankind' 

stood  revealed  beyond  the  Atlantic  wave.  The  habitable 
globe  itself  dwindled  to  but  a  point  in  the  immensity  of 
space;  and  the  lamps  of  heaven  now  glimmered  with  a 
strange  and  awful  light  from  the  far  recesses  of  infinity.  But 
.  before  we  turn  to  trace  out  and  estimate  the  changes  thus 
brought  about  in  the  culture  and  mental  tendencies  of  the 


THE  CAM.  339 

age,  it  yet  remains  to  attempt  a  somewliat  more  comiected  cbap.  it. 
view  than  we  have  as  yet  been  able  to  gain  of  the  charac- 
teristics of  university  life  in  the  period  already  traversed. 
Hitherto  we  have  passed  by  many  interesting  minor  &cts 
in  order  to  bring  out  more  distinctly  the  general  outline, 
— the  principle  indeed  which  has  guided  our  whole  treats 
ment  of  the  subject.  We  shall  now  endeavour  to  bring 
together*  a  variety  of  details  which  tend  to  illustrate  the  life 
and  habits  of  those  times,  and  to  give  a  portraiture  of  the 
ordinary  student's  experiences  at  Cambridge  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  Such  a  piecing  together  will  form,  at  best,  but  a  very 
defective  whole.  The  mosaic  will  be  wanting  both  in  colour 
and  completeness.  But  we  shall  but  share  the  difficulties 
that  beset  all  similar  endeavours  to  revivify  the  forma  and 
fashions  of  a  distant  age. 

A  brief  surrey  of  the  physical  aspects  of  the  locality  will  onuintarui* 
not  be  irrelevant  to  the  sket«h  we  are  about  to  attempt,  ^^f^™^' 
The  river  Cam',  formerly  known  as  the  Grant,  is  formed  by  iirtdf!.!** 
the  union  of  two  minor  streams ;  of  which  one,  the  Bhee, 
rises  near  AshweU  in  Hertfordshire,  the  other  at  Little  Hen- 
ham  in  Essex.    The  point  of  junction  is  between  Hanxtoo 
and  Grontchestcr.     As  it  approaches  Cambridge  the  stream  ntcuL 
widens,  but  rarely  attains  to  much  depth  until  the  town  is 
passed,  after  which  it  flows  on  in  greatly  increased  volume 
by  Chesterton,  Waterbeach,  Upware,   and  Hanimere,  until 
Ely  is  reached.     At  Harrimere  it  changes  its  name  to  that 
of  the  Ouse,  a  change  however  which  no  longer  represents 
the   actual   point  of  confluence ;  at  the  present  time  the 
ptream  still,  save  on  the  occurrence  of  unusual  floods,  pursues 
its  course  by  way  of  Ely  and  Prickwillow  to  Denver  before  a 
drop  of  Ouse  water  mingles  with  its  current.     The  cause  of 
this  deviation  is  an  important  fact  in  the  history  of  the  river 
system  of  the  whole  district.     The  tract  known  as  the  FeouMFn 

1  The  Celtic  word  Jrom,  which  long  wherenpon  Brntaa   adds,    'Merely' 

BOrvived  in  Kui-liHh,  mpaiiB  crtmkfd.  (that  is.  completalj)  '&W17.'    Act  lit 

In  Shakcxprare's  Coholanui,  SiciainB  so.  1.   So  also  Hooker  in  Iub  Bennonn, 

eavH  o(  the  logic  of  Mentniua  Agrip-  BpcoliB  of  a  mind  that  is  >  cam  and 

pt'H  ugumentB,  'Thieiadeui  Jtam;'  oiooked.'    Wortu,  loL  ed.,p.  5G3. 


330  MEDIAEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 

CHAP.  IV.  country  is  traversed  by  the  Nen,  the  Great  Ouse,  and  the 
j^^^^^^  Little  Ouse.  Of  these  the  first,  which  now  flows  in  a  navi- 
which  it  b  gable  stream  by  March,  Upwell,  and  Outwell,  and  discharges 
itself  into  the  Ouse  near  Denver  sluice,  formerly  on  arriving 
at  Peterborough  turned  to  the  right,  and  making  a  circuit 
SSST  through  Whittlesey,  Ugg,  and  Ramsey  Meres,  passed  them  in 
a  nearly  direct  course  by  March  to  Wisbeach.  The  second 
enters  the  fens  near  Earith.  At  this  place  it  formerly  bifur- 
cated: the  larger  stream  flowing  by  Harrimere,  Ely,  and 
Littleport,  then  by  what  is  now  called  the  Welney  river  to 
Wisbeach,  where  in  conjunction  with  the  Nen  it  flowed  on 
to  the  sea.  The  other  stream  flowed  towards  the  west,  and 
18  now  known  as  the  West  Water:  its  course  is  from  Earith 
to  Benwick,  where  it  formed  a  junction  with  the  Nen.  At 
the  present  time  however  both  these  channela  are  closed  to 
the  Ouse,  which  is  conveyed  in  a  straight  line  by  the  Bedford 
rivers  to  Denver,  where  they  form  a  junction  with  the  Little 
Ouse  and  are  conveyed  in  its  channel  to  the  sea^  Wisbeach* 
accordingly  constituted  the  natural  outlet  of  the  principal 
waters  whose  course  lay  through  the  great  tract  known  as 
the  Bedford  Level;  and  such  was  the  'plenteous  Ouse'  when 
JJjgojM    Spenser  in  his  Faery  Queene  described  it  as  coming 

BptDter. 

*for  from  land, 

By  many  a  city  and  by  many  a  town, 

And  many  riyerB  taking  under-hand 

Into  his  waters  as  he  jfasseth  downe, 

The  Cle,  the  Were,  the  Qrant,  the  Stnre,  the  Bowne. 

Thence  doth  by  Huntingdon  and  Cambridge  flit. 

My  mother  Cambridge,  whom  as  with  a  crowne 

He  doth  adome,  and  is  adom*d  of  it 

With  many  a  gentle  Muse  and  many  a  learned  wit'.* 

The  Bedford        Of  the  Bedford  Level,  the  whole  extent  of  which  amounts 

LeveL 

to  some  400,000  acres,  nearly  half  lies  in  the  county  of 
Cambridge,  representing  the  fen  coimtry.  Originally,  it  is 
probable,  the  inundations  to  which  it  was  exposed  were  far 

1  See  paper  by  Prof.  C.  C.  Babing-      conjectured,  is  a  corruption  of  Ouse- 
ton,  Cam,  Anti^,  Soc.  Pub.  iii  69.  beach. 

*  Hie  name,  it  has  been  plausibly         *  Faery  Queene^  vr  zi  34. 


THK  FKN  COUNTBT.  831 

less  extoneive  and  disastrous  than  those  of  a  later  period,  chap.  it. 
The  RomaDB,  it  has  been  conjectured,  brought  their  scieoce  '  ' 
to  bear  upon  the  difficulty  aud  mitigated  tbe  evil.  Others 
have  supposed  that  the  gradual  sitting  up  of  the  channel 
directly  communicating  with  the  Wash  sufficiently  accounta 
for  the  increase  of  the  inundations  in  the  fourteenth,  fif- 
teenth, and  sixteenth  centuries.  It  would  seem  certaiu  that 
with  the  suppression  of  the  monasteries  by  Henry  VUI 
many  of  the  precautions  which  the  monks  had  vigilantly 
enforced  were  no  longer  observed,  and  the  evil  became 
greatly  a^ravated.  '  The  fens  of  England,'  it  has  been  said, 
'enter  lai^ely  i^to  its  early  history,'  and  the  remark  is 
specially  true  of  Cambridgeshire  end  its  university.  In 
Dugdale's  elaborate  work,  the  History  of  Embanking  andBMm»eiam 
Draining,  there  is  a  map  representing  the  Bedford  Level  at  ^^™" 
the  time  of  an  inundation.  The  waters  are  to  be  seen 
extending  in  one  continuous  sheet  &om  Downbam  Market 
to  Homingsey  Common,  from  Peterborough  to  Mildenhall,— 
a  few  ti-acts  of  higher  ground  about  Ely,  Littleport,  Soham, 
Haddenham,  Wingford,  Chatteris,  and  Whittleeea,  appearing 
like  islands  in  the  midst'.  On  the  &ontier  of  this  country 
Cambridge  stands,  and  often  shared,  though  in  a  less  degree, 
the  disastrous  consequences  of  such  visitations.  In  the  year 
1273  the  waters  rose  five  feet  above  the  bridge  in  what  is 
now  known  as  Bridge  Street ;  in  1290  the  Carmelite  Friars 
removed  hozn  Newnham  into  the  parish  of  St.  John's,  driven 
from  their  extensive  precincts  in  the  former  locality  by  floods 
which  frequently  rendered  their  attendance  at  lectures  or  at 
market  impracticable ;  in  1520,  Garret  Hostel  bridge,  now 
known  as  the  town  bridge,  was  carried  away  by  the  waters. 
Even  BO  late  as  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when 
legislation  had  but  feebly  grappled  with  the  growing  evil', 

>  The  termination  -rv  or  -^  do-  *  'The  moit  importMit  mwk  M  to 

notes  in  Srxod  an  ialand;  and  anch  pnblio  ntilit;,  prior  to  the  Belonna- 

nererormerl;Childeriey,  Denny,  Ely,  tion,  wu  Uie  great  ehaunel  mado 

HomingNey,  Ilamsey,  Snthrey,  Thur-  by  tnahop  Morton,  which  aerred  the 

ney,  WitUesea,  etc.;  while  the  pu-  doable  pnrpow  of   diimhrging  the 

tnre-lmnd  called  meart    most    once  orerflowing  of  the  Nene,  and  tAonl- 

have  been  the  bed  ol  en  inland  lake.  ing  the  sonTenienee  ol  water-ear- 

Tajrlor,  WorOt  and  Ftaca,  p.  STS.  riage  bomWiibeoh  to  FeteibDroDgh. 


332 


MEDIiEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 


•rtbe 

or 

Uuntwidge. 


CHAP.  IV.  tradition  was  wont  to  foretell  that  all  Holland  was  destined 
to  be  submerged  by  the  waters  of  the  Welland  and  the  Ouse, 
and  that  the  abode  of  learning  would  be  transferred  from 
Cambridge  to  Stamford  \ 

ondnai  From  facts  like  these  we  are  better  able  to  understand 

how  it  was  that,  in  times  before  the  university  existed,  the 
town  that  still  represented  the  Camboritum  of  the  Romans 
was  confined  to  the  left  bank  of  the  river,  where  upon  the 
fising  ground  above,  secure  from  inundations,  rose  the  little 
church  of  St.  Peter  (St.  Peter's  juxta  castrd),  which  together 
with  some  three  or  four  hundred  tenements,  many  of  them 
fallen  into  decay,  composed  the  Grantbrigge  of  the  time  of 
the  Norman  invasion.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  there  is 
nothing  in  Domesday  Book  that  lends  the  slightest  counte- 
nance  to  the  theory  that  anything  resembling  a  university 
existed  in  those  days.  The  Norman  occupation  gave  how- 
ever additional  importance  to  the  town.  Twenty-seven 
houses  were  pulled  down  to  make  way  for  the  new  castle ; 
then  followed  the  erection  of  the  church  of  St.  Giles  by 
Picot,  the  sheriflf  of  the  county ;  and  probably  soon  after, 
tlwit  of  the  'school  of  Pythagoras,*  undoubtedly  a  structure 
of  this  period,  and  probably  the  residence  of  a  Norman 
gentleman.    But  the  attractions   of  a  river  in  those  days 


It  has  been  said  that  after  the  dis- 
BOlntion  of  monasteries,  the  fenny 
oountry  became  more  overflowed  than 
it  had  formerly  been,  the  sewers  and 
banks,  which  through  the  care  of  the 
religious  houses  had  been  kept  in  a 
state  of  good  repair,  having  been 
neglected  by  the  new  proprietors  of 
the  monastic  estates.  The  first  pro- 
ject of  a  general  drainage  (which  in- 
deed was  before  the  making  of  bishop 
Morton's  canal)  appears  to  have 
been  in  the  reign  of  Henry  vi,  when 
Gilbert  Haltoft,  one  of  the  barons  of 
the  exchequer,  who  resided  near  Ely, 
had  a  commission  for  that  purpose, 
nnder  which  he  proceeded  to  make 
laws,  but  nothing  effectual  was  then 
done.'  Lysons' Cambridgeshire ^f^.  32. 
^  *  And  after  him  the  fatal  Welland 
went,  I  That,  if  old  saws  prove  true, 
(which  God  forbid!)  |  Shall  drowne 
all  Holland  with  his  excrement,  |  And 


shall  see  Stamford,  though  now 
homely  hid,  |  Then  shine  in  learning, 
more  then  ever  did  |  Cambridge  or 
Oxford,  England's  goodly  beames.' 
Spenser,  Faery  Queene,  iv  xl  35. 
The  'old  saws'  here  referred  to  are 
those  mentioned  by  Antony  Wood, 
see  p.  135.  *  Holland',  or  'Little  Hol^ 
land,'  as  it  was  sometimes  called,  is 
a  division  of  the  county  of  Lincoln, 
the  S.E.  portion,  having  the  North 
Sea  on  the  east.  The  poet's  mean- 
ing, I  apprehend,  is  that  inasmuch 
as  an  inundation  of  this  country 
could  not  fail  to  extend  southwards, 
and  greatly  to  aggravate  the  evils  to 
which  Cambridgeshire  was  periodi- 
cally liable,  the  latter  county  would 
be  rendered  comparatively  uninhabit- 
able; while  Stamford,  as  lying  with- 
out  the  Bedford  Level  and  on  the 
rising  land  above  the  Welland,  would 
be  beyond  the  reach  of  the  waters. 


THE  FEN  COUNTRY.  333 

were  all  powerful,  aod  by  and  bye  a  suburb  was  formed  ctiAP.  r 
on  the  opposite  tank ;  this  suburb  gradually  extended  itself 
until  it  incorporated  what  was  probably  a  distinct  village 
encircling  the  cliurch  of  St.  Benet.  Then  the  society  of  secular 
canons,  founded  by  Picot,  crossed  the  river,  as  Augustiniaa  ^ 
canons,  to  BamweU ;  private  dwellings  began  to  miUtiply ; 
numerous  hostels  were  erected ;  the  period  of  college  founda- 
tions succeeded ;  and  at  last  the  new  town  completely 
eclipsed  the  old  Grantbrigge,  which  sank  into  an  obscure 
suburb'. 

Such  may  be  regarded  as  a  suflSciently  probable  theory  of  Tberpi«tt 
the  early  external  growth  of  Cambridge,  but  it  still  remains  |^^^,™ 
to  explain  how  such  a  locality  came  to  be  selected  as  the  ^,y'^" 
site  of  a  university.    Compared  with  Stamford,  Northampton,  ™"^ 
or  even  Huntingdon,  all  of  them  seats  of  monastic  education, 
Cambridge,  to  modem  eyes,  would  have  appeared  an  un- 
healthy and  ineligible  spot".    It  was  the  frontier  town  of  a 
country  composed  of  bog,  morass,  and  extensive  meres,  inter- 
spersed with  occasional   tracts  of  arable  and  pasture  land, 
and  presenting  apparently  few  recommendations  as  a  resort 
for  the  youth  of  the  nation;   the   reasons  therefore  which 
outweighed  the  seemingly  valid  arguments  in  favour  of  a 
more  inviting  and  accessible  locality  have  often  been  the 
subject  of  conjecture.     Fuller   himself  seems  at  a  loss  to 
understand  why  the  superior  natural  advantages  of  North- 
ampton did    not   win  for  that  town  the  preference  of  the 
academic  authorities. 

As  regards  the  first  commencement  of  the  university,  an  JSJJ- ' 
obvious  explanation  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that,  in  all  ^"fij^ 
probability,  no  definite  act  of  selection  ever  took  place.   Like 
Paris  and  Oxford,  Cambridge  grew  into  a  centre  of  learning. 
Somewhere  in  the  twelfth  century  the  university  took  its 


I  The  combined  population  arm  bridge,'  says  HairiBon,  writing  in 
towards  tbe  close  ol  the  thirteeDth  1677,  '  is  eomewhat  lowe  and  neere 
centor;  does  not  appear  to  hare  ex-  unto  the  fenaes,  whereby  the  hol- 
ceeded  4U00.     See  Cooper,   Annai*,      BOtaeoesse  or  the  ayre  there  ia  not  a 

little  oomipted.'    HoUoahed'a  ChrO' 

ittel«,  73  b. 


334  MEDIAEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 

CHAP.  IV.  rise ;  originating  most  probably  in  an  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
^^^^^^  monks  of  Ely  to  render  a  position  of  some  military  impor- 
tance also  a  place  of  education.  The  little  school  prospered. 
The  canons  of  St.  Giles  lent  their  aid  ;  and  when  at  length, 
as  at  Paris  and  Bologna,  a  nucleus  had  been  formed,  its 
existence  became  an  accepted  fact;  royalty  extended  its 
recognition,  and  Cambridge  became  a  university. 
Why  not  But  when  we  enter  upon  the  wider  question,  why  the 

mofwi?  drawbacks  to  the  situation  did  not  finally  cause  the  removal 
of  the  university  to  a  less  objectionable  locality,  we  find  our- 
selves involved  in  a  more  perplexing  but  not  uninteresting 
inquiry.  It  can  hardly  be  supposed  that  at  a  time  when  the 
imiversity  had  acquired  but  little  property  in  the  town,  and 
when  the  smallness  of  the  worldly  possessions  of  the  student, 
as  described  by  Chaucer*,  rendered  removal  from  one  part  of 
the  country  to  another  a  less  formidable  undertaking  in  some 
respects  than  even  at  the  present  day,  that  the  difficulties 
attendant  upon  a  general  migration  deterred  men  from  at- 
tempting it.  The  question  of  a  partial  migration,  or  of  the 
foundation  of  a  third  university,  stood  upon  a  different  foot- 
ing. Such  measures  were  resisted  to  prevent  the  loss  of 
prestige  and  diminution  in  importance  which  it  was  supposed 
the  older  universities  would  necessarily  undergo ;  losses  like 
those  which  the  foundation  of  the  university  of  Prague  in 
1348  undoubtedly  inflicted  on  Paris,  and  which  the  founda- 
.  tion  of  the  university  of  Cracow  in  1400  inflicted  in  turn 
on  Prague.  We  shall  probably  find  the  best  answer  to  our 
question  in  a  consideration  of  the  very  different  point  of  view 
Dnwteekt  from  which  it  was  regarded  in  mediaeval  times.  And  first  of 
cycsreoom-  all  it  is  necossaiy  to  remember  how  entirely  monastic  id^as 
i°jy"-^  predominated  in  the  early  annals  of  both  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge, and  also  how  prominent  a  place  among  those  ideas 
TiieMceUe  ascctidsm  has  always,  at  least  in  theory,  held.  The  theoiy 
that  inculcated  a  rigorous  isolation  from  mankind  almost 
necessarily  debarred  the  monk  from  the  selection  of  the  most 
inviting  and  accessible  localities ;  and  so  long  as  the  locality 
produced  his  two  chief  requisites,  timber  and  water,  for  fuel 

1  Prologae  to  Canterbury  Takt,  257—810. 


THE  FKK  COCKTET.  3S5 

and  food,  he  professed  to  crave  for  nothing  more.    If  ve  chap,  r 
examine  the  sites  selected  for  our  earlier  monasteries  we|ia.iB,f 
shall  see  that  it  was  neither  the  hracing  air  nor  the  fertility  i^Sr^ 
of  the  soil  that  allured  the  foimders  to  the  mountain  summit  rn^Mvi 
or  to  the  far  recesses  of  the  vale.     It  was  not  imtil  thej^^JSJ 
Church  began  to  rival  the  temporal  power,  not  until  the  3^*" 
pietj  or  the  penitence  of  the  wealthy  found  expression  in  the 
alienation  of  lai^  estates  to  the  different  orders,  not  until 
asceticism  had  been  practically  set  aside  as  the  rule  of  the 
religious  life,  that  the  houses  of  both  the  old  and  the  new 
societies  began  to  rise  on  commanding  eminences,  in  the 
centre  of  productive  and  well  cultivated  districts,  looking  over 
rich  slopes  and  undulating  plains  whoee  fertility  moved  the 
envy  of  the  wealthiest  noble.\.  It  is  indeed  a  common  ob- 
servation that  the  monk  had  a  keen  eye  for  the  fattest  land 
and  selected  the  site  of  his  residence  accordingly :  but  it  is 
questionable  whether,  in  many  cases,  effect  has  not  been 
mistaken  for  cause,  and  whether  the  skill  and  industry  of 
the  new  colonists  did  not  often  supply  the  place  of  natural 
advantages  and   impart  attractions  which  were   afterwards 
supposed  to  be  natural  to  the  locality.     Of  such  a  conversion 
in  Hie  district  adjacent  to  Cambridge  we  find  a  notable 
instance  in  the  pages  of  Matthew  Paris,  whose  account  can  intaM 
hardly  be  better  rendered  than  in  the   quaint  version  by  Huam 
Dugdale : — '  In  the  year  1256,  William,  bishop  of  Ely,  and 
Hugh,  abbot  of  Ramsey,  came  to  an  agreement  upon  a  con- 
troversy between  them  touching  the  bounds  of  their  fens; 
whereof  in  these  our  times  a  wonder  happened ;  for  whereas^ 
as  antiently,  time  out  of  mind,  they  were  neither  accessible 
for  man  or  beast,  affording  only  deep  mud,  with  sedge  and 
reeds;  and  possest  by  birds  fyea,  much  more  by  devils,  as 
appeareth  in  the  life  of  St.  Gutblac,  who,  finding  it  a  place 
0/  horror  and  great  solitude,  began  to  ivhabit  tKere),  is  now 
changed  into  deligbtfiil  meadows  and  arable  ground;  and 
what  thereof  doth  not  produce  com  or  hay,  doth  abundantly 
bring  forth  sedge,  turf,  and  other  fuel,  very  useful  to  the 
borderers '.' 


336 


MEDIiEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 


CHAP.  TV.  There  is  good  reason  for  believing  that  the  motives  which 
weighed  with  St.  Guthlac  were,  in  a  great  measure,  those 
which  chiefly  influenced  the  monk  in  his  selection  of  places 
like  Thomey,  Eamsey,  Crowland,  and  Ely,  as  sites  of  religious 
houses,  all  probably  originally  scenes  of  *  horror,'  but  rendered 
not  only  habitable  but  inviting  by  patient  toil*.  The  de- 
scription given  by  the  soldier  to  William  the  Conqueror,  as 
TheFto  recorded  in  the  lAher  Eliensis*,  of  the  localities  which  he  had 
dwcriS  by  visitod,  rescmblcs  rather  that  brought  by  the  spies  to  Joshua, 
Wen.  than  the  picture  which  the  name  of  the  Fens  is  apt  at  the 
present  day  to  suggest.  Fertile  islands,  like  those  of  Ramsey 
and  Thomey,  rose  amid  the  meres,  adorned  with  verdant 
plains,  rich  cornfields,  and  stately  woods;  timber  was  plentiful, 
the  ash  in  particular  attaining  to  unusual  dimensions;  orchards 
abounded;  the  vine  was  successfully  cultivated,  sometimes 
trained  aloft,  sometimes  extending  on  framework  along  the 
ground;  the  rich  turf  supplied  abundant  fuel,  and,  conveyed 
up  the  river  in  boats,  often  blazed  on  the  winter  hearths  at 
Cambridge.  The*  fertility  of  the  soil  surpassed  that  of  all 
other  parts  of  England.  The  red  stag,  now  extinct  in  this 
country,  the  roe  deer,  wild  goats  and  hares,  afforded  ample 
occupation  for  the  huntsman.  The  wild  goose  and  water- 
fowl of  various  kinds  multiplied  in  every  direction.  The 
tranquil  mere,  which  rolled  its  tiny  wave  to  the  island  shore, 
teemed  with  all  kinds  of  fish,  and  yielded  an  unfailing  supply 
for  the  Cambridge  market.  Ely  itself,  if  we  may  tiiist  the 
authority  of  Bede,  derived  its  name  from  the  abundance  of 
<eels  once  found  in  the  surrounding  waters'.  Perch,  roach,  bar- 


1  The  vigoroas  diction  of  Cobbett, 
in  his  eccentric  History  of  the  Pro- 
testant  Reformation,  has  effectively 
illastrated  this  favourable  phase  of 
English  monasticism : — *The  mo- 
nastics built  as  weU  as  wrote  for 
posterity.  The  never-dying  nature 
of  their  institutions  set  aside  in  all 
their  undertakings  every  calculation 
as  to  time  and  age.  Whether  they 
built  or  planted,  they  set  the  gene- 
rous example  of  providing  for  the 
pleasure,  tiie  honour,  the  wealth, 
and  greatness  of  generations  yet  un- 
born.   They  executed  everything  in 


the  veiy  best  manner:  their  gardens, 
fishponds,  farms,  were  as  near  per- 
fection as  they  could  make  them; 
in  the  whole  of  their  economy  they 
set  an  example  tending  to  make  the 
country  beautiful,  to  make  it  an  ob- 
ject of  pride  with  the  people,  and  to 
make  the  nation  truly  and  perma- 
nently great.' 

*  Liber  Eliensis  (ed.  1848),  i  .232. 

s  *  Dicimus  autem  Ely  Anglioe,  id 
est,  a  copia  anguillarum  quaa  in  eis- 
dem  capiuntur  paludibus,  nomen 
Bumpsit;  siout  Beda  Anglorum  di- 
sertissimus  docet.*    Ibid,  p.  3. 


THE  FEM  COUNTRT.  337 

bels,  and  lampreys  were  scarcely  less  plentiful;  pike,  known  chat.  it. 
by  the  local  name  of  '  hakeards,'  were  caught  of  extraonli- 
nary  size;  md  the  writer  in  the  Ramsay  Begiater  declares, 
that  though  the  fisherman  and  sportsman  plied  their  craft 
unceasingly  the  supply  seemed  inexhaustible.  With  such 
resources  at  its  command  the  fen  country  was  in  those  days 
the  envy  of  the  surrounding  districts;  and  when  spring  came 
the  island  home  of  the  monk  seemed,  the  chronicler  tells  us, 
like  some  bower  of  Eden. 

It  will  be  observed  that  we  have  referred  to  the  earlier  a—nh  _ 
monasteries  as  affording  the  chief  examples  of  the  practice  1^1^^^^ 
of  the  ascetic  theory.     But  as  generation  after  generation""'"*^ 
passed  away,  and  Benedictines  and  Mendicants  vied  with 
each  other  in  splendour  and  luxury,  that  theory  was  as  little 
regarded  as  the  theory  of  Gr^;oTy   the   Great  concerning 
pagan   literature'.     It£  disregard  however  always   afforded 
occasion  to  their  adversaries  for  sarcasms  which  they  found 
some  difficulty  in  repelling;  and  the  following  episode  in 
the  life  of  Poggio  Bracciolini,  a  man  who,  though  bis  sympa- 
thies were  with  the  Humanists,  yet  always  expressed  the 
greatest  reverence  for  the  religious  life,  affords  a  singular  illus- 
tration of  the  whole  question  with  which  we  are  now  occupied. 

It  was  about  the  year  1429,  that  a  new  branch  of  the  "yj*"!* 
Franciscan  order,  calling  themselves  the  FrfUrea  ObaervantitB,  ;i™{y 
and  professing,.as  was  always  the  case  With  new  communities,  ^^'' 
a  more  than  ordinarily  austsre  life,  attempted  to  erect  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Arezzo  a  convent  for  their  occupation. 
The  rapidity  with  which  these  new  branches  were  multiply- 
ing had  however  before  this  become  the  subject  for  serious 
consideration  with  the  main  order,  and  it  had  been  resolved 
at  a  general  assembly  that  no  more  such  societies  should  be 
formed  without  the  consent  of  the  chapter.     It  accordingly 
devolved  upon  Pt^o,  who  at  that  time  filled  the  office  of  5 
secretary  to  Martin  V,  to  prohibit  the  new  erection  at  Arezzo  r 
until  the  pleasure  of  the  chapter  should  be  known.     This 

1  It  wonld  be  ui  iuterestiiig  in-  with  the  UcndiewitB,  whose  profw- 

qniT7,   were  we  at  liberty  here  to  noa  oertain];  did  not  inolade  the 

(ollow  it  op,  whether  the  chuise  in  idek  of  iiolatlm  bom  mankind, 
the  kbore  recpeot  did  not  oome  in 


338 


MEDLfiVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 


caiAP.  IV.  interference,  though  simply  a  discharge  of  his  official  duty, 
at  once  marked  him  out  for  calumnies  and  invectives  like 
those  which  at  this  period  were  the  ordinary  defensive 
weapons  of  the  religious  orders.  It  was  notorious  that  he 
regarded  the  Mendicants  with  no  friendly  feelings,  and  the 
Fratres  Observantice  accordingly  now  began  to  denounce  him 
as  a  foe  to  the  Christian  faith  and  a  subvcrter  of  all  religion. 
Their  outcries  and  misrepresentations  were  so  far  successful 
that  the  good-natured  Niccoli  Niccolo  was  induced  to  address 
to  Poggio  a  few  words  in  their  behalf.  But  the  antagonist 
of  Filelfo  and  Valla  was  quite  equal  to  the  occasion,  and  in 
his  reply  to  the  Florentine  Maecenas  he  gladly  availed  him- 
self of  the  opportunity  thus  afforded  him  of  exposing  and 
censuring  the  habitual  practice  of  the  whole  order.  *  Ho  was 
far,*  he  said,  *  from  denying  that  the  friars  had  substantial 
reasons  for  grumbling,  for  they  had  been  driven  from  a 
delightful  region,  the  vineyards  of  which,  producing  a  drink 
that  Jove  himself  might  envy,  attracted  visitors  from  far  and 
near.  But  surely  such  spots  were  not  for  those  who  professed 
a  life  of  austerity  and  poverty !  Plato,  who  had  known  nought 
of  Christianity,  had  selected  an  unhealthy  jyldce  for  his  academy, 
in  order  that  the  mind  might  he  strengthened  hy  the  weakness 
of  the  body  and  tlie  virtuous  inclinations  have  free  scope. 
But  these  men,  although  professing  to  take  Christ  as  their 
example,  chose  out  pleasant  and  delightful  residences,  and 
these  moreover  not  in  retired  spots  but  in  the  midst  of  popu- 
lous neighbourhoods,  where  everything  allured  to  sensual 
rather  than  to  intellectual  delights*/ 


*  *  Si  qiii  ex  eis  fratribus  quenintur 
BO  privari  patria  amoenissima,  meo 
jadicio  band  injuria  id  agunt.  Iliad 
enim  nostrum  nectar,  Jovis  potus, 
multos  allicit  uon  solum  porcgrinos, 
Bed  et  elves.  Plato,  vir  minime  Chris- 
tianas, elegit  AcademiflD  locum  insa- 
lubrem,  quo  magis  infirmo  corpore 
animus  eeset  firmior,  et  bonae  menti 
Tacaret.  At  isti,  qui  se  Christum 
sequi  simulant,  loca  eligunt  amoena, 
Toluptuosa,  omni  referta  jucunditaie, 
non  in  solitudine,  sed  in  summa 
hominom  frequentia,  non  ut  menti 
vacent,    sed   corpori*      Traversarii 


Epistola  (ed.  Mehus,  Florentiap,1759). 
Lib.  XXV  41,  see  also  xxiv  8.  With 
respect  to  Plato  note  ^lian,  Varia 
Historia,  ix  10: — ^"0  TiKdruv,  yojepou 
Xaplov  Xeyofxiifov  e&at  t'^s  * Axadrffieiat 
Kcd  avfi^v\i\t6vTtap  avrlfi  Tujy  larpQw  is 
TO  AvK€ioy  furoiKrjffaiy  ouk  rj^iujiy  el- 
irtJr,  *  dXX'  (hytayc  ovk  dy  ov5i  is  rd  tow 
"Xdu  ficT(jfKri<ra  a»  virip  rod  fiaxpo^ioi' 
Tcpos  yevicdat.*  It  is  not  unlikely  how- 
ever that  Poggio  had  in  his  mind  a 
passage  in  St.  Basil,  De  legendU  libris 
Gentilium,  c.  19 : — A(6  Sij  Kal  IlXaruwa 
0a  at  Tw  ix  ffiafiaros  /3Xe^ip  wpo^M' 


TBEOBY  OF  EDUCATION.  339 

It  is  certaioly  somewhat  surprising  to  fiod  a  man  of  c 
Poggio's  intelligence  implicitly  asserting  that  the  unhealthi-  ti 
iiess  of  a  locality  recommended  it  as  a  place  of  education  for  m 
youth;  but  the  fact  affords. decisive  evidence  that  such  wasj^ 
the  theory  then  generally  recognised.     The  mens  sana  was 
not  to  be  sought  in  corpore  sano.    The  modem  theory  of 
education  requires   the   simultaneous   developement  of  the 
physical  and  mental  powers,  or  rather  teaches  us  to  look 
iipon  them  as  only  modes  of  the  same  force, — a  force  purely 
physical  in  its  origin.     In  those  days  they  were  looked  upon 
as  ant^onistic;  the  mind,  it  was  held,  was  strengthened  by 
the  weakening  of  the  body.     Occasionally  indeed  men  of 
more  than  ordinary  discernment  advocated  a  sounder  view. «« 
We  find  Grosseteste,  he  who  could  cheerily  suggest  to  a  melau-  9" 
choly  brother  an  occasional  cup  of  wine  as  a  remedy  for  over 
depression,  objecting  on  sanitary  grounds  to  low  and  marshy 
districts';  and   Walter  Burley,  if  we  may   trust  Dr.  Plot's 
account,  seriously  believed  that  philosophers  from  Greece  had 
selected  Oxford  as  the  scene  of  their  labours  on  account  of 
the  healthiness  of  the  situation*.     But  views  like  these  were 
certainly  the  exception,*  and  the  prevailing  theory  was  that 
on  which  Poggio  so  unmercifully  insisted*.     Unreasonable 


Til,  -AtaSn^a, 


ra,\<i^fU 


.  Tlia  writings  of  81.  Basil 
h  Htndied  at  this  time  in 
1  vrith  (ha  oontroverey  be- 
tween the  eastern  and  westen) 
ChnichFB. 

'  '  Ipse  dixit  ei  quod  Iocs  sapec 
ftqnilin  noD  sunt  sana,  nisi  fuerint  in 
aublimi  sita.'  Eccleston,  in  Monu- 
nvnla  Franciicana,  p.  66. 

*  '  I  think  it  very  considerable 
what  remainB  npon  record  in  Mag- 
dalen College  UbroTT,  in  an  antient 
mannKcript  of  Walter  Burle.v's,  let- 
low  of  Merton  (tntor  to  the  famons 
Eing  Edward  iit  and  deserredlj 
Htiled  dortor  pro/undiit),  who  upon 
the  problem  complmio  rata  quart 
ianior,  has  these  words  con'ieming 
the  healthy  condition  ol  Oxford  and 
its  selection  b;  students  for  the  seat 
of  the  mnsas: — "  A  healthy  eitj  must 
be  open  to  the  north  ftnd  east,  and 


>  the  south  and  east ; 
b;  reason  of  the  purity  of  the  two 
tonuer  qaarteis  in  respect  of  the 
latter  ;  jost  as  Oxford  is  silualed 
which  was  selected  by  the  philoso- 
phere  thst  come  fromUreece."'l'lo('B 
Hht.  of  Oxford,  f.  330. 

'  The  Gnit  distinct  expression  ol  a 
counter  theory  in  connexion  with 
Dniversity  requirements  is  perhaps 
that  o(  the  Unke  of  Brabaut,  the 
founder  of  the  nni versify  of  Lonvain 
in  1436,  who  on  onnouncini;  the  pa- 
pal sanction  ol  the  projiosed  scheme 
desenbes  the  site  as  '  loco  vinetis, 
prati'',  rivulis,  frugibus  et  frnctibns, 
ac  ahis  circa  rictaalia  necescariis  re- 
terto,  in  acre  dulci  et  bona  temperie 
sitnato,  loco  quidem  spalioso  et  ju- 
cnudo,  et  ubi  mores  bar^cnBium  et 
incolarnm  sunt  benigui.'  Mfnmim 
(ur  Irt  deux  Premitn  SiieUt  de  TCni- 
vmiti  d:  Loucain  :  par  le  Baron  de 
Beillenberg,  p.  20.  This  langiu«e  it 
will  bo  obMored  wm  used  thi«e  years 
22—2 


340  MEDIiEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 

CHAP.  IV.  moreover  as  that  theory  now  appears,  it  will  be  found,  like 

many  other  abandoned  crotchets  of  mediasvalism,  to  contain 

ThettMoiy    a  germ  of  truth.    The  highest  state  of  physical  well-being 

■g^y»**^<^i8  rarely  the  most  favorable  to  severe  mental  application; 

and  many  a  college  tutor  in  the  present  day  could  probably 

bear  testimony,  that  the  high  tension  of  the  nervous  system 

produced  by  athletic  training  often  materially  interferes  with 

*  the  ability  of  the  student  to  devote  himself  to  the  sedentaiy 

labours  of  an  Honour  course. 
J^^  Having  pursued,  as  far  as  seems  necessary  for  our  pre- 

SS^'^  sent  purpose,  our  inquiry  into  the  causes  which  may  be  sup- 
posed to  have  determined  the  localisation  of  the  university, 
we  may  now  proceed  to  examine  the  character  of  the  stu- 
dent life  of  these  early  times.  If  then  we  accept  the  theory 
already  put  forward  of  the  commencement  of  the  university, 
it  necessarily  follows  that  we  shall  be  prepared  also  to  accept 
a  very  modest  estimate  of  the  culture  that  originally  pre- 
vailed. We  shall  postulate  neither  Greek  philosophers  nor 
royal  patrons,  but  readily  admit  that  the  instruction  given 
could  only  have  been  that  of  the  ordinary  grammar  school  of 
a  later  period.  The  Latin  language,  'or  ^  grammar '  as  it  was 
designated,  formed  the  basis  of  the  whole  course :  Priscian, 
Terence,  and  Boethius,  were  the  authors  commonly  read*. 
There  were  probably  some  dozen  or  more  separate  schools, 
each  presided  over  by  a  master  of  grammar,  while  the  Magis- 
ter  OlomericB  represented  the  supreme  authority.  It  is  in 
connexion  with  this  officer,  whose  character  and  functions  so 
long  baffled  the  researches  of  the  antiquarians,  that  we  have 
an  explanation  of  those  relations  to  Ely,  as  a  tradition  of  the 
earliest  times,  which  formed  the  precedent  for  that  ecclesi- 
astical interference  which  was  terminated  by  the  Barnwell 
Proce8&    The  existence 'of  such  a  functionary  and  of  the 

before  the  attack  of  Poggio  on  the  ktely  in  his  Historieal  Sketches,  as 

Obserrantists  :    bnt    on    the    other  an  iUnstration  of  medieval  notions 

hand  it  is  to  be  noted  that  it  is  the  yrith  respect  to  the  best  sites  for  uni- 

langnage  of  a  layman,  and  that  the  yersities. 

nniversify  of  Lonvain  -was  founded  ^  Terence  however  par  excellence ; 

for  all  the  faculties  »ave  that  of  tfteo-  the  grammar  school,  at  a  later  period, 

loify.   (See  p.  282,note  2,  and  Errata.)  seems  to  have  been  also  known  under 

Nothing   certainly  can   justii^    Dt  the  designation  of  Ute  $chool  of  Te- 

Newman  in  addnoing  Louvam,  as  renee. 


STUDENTS  OF  OBjUOUB.  341 

grammar  schools,  prior  to  the  univeisity,  enables  us  to  un-  chap.  it. 
derstaod  how,  in  the  time  of  Hugh  Balaham,  an  exertion  of  "  '  ' 
the  episcopal  authority,  like  that  which  has  already  come 
under  our  nolice,  became  necessary  in  order  to  guard  against 
collision  between  the  representatives  of  the  old  and  the 
new  orders  of  things, — between  tbe  established  rigbts  o{  the 
Master  of  Glomery  and  rights  like  those  which,  by  one  of 
our  most  ancient  statutes,  were  vested  in  the  recent  masters 
in  the  exercise  of  their  authority'  over  those  students  en- 
rolled on  their  books.  If  we  picture  to  ourselves  some  few 
hundred  students,  of  all  ages  from  early  youth  to  complete 
manhood,  mostly  of  very  slender  means,  looking  forward  to 
the  monastic  or  the  clerical  life  as  their  future  avocation, 
lodging  among  the  townsfolk,  and  receiving  such  accommo- 
dation as  inexperienced  poverty  mi^t  be  likely  to  obtain  at 
the  bauds  of  practised  extort;ionei8,  resorting  for  instruction 
to  one  laigc  building,  the  grammar  schools,  or  sometimes 
congregated  in  the  porcbes.of  their  respective  masters'  houses, 
and  there  receiving  such  instruction  in  Latin  as  a  reading 
from  Terence,  Boethius,  or  Oroeius,  eked  out  by  the  more 
elementary  rules  from  Priscian  or  Donatus,  would  repre- 
sent,— we  shall  probably  have  grasped  the  main  features 
of  a  Cambridge  course  at  the  period  when  Imerius  began 
to  lecture  at  Bolt^na,  Vacarius  at  Oxford,  abd  when  Peter 
Lombard  compiled  the  Sentences. 

Meagre  as  such  a  'course'  may  appear,  there  is  every cmmbI 
reason  for  believing  that  it  formed,  for  centuries,  nearly  the  wg^y 
sole  acquirement  of  the  great  majority  of  our  university  stu-  «™«un"- 
dents.     The  complete  fnnunt,  followed  by  the  yet  more  for- 
midable quadrivium,  was  far  beyond  both  the  ambition  and 
the  resources  of  the  ordinary  scholar.     His  turn  was  simply 
to  qualify  himself  for  holy  orders,  to  become  Sir  Smith  or 
Sir  Brown*,  as  distinguished  from  a  mere  '  hedge-priest,'  and 
to  obtain  a  licence  to  teach  the  Latin  tongue.    For  this  the 
degree  of  master  of  grammar  was  sufficient,  and  the  qoalifi- 
cations  for  that  degree  were  slight: — to  have  studied  the 
larger  Priscian  in  the  original,  to  have  responded  in  three 

'  Sir,  the  Engliih  tea  Ua^ttr;  while  Domittu*  wb(  temkrmditi  into  Da»t 
«,$.  t>«n  Chmneai, 


342  MEDIEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 

CHAP.  IV.  public  disputations  on  grammar,  to  have  given  thirteen  lec- 
^"^^^^^  turcs  on  Priscian's  Book  of  Constructions,  and  to  have  ob- 
tained from  three  masters  of  arts  certificates  of  his  *  learning, 
ability,   knowledge,   and  moral  character,'  satisfied  the  re- 
quirements of  the  authorities  \     His  licence  obtained,  he 
might  either  be  appointed  by  one  of  the  colleges  to  teach  in 
the  grammar  school  frequently  attached  to  the  early  founda- 
tions ;  or  he  might  become  principal  of  a  hostel  and  receive 
pupils  in  grammar  on  his  own  account;   or  he  might,  as 
a  secular  clcrg)'man,  be  presented  to  a  living  or  the  master- 
ship of  a  grammar  school  at  a  distance  from  the  university. 
iBtrodactioii         With  the  latter  part  of  the  twelfth  century  the  studies  of 
cj^iMdU  tHvium  and  quadnviumy  or  in  other  words  the  discipline 

of  an  arts  faculty,  were  probably  introduced  at  Cambridge. 
This  developement  from  a  simple  school  of  grammar  into  a 
studium  generale  was  not  marked,  it  is  true,  by  the  same 
^lat  that  waited  on  the  corresponding  movements  at  Bo- 
logna, Paris,  or  even  Oxford,  but  it  is  not  necessary  to  infer 
from  thence  that  Cambridge  was  much  inferior  either  in 
numbers  or  organization.  The  early  reputation  of  those  seats 
of  learning  survives  almost  solely  in  connexion  with  a  few 
great  names,  and  the  absence  of  any  teacher  of  eminence 
like  Imerius,  Abelard,  or  Vacarius,  at  our  own  university,  is 
a  sufficient  explanation  of  the  fact  that  no  accounts  of  her 
culture  in  the  twelfth  century  have  reached  us.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  influx  of  lai'ge  numbers  from  the  university 
of  Paris,  which  we  have  already  noted  as  taking  place  about 
the  year  1229,  can  only  be  accounted  for  by  supposing  that 
the  reputation  of  the  university  was  by  that  time  fairly 
?°*??y-  established.  Of  the  frequent  intercourse  between  Paris  and 
SjJIS^*  the  English  universities  in  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and 
'*""*'  during  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  we  have  already  spoken. 
This  intercourse,  it  is  to  be  observed,  is  to  be  traced  not 
merely  in  the  direction  assumed  by  the  mental  activity  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  at  different  junctures,  but  also  in  the 
more  definite  evidence  afforded  by  their  respective  statute 
books.    It  was  natural  that  when  a  Cambridge  or  Oxford 

^  Statute  117.    De  Jneepturii  in  Orammatica,    DoeumenU,  1 874. 


THE  AETS  FACULTT.  843 

graduate  had  spent  two  or  three  years  and  perhaps  taken  qhap.  it. 
an  additional  degree  at  Paris,  be  should,  on  his  return,  be 
inclined  to  commcut  on  any  points  of  difference  between 
the  requirements  of  the  illustrious  body  he  had  quitted  and 
those  of  his  own  university.      The  statutes  of  both  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  had  originally  been  little  more  than  a  tran- 
script of  those  of  Paris ;  but  the  clianges  introduced  at  Paris 
among  the  different  'nations'  were  so  numerous  as  mate- 
rially to  modify  the  course  of  study  in  the  fifteenth  century 
when  compared  with  that  of  the  thirteenth.     In  many  in-  *J"|5^?L 
stances  we  find  that  these  changes  were  subsequently  adopted  ^^£^%, 
at  Cambridge,  and,  as  the  chronology  of  the  statutes  at  Paris  Sl^'^J,?' 
is  far  more  regularly  preserved,  they  often  afford  us  valuable  th^  inuqui- 
guidance  (more  especially  those  of  the  Nation  Aiiglaise,  or  ^"'^L^ 
Nation  Altentande  as  it  was  subsequently  called),  in  deter- 
mining the  relative  antiquity  of  two  statutes  in  our  own  coda 

For  a  considerable  period  the  students  and  masters  of|J[j^^" 
grammar  were  probably,  in  point  of  numbers,  by  far  the  most  jl^Jil^ 
important  element  in  the  university,  but  they  receive  quite  a  b^M'o'nn^ 
secondary  amount  of  consideration  in  the  ancient  statutes.  um«  or  um 
The  career  of  the  arts  student,  on  the  other  hand,  is  to  be  •«•■ 
traced  with  tolerable  precision,  and,  with  the  aollateral  aid 
afforded  by  the  statutes  of  Paris  and  Oxford,  we  are  enabled 
to  give  a  fairly  trustworthy  sketch  of  such  a  career  in  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries.     There  is  good  reason 
however  for  supposing  that  originally  the  masters  and  stu- 
dents of  grammar  were  not  looked  upon  as  occupying  an 
essentially  inferior  position  ;  their  decline  in  estimation  was  omw^j** 
probably  the  result   of  those   new  additions  to  university  "^  ""»<■ 
learning  which  have  occupied   our   attention   in  preceding 
chapters.      With  the  introduction   of  that  portion   of  the 
Organon  which  was  known  as  the  Noiu  Ara,  logic,  the  second 
branch  of  the  trivium,  began  to  engross  a  much  larger  amount 
of  the  student's  time.     To  this  succeeded  the  SumviutiB  of 
Pctrus  Hispanus,  and  logic  was  crowned  in  the  schools  as 
the  mistress  of  arts,  the  science  of  sciences.     In  the  mean 
time  the  stores  of  I^tin  literature  had  been  but  slightly  aug- 
mented.    Discoveries  like  those  with  which   Petrarch   was 


344  MEDI^SVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 

CHAP.  IT*  startling  the  learned  of  Italy,  failed  for  a  long  time  to  awaken 
any  interest  in  the  northern  universities.  The  splendid 
library  which  duke  Humphrey  bequeathed  to  Oxford,  though 
received  with  profuse  expressions  of  gratitude,  was  valued  not 
for  its  additions  to  the  known  literature  of  antiquity  but  for 
its  richness  in  mediaeval  theology.  Hence  the  grammarian's 
art  declined  relatively  in  value,  and  the  study  of  logic  over- 
shadowed all  the  rest.  With  the  sixteenth  century  the 
balance  was  readjusted ;  the  grammarian  along  with  the 
rhetorician  claimed  equal  honours  with  the  logician,  and  the 
course  of  the  grammar  student  was  correspondingly  extended\ 
During  the  latter  part  of  the  Middle  Ages  however  it  was 
undoubtedly  the  dialectician's  art  that  was  the  chief  object 
of  the  scholar's  reverence  and  ambition.  A  course  of  study, 
moreover,  in  but  one  subject  and  occupying  but  three  years, 
was  obviously  not  entitled  to  the  same  consideration  as  a 
seven  years'  course  extending  through  the  trxvium  and  quad- 
rivivm.  Thus  the  masters  and  scholars  in  grammar  grad- 
ually subsided  into  acknowledged  inferiority  to  those  in  arts, 
an  inferiority  which  is  formally  recognised  in  the  statute 
requiring  that  the  funeral  of  a  regent  master  of  arts  or  of  a 
scholar  in  that  faculty  shall  be  attended  by  the  chancellor 
and  the  regents,  and  at  the  same  time  expressly  declaring 
that  masters  and  scholars  of  grammar  are  not  entitled  to 
such  an  honour'.    The  grammarian  indeed  in  those  days  was 

■MTCthMift  nothing  more  than  a  schoolmaster,  and  the  estimation  in 
which  that  vocation  was  held  had  perhaps  reached  its  lowest 
point.  The  extended  sense  in  which  the  term  grammaticus 
had  been  originally  understood,  and  in  which  it  was  again 
before  very  long  to  be  employed,  did  not  apply  to  the  master 
of  a  granmiar  school  in  the  fourteenth  century.  He  taught 
only  schoolboys,  and  they  learned  only  the  elements.  It  was 
sadly  significant  moreover  of  the  character  of  his  vocation 
that  every  inceptor  in  grammar  received  a  'palmer'  (ferule), 

^  The  last  degree  in  grammar  at  torum^  *illi8  tantnmmodo  ezceptis, 

Cambridge  was  conferred  in  the  year  qni  artem  solam  doeent  vel  andiimt 

154S.    Peaoook,    OhurvaHoiu^   etc.  grammatioam,  ad  quorum  ezequiaa 

Append,  p.  xzz  note.  nisi  ex  derotione  son  veniant  snpra 

*  Statate  178,  De  ExequiU  Defunc-  diet!.'    DoeumenU,  z  404. 


THE  ARTS  FACULTY. 


345 


and  a  rod,  and  then  proceeded  to  fiog  a  boy  publicly  in  the  c 
schools'.  Heoce  Erasmus  in  his  Encomium  Moria,  dear  as  „ 
the  cause  of  Latin  learning  was  to  his  heart,  does  not  hesitate  & 
to  satirize  the  grammarians  of  his  time  as  '  a  race  of  all  men 
the  most  miserable,  who  grow  old  at  their  work  surrounded 
by  herds  of  boys,  deafened  by  continual  uproar,  and  poisoned 
by  a  close,  foul  atmosphere ;  satisfied  however  so  long  as 
they  can  overawe  the  terrified  throng  by  the  terrors  of  their 
look  and  speech,  and,  while  they  cut  them  to  pieces  with 
ferule,  birch,  and  thong,  gratify  their  own  merciless  natures 
ut  pleasure/  Similarly,  in  a  letter  written  somewhat  later, 
he  tells  113  what  difficulty  he  encountered  when  he  sought 
to  find  at  Cambridge  a  second  master  for  Colet's  newly 
founded  school  at  St  Paul's,  and  how  a  college  don,  whom  he 
consulted  on  the  subject,  aneeringly  rejoined, — '  Who  would 
put  up  with  the  life  of  a  schoolmaster  who  could  get  his 
living  in  any  other  way'  ?' 

From  the  career  and  prospects  of  a  grammar  student  we  k 
may  now  proceed  to  examine  those  of  the  student  in  arts',  n 
As  the  university  gathered  its  members  from  all  parts  of  the 
kingdom  and  many  of  the  students  came  from  districts  a 


>  'Then  Bhall  tbe  Bedell  pmray 
lor  ererj  master  in  Gramer  a  shrewde 
Boj,  *hoiD  tbe  maater  in  Onuner 
■hall  bete  openlje  in  tbe  Scotjs,  and 
the  master  in  Gramer  efaall  give  the 
Boye  a  Orote  for  hya  Labour,  and 
anotber  Grots  to  hym  that  proTjdeth 
the  Bode  and  the  Palmer  etc.  de  tin- 
gulit.  And  thus  endythe  the  Acte  in 
that  FacaJtye.'  Stolcci'  Book,  Pea- 
cock,   Obttrvalioiu,   Append.  A,    p. 

•  Seebohm,  Oifard  Rfformen,  220*. 
See  aleo  Mr  Anatey's  remarks.  Ma- 
ftimtnta  Acadtmica,  p.  liiiJ.  It  is 
■omevbat  BiupriBing,  when  snchwaa 
the  prevailing  estimate  of  tbe  gram- 
marian's function,  to  find  that  there 
were  notwithBtandlng  enlhusiastB  in 
the  purely  technical  branch  of  the 
Stndy.  The  following  description  for 
initance  might  almost  serve  for  tbe 
original  of  tbe  character  which  Hr 
Browning  baa  so  powerfully  delineat- 
ed in  hii  QrammariaK'i  Funtral: — 
'KoTi  qnendam  rahnexflmrm,  Qiti- 


onm, -Latinnm,  matbematioam,  phi- 
losophnm,  medicnm,  col  ravra  fiiun- 
XiKw,  jam  seiagenaiino),  qnl  tet«rj« 
rebuB  omisBis,  annis  pins  viginti  *e 
toriiDet  ao  discrnciat  in  gmmmatica, 
prorsoa  felicem  se  fore  ratos  si  tam- 
dia  liceat  vivere  donee  certo  statnat 
qnomodo  distingnendn  sint  oeto  par- 
tes orationis,  qaod  hactenna  nemo 
Grfficoram  ant  Latinomm  ad  plenom 
prsstare  volnit.'  Encomium  ttorite. 
.  '  It  IB  difficult  to  form  any  very 
exact  conclaBion  with  reepeet  to  tbe 
estimation  in  which  the  adrantagea 
of  a  university  edaoation  were  held 
in  these  times.  Mi  Anstey  is  of  opi- 
nion that  a  lad  was  sent  to  Oxford  or 
Cambridge  when  he  seemed  '  fit  for 
nothing  else.'  Professor  Bogeis  says, 
'  There  was  as  keen  an  ambition  in 
those  days  among  the  small  proprie- 
tors to  send  one  of  their  sons  to  the 
muTerdtj,  as  there  is  now  in  Inland 
to  equip  a  boy  at  Haynootli.*  Hit- 
torieal  QUamingf,  Snd  MtiM,  p>  17. 


346 


MEDIiEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 


^^^'  !▼'  week's  journey  remote,   it   was   customary  for  parents   to 
entrust  their  sons  to  the  care  of  a  'fetcher/  who  after  making 
a  preliminary  tour  in  order  to  form  his  party,  which  often 
numbered  upwards  of  twenty,  proceeded  by  the  most  direct 
road  to  Cambridge.    ftJn  his  arrival  two  courses  were  open  to 
the  youthful  freshman : — he  might  either  attach  himself  to 
one  of  the  religious  foundations,  in  which  case  his  career 
for  life  might  be  looked  upon  as  practically  decided ;  or  he 
might  enter  himself  under  a  resident  master,  as  intending  to 
take  holy  orders,  or  perhaps,  though  such  instances  were 
probably  confined  to  the  nobility,  as  a  simple  layman.     In  no 
case  however  was  he  permitted  to  remain  in  residence  except 
under  the  surveillance  of  a  superior*.     Unless  it  was  the 
design  of  his  parents  that  he  should  follow  the  religious  life, 
he  would  probably  before  setting  out  have  been  fully  warned 
against  the  allurements  of  all  Franciscans  and  Dominicans, 
until  a  friar  had  come  to  be  regarded  by  him  as  a  kind  of  ogre, 
and  he  would  hasten  with  as  little  delay  as  possible  to  put 
himself  under  the  protection  of  a  master.     The  disparity  of 
age  between  master  and  pupil  was  generally  less  than  at  the 
ATcng^tge  present  day :  the   former  would  often   not  be   more  than 
twenty-one,  the  latter  not  more  than  fourteen   or  fifteen; 
consequently  their  relations  were  of  much  less  formal  charac- 
ter, and  the  selection,  so  far  as  the  scholar  was  concerned,  a 
more  important  matter.     A  scholar  from  the  south  chose  a 
master  from  the  same  latitude ;  if  he  could  succeed  in  meet- 
ing with  one  from  the  same  county  he  considered  himself  yet 
more  fortunate ;  if  aspiring  to  become  a  canonist  or  a  civilian 
he  would  naturally  seek  for  a  master  also  engaged  upon  such 
studies.     The  master  in  turn  was  expected  to  interest  him- 
self in  his  pupil ;  no  scholar  was  to  be  rudely  repulsed  on  the 
score  of  poverty  ;  if  unable  to  pay  for  both  lodging  and 


cnkiy. 

llMterand 

seboUur. 


1  Statute  42,  De  Immunit^iU  Scho- 
l.Trium.  'Indignnin  esse  judicamus 
at  qnifl  scholarem  tneator,  qui  cer- 
tmn  magLHtrnm  infra  xv  dies  post 
ejns  Ingresstun  in  nniversitate  non 
habnerit  ant  nomen  snom  infra  tem- 
pos prelibatnm  in  matricnla  magis- 
tri  soi  redigere  non  onraverit,  etc' 


DoeumentSy  i  332.  This  statute  which 
was  promulgated  in  the  fifteenth  of 
Henry  iii  is  evidently  an  echo  of  that 
of  the  university  of  Paris  passed  six- 
teen years  before  by  Robert  de  Gour- 
9on.  *Nullii8  sit  scholariB  Faiisius 
qui  certnm  magistnun  non  habeat.' 
Bnlteas,  m  82. 


THE  ABTS  FACULTY. 


347 


tuition  he  often  rendered  an  equivalent  in  the  Bhape  of  veiy  c 
humble  services ;  he  waited  at  table,  went  on  errands,  and, 
if  we  may  trust  the  authority  of  the  Pseudo-Boethius,  was 
often  rewarded  by  his  master's  lefVoff  garment«j  The  aids  ^ 
held  out  by  the  university  were  then  but  few.  There  were  " 
some  nine  or  ten  poorly  endowed  foundations,  one  or  two 
university  exhibitions,  and  finally  the  university  chest,  from 
which,  as  a  la^t  resource,  the  hard-pinched  student  might 
borrow  if  he  had  aught  to  pledge'.  The  hostel  where  be 
resided  protected  him  from  positive  extortion,  but  he  was  still 
under  the  necessity  of  making  certain  payments  towards  the 
expenses.  The  wealthier  class  appear  to  have  been  under  no 
pecuniary  obligations  whatever.  Wlieu  therefore  a  scholar's 
funds  entirely  failed  him,  and  his  Sentences  or  his  Summulce, 
his  Venetian  cutler}',  and  his  winter  cloak  had  all  found 
their  way  into  the  proctor's  hands  as  security  for  monies 
advanced,  he  was  compelled  to  have  recourse  to  other  means. 
His  academic  life  was  far  from  being  considered  to  preclude 
the  idea  of  manual  labour.  It  has  been  conjectured,  by  a 
high  authority,  that  the  long  vacation  was  originally  designed 
to  allow  of  members  of  the  universities  assisting  in  the  then 
all-important  operation  of  the  ingathering  of  the  harvest*. 
But  however  this  may  have  been,  there  was  a  Eftr  more  p. 
popular  method  of  replenishing  an  empty  purse,'  a  method  ui 
which  the  example  of  the  Mendicants  had  rendered  all  but 
imiversal,  and  this  was  no  other  than  begging  on  the  public 
highways.  Among  the  vices  of  that  rude  age  parsimony  was 
rarely  one,  the  exercise  of  charity  being  in  fact  regarded  as  a 
religious  duty.  Universal  begging  implies  universal  giving. 
And  so  it  not  uufrequently  happened  that  the  wealthy  mer- 

'  Thia  fond  represented  the  ftccn- 
nmlation  of  BDccesiuTe  legnoiea  to 
the  DDivenitjbjperBoiiB  of  opnlence ; 
euh  legBc;  Rppears  to  have  been 
known  as  a  cbest,  and  we  find  arcb- 
bUhop  Anmdel,  on  the  occftaioQ  of 
his  vieit,  inatitutmg  an  enqnii;, 
'whether  tbe  common  chests,  with 
the  monej  contained  and  the  keys 
belongingtbereto, were  careful];  kept. ' 
Id  the  acconnt  of  hia  visitaUon  we 
have  alfo  a  lUt  oi  the  different  bene- 


factions np  to  that  time.   BeeFoller- 
Prjckett  and  Wright,  p.  201. 

*  Ptol«BaoiRog6ia,HiiloncalOleaii- 
ingi,  2nd  series,  p.  U.  Mr  Anstey 
s&jt,  'Those  who  left  the  oniTersity 
probablj  often  walked  home,  and 
even  begged  their  way  aboat  the 
country,  boing,  aa  we  find  from  other 
Eonrcea,  quite  a  nniaanee  MmetimeB 
to  the  farmers  and  othen  at  whose  - 
doors  they  sought  alms.'  Intiod.  to 
Mwiiwunia  AeadfMiea  p,  e. 


348 


MEDIEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 


R«fltrictkoi 


CHAP.  IV.  chant,  journeying  between  London  and  Norwich,  or  the  w^ell- 
beneficed  ecclesiastic  or  prior  of  a  great  house  on  his  way 
to  some  monastery  in  the  fen  country,  would  be  accosted  by 
some  solitary  youth  with  a  more  intelligent  countenance  and 
more  educated  accent  than'  ordinary,  and  be  plaintively 
solicited  either  in  English  or  in  Latin,  as  might  best  suit  the 
case,  for  the  love  of  Our  Lady  to  assist  a  distressed  votary  of 
learning.  In  the  course  of  time  this  easy  method  of  re- 
plenishing an  empty  purse  was  found  to  have  become  far  too 
populai'  among  university  students,  and  it  was  considered 
necessary  to  enact  that  no  scholar  should  beg  in  the  highways 

thepnctioeu  Until  the  chanccUor  had  satisfied  himself  of  the  merits  of 
each  individual  case  and  granted  a  certificate  for  the  purpose*. 

■choto?'*'''  ^^  would  appear  from  the  phraseology  of  the  statutes  that  a 
scholar  always  wore  a  distinctive  dress,  though  it  is  uncertain 
in  what  this  consisted*.  It  was  probably  both  an  unpretending 
and  inexpensive  article  of  attire,  but  however  unpretending 
it  is  amusing  to  note  that  it  was  much  more  frequently 

Amnpikm  f^lsely  assumed  than  unlawfully  laid  aside.     In  like  manner 

tboMnoi^  ambitious  sophisters,  disguised  in  bachelors*  capes,  would 
tt.  endeavour  to  gain  credit  for  a  perfected  acquaintance  with 
the  mysteries  of  the  tHvium ;  while  bachelors,  in  their  turn, 
at  both  universities  drew  down  upon  themselves  fulminations 
against  the  'audacity'  of  those  of  their  number  who  should 
dare  to  parade  in  masters'  hoods'.  In  other  respects  the 
dress  of  the  undergraduate  was  left  very  much  to  his  own  dis- 
cretion and  resources,  until  what  seemed  excess  of  costliness 
and  extravagance,  even  in  the  eyes  of  a  generation  that 
delighted  in  fantastic  costume,  called  forth  a  prohibition  like 
that  of  archbishop  Stratford*. 


^  Cooper,  AnnaU,  i  245,  343.  The 
f oUowing  authorization  ocours  among 
the  ChanoeUor'8  Acts  at  Oxford  in 
Ihe  year  1461: — *Eodem  die  Diony- 
f  ins  BnmeU  et  Johannes  Brown,  pan- 
|>ere8  soholares  de  anla  **  Aristotelis,*' 
habnenmt  Uteras  testimoniales  snb 
BigiUo  officii  ad  petendum  eleemo- 
synam.'  Anstey,  Munimenta  Aca* 
demica,  ii  684. 

'  Mr  Anstey  is  of  opinion  that '  no 


academical  dress*  was  worn  by  those 
whom  he  terms  'undergraduates.' 
Introd.  to  Munimenta  Academica, 
p.  Ixvi.  But  in  statute  42  of  our 
Statuta  Antiqua  it  is  expressly  re- 
quired that  all  qui  speciem  gerunt 
scholtuticam  shall  really  be  scholars 
of  the  university.    Documents,  i  332. 

'  Munimenta  Academiea,  i  360; 
Documents,  i  402, 

4  See  p.  283. 


THE  ARTS  FACULTY.  S49 

It  is  moat  probable  that  it  was  usual,  in  the  fifteenth  cuap.  iv. 
century,  for  arts  students  to  have  gained  a  certain  acquaint-  i^X^^eT 
ance  with  Latin  before  entering  the  university ;  but  it  ia  to  ISSS?™' 
be  remembered  that  instruction  in  such  knowledge  was  not  '^lunu 
easily  to  be  had  away  from  the  two  great  centres  of  learning.  "»™- 
The  ecclesiastical  authorities  throughout  the  country,  espe- 
cially  after  tlie   appearance   of    Lollardism,   regarded    the 
exercise  of  the  teacher's  function  with  considerable  jealousy. 
The  creation  of  new  grammar  schools  was  systematically  dis-  JSSSm 
couragcd,  and  at  the  same  time  it  was  penal  for  parents  to  f^Si^Jj^ 
send  their  sons  to  a  private  teacher.     At   length   in  1431  a      ' 
permission  was   granted  for  the  creation  of  hve  additional  itSL 
schools,  but  these  afforded  only  partial  relief,  and  the  numbers 
at  the  cathedral   and    conventual   schools  throughout  the 
country  were  still  inconveniently  large".     Accordingly  in  the  Pomid^'Ba 
year  1439  we  find  one  William  BjTigham,  rector  of  St.  JohnuoM^ita 
Zachary  in  London,  erecting  a  'commodious  mansion '  called 
God's  House*,  and  placing  it  under  the  supervision  of  the 
authorities   of   Clare   Hall,   '  to  the   end   that  twenty-four 
youths,   under  the  direction  and  government  of  a  learned 
priest,  may  be  there  perpetually  educated,  and  be  from  thence 
transmitted,  in  a  constant  succession,  into  different  parts  of 
England,  to  those  places  where  grammar  schools  had  fallen 
into  a  state  of  desolation'.'     But  whatever  might  he   the  ommiiu 
freshman's  attainments  in  grammar,  it  is  probable  that  aci<idMikDUM 
.  certain  amount  of  instruction  in  the  subject  was  invariably 
given :  in  the  earlier  times  nothing  more  perhaps  was  taught 
tlian  what  we  have  already  described  aa   included   in   the 
course  of  study  pursued  by  a  candidate  for  the  degree  of 
master  of  grammar;  but  in  the  fifteenth  century  there  were 
introduced  larger  readings  from  Terence,  Virgil,  or  Ovid,  and 

1  Knight.  Life  of  Calet,  pp.  282,  3.  fonnde  of  late  over  the  est  p&rte  of 

*  A  literal  rendering  of  the  com-  the   wej  lading   from   Hampton  to 

mon  French  itaisoa  Dieu.  Coventre  and  bo  forth,  no  fertbcr 

1  Cooper,  Aniiali,  i  169.    The  con-  north   ;an  Bypon,   serentie    Svulee 

tempt  iu  which  the  vocation  of  the  voide,  oi  mo,  yet  icere  ocoupied  all 

gramtaalicui  was  then  held  seemB  to  at  ones,  within  fiftie  fCTei  pa»ec^ 

have   cooperated  with  eccleBiastical  bieautt  yat  yere  u  lo  gnte  tearttte 

iealoaay:  BjnghMa,  in  Mb  petition  of  Maittra  oj  Gramar.'    DoeumtnU, 

lot  permiBsion  to  loondOod'sHoiue,  ui  16S,  1, 
tajt,  'Yonre  ponre  Bewohei  hathe 


350 


MEDIEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 


CHAP.  IV,  also  some  instruction  in  the  rules  of  Latin  versification^.  The 
study  of  grammar  was  followed  by  that  of  logic :  and  in  this 
branch  the  Summulm  was  as  much  the  universal  text-book 
as  the  Sentences  in  that  of  theology.  We  have  already  noted 
its  prescribed  use  in  the  universities  of  Prague  and  Leipsic  ; 
Gerson  complains  that  in  his  day  it  was  thrust  into  the  hands 
of  youthful  students  at  Paris  long  before  they  could  compre- 
hend its  meaning';  Beuchlin  when  he  went  as  a  student  to 
Freiburg  found  it  in  general  use  there*.  Its  use  in  our  own 
university  is  sufficiently  indicated  by  the  occasional  reference 
to  the  Parva  Logicalia, — a  portion  of  the  work  which  treats  of 
ambiguities  attaching  to  the  use  of  words  with  a  varying  con- 
notation*; and  if  other  proof  were  wanting  that  the  Byzan- 


^  Mr  Anstey'B  acoonnt  of  the  study 
of  grammar  differs  somewhat  from 
that  which  I  have  giyen.  He  seems 
to  me  not  to  have  given  sufficient 
prominence  to  the  fact  that  there 
existed  simultaneously,  (1)  a  distinct 
faculty  of  grammar  for  those  who 
aimed  at  nothing  more  than  a  gram- 
mar degree ;  and  (2)  grammar  schools 
for  those  engaged  upon  an  arts 
course.  He  has  consequently  repre- 
sented the  grammar  school  as  altoge- 
ther distinct  from  the  arts  course, 
and  the  student  as  only  an  artist 
when  he  had  entered  upon  the  study 
of  logic.  The  scholar,  he  says,  in  his 
valuable  sketch,  *  has  completed  his 
grammar  school  life  and  is  now  to 
enter  upon  his  course  of  training  as 
an  **arti8V^*  I  cannot  think  that 
the  first  stage  of  the  trivium  was  ever 
80  completely  dissociated  from  the 
other  two.  The  existence  of  a  dis- 
tinct faculty  of  grammar,  similar  to 
that  presided  over  by  our  own  Ma- 
gitter  Glomerice,  is  clearly  indicated 
in  the  Antiqua  Ordinationes  given  in 
Mr  Anstey's  second  volume,  pp.  442 
— 445,  where  the  office  of  a  regens 
in  grammatica  is  distinctly  adverted 
to.  The  existence  of  this  faculty  is 
briefly  mentioned  by  Mr  Anstey  to- 
wards the  close  of  his  sketch.  He 
assigns  to  these  Ordinances  a  date 
certainly  prior  to  1350,  and  probably 
much  earlier.  But  on  the  other  hand 
grammar  was  certainly  part  of  the 
*  artist's'  course.  M.  Thurot  says 
that  for  determining  bachelors,  'Le 


livre  de  Priscien,  le  traits  de  Donat 
aur  Us  jigureB  grammaticales^  TOrga- 
non  d*ijistote,  les  Topiques  de  Bodoe, 
furent  toujours  au  nombre  des  livret 
que  les  candidats  devaient  avoir  en- 
tendus.*  De  V Organisation,  etc.  p.  45. 
The  Oxford  statute,  of  the  date  1267, 
requires  that  they  should  have  heard 
the  De  Constructionibus  Prisciani  bis, 
Barbarismus  Donati  semcl.'  Muni- 
menta  Academica,  p. 34.  The  statute 
in  our  own  Statuta  Antiqua  requires 
'quod  quilibet  determinaturus  audie- 
rit  in  scholis  ordinarie,  librum  Te- 
rentii  scilicet, -per  hienniam,  logicalia 
verum  per  annum,  naturalia  quoquO 
seu  metaphysicalia  secundum  quod 
Buo  tempore  ea  legi  contigerit  per 
annum.*  Documents,  i  885.  While 
therefore  there  were  certainly  many 
students  of  grammsur  who  were  not 
'  artists,*  it  seems  to  be  equally  clear 
that  instruction  in  grammar  always 
formed  part  of  the  *  artist's  *  courtse. 
'  *  Apud  logicos  SummuUe  Petri  His- 
pani  traduntur  ab  initio  novis  pueris 
ad  memoriter  recolendum,  et  si  non 
statim  intelligant.*     Opera^  i  21. 

•  Geiger,  Johann  Reuchlin,  p.  8. 

*  The  following  passage  gives  the 
most  satisfactory  explanation  of  the 
origin  of  this  tz^atise  and  its  scope 
that  I  have  been  able  to  meet  with : — 
*Logica  nova...docet  priucipaliter  de 
tota  argumentatione  et  habet  qua- 

tuor  libroB,  etc Logicavetus  agit 

de  partibus  argumentorum  et  habet 
duos  libros  apud  Aristotelem  (i.e.  Cat, 
and  De  Interp.),..de  proprietatibus 


THE  ARTS   FACULTV. 


831 


tine  weed-growth,  as  Frantl  terms  it,  had  reached  the  waters  chap.  it. 
of  the  Cam,  it  la  to  be  found  in  the  scanty  library  of  an 
unfortunate  student  in  the  year  1540,  where  along  with  the 
Pandects,  the  Geata  Eomanorum,  a  Horace,  and  the  Encomium 
MoricB,  the  omnipresent  Fetrus  Hispanus  again  appears,  newly 
edited  by  Tartaretus'.  In  the  lectures  on  logic  the  lecturer 
probably  had  moat  frequent  recourse  to  the  commeotaiy  of 
Duns  Scotus.  In  his  fourth  year  the  scholar  was  required  to 
attend  lectures  on  some  of  the  'philosophical'  writings  of  Hbno 
Aristotle, — generally  it  would  seem  the  Metaphysics  or  the 
Naturalia, — where  Duns  Scotua  or  Alexander  Hales  again  i^Qi 
supplied  the  office  of  interpreter.  The  fifth  year  was  devoted 
to  a  course  of  arithmetic  and  music;  the  sixth,  to  geometry 
and  perspective ;  the  seventh,  to  astronomy.  It  would  cer-  --  ^-i-,^ 
tainly  be  erroneous  to  suppose  that  under  the  laat  three  *'  ■""  ' 
subjects  nothing  more  was  comprised  than  was  to  be  found 
in  the  treatises  of  Capella  and  Isidorus,  or  that  no  advance 
had  been  made  since  the  days  of  Roger  Bacon,  when  accord- 
ing to  his  account  the  student  of  geometry  rarely  succeeded 
in  getting  beyond  the  fifth  proposition  of  Euclid.  We  find 
that  in  the  university  of  Vienna,  so  early  as  1389,  the  candi- 
date for  the  degree  of  master  was  required  to  have  read  the 
Theory  of  the  Planets  (a  treatise  by  the  Italian  mathema- 
tician, Campano  of  Novara),  five  books  of  Euclid,  common 
perspective,  a  treatise  on  proportional  parts,  and  another  on 
the  measurement  of  superficies'.  It  will  be  observed  that 
most  of  these  subjects  are  included  in  the  statute  of  the 
imiversity  of  Prague  adopted  by  the  newly  founded  univer- 


O 


ftntem  terminorati],  ec.  tnppositione, 
•mpliatione,  appellatioDe,  rsBtrio- 
tione,  alienatioDe .  AristoUlea  speciales 
libroB  non  eJJdit,  sed  alii  aatorea 
ntilefl  tractatua  edidemnt  ei  hia, 
qiUB  apatsim  pLiloBophns  in  eois 
llbriB  pOHDerat,  et  lata  bio  edita  di- 
enntui  Vixrk.  Looicilu  to  qand  a 
minoribiu  auloribui  rtiptctit  Arato- 
telii  ■ant  eJiU.'  From  rreface  to 
JobonneH  de  Wentea'a  Exercitala 
Parvonim  iMgicaliuM  leeandamViam 
Modentomm,  Rentlingsn,  1487 (quo- 
ted bj  fianU,  IT  a04). 


1  Cooper,  Annali  i  390.     See  aim 
letter  of  Mors  to  Martinua  Dorpim, 

EriumiEpiitala:,  ed.Ijeydeo,  pp.  IBSTT 
—9  ;  and  Vivea,  Dr  Cawi,  Opera  TI 
148—56.  More,  in  bia  Utopia,  speaks 
of  the  inlulbitanU  of  that  ial&nd  as 
ignorant  of  'allthoBe  mles  o[  rcHtric- 
tiona,  amplifications,  and  EappositioDB 
vei7e  witttlye  inaented  in  uie  small 
Logicalles,  tchycht  htare  tmrtchildmi 
in  tutry  place  do  Itarnf.'  TranaL 
hj  Bobimon,  ed.  Arber,  p.  105. 

*    Kollar,     Staltita     VuiBtnilatu 
WUmuntU,  I  S97. 


332 


MEDIiEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 


The 
BidMlor. 


Original 

MMIfWlty  of 

tlMtena. 


CHAP.  lY.  sity  of  Leipzic  in  1409,  which  we  have  quoted  in  a  preceding 
chapter  ^  We  have  also  evidence  that  at  Paris,  where  such 
precedents  were  likely  to  be  most  influential  at  Oxford  or 
Cambridge,  the  same  subjects  were  introduced  at  neariy  the 
same  period,  though  it  is  not  altogether  clear  how  far  they 
formed  an  obligatory  part  of  the  arts  student's  course*. 

It  will  be  observed  that  we  have  avoided,  in  the  foregoing 
account,  referring  to  the  student,  at  any  stage,  as  an  under ^ 
graduate.  We  have  abstained  from  the  use  of  the  term  in 
order  to  guard  against  the  misconception  to  which  it  might 
lead  The  probability  is  that  originally  bachelorship  did  not 
imply  admisaion  to  a  degree,  but  simply  the  termination  of 
the  state  of  pupildom  :  the  idea  involved  in  the  term  being, 
that  though  no  longer  a  schoolboy,  he  was  still  not  of  suffi- 
cient standing  to  be  entrusted  with  the  care  of  others'.  It 
is  probable  that  as  soon  as  a  student  began  to  hear  lectures 
on  logic,  he  was  encouraged  to  attend  the  schools  to  be 
present  at  the  disputations,  but  it  was  not  until  he  had  com- 
pleted his  course  of  study  in  this  branch  that  he  was  entitled 
to  take  part  in  these  trials  of  skill  and  became  known  as  a 
*  general  sophister.'  After  ho  had  attained  to  this  status  he 
was  permitted  to  present  himself  as  a  public  disputant,  and 
at  least  two  *  responsions '  and  '  opponencies,'  the  defensive 
and  offensive  parts  in  the  discussion  of  a  qucestio,  appear  to 
have  been  obligatory,  while  those  who  shewed  an  aptitude 
for  such  contests  were  selected  to  attend  upon  the  determiners, 
or  incepting  bachelors  of  arts,  as  their  assessors  in  more 
ardent  disputes.  When  the  student's  fourth  year  of  study 
was  completed,  it  devolved  on  certain  masters  of  arts  appoint- 
ed by  the  university  to  make  enquiry  with  respect  to  his 
age,  academical  status,  and  private  character*.    If  they  were 


TIm 
Bopliliter. 


^  See  p.  282,  note  2  ad  fin. 

*  *Le8  r6formes  do  1366  et  de  1452 
proscrivent  pour  la  licence  quelqucs 
liyres  de  math^matiques,  et  d'ahtro- 
nomie,  sans  les  indiquer  avec  pr€' 
cUion.'  Thurot,  De  V Organisation, 
etc.  p.  81.  The  same  indefinitcness 
characterises  our  own  statutes  on  the 
subject. 

'  'Les  reglcments  de  la  Facultc  de 


th^logie  montrent  clairement  que  le 
baccalaureat  n'^tait  pas  grade,  mais 
un  6taU  En  r^alit^,  oe  terme  signi- 
fiait  apprentissage,  Tapprentissage  de 
la  maltrise.  Le  bachdier  ^tait  celui 
qui  n'^tait  plus  ^tudiant  et  qui  n*6tait 
pas  encore  maltre.*  Thurot,  p.  137. 
*  *  It  was  the  danger  of  not  being 
able  to  provide  proper  testimony  ol 
this  kind  or  of  not  being  able  to  take 


THE  AKTS  FACULTT.  353 

satisfied  on  tbese  pmnts,  he  vaa  permitted  to  proceed  with  crap.  it. 
the  examinEition  which  he  must  pass  before  he  could  present 
himself  as  a  queationist,  ad  respondendum  quaationi.  This  n 
ordeal  took  place  in  the  arts  schools,  where  he  was  examined 
hy  the  proctors,  'posers,'  and  regent  masters  of  arts :  as  a  test 
of  proficiency  it  appears  to  hare  conesponded  to  the  present 
final  examinatioQ  for  the  ordinary  degree  or  for  honours,  and 
when  it  had  been  passed  the  candidate  received,  either  from 
the  authorities  of  his  college  or  the  master  of  hia  hostel,  a 
aupplicat  to  the  chancellor  and  the  senate.  This  auj^tHcat  tih 
having  been  favorably  entertained  he  was  allowed  to  present 
himself  as  a  questionist.  Of  this  ceremony,  whidt  was  jhx>- 
bably  little  more  than  a  matter  of  form,  we  have  an  amusiDg 
account  in  Stokya'  Book,  a  volume  compiled  is  the  sixteenth  st^qnr 
century  by  a  fellow  of  Kin^s  College  who  had  filled  for  ^™y 
many  years  the  office  of  esquire  bedell,  and  that  of  registraiy  '^^^ 
of  the  university.  On  the  appmnted  day  one  of  the  bedels 
made  his  appearance  in  the  court  of  the  college  or  hostel, 
Portly  before  mne  o'clock,  crying  '  AUons,  e^na,  goe.  Misters, 
goe,'  and  having  assembled  masters,  bachelors,  scholars,  and 
questionists,  and  marshalled  them  in  due  order,  proceeded  to 
cmduct  them  to  the  arts  schools.  As  they  entered,  cne  of 
the  bedells  cried.  Nostra  mater,  bona  nova^  bona  nova,  and  the 
&ther  of  the  college'  took  his  seat  in  the  respoosions'  cluur, 
'  his  children  standing  over  against  him  in  order.'  The«  the 
bedell,  turning  to  the  father,  said,  Severende  pater,  Ucdnt 
tSn  incipere,  aedere,  et  cooperiri  si  placet.  Then  the  father 
proceeded  to  propound  his  questions  to  each  of  his  childrrai 
in  order,  and  when  they  had  been  duly  answered  he  summed 
up  his  conclusions.  This  questioning  agfun  was  probably 
purely  formal  in  its  character,  for  it  appears  to  have  been 
regarded  ae  unparental  in  the  extreme  if  he  replied  to  any 

,  pertonnanoebroiightwiUiIt  theoMi- 

'0  oannstad ;  leqiient  ftpp]»nM  or  dugraK  which 

t  been  nothing  leenu  to  have  been  the  onl;  gna- 

modem  plutk-  r*nt«e  that  he  should  leaUy  exert 

I    Kchol&r  conld  pronde  biniNlf.'    lutrod.  U>M%mitKenlaAea- 

t«Btimon;  to  hu  fitnau,  etc.,  he  wh  demica,  p.  Iiiit. 

■dntitted  to  mn  the  ganntlet  of  de-  *  The  offloer  who  Teprwented  the 

tonniniiig  without  tmiher  enqnity,  college  on  noli  oeeMJone,  wu  thna 


354< 


MEDLfiVAL  STUDENT  LIFK 


The 
x/     I>e(ernilii«r. 


CHAP.  IV.  of  his  children  and  involved  a  feeble  questionist  in  argument, 
it  being  expressly  provided  that  if  he  thus  unduly  lengthened 
the  proceedings  the  bedell  might '  knock  him  out/  an  opera- 
tion which  consisted  in  hammering  at  the  school  doors  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  render  the  voices  of  the  disputants  inaudible. 
When  each  questionist  had  responded  the  procession  was  again 
formed,  as  before,  and  the  bedell  escorted  them  back  to  their 
college*. 

The  above  ceremony,  it  is  to  be  observed,  was  always  held 
a  few  days  before  Ash  Wednesday:  on  its  completion  the 
questionist  became  an  incepting  bachelor,  and  from  being 
required  respondere  ad  quoMionem,  was  now  called  upon 
determiviare  qucestionem,  that  is,  to  preside  over  disputations 
similar  to  those  in  which  he  had  previously  played  the  part 
of  opponent  or  respondent, — in  the  language  of  dean  Peacock, 
'  to  review  the  whole  question  disputed,  notice  the  imperfec- 
tions or  fallacies  in  the  arguments  advanced,  and  finally  pro- 
nounce his  decisions  or  determination,  scholastico  more'  As 
he  was  required  to  appear  in  this  capacity  throughout  the 
whole  of  Lent,  he  was  said  stare  in  qtuidragesima,  and  starts  in 
quadragesimal  was  the  academical  designation  of  an  incepting 
bachelor  of  arts :  as  however  the  minimum  number  of  dajrs 
on  which  he  was  required  to  determine  was  never  less  than 
nine,  and  the  discharge  of  such  arduous  duties  for  so  lengthen- 
ed a  period  might  prove  too  serious  a  demand  on  the  resources 
or  courage  of  some  youthful  bachelors',  the  determiner  was 
allowed,  i^he  denianded  such  permission,  to  obtain  the  assist- 
j^ra^«i  ance  of  another  bachelor  and  to  determine  by  proxy.  We 
JJSJ^^  find  accordingly  a  statute  which  relates  to  those  determining 
for  others,  whereby  it  is  required  that  those  bachelors  whose 
services  were  thus  called  into  request  should  always  be  at 
least  a  year's  standing  senior  to  those  whom  they  represented'. 


BUtrtin 
fuadro- 


*  Cole  MSS.  xm  215.  (Printed  in 
Peaoook*8  OUervationi  as  Append. 

H 
s  Aoooiding  to    an  early  Oxford 

statute  determiners  were  required  to 

dispute  logic  every  day  except  Friday, 

when  they  disputed  or  presided  over 

disputations  in  grammar :  and  on  the 


first  and  last  days  of  their  determi- 
nation they  disputed  fuastione$,  L  e. , 
probably,  debated  points  in  the  text 
of  diiTerent  treatises  of  Aristotle.  See 
Anstey,  Munimenta  Aeademiea,  z 
246. 

>  Statute  141.    De  DeUrmtnatcri' 
huit  pro  A  UU.    Doeumam,  1 885. 


THB  ARTS  FACULTT.  355 

But  vhile  the  timid  or  iDcompetent  shunned  the  lengtheoed  air.  rr. 
ordeal,  the  aspirant  for  distinction  bailed  the  ceremony  of 
determination  as  the  grand  opportunity  for  a  display  of  his 
powers.     In  the  faculty  of  arts  a  scholar  was  aut  togicits  ant  imponuM 
nullus,  and   every  effort   was  made  on   these  occasions  to  SwMnr 
produce    an    impression    of  superior    skilL      A.  numerous  <i«- 
audience  was  looked    upon    as    essential.      Friends  vere 
solicited  to  be  present,  and  these  in  turn  brought  their  own 
acquaintance :   indiscreet   partisans  would  even  appear  to 
have  sometimes  placed  themselves  near  the  entrance  and 
pounced    upon   passers-by  and    draped    them  within    the 
building,  in  order  that  they  might  lend  additional  dignity 
to  the  proceediogs  by  their  involuntary  presence.     One  of 
the  Oxford  8tatute»  ia  an  express  edict  against  this  latter 
practice'. 

Before  the  bachelor  could  become  a  master  of  arts,  henabowtw. 
must  pass  through  another  and  yet  more  formidable  ordeal, 
he  must  commence.     On  notifying  his  wish  to  this  effect  to 
the  authorities,  either  personally  or  through  the  regent  by 
whom   he   was    officially   represented,   he   was  required   to 
answer  three  questions, — 8uh  gvo, — in  quo  loco  out  vbi, — juo 
tempore  aut  quando, — inciperet.    The  day  selected  was,  under  ^^^9''"  "* 
ordinary  circum stances,  the  day  of  the  Great  Commencement,  "j^j"" 
the^econd  of  July,  and  aa  this  was  the  chief  academical  ""*•"■ 
ceremony  of  the  year,  it  was  held  not  in  the  arts  schools, 
but  in  the  church  of  Great  St.  Mary.     It  would  appear  that 
on  the  preceding  day  other  exercises  took  place  ia  the  arts 
schools,  which  from  their  immediately  preceding  the  day 
of  inception  were  known  as  the  Fm^wtkb*.     But  the  crown- 
ing day  was  undoubtedly  that  of  inception.     As  the  disputa-  Aectmt  «r 
tions   were  preceded   by  the  celebration  of  the  mass,  thei^v. 
assembly  was  convened  at  the  early  hour  of  seven,  when  the 
sacred  edifice  became  thronged  by  doctors  of  the  different 

'  '  Itam,  inhibet  dominiu  Mmeel-  Isnlet  tnhuit,  eea  iis  qiumfliimqii* 

IftrinB,  mh  juxoM  fioonununioAtionis  Tiolentum   infer&ii^  nea  inTite  iD- 

et  inokTcentionu,  ae  ftliqni,  tampore  trftre  oompallutt.'    Mimimenla  Aeo' 

.   dotenuiutionu  bBafailuiOTniil,  ante  dtwuea,  I  ^17. 

o«tia  Mholftram  lUntei,  mu  extra  ■  PMoook,  OUtrvatiwu,  p.  II,  Aj- 

23-2 


356  MEDLSVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 

CHAP.  IV.  faculties,  masters  regent  and  non-regent,  and  spectators  of 
every  grade.       When    the    exercises   began,  the   incepting 

Tbt  FMiMT.  master,  with  the  regent  master  of  arts  who  acted  as  his  father, 
took  up  his  position  at  an  appointed  place  on  the  right  hand 
side  of  the  church.  The  father  then  placed  the  cap  {pUeum), 
the  sign  of  the  magisterial  dignity,  on  the  inceptor*s  head,  who 
would  then  proceed  to  read  aloud  a  passage  from  Aristotle. 
From  this  passage  he  would  previously  have  selected  and 
submitted  to  the  chancellor's  approval  two  affirmations  of 
questions,  which  he  proposed  formally  to  defend  in  logical 
dispute  against  all  comers.  It  devolved  first  of  all  on  the 
youngest  regent,  his  senior  by  one  year,  who  was  known 

TbjFiw-  from  his  part  on  these  occasions  as  the pr(Btxiricator\  to  take 
up  the  gauntlet.  The  inceptor,  if  placing  a  modest  estimate 
on  his  own  powere,  would  probably  have  selected  some  easily 
defended  thesis,  and  the  prcBvartccUar  would  find  all  his  dia- 
lectical skill  called  into  request  by  the  attempt  to  turn  an 
almost  unassailable  position.  He  was  however  indemnified 
to  some  extent  by  the  licence  which  he  received  on  these 
occasions  to  indulge  in  a  prefatory  oration,  wherein  he  was 
permitted  to  satirize  with  saturnalian  freedom  the  leading 
characters  in  the  university  or  more  prominent  transactions 
of  the  preceding  academical  year.  When  this  often  dreaded 
performance  was  over,  and  he  had  fairly  tested  the  defensive 
powers  of  the  inceptor,  the  proctor  said  Sufficit,  and  the  place 
of  the  regent  was  forthwith  filled  by  the  youngest  non-regent. 
On  the  latter  it  devolved  to  sustain  and  carry  out  the  attack 
of  his  predecessor,  and  when  he,  in  his  turn,  had  sufficiently 
tasked  the  ingenuity  of  the  candidate,  the  youngest  doctor 
of  divinity  stepped  forward  and  summed  up  the  conclusions. 
Other  formalities  of  admission  followed,  until  at  last  the 
inceptor  was  saluted  by  the  bedell  as  Noster  magister,  who  at 
the  same  time  pronoimced  his  name ;  he  then  retired  from 
the  arena,  and  the  next  incepting  master  stepped  into  his 
place'. 

HMwyex-  Such  formalities,  whou  compared  with  those  of  the  pre- 

MUM  fttten-  *  *^ 

JjJJJjj^     sent  day,  would  seem  to  constitute  a  somewhat  trying  ordeal 
B0D7. 

^  Ibid.  Append,  p.  xxtI.  *  Cole  MSS.  xni  280. 


THK  ABT8  PACULTT. 


357 


for  a  diffident  man,  but  it  is  probable  that  in  many  iuBtances  chap.  it. 
they  were  r^arded  with  far  leas  apprehension  than  those  by  ' 
which  they  were  succeeded.  It  has  at  all  times  been  a  dis- 
tinctly avowed  article  of  faith  with  the  majority  of  imiTemty 
students  that  the  depression  of  spirits  incident  upon  severe 
mental  exertion  should  be  relieved  by  occasional  if  not 
frequent  festivities,  and  Cambridge  and  Oxford,  even  in  those 
days  of  professed  asceticism,  were  no  exception  to  the  rule. 
The  diSereut  stages  of  academic  {vogress  naturally  suggested 
themselves  as  fitting  opportunities  for  suc^  relaxations,  the 
main  dispute  between  the  authorities  and  the  students  being 
apparently  simply  a  question  of  degree.  Thus  even  the  untMkM 
youthful  sophisier,  at  the  time  of  his  responsions,  indulged  in  ■>*»■  im- 
an  expenditure  which  the  chancellor  at  Oxford  found  it  bhItimt. 
necessary  to  limit  to  dxteenpence' ;  bachelors,  stantes  in 
quadragesima,  scandalized  the  university  by  bacchanalian 
gatherings  even  in  'the  holy  season  of  Lent,'  until  tbey  were 
'forbidden  from  holding  any  such  celebrations  whatever'; 
while  at  Paris,  Oxford,  and  Cambridge,  the  papal  authority 
was  invoked  to  prevent  inceptors  expending  more  than 
tria  millia  Twonetmum,  a  sum  which  as  thus  expressed  in 
the  silver  coinage  of  Tours  equ^ed  no  less  than  £41.  13«.  Id. 
English  money  of  the  period,  or  some  five  hundred  pounds 
of  the  present  day*.  It  is  in  the  highest  degree  improbable 
that  the  average  expenditure  of  incepting  masters  of  arts 
made  any  approach  to  a  sum  of  this  magnitude,  but  in  all 
cases  the  expense  was  considerable.  Presente  of  gowns  and 
gloves  to  the  different  officers  of  the  univeruty,  together  with 


*  Anrtef,  MuMimenta  Att^emiea, 
nftS4. 

*  Ibid.  II 453. 

'  'Jormt  eti&m  in  qnMnnqae  t». 
cnltata  iDceptnri  qnod  oltnl  tria 
millu  Turoneiuinm  argenteonun 
■ea  eoTum  Talorem  in  BOlemiiUta 
oirca  doctoratnm  Ult  nuigialerinil) 
ttabeDdnm  non  eipeodant.'  Docu- 
■VNtf,  I  S79.  pToteasor  Ualden  ob- 
MireB  thftt  this  eUnie  had  ila  origin 
inadeonaor  pope  Clement  V,  mada 
In  ISll,  espeoiaUy  diiaetad  againat 


another  imtanoe  of  the  intimate  oon- 
nexion  that  existed  in  thoae  daja 
between  Paris  and  Cambridge,  tbat 
thii  Etatate  appean  to  haTo  been 
adopted  withoat  the  slighteit  modifi- 
eation  and  even  without  the  trouble 
being  taken  (o  expreai  the  foreign 
■tandard  bj  its  English  equivalnnt. 
In  Wood-Ontoh' the  oath  reqnina 
•quod  non  eipendee  in  ineeptiana 
fai»  ultra  tria  ™iui*  Tttjonenaiiuii 
groBaomm ; '  the  grotti  aod  Ttiro- 
wwM  were  the  Mma.  J>Meoek,  Ob- 
tervatitm,  AfptnA.  A.  ixL 


3o8 


MEDIiEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 


TlMlUgcni 


CHAP.  IT.  their  entertainment  at  a  banquet,  along  with  the  regents  for 
the  time  being  and  the  inceptor's  personal  friends,  must  at 
all  times  have  involved  a  formidable  outlay,  and  enables  us 
to  miderstand  how  it  is  that  we  find  the  wealthier  inceptors 
for  sometimes  incepting  for  others,  a  phrase  which  probably 
implies  defraying  the  expenses  of  the  ceremony  and  there- 
with obtaining  increased  opportunities  for  the  display  of 
their  dialectical  skill  in  the  public  exercises  \ 

When  the  year  of  his  inception  was  completed  the  master 
of  arts  was  required,  if  called  upon,  to  give  an  ordinary 
lecture  in  the  arts  schools,  for  one  year  at  least :  while  thus 
officiating  he  was  known  as  a  regent  master  of  arts'. 

Such  then  were  the  successive  stages  that  marked  the 
progress  of  the  arts  student : — that  of  the  sophister,  or  dis- 
putant in  the  schools, — of  the  bachelor  of  arts,  eligible  in 
turn  to  give  subsidiary  or  cursory  lectures,— of  the  incepting 
master  of  arts  who  had  received  his  licence  to  teach  in  any 
university  in  Europe, — and  of  the  regent  master  of  arts 
who  lectured  for  a  definite  term  as  the  instructor  appointed 
by  the  university. 

It  will  now  be  necessary  to  enter  upon  a  subject  ot  some 
difficulty,  namely,  the  system  of  instruction  that  prevailed. 
The  bachelor,  after  the  completion  of  his  year  of  determina- 
tion, was,  as  we  have  already  stated,  qualified  for  the  office  of 
a  lecturer ;  as  however  he  discharged  this  office  while  his  own 
course  of  study  was  still  incomplete,  he  was  himself  known  as 
a  cursor  and  was  said  to  lecture  cursorie ;  we  must  be  careful 
not  to  confound  these  lectures  with  the  ordinary  lectures 
given  by  masters  of  arts'.  The  staple  instruction  provided 
by  the  university  for  arts  students  was  given  by  the  regents ; 
and  as  the  funds  of  the  university  were  not  sufficient  to  pro- 
vide this  instruction  gratis,  while  the  majority  of  the  students 


LectOTM. 


Lacturinv 
ordinane 
eur§orie 

(wtttnork.. 


^  Anstey,  Introd.  to  Munimentu 
Academical  p.  xci. 

*  Statute  134.  De  juramentis  a 
VMLgittrU  in  inceptionibuM  et  solenni- 
bui  resumptionibuM  proitandit.  Do- 
cumentSf  i  881. 

'  The  meaning  which,  under  the 
guidance  of  M.  Thurot,  I  have  ven- 


tured to  assign  to  the  term  cursorie, 
differs  from  either  of  those  which 
dean  Peacock  and  Mr  Anst^  have 
been  inclined  to  adopt.  I  have  ac- 
cordingly supplied  in  Appendix  (E) 
the  arguments  for  the  yiew  adopted 
in  the  pieiool  chapter. 


SYSTEM  OF  INSTBUCnON.  359  , 

could  afford  to  pay  but  a  trifling  fee,  it  was  found  necessaiy  crap.  it. 
to  make  it  binding  on  every  master  of  arts  to  lecture  in  his  '  '  '  ' 
turn,  if  so  required, — the  fees  paid  by  the  scholars  to  the 
bedells  constituting  his  sole  remuneration.  The  lectures  thus 
given  took  precedence  of  all  others.  They  were  given  at 
stated  hours,  from  nine  to  twelve,  during  which  time  no 
cursory  or  extraordinary  lecturer  was  permitted  to  assemble 
an  audience.  They  commenced  and  terminated  on  specified 
days,  and  were  probably  entirely  traditional  in  their  concep- 
tion and  treatment  of  the  subject  It  would  frequently  hap- 
pen that  oveiflowing  numbers,  or  the  necessity  of  completing 
a  prescribed  course  within  the  term,  rendered  it  necessary  to 
obtain  the  assistance  of  a  coadjutor,  who  was  called  the  lec- 
turer's '  extraordinary'  and  was  said  to  lecture  extracrdivarieK 
[f  this  coadjutor  were  a  bachelor,  as  was  generally  the  case, 
he  would  be  described  as  lecturing  caraorie  as  well  as  extraor- 
dinarU;  but  in  course  of  time  the  term  euraorie  b^an  to  be 
applied  to  all  extra  lectures,  and  hence  even  masters  of  arts 
are  occasionally  spoken  of  as  lecturing  cursorts,  that  is  to  say, 
giving  that  supplementary  assistance  which  usu^y  devolved 
on  the  bachelors. 

If  we  now  turn  to  consider  the  method  emi^oyed  by  the  ii*aiod> 
lecturers,  we  shall  readily  understand  that  at  a  time  when  »>•  i^nnr- 
etudents  rarely  possessed  a  copy  of  the  text  of  the  author  under 
discussion, — the  Sentences  and  the  Summula  being  probacy 
the  only  frequent  exceptions, — their  first  acquaintance  with 
the  author  was  generally  made  in  the  lecture-room,  and  the 
whole  method  of  the  lecturer  must  have  differed  widely  from 
that  of  modem  times.    The  method  pursued  appears  to  have 
been  of  two  kinds,  of  which  Aquinas's  commentary  on  Aristotle 
and  the  Quastiones  of  Buridanus  on  the  Ethics  may  be  taken 
as  fair  specimens.    In  the  employment  of  the  former  the  phut 
pursued  was  purely  traditional  and  never  varied.   The  lecturer  ""^. 
commenced  by  diacus^ng  a  few  general  questions  having  BMbod. 
reference  to  the  treatise  which  he  was  called  upon  to  explain, 

1  'LeBcour«extisordi]iaitw4tMei)t  ment.'     Thnnit,   p.    73.    Sea   alM 

ponr  les  bacheliera  im*  oocaaioD  da  PteTi6a-BoeOaaa,DtDi$eipli»aSclui' 

teenier  on  andiloire  pom  lenr  oul-  larivm,  c  S. 
triM,  et  de  s'exerear  k  I'amalgiie- 


•  860  MEDI-fiVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 

ciiAP.  IV.  and  in  the  customary  Aristotelian  fashion  treated  of  its  mate- 
rial, formal,  final,  and  efficient  cause.     He  pointed  out  the 
principal  divisions;  took  the  first  division  and  subdivided  it; 
divided  again  the  subdivision  and  repeated  the  process  until 
he  had  subdivided  down  to  the  first  chapter.     He  then  again 
divided  until  he  had  reached  a  subdivision  which  included 
only  a  single  sentence  or  complete  idea.     He  finarlly  took 
this  sentence  and  expressed  it  in  other  terms  which  might 
serve  to  make  the  conception  more  clear.    He  never  passed 
from  one  part  of  the  work  to  another,  from  one  diapter  to 
another,  or  even  from  one  sentence  to  another,  without  a 
minute  analysis  of  the  reasons  for  which  each  division,  chap- 
ter, or  sentence  was  placed  after  that  by  which  it  was  imme- 
diately preceded ;  while,  at  the  conclusion  of  this  painful  toil, 
he  would  sometimes  be  found  hanging  painfully  over  a  single 
letter  or  mark  of  punctuation.    This  minuteness,  especially  in 
lectures  on  the  civil  law,  was  deemed  the  quintessence  of 
criticism.     To  call  in  question  the  dicta  of  the  author  him- 
self, whether  Aristotle,  Augustine,  or  Justinian,  never  entered 
the  thoughts  of  either  lecturer  or  audience.     There  were  no 
rash  emendations  of  a  corrupt  text  to  be  demolijshed,  no 
theories  of  philosophy  or  history  to  be  subjected  to  a  merciless 
dissection ;  in  the  pages  over  which  the  lecturer  prosed  was 
contained  all  that  he  or  any  one  else  knew  about  the  subject, 
perhaps  even  all  that  it  was  deemed  possible  to  know. 
SaJeetiaa  '^^^  secoud  method,  and  probably  by  far  the  more  popular 

iii«uiod.  Qjjg^  yf^^^  designed  to  assist  the  student  in  the  practice  of 
easting  the  thought  of  the  author  into  a  form  that  might 
serve  as  subject-matter  for  the  all-prevailing  logic.  Whenever 
a  passage  presented  itself  that  admitted  of  a  twofold  inter- 
pretation, the  one  or  other  interpretation  was  thrown  into 
the  form  of  a  qacestio,  and  then  discussed  pro  and  con,  the 
arguments  on  either  side  being  drawn  up  in  the  usual  array. 
It  is  probable  that  it  was  at  lectures  of  this  kind  that  the  in- 
struction often  assumed  a  catechetical  form, — one  of  the 
statutes  expressly  requiring  that  students  should  be  ready 
with  their  answers  to  any  questions  that  might  be  put, 
^according  to  the  method  of  questioning  used  by  the  masters. 


ftTSTEM  OF  INSTBUCnOir. 


S61 


if  the  mode  of  lecturing  used  ia  that  faculty  required  ques-  cua?.  it. 
tioDs  and  anBwersi*.'  Finally  the  fecturer  brought  forward  bis 
own  interpretation  and  defended  it  against  every  objeetion  to 
which  it  might  Appear  liable :  each  solution  being  formulated 
in  the  ordinary  syllogistic  fashion,  and  the  student  being  thus 
furnished  with  a  stock  of  qweationes  and  arguments  requisite 
for  enabling  him  to  undertake  his  part  as  a  disputant  in  the 
Bchoola  Hence  the  second  stage  of  the  trimnm  not  only 
absorbed  an  excessive  amount  of  attention  but  it  overwhelmed 
and  moulded  the  whole  course  of  study.  It  was  the  science 
which,  as  the  student's  Summvlte  assured  him,  held  the  key 
to  all  the  others, — ad  omnium  metkodorum  principia  viam 
habeas.  Even  the  study  of  grammar  was  subjected  to  the 
same  process.  Priscian  and  Donatus  were  cast  mto  the  form 
of  qucEstwnea,  wherein  the  grammar  student  waa  required  to 
exhibit  something  of  dialectical  skill  It  was  undoubtedly 
from  the  prevalence  of  this  method  of  treatment  that  dis- 
putation became  that  besetting  vice  of  the  a^  which  the 
opponents  of  the  scholastic  culture  so  severely  satirized. 
'  They  dispute,'  said  Vives,  in  his  celebrated  treatise, '  before 
dinner,  at  dinner,  and  after  dinner ;  in  public  and  in  private ; 
at  all  places  and  at  all  times'.' 

When  the  student  in  arts  had  incepted  and  delivered  hisriMtin- 
lectures  as  regent,  his  duties  were  at  an  end.  He  bad 
received  in  his  degree  a  diploma  which  entitled  him  to  give 
instruction  on  any  of  the  subjects  of  the  tnviwm  and  qaadri' 
in'um  in  any  university  in  Europe.  He  had  abo  discharged 
his  obligations  to  the  university  in  which  he  had  been  edu- 
cated, and  was  henceforth  known,  if  he  continued  to  reside, 


>  '  It«iD  Btatnimna  quod,  andienUB 
tezttun  in  qtuMonqae  facnltete,  pro 
loinia  In  Mdem  laoalUts  BtatDtd  et 
nqnirita  rite  enndem  andire  teneui- 
tni,  niia  earn  qtuaatioDibiu  joxU 
modimi  nugJBtronim  BOonmi  in  qnn- 
•tionando  nsiUtiini,  d  modm  legendi 
in  «adem  (MolUte  qTU»stionem  re- 
qnirat.'  BUtote  1S8.  Document),  i 
883.  Does  not  the  phraMology  ot 
tbis  fltatnte  offer  Tery  itrong  proof 
that  the  term  ordinarit  did  not  im- 
pi;,  as  Hr  kntiaj  ha*  eonjeotnrad. 


the  emploTment  of  the  oatechetioal 
method  T  OthendM,  trhj'  bo  nmoh 
diaamlMatioa  to  eipreu  what  might 
have  been  oonTeyed  in  a  single  voidf 
See  Appendix  (E). 

■  Dt  Comipiif  ArUiai,  i  &tS.  k 
good  illtutration  of  the  applioation 
of  the  diapatation  to  the  mathema' 
tioal  thesis  will  be  toimd  ia  Baker- 
Hayor,  p.  1090,  in  a  deaoription  given 
by  W.  Chadn  of  Emmanael,  of  an 
act  in  which  he  was  reepondent. 


S62 


MEDLfiVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 


▲xta. 


CHAP.  IT.  as  a  non-regent*.  If  he  left  its  precincts  he  was  certain  to  be 
~~  ""  ~'  regai*ded  as  a  marvel  of  learning,  and  he  might  probably 
rely  on  obtainii^  employment  as  a  teacher  and  earning  a 
modest  though  somewhat  precarious  income.  He  formed 
one  of  that  class  so  felicitously  delineated  in  Chaucer's  '  poor 
clerke/  and,  dark  and  enigmatic  as  were  many  of  the  pages 
of  his  Latin  Aristotle,  he  valued  his  capacity  to  expound  the 
J^jjjjjyi  rest  and  was  valued  for  it.  But  as  in  every  age  with  the 
J£^JJ|J^  majority  of  students,  learning  was  seldom  valued  in  those 
days  as  an  ultimate  good,  but  for  its  reproductive  capacity, 
and  viewed  in  this  light  the  degree  of  master  of  arts  had  but 
a  moderate  value.  The  ambitious  scholar,  intent  upon 
worldly  and  professional  success,  directed  his  efforts  to  theo- 
logy or  to  the  civil  or  canon  law.  As  this  necessitated  a 
further  extension  of  his  academic  career  to  more  than  double 
the  time  necessary  for  an  arts  course,  it  was  perforce  the 
exception  rather  than  the  rule,  and  we  consequently  find,  as 
is  shewn  by  the  lists  given  in  a  previous  page',  that  the  num- 
bers of  those  who  received  the  degree  of  D.C.L.,  D.D.,  or 


^  It  will  not  escape  the  obsenra- 
tion  of  the  reader  that  the  coarse  of 
study  above  described  must  have 
been  attended  with  considerable  ex- 
pense, and  taken  in  conjunction  with 
the  numbers  of  those  who  appear  to 
have  annually  incepted,  with  the 
known  limits  of  the  town  of  Cam- 
bridge in  those  days,  and  with  the 
ascertained  numbers  in  the  university 
of  Paris  at  different  and  earlier  pe- 
riods, can  hardly  fail  to  disabuse  our 
minds  of  those  exaggerated  state- 
ments with  respect  to  numbers  hand- 
ed down  by  different  writers.  Of  the 
university  of  Paris,  M.  Thurot  says, 
'  Le  nombre  des  ftudianU  de  toutes 
Us  Facultii  peut-etre  evalui  en  may- 
enne  h  1600,  et  celui  des  maitret  rS- 
genU  b,  200,  aux  epoque$  Us  plus  Jlo- 
HssanUs  de  VUniversite.*  De  V Or- 
ganisation de  VEnseignementf  p.  33, 
n.  1.  The  numbers  at  Cambridge 
could  scarcely  have  been  much  higher. 
Sir  W.  Hamilton  has  stated  [Dis- 
cussions, p.  484) ,  that  in  the  thirteen^ 
oentuiy  the  scholars  were  certainly 
above  5000,  but  I  have  met  with  no 


evidence  calculated  to  substantiate 
his    statement.    It  was    customary 
both  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  to 
include  in  the  grand  total  aU  those 
attached  to  the  university  as  servants 
or  tradesmen,  and  with  this  fact  be- 
fore us  we  may  perhaps  read  3,000 
for  30,000  in  the  celebrated  vaunt  of 
Armachanus   with    respect    to    the 
numbers  at  Oxford  in  the  commence- 
ment of  the  fourteenth  century.     A 
similar  qualification  wiU  be  necessary 
in  the  statement  quoted  by  M.  Victor 
le  Clerc  (see  p.  ISO),  with  respect 
to  the  numbers  at  Paris.    But  tiie 
exaggeration  of  medieval  writers  in 
the  matter  of  statistics  is  notorious. 
Mr  Froude  {HUU  of  England,  m«  407), 
has  furnished  us  with  some  interest- 
ing illustrations  of  this  tenden<7  at 
a  yet  later  period.    Both  M.  Benan 
and  Mr  Lecky  have  observed  that  it 
was  not  until  the  introduction  of  the 
exact  sciences  that  men  began  to  un- 
derstand the  importance  of  aoouraoy 
in  such  matters. 
'  See  pp.  310,  320. 


THE  FACCLTT  OF  THEOLOGT.  363 

B.D.,  was  much  suialler  than  the  ^nootuagement  extended  to  chap.  tr. 
these  branches  of  learning  might  otherwise  lead  u»  to  expect.        ' 
As  some  counterbalance  to  the  expenditure  of  time  and  money 
involved  in  these  courses  of  study,  the  bachelon  of  dinnity  or 
of  civil  or  canon   law  were   permitted   to   lecture  in  their 
respective  faculties,  aud  these  cursory  lectures,  besides  being 
an  immediate  source  of  emolument,  would  also  often  enable 
a  civilian  or  canonist  to  acquire  a  considerable  reputation 
before  he  became  fully  qualified  to  practise.   The  requirements  omdm  ar 
for  the  degree  of  doctor  of  divinity  in  these  times  desen'e  to  ^^^ 
be  contrasted  with  those  until  lately  in  force.    It  was  necessary 
(1)  that  the  candidate  should  have  been  a  regent  in  arbi, 
i.e.  he  must  have  acted  as  an  instructor  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  secuUr  learning ;  (2)  that  he  should  have  attended 
lectures  for  at  least  ten  years  in  the  university ;  (3)  that  he 
should  have  heard  lectures  <m  the  Bible  for  two  years; 
(4)  that  during  his  career  he  should  have  lectured  cursorily 
on  some  book  of  the  canonical  scriptures  for  at  least  ten  days 
in  each  term  of  the  academical  year ;  (a)  that  he  should  have 
lectured  on  the  whole  of  the  Sentences ;  (6)  that  he  should, 
subsequently  to  his  lectures,  have  preached  publicly  ad  ciervm, 
and  also  have  responded  and  opposed  in  all  the  schools  of  his 
faculty'.     It  was  properly  the  function  of  a  doctor  to  dehver 
the  ordinary  lecture  in  this  course,  but  the  duty  would  appear 
to  have  often  devolved  upon  the  bachelors,  and  thus,  though  B«eb*Knui 
still  pursuing  their  own  course  of  study  for  the  doctorial  ^^^ 
decree,  they  were  known  as  hMici  ordinarii  or  simply  as  •'««<6 
biblici;  those  of  them  who  delivered  the  cursory  lectures  were 
known  as  biblici  cursores  or  simply  cursores;  and  those  who 
lectured  on  the  Sentences  were  known  as  the  SenterUiarii'. 


1  St&tiit«  VH,  Dt  Irutytarit  Im 
Thmlofia.  DocwnenU,  I  3TT.  The 
foUowiiig  qneatioDB  ore  among  tbots 
vhiob  we  find  a  doctor  of  ditinitj 
determining  at  Oxford  in  the  jetz 
1466 : — '  Si  est  porgftteriuni  t  Utnim 
ignis  purgatoiiiu  est  m&terialiB  T  D- 
tnm  pteii*  iofiicta  in  pnrg&torio  sit 
pixns  inflicta  ■  Deo  immediate  lel 
per  nuniitTos  T    Bi  per  miniBtroi.  an 

tnfieloe,  et  tone  ntmm 


per  ftngtlM 


bonOB  Tel  Dulo*  rel  indifferenteiT' 
Aaatej. Muninunta Aeademica,it  716. 
■  It  wonld  fte«m  tbat  BdiniBHion  to 
leetnre  on  the  Benteneei  waa  the  in- 
lennediate  itep  between  leetnring 
curtorit  and  ordinarit  on  the  Bibla 
— ThoTOt  Ukjt,  '  Pour  etre  admia  k 
faire  legon  aor  le  Livre  dei  Smtmoea, 
il  tallait  ioatiSer  qn'on  anut  Mndit 
en  thfoLogie  pendant  Dent  anniM  «»• 
titaM,  et  fait  ^DX  oonn  nir  la  Bible.' 
{Sw  VOrgatiitatiim,  eta.   p.  141.)— 


3^4 


M£DL£VAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 


CHAP.  IV.        The  coui'ses  for  the  doctorial  degree  in  civil  and  canon 

c^^^^!^  lisiw  were  equally  laborious.    In  the  former  it  was  not  im- 

fMoltyortiM  perative  that  the  candidate  should  have  been  a  regent  in  arts, 

but  failing  this  qualification  he  was  required  to  have  heard 

lectures  on  the  civil  law  for  ten  instead  of  eight  years ;  he 

must  have  heard  the  Digestum  Vetus  twice,  the  Digeatum 

Novum  and  the  Infortiatum  once.    He  must  also  have  lectured 

on  the  Infortiatum  and  on  the  Institutes,  must  himself  be  the 

possessor  of  the  two  Digests  and  be  able  to  shew  that  he  held 

in  his  custody,  either  borrowed  or  his  own  property,  all  the 

£»™oI.     other  text-books  of  the  course*.     In  the  course  for  the  canon 

ttudT  In  um 

SSmuJt?** ^^^  *^®  candidate  was  required  to  have  heard  lectures  on  the 
civil  law  for  three  years  and  on  the  Decretals  for  another  three 
years :  he  must  have  attended  cursory  lectures  on  the  Bible 
for  at  least  two  years ;  must  himself  have  lectured  cursorie  on 
one  of  four  treatises  and  on  some  one  book  of  the  Decretals'. 
In  both  branches  it  was  also  obligatory  that  the  candidate 
should  have  kept  or  have  been  ready  to  keep  all  the  required 
oppositions  and  responsions.  It  is  to  be  noted  that,  with  the 
fourteenth  century,  the  labours  of  the  canonists  had  been 
seriously  augmented  by  the  appearance  of  the  sixth  book  of 
the  Decretals  under  the  auspices  of  Boniface  vill,  and  by 
that  of  the  Clementines ;  Lollard  writers  indeed  are  to  be  found 
asserting  that  the  demands  thus  made  upon  the  time  of  the 
canonist  (demands  which  he  dared  not  disregard,  for  the  papal 
anathema  hung  over  all  those  who  should  neglect  their  study) 
was  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  that  neglect  of  the  scriptures 
which  forms  so  mailed  a  feature  in  the  theology  of  this  period. 


while,  according  to  our  own  statutes, 
lecturing  sententiarie  is  made  depen- 
dent on  a  certain  course  in  arts  and 
theology  (see  Statute  108,  Documents, 
X  870),  and  lecturing  biblice  is  in  turn 
made  dependent  on  having  already 
lectured  on  the  Sentences.  (See  Sta- 
tute 112,  Documents,  i  872).  Bulseus 
says, '  Baccalarii  vero  non  ante  licen- 
tiari  ^oterant,  quam  Bibliam  Senten- 
tiasque  ezponerent;  ut  docet  File- 
sacus  in  libro  De  Origine  Prisca  Fa^ 
cultatis  Theologia,  p.  14,  BibUe  our- 


sum  dixere  Teteres  Saore  Scriptura 
tempus  aliquod  addictum.  Ab  eo 
vera  docendi  munere  theologieum  cur- 
sum  suum  ordiebantur  nuperi  Bacca- 
larii cursores;  ao  postea  sententi- 
arum  Petri  Lombardi  libros  quatuor 
interpretabantur.  Hinc  nata  ilia  dis- 
tinctio  Baccalariorum  apud  mi^ores, 
ut  alii  Biblici  alii  Sententiarii  non- 
cuparentur.*    i  657,  658. 

1  Statute  120.  Documents,  x  875-6. 

>  Statute  122.  DocumefUs,  1 876-7. 


STaOJBS  OF  TBE  CIVILIAN  AND  THE  CANONIST.       365 

Id  the  sabjoined  statute  will  be  fonnci  the  requirements  chip.  it. 
for  the  degree  of  doctor  of  medicine'.  Tiw^aitT 

Such  theo  was  the  character  of  the  higbeat  forms  of  cul-  t£^S^ 
ture  aimed  at  in  the  Cambridge  of  those  days;  and  whatever  tt««rt  «( 
may  be  our  estimate  of  its  intrinsic  value,  it  is  evid^it  that,  if 
the  statutory  course  was  strictly  observed,  the  doctors  of  thoee. 
days  could  have  been  no  smatterers  in  their  respective  de- 
partments. The  scarlet  hood  never  graced  the  shoulders  ot 
one  who  was  oothing  more  than  a  dexterous  logician,  nor  was 
the  honoured  title  of  doctor  ever  conferred  on  one  who  had 
never  dischai^ed  the  function  of  a  teacher.  Throughout  the 
whole  course  the  maxim  disce  docendo  was  regularly  enforced, 
and  the  duties  of  the  lecture-room  and  the  disputations  in 
the  schools  enabled  all  to  test  their  powers  and  weigh  their 
chances  of  practical  success  long  before  the  period  of  prepara- 
tion had  expired.  But  of  the  influence  which  such  a  curricu-  bu^u 
lum  exerted  on  the  character  of  the  theology  of  that  age,  it  is  tb»kn'<4 
impossible  to  speak  with  favour.  The  example  which  Alber- 
tus  and  Aquinas  had  set,  of  reconciling  philosophy  and  theo- 
logy, had  gradually  expanded  into  a  uniform  and  vicious 
practice  of  subjecting  all  theology  to  the  formulae  of  the 
Ic^cian.  Hence,  as  M.  Thurot  well  observes,  men  thought 
themselves  bound  to  explain  everything.  They  preferred 
new  and  conjectural  doctrines  to  those  which  were  far  more 
just  but  long  established;  they  deqiised  all  that  seemed 


*  '  Il«m  itfttoimiu  qnod  nnllna 
admiUktiiT  ad  indpiendiiin  in  medi- 
oiiu  niti  jtriiu  in  artiinu  rtxerit,  et 
kd  minm  per  qninqnenniiim  hie  Tel 
klibi  in  oniTerHiUte  tindierit  medi- 
diium,  iU  qaod  nndierit  semel  libro* 
medioiiuB  non  oommsiiliitoB,  Tiz.  li- 
bmn  Johannicii,  libmin  Philareti 
it  pnlsibna,  bbnim  Theophili  de 
urinu,  et  qnemlibet  libmm  IiMO, 
Tix.  libnuo  nriiunim  IsAae,  libnim 
de  dietia  pftrtieulvibni,  librnm  fe- 
brimn  luac,  libram  ViaticL  Hem 
aiidiat  Hmel  antidoUrinm  Niobolmi : 
item  kodiat  bis  Ubros  oomineiitB- 
toa.  Til. :  Ubnun  T«giii  Qalieni,  li- 
bnun  pTogDosticoTiiin,  librnm  apho- 

tonun:   et  qnod  legerit  oonoiia  ad 


minoa  nnmn  Ubnun  de  Uworieit  et 
ftliom  de  pnotiok,  et  qaod  U  «diolk 
■na  faoalUliB  pablioe  et  prmcipBliter 
oppoEaerit  et  respondent,  et  qnod  ad 
minna  per  umnm  eieroitatna  foerit 
in  preetioft:  it*  qaod  egna  notitift  in 
atatnjB  moribns  et  aeieotia  tarn  in 
theories  qnam  ui  praotitm  tnerit  ma- 
rito  approbata  ab  omniboB  maglBtria 
illina  ^oltatia  aeenndiuQ  dapotitio- 
cem  de  scientia  eorandem  modo  sn- 
pradieto:  et  tnno  admittatnr  ovn 
tormam  pnedietam  ae  oompleriaM 
jnraTerit.  Item  atatnimaa  quod  nol- 
ins  admittatnr  ad  incipiendnm  in 
medicina,  nisi  per  bienmom  exerei- 
tatna  (nerit  in  praetica.'  Btatnte  119. 
DoomeuU,  l  875. 


S&S  KKDIMYAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 

CRAP.  IT.  obvious  and  clear,  and  valued  only  what  called  forth  a  con- 
siderable intellectual  effort.  'The  hearts  of  the  learned  were 
dried  up  in  the  study  of  the  abstract  and  the  uncertain ; 
devoid  themselves  of  all  fervour  and  unction  they  understood 
not  how  to  address  themselves  to  the  hearts  of  their  auditors; 
the  disputation  left  them  careless  of  the  homily.' 
couivtitfk  ^p  to  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  it  is  evident  that 
college  life  represented  the  position  of  only  a  highly  privileged 
minority:  the  hostels,  which  had  superseded  the  lodging- 
houses,  were,  as  we  have  already  seen,  far  more  numerous, 
though  in  their  turn  diminishing  in  number  as  the  colleges 
multiplied.  .  As  however  the  college  life  of  those  times  offers 
the  most  direct  points  of  comparison  with  modem  experience, 
it  may  be  worth  while  to  give  an  outline  of  the  probable 
career  of  a  scholar  of  Peterhouse,  Pembroke,  Corpus,  or 
Michaelhouse,  in  the  days  when  the  original  statutes  of  each 
foundation  still  represented  its  existing  discipline, 
^jgygy*  Ajid  here  again  it  becomes  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  that 

2lS5?"*  all-dominant  conception  which  has  already  come  so  promi- 
Hently  before  us.  Asceticism,  as  it  was  then  the  professed 
rule  of  life  with  the  monk,  the  friar,  and  the  secular,  was 
also  the  prevailing  theory  in  the  discipline  of  those,  whom 
they  taught  and  trained  for  their  several  professions.  The 
man  fasted,  voluntarily  bared  his  back  to  the  scourge,  kept 
long  and  painful  ^gils  :  the  boy  was  starved,  flogged,  and  sent 
to  seek  repose  where  be  might  find  it  if  he  were  able.  Even 
tender  girlhood  did  not  altogether  escape  the  pains  thus  con- 
scientiously inflicted.  From  the  days  of  Heloise, — entrusted 
by  her  natural  protector  to  Ab^lard,  to  be  beaten  into  sub- 
mission if  refractory  or  negligent,— down  to  the  days  of  Lady 
Jane  Grey, — mournfully  plaintive  over  the  nips,  bobs,  and 
other  nameless  petty  tortures  inflicted  by  her  own  parents, — a 
feminine  wail  often  rises  up  along  with  the  louder  lamenta- 
tion of  the  boy.  But  with  the  latter  the  severity  of  this 
Spartan  discipline  often  approached  a  point  where  it  be- 
came a  struggle  for  very  life.  In  justification  of  such  treat- 
ment the  teacher  would  appeal  to  instances,  like  those  which 
occasionally  come  under  our  notice,  of  savage  outbreaks  on 


THS  COLLEGES.  367 

the  part  of  tie  taught, — to  John  Scotue  Erigena  periBhing  cbat.  n 
beneath  the  stiluses  of  his  own  pupils,  to  the  monastery  of 
St.  Gall  tired  b;  its  own  exteme8.\  How  far  such  tr^^edies 
were  the  result  of  the  very  system  that  aimed  at  their  repres- 
sion wo  will  not  here  stop  to  eaquire.  In  one  of  his  amuBing  AmiMt 
dialo^es,  the  Ichthyophoffia,  Erasmus  has  given  a  startling  Enmnj^ 
record  of  his  own  experiences  at  Fans.  The  Collie  de  Mon-  JjiJ_~" 
tugu,  OF  Montacuto,  in  that  imiversity,  was  a  well-known 
school  for  theologians,  presided  over  by  one  Standin  or  Stan- 
doak,  a  man  whom  Erasmus  describes  as  notwanting  in  good 
intentions  but  deficient  in  judgement,  and  who,  having  him- 
self been  reared  in  the  stem  school  of  poverty  and  privation, 
believed  it  to  be  the  best  discipline  for  all  over  whom  he 
ruled.  The  scholars  accordingly  hved,  even  in  the  depth  c^ 
winter,  on  a  scanty  dole  of  coarse  bread,  accompanied  oocft- 
sionally  by  rotten  e^s,  and  wine,  which  Jrom  its  resembtiuice 
to  vinegar,  caused  the  college  to  be  popularly  known  by  the 
name  of  Montaceto,  but  their  ordinary  drink  was  a  draught 
from  a  well  of  putrid  water.  Meat  they  never  tasted.  They 
slept  on  the  floors  of  damp  chambers  swarming  with  vermin 
and  pestilent  with  the  stench  of  adjacent  cesspools.  It  was 
the  professed  aim  of  this  regime  to  crash  as  far  as  possible 
the  spirit  of  the  individual ' ;  unfortunately  it  often  crushed 
out  the  life  as  well.  E^rasmus  declares  that  many  high- 
spirited  youths,  of  wealthy  lamilies  and  distinguished  pro- 
mise, sank  beneath  the  treatment;  others  tost  their  sight, 
some  became  insane,  some  even  lepers.  He  himself,  reecned 
before  it  was  too  late  by  the  generous  hand  of  lord  Hountjoy, 
brought  away  not  merely  pediculorum  larffisaimam  copiam, 
but  a  constitution  impaired  by  all  kinds  of  humours. 

Such  is  the  description  given  by  the  foremost  scholar  of 
his  age  (in  a  volume  that  within  a  few  years  of  it«  first  ap- 

*  ■  Sio  ftinnt  dedisoi  fcaooiun ;  le-  Oz/ord  Ftforwten,  S10*-8.  With  Mf«r- 

Tociun  appellant  indolem  generoai-  rooe  to  the  Coll^  de  Hontugo  ]ie 

rnvat,  qoftm  atudio  fnngnut  at  eos  uyi,  'Neqne  two  Ium  aonunemoio 

Mddant  hmbilea  monutniii.'    Com-  qtiodmal«*elimilliaollegio.iedap«n> 

pare  hi*  rerj  dmilBr  mocoiuit  of  the  pretiDin  taw   jndieaTl  iiioii«t«,    no 

trMtmeot  of  a  bojof  wldch  ha  was  lob  ombia  religinnU  hnnma  Mtilia 
witaMM  in  a  lehool  in  this  oonntiy 
pnsid«d  oTGi  b;  an  emintnt  dijine. 
DtihieriMliutitutiidU,!  G06.  BMbohm, 


368 


MEDIiEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 


Mil  MSCOBBt 
•ppMfBtO 


forth  no 

indtniBiit 

dtuEiL 


CHAF.iY.  pearance  had  been  read  and  discussed  by  numberless  readers 
in  all  the  universities  of  Christendom),  of  a  noted  college  in 
the  most  famous  seat  of  European  learning, — a  college 
which  could  boast  that  it  had  sent  forth  not  a  few  dis- 
tinguished theologians  and  men  of  eminence.  Among  the 
number  was  the  celebrated  John  Major,  the  author  of  the 
De  Oeatis  Scotorum,  who  was  resident  at  the  college  at  the 
same  time  as  Erasmus,  and  again  resident  within  a  few 
moaths  of  the  time  when  the  foregoing  description  appeared 
in  the  fii*8t  edition  of  the  Colloquies  at  Basel  \  Tet  this  der- 
scription  appears  to  have  provoked  no  outcry  or  indignant 
denial,  nor  does  there  seem  any  reason  for  doubting  that  it 
had  as  good  a  basis  of  fact  as  those  terrible  delineations  of 
monastic  life  and  character  from  the  same  pen,  which  were 
then  moving  all  Europe  to  laughter  or  alarm.  With  facts 
like  these  before  us,  we  shall  probably  incline  to  the  conclu- 
sion, notwithstanding  frequent  indications  of  hardship  and 
discomfort,  that  the  mode  of  life  at  the  English  universities 
was  certainly  not  below  the  average  continental  standard. 
There  is  perhaps  no  feature  more  uniformly  characteristic 
only  of  our  carlv  college  statutes  than  the  design  of  the  founder  to 

for  poor  •  •  • 

■Mwtt.  assist  only  those  who  really  required  assistance  and  were  in- 
tent on  a  studious  life.  The  stringency  of  the  regulations^ 
and  the  preference  to  be  given  to  those  candidates  who  had 
already  made  some  acquirements,  must  necessarily  have  ex- 
cluded the  idler  and  the  lover  of  licence'.  It  was  designed 
that  each  collegian  should  be  a  model  of  industry  and  good 
conduct  to  the  ordinary  student.  Hence,  while  offering  but 
moderate  attractions  to  the  wealthy,  the  college  held  out  con- 
siderable advantages  to  the  poor  scholar :  compared  with  the 
colleges  of  Paris,  that  of  Navarre  perhaps  excepted,  the  aid 
afforded  was  far  more  liberal  and  the  discipline  consequently 


Oorwurly 

OOUtfM 

for 


^  Ckwper,  Athena,  i  92,  93. 

*  The  wealthier  dtass  of  stndents 
resided  in  the  hostels:  this  is  clearly 
shewn  in  Lever's  sermon  at  St  Paul's 
Gross,  preached  in  1550,  where,  con- 
trasting the  state  of  the  university  at 
the  time  with  that  at  an  earlier  part 
of  the  oentory,  he  says  that  many 


of  the  scholars  who  *hanyng  rych 
frendes  or  beyng  bene^ced  men  dyd 
lyne  of  theym  seluea  in  Ostles  and 
Iimea  be  ^yther  gon  awaye,  or  elles 
fayne  to  crepe  into  Colleges,  and 
put  poore  men  from  hare  lyttyngee,* 
Lever's  Sermone,  ed.  Arber,  p.  121. 


THE  COLLEGES.  3Q9 

more  easily  eoforced.  /The  etandard  for  admisaioa  v&ried  ca^p.  it. 
&om  a  moderate  koowledge  of  lAtiu   to   an   acquaintance 
with  the  whole  of  the  Irivium.     It  was  necessary  that  those  £2^^^ 
elected  should  have  been  born  in  lawful  wedlock,  be  of  good  SaST 
character,  nor  could  a  single  county  furnish  more  than  ajSSm-" 
certain  proporlion.     Admission  to  some  foundations  was  not 
accorded  until  the  scholar  had  passed  through  a  probationary 
test   for   one   year :  the  oatb   of  obedience   to   the  college 
statutes  was  administered  to  all,  and  it  was  regarded  as  an 
unpardonable  breach  of  fidelity  if  any  divulged  the  'secrets  of 
the  house/J   Once  admitted,  the  student's  anxieties  as  to 
ways  and  means  appear  to  have  been,  for  a  time,  at  an  end. 
It  is  a  proof  of  the  youth  of  those  generally  admitted,  that  kiu™ 
although  a  certiuu  amount  of  previous  attainment  was  indis-  ^jji^^ 
pensable,  the  average  age  was  such  as  to  call  for  the  dis-JJJ"***' 
cipline  of  the  schoolboy.     The  '  boys,'  as  they  were  termed,  ^J^^^ 
were  never  permitted  to  go  beyond  the  college  gates  unless 
accompanied  by  a   master   of  arte;   they  were   distributed 
through  the  college  in  threes  or  fount  as  joint-occupants  of  a 
single  room,  which  served  both  as  dormitory  and  study :  if 
convicted  of  any  infringement  of  the  college  rules  they  were 
soundly  birched  in  the  hall  or  the  court     With  the  period  of 
bachelorhood  they  entered  upon  a  st^e  more  nearly  curre-  —'fc'i'w. 
sponding  to  that  of  the  modern  undergraduate.   The  bachelor 
would  be  permitted  to  occupy  a  room  jointly  with  a  senior 
fellow, — association  with  one  of  graver  years  being  supposed 
to  he  more  likely  to  prove  productive  of  order.    The  room,  boob^ 
scantily  furnished,  would  always  be  comfortless  and  in  winter 
often  scarcely  tenable.     There  was  no  fireplace  and  no  stove, 
this  luxury  being  reserved  for   the  hall  alone'.    The  wind 
whistled  shrewdly  through  the  crevices  of  the  ill-made  case- 


1  Bacer,  the  Oermsn  reformer, 
who  reBiiled  at  the  imiveritity  from 
1M9  to  hin  death  in  loSO,  found  IhiB 
form  of  hardship  uluoat  ioKapport- 
«ble.  Edward  ri,  besriuK  of  hia  ill 
health,  prosi'iited  bim  vith  a  Germaii 
Btove.  Zurich  Litter;  u  550,  Even 
in  the  coUsKe  hall  a  fire  appears  to 
have  been  ret;  Epahngly  indnlged 
In.    We  ate  told  of  the  Ikdy  Mil. 


dred  Bnrgtaley ,  wbo  died  in  the  latter 
bait  of  the  aiiteeuth  centuir,  tbat 
*  She  gave  a  some  of  moaej  to  the 
master  of  St.  John's  CoUedg,  to  pro- 
curt*  to  have  lyiea  in  the  hall  of  that 
coUeds  uppon  al!  BOndajn  and  hoUy- 
daye  betwixt  tba  feat  of  all  Sajntei 
and  Candlemas,  irAan  ther  tear  no  or- 
dinary fyrei  qf  Iht  ehargt  of  lb*  Ml* 
Udg.'    Mm-HaTOT,  p.  fiW. 

24 


870 


MEDIJEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 


Utevy. 


ofaooi 
Ubnuy 


T 


CHAP.  IV.  ment  and  the  dim  flame  of  the  oil-lamp  flickered  fitfully, 
as  the  student  kept  his  vigils,  intent  upon  some  greasy  parch- 
ment page  over  which  amanuensis  and  reader  had  alike 
laboured  with  painful  toil.  The  volume  over  which  he  pored 
was  probably  from  the  college  library,  and  it  was  one  of  the 
most  envied  privileges  of  the  collegian  that  he  had  access  to 

n«miieg«  such  aids  as  these.  The  library  was  accessible  to  all  the 
members  of  the  college,  but  only  fellows  were  permitted  to 
take  away  volumes  to  their  own  rooms ;  and  an  inspection  of 
one  of  our  earliest  library  catalogues,  that  of  Peterhouse, 
affords  interesting  evidence,  in  the  different  proportions  of  the 
number  of  volumes  thus  withdrawn  in  each  class  of  literature, 
of  the  comparative  popularity  of  different  branches  of  study*. 
If  from  such  stray  facts  as  have  reached  us  we  were  to  endea- 
vour to  form  an  idea  of  one  of  these  ancient  hiding-places  of 
learning,  we  should  generally  find  rising  before  our  mental 
vision  a  long,  dark,  damp  room  little  better  than  a  hayloft, 
reached  by  a  staircase  composed  of  blocks  of  timber,  placed 
one  above  another,  with  rows  of  rudely  constructed  book- 
stands where  the  volumes  lay  chained,  and  where  the  young 
scholar  might  commence  his  acquaintance  with  Bonaventura 
or  Aquinas.  If  the  volumes  were  too  numerous  for  the 
shelves  they  were  stowed  away  in  chests,  and  sometimes 
exposed  for  sale. 

The  allowance  for  the  maintenance  of  a  fellow  never  ex- 
ceeded the  weekly  sum*,  expressed  in  modem  money,  of  from 
sixteen  to  eighteen  shillings ;  in  some  colleges  it  was  much 
less.   Lever,  the  master  of  St.  John's,  in  an  oft  quoted  passage, 

i>Meriptkm  describes  the  scholars  of  his  college,  then  the  poorest  it  is  to 
be  observed  in  proportion  to  its  numbers  in  the  whole  uni- 
versity, as  going  to  dinner  at  ten  o'clock,  content  with  a  penny 
piece  of  beef  among  four,  having  a  little  '  porage '  made  of 


lifebya 
master  of 
81  John's 
lntli«7«M 
U60. 


'  The  volumes,  as  entered  in  the 
eatalogae,  are  distingaished  as  ea- 
thenati  and  divin  inter  saeios:  the 
libri  logice  divUi  inter  $ocio8  are  29, 
those  cathenati,  also  29;  the  libri 
theologie  cathenati,  137*  attignati 
sociit,  41 ;  the  libri  juris  civilit  ea- 
thenati,  9,  divin  inter  iocioi^  15; 
the  libri  jurie   eanoniei  eathenatit 


17,  divisi  inter  iocioi,  also  17 ;  libri 
naturalis  et  moralis  philosophie  ea* 
thenati,  156,  divisi  inter  socios,  75; 
libri  medicine  cathenati,  13,  divisi 
inter  socios,  3. 

'  The  *communa,*  or  commons, 
were  the  expenses  of  maintenance: 
all  meals  being  at  that  time  taken  in 
the  common  halL 


TUE  COLLEGES.  S7l 

the  broth  of  the  same  beef,  with  salt  and  oatmeal,  'and  oiap.  it. 
iiothiDg  eloe.'     After  this  slender  dinner,  be  continues, '  they 
be  either  teaching  or  learning  until  five  of  the  clock  in  the 
evening,  when  as  they  have  a  supper  not  much  better  than 
their  dinner.    Immediately  after  the  which,  they  go  either  to 
reasoning  in  problems  or  unto  some  other  Btudy,  until  it  be 
nine  or  ten  of  the  clock,  and  then  being  without  fire  are  fain 
to  walk  or  run  up  and  down  half  an  hour,  to  get  a  heat  in 
their  feet  when  they  go  to  bed'.'     It  is  to  be  observed  that 
this  description,  given  in  the  middle  of  the  idzteenth  century, 
describee  an  exceptional  state  of  aSairs,  when,  owing  to  the  rMadwit^ 
rapacity  of  courtiers  and  nobles,  the  college  had  been  reduced  ^-^^^^ 
to  the  lowest  ebb  of  its  fortunes,  and,  to  use  Lever's  own*****^ 
words,  scholars  were  unable  to  remain  '  for  lack  of  exhibition 
and  help.'     The  speaker,  moreover,  was  addressing  a  wealthy 
congregation  at  Paul's  Cross,  and  endeavouring  to  awaken 
their  sympathy  on  behalf  of  the  universities.    We  have  how- 
ever other  evidence  which  may  be  taken  without  qualification.  3?*J£* 
There  is  abundant  indirect  proof  that  Oxford  was  at  this  {^!Sj^"" 
period  considered  by  far  the  more  luxurious  university ;  and 
yet  we  find  that,  compared  with  the  scale  of  living  among 
the  better  classes  of  the  time,  Oxford  fare  was  considered 
to  rank  somewhat  low.     Sir  Thomas  More,  after  the  great 
reverse  of  his  fortunes,  in  discussing  with  hb  family  plans  of 
future  economy,  says,  '  But  my  counsel  is,  that  we  fall  not  to 
the  lowest  fare  first,  we  will  not  therefore  descend  to  Oxford 
fan,  nor  to  the  fare  of  New  Inn,  hut  we  will  begin  with 
Lincoln's  Inn  diet.'     In  hall  and  in  college  generally  the  use  uwpruat 
of  the  Latin  language  in  conversation  was  imperative*:  but  ™™|iIm. 
in  some  of  the  earlier  statutes,  given  at  the  time  when  French  ""g^T 
was  the  language  of  the  legislature,  the  use  of  the  latter 

>  LeTer'B.9miunu,ad.Arb«r,p,133.  Berred  that  the  dinnei  at  Atb  o'dook 

This   kccomit    conveyB   perbapa    to  was  Komewhat  bettei :  and  it  ig  evi- 

moat  readerBanimpreasion  ofgrealei  dent   that    the    students  hod  meal 

bardsbip  than  it  really  implies.  Tba  twioe  a  day.    Ab  tor  firei,  at  a  time 

penny  in  tlio  Bix(«cnth  ccntnr;  was  when  tbe  txte  of  ooal  was  limited  to 

qiiit«  equal  in  Talue  to  the  ahiUing  the  immediate  neigbbonihood  of  the 

ol  onr  own  day.    Heat,  on  the  other  coal  mines,  wood  aod  toil  being  the 

hand,  was  then  tar  cheaper  when  ordinary  tnel,  these  were  a  laiill7 

oompaTsd  with  other  prOTiaione,  and  with  eretj  claaa. 

■  'pennypieoa'wMprobsbl;  Dot  left  ■  Peaeook,  MttrvatUat*,  p.  4,  App. 

tbu  two  Iba.    Then  it  wUl  Im  ob>  A,  not*  S,  p.  v. 

24—2 


372  MEDI.tVAI.  STirOEXT   LIFE. 

oiAp.  IV.  tongue  wap  occasionally  pcrmittod.     An  0.\ford  statute 

this  perioi)  onjntus  tliat  gminiiinr  students  sliall  conatrue  th 

author  into  both  English  ami  Frvncli,  in  order  that  the  lati 

language  may  not  be  forgotuoi'.     It   is  evident  that  t 

scholar  or  fellow  iras  always  prcsunieil  to  be  in  resideni 

F»iio«  n-  and  if  in  residence  to  bo  studyiug.     If  he  abi<euted  himsf 

larnUnn.  uiiles,i  upon  busioess  of  the  College,  the  allowance  for  1 

weekly  expenses  was  stopped.     In  the  course  of  time  he  * 

permitted  to  be  absent  if  he  could  shew  good  reaaon:  t 

supen'ision  of  a  parish,  or  an  engagement  as  tutor  in  a  not 

family,  appears  to  have  been  accept<Kj  as  a  valid  excuse;  b 

the  time  of  absence  was  always  defined,  and  his  return  at  its  e 

piralion.  or  a  renewal  of  leave,  was  iudispensable  to  the  rete 

miitfnin-    tion  of  his  fellowehip'.    If  the  property  of  the  house  increaa 

to^nm^  in  value,  this  iucrctse  was  to  be  applied  to  the  creation 

new  fellowships,  not  to  be  distributed  among  those  already  < 

the  foundation.     Lectureships  were  held  in  rotation,  and 

each  lecturer  retired  he  was  supposed  to  apply  himself 

L-t  a  new  line  of  study.     On  the  other  hand  the  master  of  tl 

CiiUfgo  appears  to  have  enjoyed  unrestricted  freedom  of  actio 

a  fai-t  which  ^lartly  explains  the  mismanagement  that  ofb 

chamcttfrisi's  the  rule  of  some   of  the  earlier  foundatioi 

Though  the  election,  or  rather  the  nomination  to  the  offi( 

was  vested  in  the  fellows,  auil  to  be  made  from  their  ov 

numlter,  this  privilege  was  often  set  aside  by  episcopal  auth 

rity  or  by  royal  letter,  and  au  entire  stranger  placed  in  auth 

romcKT  rtly  over  the  si>ciety.     In  addition  to  this  he  was  capab 

'jiT<'«'-of  holding  other  emoluments,   soinetiiues  even  at  anoth' 

2J^     college.    Tlius  John  Siekling,  the  last  master  of  God's  Houa 

held  at  the  same  time  a  fellowship  at  Corpus ;  Shorton,  tl 

1  JfuHiMfuM   A,-<iilfmifa,  p.   438.  ■  The  (^rlicEt  imtanes  th*!  h 

Ur  AnftfT  rotijf^turefi  that  IbiB  mu-  enine  mulFr  m;  ootice  of  inch  Im^ 

inte.  which  is  wilboui  da(«.  is  a(  leMt  of  abseiice  ia  that  of  Ricbud  Whi 

M  ttirly  ail  lli»  thirU^nlh  wuturr,  lord,  the  'wretch  of  Sion,'  who  < 

II  it,  I  preKQiuP,  liT  a  misprint  that  the  23rJ  of   March,   1197.  receiTi 

he  ii  mailo  (o  »pcsk  t<f  it  ii)  thp  pre-  from    the    master   and    fellon 

faco  (p.liil,il»*niitoneofthi>andplit  Qui-ens'  Cuilcfte,  of  which  he  was 

»t«liiiv*  111  graminar  wliooli:.'  for  the  fcllint,  five  vearB'  leave  of  ataeni 

wholo   •Utiite   wideully  rflaten   to  that  he   'might  attenJ  npon  Lm 

enuunar  atadnitB,  and  hia  marguial  Mooutjoy  in  foreign  parts.'  Saigax 

■ammuT  dearly  impUM  that  aoeh  is  Li/e  ofErtuwm,  p.  61 

tbacaae.  ^ 


THE  CABL  373 

firetmaater  of  StJohn'siWaaalaoa  fellowofPembroke.  LJke  chap,  ic 
Rotheram  when  master  of  Pembroke,  Stoiy  when  master  of 
Michaelhouse,  Fisher  when  presideut  of  Queens',  the  head  of  a 
college  was  often  at  the  same  time  the  bolder  of  a  bishopric'. 

Of  the  sports  and  pastimes  of  these  days  we  have  little  Bpamut 
record ;  but  we  know  the  use  of  the  crossbow  to  have  been  a 
favorite  accompliBhment ;  cock-fighting,  that  'last  infirmity' 
of  the  good  Ascham,  was  also  a  common  amusement ;  while 
from  certain  college  statutes  requiring  that  no  '  fierce  birds' 
shall  be  introduced  within  the  precincts  of  the  college,  we 
may  infer  that  many  of  the  students  were  emulous  of  the 
falconer's  art'.     The  river  again  appears  to  have  possessed  Fuum. 
considerable  attractions,  though  of  a  kind  differing  from  those 
of  the  present  day.     By  legal  right  it  belonged  to  the  town,  nuirtnr 
being  held  by  the  corporation  '  with  all  and  singular  waters,  gopntrtt 
fishings,  pastures,  feedings,  etc./  in  fee  simple  of  the  crown'; 
and  let  it  he  added  to  their  credit,  that  the  men  of  Cam- 
bridge, though  they  might  have  been  puzzled  to  furnish  a 
chemical  analysis  of  the  waters  of  their  native  stream,  never- 
theless did  their  best  to  guard  it  from  pollution,  and  any 
attempt  to  treat  it  as  a  common  sewer  was  met  by  prompt 
action  on  the  part  of  the  town  authorities'.     In  another 
respect  they  were  less  able  to  protect  their  property.    They 
asserted  their  claim  not  merely  to  the  river  but  to  its  pro- 
duce ;  and  in  those  days  the  right  of  fishing  was  aa  jealously 
guarded  in  our  southern  streams  aa  it  is  to-day  in  the  salmon 
fisheries  of  the  north.   Their  rights  however  were  hut  too  often  Tbci^htadi 
openly  and  audaciously  ignored.     Even  the  'religious'  werej^^ii* 

'  lbs  late  Dr  Ainelie,  in  hie  In-  objeot  of  the  toondfttiaD  iteelf  that 

quiry  coneeming  llu  earlirit  Uatttrt  the  MMtaiwosfroiD Ifaefiretii priest.' 

of  tht  College  of  VaUnce  Ifaru,  p.  ThiB  oonclasioQ  enables  bim  to  de- 

376,  a  maniucript  to  whinh  I  have  cide  vithoat  hesitation  that  Bobert 

had  access,  even  raUee  the  qneetion  de  Thorpe,  the  first  master  of  the 

whether  the  language  of  the  earliest  societ;.  nas  not  the  same  person  m 

extant  statntea  ot  Pembrake  College  lord  chaocellor  Thorpe,  whom  BUok- 

absolntel?  reqairea  that  the  master  atone  eipressl;  notes  as  baiiog  been, 

afaonld  not  be  a  laj'man  I     Ha  quotes  oontrary  to  onstom,  a  lawman, 

the  eipression  qui  nulli  facultati  lil  '  The  early  stalntes  of  PeterhooH 

tutrictiu :  bnt  ho  also  observee  that  specify  falconaand  hawks;  St.  John's 

the  omueion  wab  snppUed   in   the  stAtaten  (1616),  e.  21,   canei  aat  ra- 

■econd  edition  of  the  statutes  by  the  pactt  avei;  do,  (1630  and  1615),  c.  3S, 

"tmriM  duM  lumen  iiKtrdot  ftteril.  He  honnds,  ferrets,  hawks,  singing  biida. 

-"-  "  '"  '   "  ■■  fled  both  bj  this  •  Cooper, ^.tnitalt,  tSSB. 

uidbytbeftTOwed  *  Ibld.i268«l]MniM. 


374 


MEDIAEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 


CHAP.  IT.  not  blameless  in  this  matter,  and  on  one  occasion  the  whole 
both  the  community  was  scandalized  by  learning  that  the  prior  of 
reu^ojuand  ggj-Q^^y  3^1^ J  ^j^g  mayor,  after  an  angry  altercation  as  to  oer- 

''  tain  rights  of  fishing  at  Chesterton,  had  proceeded  to  lay 
violent  hands  on  each  other*.  But  the  university  appears  to 
have  furnished  by  far  the  most  pertinacious  aggressonj.  It 
could  never  be  brought  to  see  that  the  Cam  was  not  its  own; 
and  the  patience  of  the  burgesses  was  sorely  tried  as  they  saw 
exultant  undergraduates,  in  broad  daylight,  continually  land- 
ing goodly  perch  and  pike*  to  which  they  had  not  the 
shadow  of  a  claim.  As  a  last  resource  they  farmed  out  their 
rights  piscatorial  to  a  number  of  *poor  men,'  who,  it  was 
supposed,  as  less  able  to  sustain  pecuniary  loss,  would  exercise 
a  corresponding  vigilance  in  protecting  their  property.  But 
the  'poor  men*  fared  no  better  than  the  original  proprietors; 
their  just  complaints  were  treated  with  derision;  their  nets 
were  cut  and  broken;  and  they  themselves,  in  the  indignantly 
remonstrant  language  of  the  corporation, '  many  times  driven 
out  of  their  boats  with  stones  and  otlier  like  things,  to  the 
danger  of  their  bodies  and  their  lives V 
sdiokn  rt-        It  is  not  Uninteresting^  to  note  that  a  custom  of  the  pre- 

quiivd  to  ... 

w£ks^    sent  day,  which  it  might  bo  supposed  was  merely  a  matter  of 

eompAnioD.   obvious  Convenience,  the  daily  walk  with  a  single  companion, 

was  originally  inculcated  by  college  statute*,  while  this  in 

turn  is  said  to  have  derived  its  precedent  from  apostolic 

Jjjjgj^    example.    The  country  in  those  days  was  soon  gained.    God's 

^^^*^     House,  standing  on  the  present  site  of  Christ's  College,  looked 

out  from  behind  over  a  wide  extent  of  corn-land.     The  road 


*  Cooper,  Annah,  i  277. 

*  The  pike  at  this  time  seAs,  es- 
peciaUy  when  of  nnnsQal  size,  to  have 
been  regarded  as  a  great  deUcacy, 
and  the  price  it  commanded  in  the 
market  must  have  made  the  right  of 
fishing  in  waters  where  it  was  to  be 
fonnd  one  of  considerable  value.  On 
the  occasion  of  cardinal  Wolsey's 
visit  to  the  aniyersity  in  1620,  we 
find  in  the  proctors'  list  of  expenses, 
*for  6  great  pikes,  83«.  4(f/;  on  the 
occasion  of  a  royal  visit  in  1522 
*twelvegrete  pyks,  55«.8d.*;  and  in 
1583,  '  payed  for  a  great  pyke  govyn 
in  present  to  my  lord  Monnt  Egle,  if.* 


From  these  entries  it  would  appear 
that  a  single  pike  would  often  com- 
mand a  higher  price  than  would  be 
given  for  a  turbot  in  the  present  day. 

'  Cooper,  AnnaU,  i  853. 

*  *  We  wish  that  the  fellows  who 
are  willing  to  walk  out  should  seek 
each  other's  society,  and  walk  to- 
gether conversing  with  each  other  in 
pairs  on  scholarship  or  on  some  proper 
and  pleasant  topic,  and  so  return 
together  betimes.*  Statutes  of  Canter^ 
bury  Hall  given  by  Simon  Islip,  I860. 
See  also  St.  John's  Statutes,  (1516), 
e.  25;  and  Whitaker*B  Whalley,  p. 
70. 


THE  ElSifa  DITCH.  376 

to  TrumpingtoD  waa  skirted  on  either  aide  by  dreary  marshes,  crap.  tv. 
the  marshes  to  which  the  steeds  of  Chaucer's  scholars  of 
'  Soler  Hall'  broke  away  when  liberated  by  the  too  cumiiiig 
miller.  Beyond  the  river,  at  the  'Badts,'  no  houses  were 
to  be  seen  until  Newnham  was  reached.  Where  many  a 
good  road  now  renders  intercommunication  an  easy  matter, 
there  was  only  a  narrow  imd  often  treacherous  path  teavers- 
ing  long  tracte  of  oozing  mud  covered  by  sedge  and  rushes. 
In  the  town  itself,  the  ground  between  the  river  and  the 
Hospital  of  St.  John  and  Micbaelhouse  appears  to  hav« 
consisted  chiefly  of  orchards.  King's  Collie,  on  the  north 
Bide  of  the  chapel,  occupied  the  site  of  the  present  new 
library  building ;  the  magnificent  chapel  rose  amid  a  wide 
ezpaufie  of  grass  land,  with  a  few  private  dwellings  forming 
a  frontage  towards  the  street  The  site  of  the  present  senate 
house  was  partly  occupied  by  St  Maiy's  hostel  and  was  partly 
a  vacant  space  in  front  of  the  common  schools,  the  latter  being 
approached  by  a  narrow  lane  known  as  University  Street, 
with  houses  on  either  side.  The  encroaching  tendencies 
of  the  waters  were  conspicuous  in  a  stream  of  some  size, 
known  as  the  King's  Ditch,  which,  branching  off  fix)m  the 
river  near  St  Catherine's  Hall,  passed  to  the  east  of  Petty 
Cury  and  Trinity  Church,  flowing  through  the  grounds  of 
the  Franciscans  (afterwards  those  of  Sidney  Collie],  under 
Jesus  I^ne,  and  then  in  a  direction  partly  corresponding  with 
the  present  Park  Street  across  the  common,  until  it  rejoined 
the  river  near  where  the  locks  now  stand.  In  fine  instance 
land  was  to  be  seen  where  we  now  see  only  water, — the  river 
at  the  back  of  Trinity  Hall  flowing  round  a  little  island 
known  by  the  name  of  Garrett's  Hostel  Qreen. 

But  the  topc^raphical  antiquities  of  Cambridge  are  not  hmmIohit 
within  the  scope  of  the  present  chapter,  and  we  must  now  ■^ama 
hasten  to  bring  our  sketch  of  student  life  in  those  distant  SmUTm 
days  to  a  close.     In  looking  back  at  the  various  features  of  ^XSf 
that  life,  its  arid  culture  and  ascetic  discipline,  it  seems  at 
first  not  easy  to  understand  how  such  a  career  could  have 
attracted   large   numbers,    have    excited    such    displays   of 
entliusiaBm,  and  have  nerved  men  to  such  prodigies  of  toiL 


376  MEDIiEVAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 

CHAP.  IV.  But  in  truth  it  does  not  require  a  very  extended  ooquaintance 
^""^  with  the  history  of  learning  to  be  aware,  that  the  subject 
matter  whereon  precedent  has  decided  that  the  intellectual 
energies  of  each  generation  are  mainly  to  be  expended  has 
but  little  to  do  with  the  numbers  of  those  who  may  enter 
the  learned  professions.  In  every  age  there  will  always  be  a 
certain  proportion  of  individuals  with  clear  brains,  retentive 
memories,  and  superior  powers  of  mental  application.  Con- 
scious of  these  natural  gifts  they  will  not  fail  to  turn  them  to 
account  in  those  fields  where  such  qualifications  come  most 
prominently  into  play.  The  abstract  value  of  the  different 
studies  wherein  they  are  required  to  manifest  their  ability 
will  be  to  them  a  matter  of  little  concern.  The  subject 
matter  may  be  congenial  or  it  may  be  absolutely  repellant  to 
the  taste  of  the  individual,  but  his  disciplined  faculties  will 
be  but  slightly  affected  by  such  considerations,  and  the 
irksomeness  of  the  labour  will  be  counterbalanced  by  the 
exhilarating  consciousness  of  success.  When  his  object  is 
gained,  and  he  has  achieved  the  distinction  or  realised  the 
substantial  reward  at  which  he  aimed,  he  will  feel  little 
inclination  for  further  and  more  independent  research  in 
fields  of  science  or  learning  associated  with  the  recollection 
of  so  many  painful  hours.  He  will  not  indeed  be  disposed 
to  regard  his  past  labours  as  time  intellectually  altogether 
misspent,  for  he  will  be  well  aware  that  they  involved  no 
small  amoujit  of  both  moral  and  mental  discipline ;  but  if 
his  studies  have  been  pursued  entirely  with  reference  to  some  * 
ulterior  end,  adjusted  throughout  solely  with  regard  to  the 
exigencies  of  severe  competition,  they  will  have  done  little 
to  inspire  a  genuine  love  of  knowledge  or  reverence  for 
truth.  It  may  even  be  well  if  the  race  has  not  overtaxed  his 
powers  and  left  him  for  the  remainder  of  his  life  enfeebled 
both  in  mind  and  body. 

.  Notwithstanding  then  the  enthusiasm  that  greeted  re- 
nowned teachers,  the  ardour  with  which  disputations  were 
waged  and  the  applause  that  they  evoked,  notwithstanding 
the  fortitude  with  which  many  students  encountered  great 
hardships,  we  see  no  reason  for  concluding  that  the  intelleo* 


CONCLUSIOK.  377 

taal  ambition  of  the  large  majority  of  medieevat  seekers  for  chaf.  vr. 
knowledge  was  in  any  way  of  a  higher  order  than  that  of 
Eubsequeut  periods.  Whenever  the  eagle  glance  of  genius, 
whetherthatofRoger  Bacon,  Petrarch,  or  Poggio,  surveyed  th« 
contests  of  the  schools,  it  detected  the  counterfeit  and  held 
it  up  to  lasting  scorn.  But  while  such  were  the  majority, 
it  seems  equally  reasonable  to  suppose  that  there  was  also 
a  minority,  however  small,  composed  of  those  who  had  been 
attracted  to  the  university  by  a  genuine  thirst  for  knowledge, 
men  to  whom  it  seemed  that  they  could  be  said  to  live,  only 
so  long  as  they  continued  to  possess  themselves  of  new  truth 
and  daily  to  engage  in  the  pursuit  of  more.  And  if  such  a  foaMt* 
there  were,  in  those  faintly  illumined  days,  it  is  hard  to 
withhold  from  them  our  sympathy  and  interest.  We  cannot 
but  feel  what  a  mockery  of  true  knowledge  this  mediaeval 
culture  must  have  appeared  to  many  a  young,  ardent,  and 
enquiring  spirit.  The  feats  of  the  dialectician,  whose  most 
admired  performance  was  to  demonstrate  by  syllogism  the 
truth  of  what  even  to  the  untutored  reason  was  obviously 
false — the  tedious  ingenious  trifling  of  the  commentators — 
what  fare  for  those  who  were  seeking  to  grow  in  mental 
stature  and  to  find  satisfaction  for  the  doubts  within  1  We  ^""^^ 
can  picture  to  ourselves  one  of  this  despised  minority,  some  ^i^mm^ 
young  bachelor  standing  in  qitadragesima,  weary  with  the '™" 
austerities  of  Lent  and  harassed  by  his  long  probation.  It 
is  bis  last  day,  and  his  performance  hitherto  has  earned  for 
him  but  little  credit,  for  he  in  one  who  finds  more  satisfaction 
in  revolving  difficulties  within  hia  own  mind  in  bis  chamber 
than  in  attempting  an  off-hand  solution  of  a  qtuesHo  in  the 
schools.  His  'determinations'  this  afternoon  are  not  felici- 
tous, and  now  be  is  summing  up  after  a  hot  disputation 
between  two  strapping  young  north  countiymen,  each  ready 
of  utterance,  of  indomitable  assurance,  and  with  most  ex- 
cellent lungs.  He  half  suspects,  from  a  peculiar  gleam  in 
tbe  eye  of  the  opponent,  that  the  latter  feels  confident  that 
if  he,  tbe  determiner,  were  in  the  respondent's  place,  he, 
the  opponent,  would  have  him  in  Bocardo  before  the  act 
was  over.     But  at  last  the  task   is   accomplished,  though 


378  MEDIiEYAL  STUDENT  LIFE. 

CTAP.  IV.  his  final  'determination '  is  greeted  with  but  faint  applause, 
and  he  hurries  out  of  the  crowded  buzzing  schools,  thankful 
that  he  shall  have   to    stand    in  quadragesirna   no   more. 
Heedless  of  college  statute  and  apostolic  precedent,  solitary 
and  dejected,  he  seeks  some  lonely  countr}'  path,  troubled 
less  by  a  sense  of  his  recent  failure  than  by  a  feeling  of 
dissatisfaction  at  whatever  he  has  yet  learned  or  achieved. 
If  this  be  all,  he  thinks,  that  Cambridge  can  do  for  him^ 
it  were  better  he  were  back  at  home,  again  guiding  his 
father's  plough  or  casting  the  falcon  in  the  dear  old  fields. 
And  so  he  wanders  on,  until  the  waning  day  warns  him  that 
he  must  be  turning  back  if  he  would  reach  his  college  before 
dark.    The  dull  level  landscape,  we  may  well  suppose,  has 
small  power  to  win  him  to  a  less  sombre  mood.     Communion 
with  nature  is  not  for  him  the  fountain  at  which  he  renews 
his  strength.     The  painter  s  pencil  and  the  poet's  song  have 
never  stimulated  his  fancy  or  thrilled  his  heart.     Yet  even 
to  this  poor  student  as  he  hastens  homewards, — what  time 
the  sun,   now  approaching  the  horizon,   is  gathering   new 
splendour  amid  the  mists  that  rise  over  the  marish  plain, 
while  tower  and  battlement  gleam  refulgent  in  the  western 
sky, — there  rises  up  a  vision  of  a  city  not  made  with  hands. 
And  as  the  twilight  descends,  and  ere  he  reaches  his  college 
gate  the  stars  come  forth  overhead,  he  seems  to  see,  very 
near,  the  mansions  of  the  blest.     He  sees  that  mystic  chain 
of  sentient  being  of  which  Dionysius  and  Bonaventura  have 
told, — that  chain  of  which  he  is  himself  a  link, — vanishing  in 
the  immortal  and  the  divine.     And   he  believes  with   a 
perfect  faith,  for  which  our  modern  scientific  enlightenment 
seems  but  a  poor  exchange,  that  when  a  few  fitful,  feverish 
years  are  over,  he  too  shall  be  admitted  to  those  bright 
abodes,  and   the  doubts  and  anxieties  that  have  harassed 
him  here  shall  be  exchanged  for  full  assurance  and  unend* 
ing  peace. 


CHAPTER  V. 


CAMBRIDGE  AT   THE  REVIVAL  OP  CLASSICAL 
LEARN  INQ. 


Pabt  I: — ^The  Humanists. 

It  wae  at  Avignon,  in  the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth  cen-  chap,  t 
tury,  that  a  father  and  his  son  might  one  day  have  been    — v^ 
seen  standing  by  a  fire  into  which  the  former  was  thrusting  f^wt^ 
books.     Had  the  volumes  represented  the  literature  of  some    *"*' 
condemned  heresy,  aud  had  the  son,  the  guilty  and  obstinate 
student  of  their  contents,  been  destined  to  perish  martyr- 
wise  in  the  same  flames,  he  could  hardly  have  exhibited  more 
emotion.     The  &ther  half  relents  as  he  witnesses  bis  sorrow, 
and  rescuing  two  of  the  volumes  hands  them  to  the  lad. 
'  T^e  this,'  he  says,  as  he  hands  him  back  a  Virgil,  '  as  a 
rare  amusement  of  your  leisure  hours,  and  this '  (the  Rhe- 
toric of  CScero),  'as  something  to  aid  you  in  your  real  work.' 

*,*  In  thia  obkpter  thetooMeaot  infoimatian  toirliichlhkvebeenmuiilj 
Indebted,  in  addition  to  the  origuul  aathon  whose  worka  I  hkT«  treqaeotlT 
MBsnltod,  ue  the  following,  and  thronghont  the  chapter  the  reference  to 
aMh  aatbor  will  be  given  with  merely  hit  nune: — (1)  Hody,  Jk  Oreeu  IUm- 
IHbiu  Lingua  Graea  ImtatiratorHiai  (ed.  Jebb),  1743;  (9)  Boemer,  C« 
Dottit  /fominibiu  Oraeit,  Lipsia,  1760;  (B)  Ambrotii  Travenarii  GeneraU* 
Camnlduieniiviit  Alionanqvt  ad  7p<um  el  ad  Alioi  it  todan  Ambntio  Lati' 
im  BpUlola,  et«.  Accedit  fjutdet  AiKbnni  vita  fn  qua  Hittoria  Litttraria 
Ftomttina  ab  Anno  1199  viqut  ad  AnnuM  1440  ex  ilonmiuntis  potittimum 
lunduM  editii  dtdueta  tMt  a  Lawrtntio  ilehtu  Etnuc9  Acadtmia  CorUmentit 
Soeio,  Fbrentio,  17G9.  Of  these  three  Hody  is  protMbl;  the  best  known  in 
England,  but  his  work  is  a  mnoh  leoi  oarefnl  prodootion  than  that  of  Boei- 
ner,  who,  as  well  as  Uehni,  wtitjng  lomewhat  later,  baa  pointed  ont  not 
ft  (ew  important  eiton  in  the  treatiae  of  the  Oxford  proteasor.  To  these  I 
uturt  add  profesMi  Oeorg  Voigt'a  Tery  able  Tolnme  Dit  Wiedtrbeltbmig  dea 
OlaM$Uehtit  AUertkum*  Oder  dot  tntt  Jakrimiidtrt  dt*  Stamilnnu,  Berlin, 
1869. 


380  THE   HUMANISTS. 

cnAP.v.  It  was  an  experience  of  a  kind  far  from  uncommon  in  the 
-''^"^•-  history  of  early  genius, — a  total  inability  on  the  part  of  the 
well-meaning  but  mediocre  parent  to  recognise  or  to  sympa- 
thise with  the  as  yet  undeveloped  genius  of  its  own  offspring. 
The  worldly  prudence  of  Francesco  di  Petracco  designed  that 
his  son  should  gain  his  livelihood  as  a  professor  of  civil  law ; 
while  the  ardent  intellect  of  the  youthful  Francesco  was 
already  being  attracted »  as  by  some  magnetic  power,  to  the 
neglected  and  almost  forgotten  literature  of  antiquity. 
Effects  of  th«        The  new  influence  to  which  our  attention  must  now  be 

reviTalof 

fljjjgjp^jj.  directed  is  distinguished  from  all  the  preceding  influences 
pwoSSng***  *^^*  affected  the  course  of  learning  by  one  important  feature, 
"*°*^  — its  purely  secular  character.  The  canon  law  was  the  direct 
outcome  of  the  exigencies  and  corruptions  of  the  Romish 
Church ;  the  civil  law  was  the  favorite  study  of  the  ecclesi- 
astic and,  in  his  hands,  as  we  have  already  seen,  was  closely 
combined  with  t!ie  canon  law;  the  New  Aristotle  had  for  the 
most  part  been  manipulated  into  supposed  agreement  with 
Christian  theology;  the  Sentences  were  nothing  more  than  a 
formal  exposition  of  that  theology  as  interpreted  by  four 
eminent  doctors  of  the  Latin  Church.  But  the  revival  of 
classical  learning  involved  the  study  of  a  literature  altoge- 
ther diflcring  from  these :  it  was  of  its  very  essence  that  the 
student  should  for  a  time  forget  his  scholastic  culture  and 
identify  himself  in  feeling  with  the  spirit  of  cultivated  pagan- 
ism ;  *  the  cowl  and  the  gown,'  to  use  the  language  of  Voigt, 
'had  to  be  flung  aside  for  the  tunic  and  the  toga;*  and  from 
the  monotonous  rounds  and  arid  abstractions  of  the  schools 
men  now  entered  into  a  world  of  thought  which,  more  than 
any  other,  may  be  said  to  express  the  aims  and  aspirations  of 
civilised  but  not  christianised  hutnanity,— -whose  whole  con- 
cern is 

•    Quidquid  agunt  homines ,  votuMt  timor^  ira^  volujptas, 
Gaudia,  discunus . 

And  with  this  new  experience  there  awoke  again  a  keen 
delight  in  the  external  world,  an  admiration  of  the  beautiful 
in  nature^  and  an  art  that  fashioned  itself  upon  nature.     It 


361 


w&s  &8  the  shining  of  a  soft  and  bright  spring  day  after  a  chap.  v. 
long  and  uniutemipted  reign  of  wintry  frost  and  gloom'.  — -v— ' 

It  was  indeed  time  that  some  new  spirit  breathed  upon  ^S^^J^ 
the  waters  over  which  the  ancient  darkncBS  seemed  threat-  ^JT^Sffi.** 
ening  to  resume  its  reign.     Scholasticism  was  reaching  the 
length  of  its  tether  with  the  nominalism  of  Occam,  while  its 
method  was  being  exhibited  in  all  its  impotence  by  the  follies 
of  the  Averroists'.     That  method,  as  embodied  in  the  writ- 
ings of  Aquinas  or  Duns  Scotus  in  enquiries  concerning  the 
divine  nature  or  the  mysteries  of  Christian  doctrine,  even 
though  it  failed  to  establish  a  single  conclusive  result,  might 
still  perhaps  be  defended  as  an  invigorating  and  elevating 
exercise  of  the  human  faculties:  but  when  the  pseudo-science 
of  the  Averroists,  while  it  discarded  with  undisguised  con- 
tempt all  efforts  at  demonstrating  the  Ic^cal  consistency  of 
the  orthodox  theology,  proceeded  to  apply  the  same  method 
in  discussing  the  nature  of  the  phoenix  or  the  crocodile,  the 
gubject  matter  no  longer  shielded  it   from   criticisms  that 
successfiilly  exposed  its  radical  defects.     The  prospect  was  gj^Aj 
scarcely  more  encouraging  in  other  fields.    Gleams  of  classic  J2S^'* 
culture  like  those  that  have  from  time  to  time  engaged  our  ""^ 
attention  were  becoming  rarer  and  rarer.     The  Latin  litera- 
ture was  less  and  less  studied;  and  Daate,  happily  for  his 
&me,  had  abandoned  a  language  so  imperfectly  understood 
by  bis  contemporaries,  and  enshrined  the  great  masterpiece 
of  his  genius  in  the  beautiful  dialect  of  Si. 

In  the  prose  works  of  Francesco  Petrarch  we  have  thep*t««*"» 
earliest  indications  of  the  verdict  which  the  modem  mind 
has  either  tacitly  or  formally  passed  upon  the  method,  the 
conceptions,  and  the  aims  of  the  scholastic  era';  the  verdict, 


'  'Die  Itsliener.'  saye  Borckhardt, 
'nnd  die  friilisten  imter  den  Moder- 
nan  welche  die  GcBtalt  der  Land- 
•ebsft  ala  etvae  mehr  Oder  trniKer 
BohoneswniirgeDODiiiici]  andgenossea 
Iiaben.'  See  hia  inlercntin|{  sketch 
of  tbe  progresB  of  this  tendency  in 
the  chapter  entitled  Die  Enldeching 
der  Wtlt  iind  dtr  Mtmchen,  in  Die 
Cultar  der  lUnaimiutct,  pp.  333—83. 

■ '  Leid«r  k«nnen  « ' 


|C,  pp.  33' 


schaftliche  Secte  nnr  ans  Petrarea's 
Scliilderiuig,  nnd  dieser  hebt  sla  ihc 
Ge^er  ollpiu  die  DpgatiTen  imd  an- 
stossigen  Lehlen  herror.'  Voigt,  p. 
62. 

•  What  Voigt  save  of  Petrarch  in 
relation  to  his  entire  volume.  I  majr 
apply  to  the  present  chapter: — 'Die 
Soal,  die  er  aas^^worfen,  hat  Tan- 
Bende  von  Menwhen  lU  ihier  Pllege 
gernfm  nnd  Jahrhandarta  mr  Beifc 


S8S 


THE  HUBIANISTS. 


CHAP.  V.  it  must  be  added,  unaccompanied  by  those  reservations  and 
vJ^Jl^  qualifications  that  at  a  later  period  have  been  very  forcibly 
urged  by  more  dispassionate  critics.  It  is  perhaps  almost 
essential  to  success  in  a  reformer  that  his  censures  should  be 
sweeping  and  his  invectives  unsparing.  When  the  work  of 
reform  has  been  well  nigh  completed  and  the  last  vestiges  of 
the  old  order  of  things  seem  likely  to  disappear,  a  spirit  of 
conservatism  again  sets  in  and  rescues  much  that  is  valuable 
Hisettiiittu  from  the  general  destruction.  Petrarch,  it  is  evident,  saw 
^t  of  hii  nothing  in  the  whole  system  of  scholasticism  that  he  consi- 
dered worthy  to  be  thus  spared.  The  labours  of  the  school- 
men were,  in  his  eyes,  only  a  vast  heap  of  rubbish  wherein 
lurked  not  a  single  grain  of  gold.  He  was  altogether  unable 
to  understand  how  any  man  could  find  a  real  pleasure  in 
chopping  the  prevailing  logic,  and  believed  even  the  most 
famous  disputants  in  the  schools  to  be  actuated  by  no  higher 
motive  than  the  professors  of  the  civil  law,  but  simply  to  ply 
their  trade  for  the  love  of  gain\  The  universities  appeared 
to  him  only  'nests  of  gloomy  ignorance,*  while  he  derided 
the  frequent  investiture  of  the  totally  illiterate  with  the 
magisterial  or  doctorial  degree  as  a  solemn  farce*.  On  one 
occasion,  it  is  true,  he  is  to  be  found  adopting  a  less  con- 
temptuous tone,  and  styling  Paris  '  the  mother  of  learning/ 
'the  noble  university,'  but  this  was  when  the  poet's  crown 
conferred  by  that  famous  body  had  but  just  descended  on 
his  brows. 

It  would  be  a  difficult  and  almost  an  endless  task,  to 
endeavour  to  trace  out  all  the  different  channels  through 
which  Petrarch's  genius  acted  upon  the  succeeding  age,  but 
the  two  most  important  innovations  upon  mediaeval  culture 


andof  th« 
unlreniUM. 


Hhinflnwicti 


bednrft.  Nicht  nnr  anf  alien  Seiien 
dieses  Baches,  wohl  anch  auf  alien 
Blattem,  welche  die  Weltgesohiohte 
der  folgenden  Jahrhunderte  erztihlen, 
wird  der  feinf  iihlende  Leser  den  Geist 
des  neubelebten  Alterthums  and  ge- 
rade  in  der  Gewandung  raasohen 
hdren,  die  er  daroh  Petrarca  empfan- 
gen.*  Ibid,  p.  102. 

^  Rerum  Memorand.  Lib.  i  Opera, 
p.  456.    De  Vita  SoUtaria,  i  iv  1. 


*  '  JaTenis  cathedram  ascendit,  nes- 
oio  qaid  confasum  marmorans.  Tnno 
majores  certatim  at  divina  looatum 
laadibas  ad  C8Blum  tollant;  tinniant 
interim  oampansB,  strepant  tabe,  vo- 
lant annnli,  figontor  osoola,  yer- 
tici  rotnndus  ao  magistralis  biretns 
apponitar;  his  peractis  desoendit 
sapiens,  qai  stoltus  ascenderai.'  De 
Vera  Sapientia,  Opera,  824. 


PBTBABCH.  S88 

attributable  to  hU  example, — the  revival  of  Latin  scholar-  chapt- 
■hip  in  connexion  with  the  discovery  and  study  of  the  writ-   '-v~' 
inga  of  Cicero,  and,  though  less  directly,  the  awakening  of  ^^JJ^^, 
Italy  to  the  value  of  the  Greek  literature  and,  as  a  collateral  m  *■  ■  r*- 
result,  the  resuscitation  of  the  Platonic  philosophy  and  the  "J^** 
commeQcemeiit  of  a  less  slavish  deference  to  the  authority  of 
Aristotle, — admit  of  a  comparatively  brief  dlacussioQ.     An 
accurate  estimate  of  his  more  immediate  infiuence  is  to  be 
arrived  at  only  by  a  careful  study  of  the  writings  of  those 
Italian   echolara    who   adorned   the    succeeding  generation. 
Their  reverence  and  regard  for  his  genius  while  he  lived  And  cnugainUi* 
for  hia  memory  when  dead,  rested,  as  their  language  clearly  "j^*;^ 
shews,  on  a  very  different  basis  from  that  which  has  bus-  SSm^I*- 
tained  his  reputation  in  later  times.     During  the  last  three  "** 
centuries  his  fame  has  been  derived  chiefly  from  his  merits 
as  a  poet ;  the  sonnetteer  has  almost  completely  eclipsed  the 
reviver  of  classical  learning.     But  such  was  certainly  not  the 
view   of  the  generations  to  whom   he   was   more   directly 
Iedowd,  living  as  they  did  surrounded  by  the  trophies  of  his 
great  triumph.     Nor  was  it  his  own  view.     His  poems  were 
the  productions  of  his  ardent  but  immature  youth,  and  he 
never  for  a  moment  believed  that  they  were  destined  to  out- 
live his  later  writings'.    This  seeming  reversal  of  the  original  bmmb  or 
verdict  can  however  be  easily  if  not  satisfactorily  explained. 
It  was  one  of  the  services,  though  by  no  means  the  greatest, 
xmdered  by  Petrarch  to  the  cause  of  learning,  that  he  brought 
bade  the  use  of  the  Latin  tongue  to  something  more  nearly 
approaching  a  classic  standard.     From  the  days  of  Boethius 
down  to  the  fourteenth  century,  we  may  seek  vainly  for  any 
aQthor  who  appears  even  to  have  aimed  at  an  imitation  of 
the  models  of  antiquity.     Medievalism   altogether  ignored 
those   models  and  set  up  a  standard   of  its  own.     It  can 
■carcely   therefore  be  considered   surprising  that   Petrarch 
himself  fuled,  all  unaided  as  he  was,  in  reaching  the  highest 
excellence.     His   Latinity,    though   of  Ciceronian   elegance 
when  compared  with  that  of  Matthew  Paris,  of  Anselm,  or  of 
Dante,  is  still  characterised  by  numerous  defects.     Otamma- 
■  Toigt,  pp.  IS,  14. 


384 


THE  HUBL/LNISTS. 


cHAP.v.  tical  errors  and  even  barbarisms  are  not  infrequent;  the 
>-i^J-^  structure  of  the  sentences  is  often  awkward  and  obscure; 
the  affectation  of  antiquity  often  clumsy  and  overwrought. 
Thus  neither  his  letters,  his  essays,  nor  his  orations  can  com- 
pare as  specimens  of  a  coiTect  style  with  the  prose  of  a  later 
period, — with  the  standard  of  elegance  attained  to  by  Poli- 
tian,  Bembo,  or  Muretus;  and  hence  the  undeserved  neglect 
into  which  they  have  been  allowed  to  fall  by  those  who,  care- 
less of  their  historical  value,  have  chosen  to  set  mere  elegance 
of  form  above  vigour  of  thought.  It  is  only  when  we  con- 
sider that  Petrarch's  merits  as  a  Latin  writer  were  the  result 
solely  of  his  own  efforts, — that  his  models  were  chosen  with 
no  other  guide  than  the  intuitions  of  his  own  genius, — and 
that  his  errors  have  evidently  been  greatly  multiplied  by  the 
carelessness  of  transcribers  and  errors  of  the  press, — that  we 
begin  to  perceive  that  his  style,  when  compared  with  the 
barbarous  idiom  of  the  schoolmen,  was,  in  spite  of  the 
severe  criticisms  of  Erasmus  and  Cortesius*,  itself  no  incon- 
siderable achievement. 
His  senrkes         It  is  scarcclv  uecessarv  to  say  that  Cicero  was  his  chief 

in  relation  to  •'  rt*  *  •iii 

S^ro''""^  model;  to  Petrarch's  efforts  it  was  mamly  due  that,  long 
before  the  more  general  revival,  the  great  Roman  orator  had 
ceased  to  be  any  longer  regarded  as  an  ayvaoaro^  Oeo^,  and 
that  appreciation  of  his  merits  which  culminated  under 
Erasmus  was  first  awakened  in  the  student  of  Latin  litera- 
ture. The  list  of  his  works  that  up  to  this  time  had  been 
known  to  scholars  would  seem  to  have  been  singularly  meagre, 
but  the  frequent  quotations  and  allusions  to  be  found  in 
other  writers  were  suflScient  to  indicate  the  existence  of 
numerous  productions  still  buried  in  oblivion*.  From  this 
oblivion  it  was  Petrarch's  ambition  to  rescue  them ;  in  fact. 


^  See  oriticisms  quoted  by  Hallam, 
Literature  of  Europe^  i®  84. 

2  The  only  orations  of  Cicero  knov;n 
in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centu- 
ries, according  to  Voigt,  were  the 
Gatilines,  the  Philippics,  part  of  the 
Verrines,  and  the  Pro  Lege  Manilia, 
withone  or  twoother  minor  ones.  This 
however  is  an  inlerenoe  from  merely 


negative  evidence :  —  'So  schUesse 
ich  daraus,  dass  ich  nur  diese  Werke 
in  Dante's  poetischen  und  prosai- 
schen  Schriften  erwahnt  gefunden.* 
p.  23.  Certain  of  Cicero's  philoso- 
phical treatises  were  of  course  known 
both  in  Italy  and  other  countries  at 
this  period:  see  catalogue  printed 
supra  p.  101. 


rA 


PETIURCH.  385 

in  his  efforts  to  recover  the  long  loat  masterpieces  of  antiquity  ™*''- ' 
he  represented  vety  much  the  part  of  Richard  of  Bury  in  — v— 
England,  though  far  the  superior  of  his  indefatigable  con- 
temporary hoth  in  genius  and  learning;  and  without  entering 
upon  the  question  as  to  how  far  he  is  entitled  to  be  considered 
the  discoverer  of  any  one  treatise',  we  may  safely  assume 
that  he  was  the  first  who  directed  the  attention  of  scholars 
to  the  value  of  Cicero's  writings,  and  who  kindled  among 
his  countrymen  that  spirit  of  active  research  which  brought 
again  to  light  so  many  a  long  lost'  treasure  and  so  largely 
enriched  the  literaiy  resources  of  Europe. 

When  we  remember  how  superficial  was  his  knowledge  fjl^"?* 
of  the  Greek  .tongue* — it  was  with  difficulty  that  he  spelt  ^'"^ 
out  the  Iliad  with  the  wretched  version  by  Pilatus  at  his 
fflde, — it  may  seem  a  somewhat  overstrained  interpretation 
of  his  influence  to  speak  of  him  as  in  any  sense  the  origin- 
ator of  the  Florentine  school  of  Platonism.  But  if  there  be 
any  truth  in  the  dictum  of  Coleridge,  that  every  man  is  bom 
either  an  Aristotelian  or  a  Platonist,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
as  to  which  genius  presided  over  Petrarch's  birth.  In  an 
age  when  every  pretender  to  knowledge  was  hastening  to 


'  Voigt  Biima  np  the  eonclnuon 
ot  the  matter  in  the  following  temu : 
'  Bo  iat  es  nnn  im  Allgemeinen  kein 
Zweifel,  dssB  Ciceio'a  Werke,  anch 
die  philonophiscben  nnd  rhetoriBcbeii, 
dnrch  Petioica's  Aniegnng  onead- 
lich  mehr  copirt  and  gelesen  vnrden 
als  Torher;  davoD  zeugt  ihre  Verbrei- 
tong  im  Begiime  des  (olgenden  Jahi- 
hnnderts.  Aber  nm  zwei  KJaasen 
deraelben  hat  Petrarcli  ein  nniiiiltel- 
bares  Verdienet,  um  die  Redrn  nnd 
Briefe.  Eineti  Codex,  der  eiiie  Reibe 
von  Beden  enthielt,  copirt  er  Jabre 
lang  mit  eigener  Hand,  damit  ihm 
nioht  die  bezahlten  AbHCbreiber  den 
Text  Terdiiiben.  Mehieie  einzelne 
Beden  hat  er  ant  Reiaen  getunden, 
doch  beROBS  er  Qocb  Isnge  nicht  alle 
diejenigen.  die  wii  jetzt  leMD.  Aber 
welehen  Triumph  empFaad  ei,  ala  ibm 
181S  zQ  Verona  die  Beit  dem  10  Jahr- 
hmiilert  TolligycrBcbollenen  BOgenann ' 
ten  familiiireii  Biiefe  Cicero's  in  die 
Hand  fielen.  Zwu  beaaaa  er  wahr- 
aeheinlieh  damaln  iwhon  diebeidnn  an- 


dem  Sammlungen  dieser  Briefe  nnd 
bktte  bereits  die  tnllianlBche  Epistolo- 
grapbie  in  die  nenera  Literatox  ein- 
Bcfiihrt,  in  der  de  eine  groBsartiga 
Bolle  ZQ  spiolen  bernten  war,  aber 
del  nene  Fond  gab  dieBem  wioh- 
tigen  BelebnngBmittel  des  hnmanis- 
tieoben  TerkehrH  lotort  einen  erhohe- 
teren  Scbwong  nnd  hat  so  eine  nn- 
mesBbare  Wirknng  geUbt,'  p.  97.  Bee 
also  MehuB,  pp.  913-30. 

•  The  manner  in  wbich  PilfttUB, 
wboM  knowledge  of  Latin  vas  Indi- 
CTonsl;  ioBitCQoient,  rendered  the 
opening  lines  of  the  Iliad,  will  serve 
as  a  speeimen : — 

'Jram  cam  Dta  Ftlida  AchUlU 
I  ComiplibUeni,  qua  innumerabiUt 
GriKu  doloret  fotuit.  ]  Mullat  aali 


»i 


HfToum ;  ipiorum  aalm  cadavera  m 
dinacit  caaibus  |  Avibutgut  onnibut. 
lovit  auirm  perjieitbatur  eoBiiliaat,  | 
Ex  quo  jant  primitoM  irpaTatin  liti- 
gajirnat  |  Atridaque    Eex    I'iraruM 


386  THE  HUMANISTS. 

CHAP.Y.  join  the  noisy  throng  in  the  Lyceum,  he  tamed  aside 
^-y  .-^  explore  the  dim  solitudes  of  the  Academy.  His  actu 
knowledge  of  Plato,  it  is  true,  was  but  slight ;  but,  as  Voij 
observes,  he  was  guided  in  this  direction  by  a  kindof  instin( 
an  instinct  awakened  of  course,  in  the  first  instance,  by  t1 
study  of  Cicero's  philosophical  treatises.  Like  the  geolo^ 
though  he  himself  sank  not  the  shaft,  he  pointed  out  to  h 
followers  where  the  hidden  wealth  lay  buried.  To  the  Ai 
stotelians  of  his  time  Plato  was  no  better  known  than  Pyth 
goras,  and  in  fact  they  believed,  for  the  most  part,  that  tl 
Timaeus  and  the  Phsedo*  were  the  only  two  treatises  he  hj 
ever  written.  Petrarch  however  was  the  possessor  of  sixtee: 
and  though  these  reposed  on  his  shelves  dark  as  the  utte 
ances  of  the  Sibyl,  he  knew  that  Cicero,  Seneca,  Apuleiv 
St  Ambrose,  and  St.  Augustine  had  held  them  in  hi{ 
esteem,  while  the  professed  contempt  of  the  Aristotelia: 
gjgj^  served  rather  to  commend  them  to  his  respect  In  his  high 
Jj^i^of  ^'^^"^^^^^^^^  essay,  De  sui  ipsius  et  alionum  ignorantia^  v 


'^^'***'^      have  the  earliest  intimations  of  that  impending  struggle  b 

tween  the  modem  partisans  of  the  Platonic  and  Aristotelia 

schools  of  philosophy,  which  under  varying  forms  may  be  sa 

to  have  lasted  to  our  own  time,  and  to  be  even  yet  undecide 

His  portion  It  is  interesting  in  connexion  with  this  controversy  to  con 

Ar&rtoue°    pare  the  position  of  Aquinas  with  that  of  Petrarch.    Tl 

with  that  of  schoolman,  in  his  endeavour  to  introduce  the  New  Aristod 

AqainM. 

had  found  his  most  formidable  difficulty  in  the  evident  di 
agreement  between  that  literature  and  traditional  dognu 
the  Italian  scholar,  in  his  efforts  on  behalf  of  a  more  liber 
culture,  found  himself  confronted  in  every  direction  by  tl 
supposed  infallibility  of  what,  but  a  century  before,  had  be€ 
looked  upon  as  heterodox!  It  was  not  much  to  say, — ^but^ 
say  it  in  those  days  at  Padua  and  at  Venice  was  the  heigl 
of  boldness, — that  though  Aristotle  was  a  man  of  vast  lean 
ing,  he  was  after  all  only  a  man  and  liable  to  error. 

^  De  9ui  Ipnus  et  rmUtorum  igno-  Latin  translation  of  this  dialogoe 

ranUat  Opera,  1162.    Voigt,  p.  48.  a  manuscript  of  the  thirteenth  oe 

I  presume  that  the  Phiedo  was  the  tniy.  Fragments  Philo$opldque$^  Al 

second.    Ooosin  informs  ns  that  the  lard.  Appendix, 
library  of  the  Sorbonne  contains  a 


The  absolute  value  of  the  AristoteliaQ  decisions  was  Dot  cbap.t. 
the  only  article  of  the  schoolman's  faith  that  he  was  now   -- *^- 
compelled  to  hear  called  in  question.     It  marks  the  singular  HiitMcki 
inseDsihility  to  literary  excellence  of  form  induced  by  the  ij!^?^ 
scholastic  training,  that  it  was  commonly  believed  that  the 
works  of  the  great  master,  even  in  the  shape  in  which  they 
were   then   known,   were   models   of  style   and   expression. 
And  here  again  Petrarch  ventured  upon  a  decided  demurrer, 
declaring  that  though   Aristotle's   discourses,   as  originally 
delivered,   might  have  been   characterised  by  coosiderahle 
grace  of  style,  no  such  merit  was  discernible  either  in  the 
treatises  which  survived  the  (all  of  the  empire  or  in  those 
which   had  more  recently  been  brought  to  light*.     While, 
finally,  even  the  ethical  system  of  the  Stagirite  fuled  to 
awaken  much  admiration  in  the  poet's  fervid  and  enthusi- b*t^^ 
astic  nature,  the  doctrine  of  the  Mean  appeared  to  him  cold  ^^SaL 
and  formal  when  compared,  not  merely  with  the  Christian 
morality,  but  with  the  lofty  Stoicism  of  the  Academicians*. 

The  services  of  Petrarch  to  the  cause  of  the  new  learning,  JJU^J^S 
as  marking  the  initial  chapter  of  its  history  and  scarcely  jfj^**** 
perhaps  estimated  at  their  full  value  by  many  modem  writers, 
have  seemed  to  call  for  the  foregoing  comments;  but  the  his- 
tory of  the  Italian  Humanismus  after  his  time  is,  in  its  main 
ontliues,  a  well-known  episode  in  the  annals  of  Europeoo 
culture,  and,  even  if  our  limits  permitted,  it  would  be  unne- 
cessary here  to  recall  the  varied  phases  of  the  onward  move- 
ment The  activity  of  that  little  band  of  enthusiasts  who, 
assembling  within  the  walla  of  the  convent  of  San  Spirito, 
sustained  and  enriched  the  traditions  he  had  bequeathed  to 
them, — the  wider  extension  and  deeper  flow  of  the  same 
spirit  as  seen  in  the  researches  and  discoveries  of  Poggio,  in 
tbe  masterly  criticisms  of  Valla  (Erasmus's  great  esemplar), 
and  in  the  scholarship  and  satirical  genius  of  Philelphus, — 
the  circle  of  laborious  though  less  original  literati,  chiefly 
known  as  translators,  that  gathered  round  the  court  of  Ni-  ^ 

cholas  V, — the  splendid  array  of  genius  fostered  under  the 

'  Rerum  Uemoraxd.  Lib.  u;  Optra,  p.  166.  ■  Opera,  p.  1159.  J^M 

25— S  ^^H 


388  THE  HUMANISTS. 

CHAP.  V.  successive  protection  of  Cosmo,  Lorenzo,  and  their  descendant 
w^^  ■'>  ojQ  the  papal  throne  (a  care  they  so  well  repaid),  the  teachers 
of  Germany,  France  and  England, — all  these  require  no  illus- 
tration at  our  hands ;  and  for  our  special  purpose  It  will 
suffice  to  give  a  brief  consideration  to  the  labours  of  those 
few  in  the  long  array,  whose  names  are  most  prominently 
associated  with  the  revival  of  Greek  learning  and  ite  con- 
sequent introduction  into  the  Transalpine  universities. 
gajjojMd        In  the  fifteenth  century  there  was  but  one  capital  in 
JUJ2J£****     Europe  that  could  vie  with  Florence  in  the  combination  of 
the  beautiful  in  art  with  the  beautiful  in  nature,  and  that 
capital  was  the  city  of  the  Golden  Horn.     But  while  marked 
by  this  general  resemblance,  the  two  cities  offered  in  their 
culture,  their  sympathies,  and  their  political  circumstances,  a 
yet  more  striking  contrast.    Even  at  this  long  interval  of 
time,  it  is  difficult  for  the  believer  in  human  progress  and 
SetoS*"    *^®  lover  of  art  and  literature  to  look  back  upon  what  Flo- 
flfSSnthSn-  rence  then  was,  and  what  she  afterwards  became,  without 
*'""*^         something  of  emotion.    Alone  among  the  Italian  republics 
she  still  reared  aloft  the  triple  banner  of  freedom,  virtue,  and 
patriotism.     While  other  republics  had  become  subject  to  a 
tyrants  yoke,  or,  like  Genoa  and  Venice,  were  pursuing  an 
isolated,  ignoble,  and  selfish  policy,  Florence  was  still  to  be 
found  the  champion  of  the  common  weaL     With  a  spirit  of 
heroism  that  has  often  been  deemed  characteristic  solely  of  a 
martial   race,   she   combined  a  rare  genius  for  commercial 
enterprise  that  had  raised  her  to  the  summit  of  mercantile 
greatness.     Her  bankers  ruled  the  markets  of  Europe.     Her 
surrounding  territory  in  its  wondrous  productiveness   bore 
witness  to  the  skill  and  industry  of  her  agriculturists.   Within 
her  walls  successively  arose  those  marvels  of  architectural  art 
round  which  the  ancient  glory  still  seems  to  linger,  though 
her  greatness  and  power  have  fled.     In  the  desolation  that 
followed   upon  the  Great  Plague   the  university  had  been 
broken  up,  but  it  had  been  refounded  and  endowed  with 
ample  revenues  by  the  state:  and  it  is  significant  of  the 
liberal  conception  of  learning  that  there  prevailed,  that  in  the 
year  1373  a  chair  had  been  established,  at  the  special  request 


of  maDy  of  the  citizens,  for  promoting  the  study  of  the  works  ^\^p-  ^ 
of  Dante,  which  was  afterwards  combined  with  the  chair  of  '- v  — 
philosophy  and  rhetoric.     It  was  fit  that  at  such  a  centre  the 
genius  of  intellectual  freedom  should  gird  itself  for  a  con- 
quest compared  with  which  the  proudest  achievemeuts  of 
Florence  on  the  field  of  battle  seem  inBigoificant  indeed. 

To  all  these  features  the  city  of  the  Bosporus  offered  £|S^ 
a  complete  antithesis.  It  was  the  totterii)g  seat  of  a  mori- 
bund dynasty.  At  the  time  that  the  palaces  of  the  Medici 
reflected  bock  the  joyous  spirit  of  the  Tuscan  capital,  the 
home  of  the  Pat^eologi  was  haunted  by  gloomy  forebodings 
or  echoed  with  the  utterances  of  actual  dismay.  The  learn-  csntiMt 
ing  of  the  two  capitals  was  in  like  contrast  As  we  turn  the  ff|™j^^ 
pages  of  the  Florentine  writers,  from  Petrarch  to  FoHtian,  all 
is  ardent,  enthusiastic,  and  inspiring;  a  glow  of  youthful 
vigour  lends  a  charm  to  the  crudest  fancies  of  the  scholar 
exultant  in  the  discovery  of  a  new  world.  The  sentiment 
often,  it  is  true,  now  strikes  us  as  singularly  trite  and  little 
beyond  that  of  a  clever  schoolboy,  the  scholarship  is  often 
of  an  order  that  many  a  modem  schoolboy  would  blush  to 
own ;  but  the  defects  are  those  of  immaturity  not  of  in- 
capacity, of  ambitious  talent  rather  than  of  hopeless  medio- 
crity. Even  its  most  serious  blemish,  its  grossness,  seems 
venial  when  compared  with  the  sycophancy  that  repels  ua 
at  a  later  time, — with  the  pedantic  despotism  of  the 
Averroists  that  ushered  in  the  decline  that  aw^ted  it  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  or  with  the  yet  deeper  degradation  that 
befel  it  in  a  yet  later  age, — when  a  great«r  than  Petrarch 
visited  that  classic  land  and  lamented  over  the  servile  condi- 
tion to  which  letters  had  there  been  brought,  until  'the  glory 
of  Italian  wits  was  damped,'  and  '  nothing  written  but 
flatter)-  and  fustian'.'  In  Constantinople,  on  theother  hand, 
learning  had  deteriorated  even  when  compared  with  the  period 
which  has  already  occupied  our  attention,  when  Psellus  com- 
piled his  treatise  on  logic*.  The  capture  of  the  capital  by 
the  Crusaders  in  1204,  and  the  discouragement  to  literary 
culture  given  by  their  barbarous  rule,  mark  the  complete 
'  Hilton,  AreopasUiea,  *  Bm  mpn,  pp.  17&-C- 


390  THE  HUMANISTS. 

CBAP.  V.  disappearance  of  authors,  or  different  works  of  authors,  that 
.,/"'l^  had  survived  up  to  that  time.  In  the  days  of  Petrarch  the 
city  had  regained  its  independence,  but  not  its  literary  spirit. 
It  was  again  an  acknowledged  centre  of  learning,  and  at- 
tracted numerous  students  from  far  and  near,  but  its  culturOy 
in  many  respects  strongly  resembling  that  of  the  western 
scholasticism,  had  become  mechanical  in  spirit  and  purely 
traditional  in  method ;  whatever  of  genuine  mental  activity 
was  to  be  discerned  seems  to  have  been  mainly  expended 
on  those  theological  subtleties  to  which  perhaps  the  peculiar 
refinements  of  the  Greek  language  offered  a  special  tempta- 
tion. 

Oram  or  To  differences  thus  marked  must  be  added  the  great 

▼WUU106  06' 

^m  the  two  political  elements  of  variance.  Ever  since  that  eventful  day 
when  Pope  Leo  placed  upon  the  head  of  Charlemagne  the 
diadem  of  the  Roman  empire,  the  attitude  of  the  Byzantine 
emperors  and  their  subjects  towards  the  nations  of  western 
Christendom  had  been  one  of  sullen  aversion*;  and  ever 
since  that  inauspicious  day  in  the  succeeding  century,  when 
Photius  drew  up  the  articles  of  faith  that  were  to  divide,  it 
would  seem  for  ever,  the  Churches  of  the  East  and  the  West, 
political  estrangement  had  been  intensified  by  theological 
antipathies. 
itBifauiKho-  Nevertheless  the  Italian  scholar  bent  a  longing  eye 
■tantinoftia.'  towards  the  city  of  the  Boifporus,  for  there  were  still  trea- 
sured the  masterpieces  of  a  literature  which  he  regarded  with 
none  the  less  veneration  because  it  was  to  him  so  imperfectly 
Pbu^hns,  known.  Occasionally,  like  John  of  Ravenna,  Philelphus, 
diiSL  Giacomo  of  Scarparia,  and  Ouarino  of  Verona,  he  was  to  be 
seen  in  the  streets  of  Constantinople,  seeking  to  acquire  a 
knowledge  of  the  language,  and  to  gain  possession  of  copies 
of  the  most  esteemed  authors.  But  instances  Uke  these  were 
rare,  and  attended  with  but  partial  success.  Philelphus  thus 
describes  his  own  experience  in  the  year  1441 : — '  When 

^  *  The  coronation  of  Charles  was  no  claim  to  the  Boman  name  except 

in  their  ^es  an  act  of  unholy  rebel-  that  which  the  fayoor  of  an  insolent 

lion;  his  snccesBors  were  barbarian  pontifF  might  confer.'    Prof.  Biyce, 

intmdbm,  ignorant  of  the  laws  and  Holy  Soman  Empire,  191'. 
UMgeB  of  the  ancient  state,  and  with 


CONSTFANTIIIOFLG.  S91 

there,'  be  saya,  'I  studied  hard  and  long,  and  made  diligent  cbap.t. 
search  for  some  one  or  other  of  the  full  and  careful  treatises   ' — r-— 
of  Apollonius  or  Herodian  on  grammar,  which  however  were 
nowhere  to  be  found.     The  text-books  used  and  the  iotro-  ^%'!S!"^ 
duction  given  by  the  lecturers  in  the  schools  are  full  of  the  ^2^^. 
merest  trifles,  and  nothing  certain  or  satisfactory  is  to   be**"* 
guoed  from  their  teaching  with  respect  to  the  grammatical 
construction   of    a  sentence,  the   quantity  of  syllables,  or 
accent.     The  .^oHc  dialect,  which  is  that  chiefly  used   by 
Homer  and  CallimachuB  in  their  compositions,  the  teacbera 
of  to-day  are  altogether  ignorant  of.      Whatever   I  hare 
learned   of  those  matters  has  been  the  result  of  my  own 
study  and  research,  although  I  would  be  far  from  denying 
the  importuit  aid  that  the  instructions  of  my  father-in-law, 
Chiysoloras,  have  aflbrded  me'.' 

Occasionally,  on  the  other  hand,  the  teacher  sought  his 
pupils,  and  a  native  Greek  crossed  the  Adriatic  and  an- 
nounced  in  Italy  hie  ability  and  willingness  to  impart  the 
coveted  knowledge.  But  from  Barlaamo  dowDwarda  these 
men  were  mostly  impudent  charlatans,  and  their  pretensions 
were  soon  exposed  even  by  those  whom  they  pretended  to 
teach*.  The  true  commencement  of  a  systematic  study  of 
Greek  in  Italy,  dates  from  the  arrival  in  1396  of  Emmanuel  ^jg!;^ 
Chrysoloras',  a  relative  of  the  John  Chiysoloras  of  whom*^^^ 
Fhilelphus  above  makes  mention,  as  an  ambassador  from  the 
emperor  of  the  eastern  empire  to  soUcit  aid  against  the 
Turks. 

Chrysoloras  was  honorably  distinguished  from  those  ofj^Mg" 
his  countrymen  who  had  hitherto  assumed  the  literary  cha~  J^J^ 
lacter  in  Italy,  by  his  noble  descent,  bis  high  and  not  uude- 

>  Body,  p.  188. 

*  £neu  SjMns,  in  his  Europa,  e. 
S3,  tells  an  amnung  rtorj  of  bow 
Vgo  Bend  of  Sieim*,  the  learned 
pbynoui,  diKomftted  a  whole  part; 
of  Uhu  pretenderH  in  a  tomial  pU- 
lowphic  discnuion. 

■  Han;  writen,  tunonf  whom  I 
notiee  so  loeteat  a  oontribntoi  to  tba 
literature  of  the  rabjeot  as  Dr  Qei- 
gjer,  have  dated  this  nriTal  from  tha 
bll  of  Oouatantiuople  in  1W8.   Voigt 


joatW  obeeiTM  of  the  Qr«ek  nfogaea 
on  that  oeoaaion.  '  Sie  wareu  in  kei- 
ner  Weiae  die  Manner,  TOn  denMi 
einetiefgraileikia  Bewegnng  hiitte  at 


donb  Chi7*<donM  and  seine  Sehttlei 
geiteben,  onter  deneo  wir  die  ritsUg- 
■ten  Fitrderef  beidar  Lttentnren 
finAm^  nnd  anf  dem  Unionaeoiuril 
wwdedetFiiiikeiaiFIunsi&*  Toigt, 

p.  no. 


392 


THE   HUMANISTS. 


Ilenuuten 

theUtln 

language. 


CHAP.v.  served  reputation,  and  his  real  knowledge  of  the   Greek 
literature.    To  the  man  of  letters  he  added  the  man  of  the 
world  and  the  diplomatist;  he  was  acquainted  with  most  of 
the  countries  of  Europe,  and  had  visited  our  own  court  in 
the  reign  of  Richard  li  in  an  official  capacity.      He  was, 
however,  like  most  of  his  countrymen,  ignorant  of  the  Latin 
toDgue,  for  the  Greeks,  while  still  claiming  for  their  emperor 
the  sovereignty  of  the  Romftn  empire,  had  well-nigh  lost  all 
traces  of  western  civilisation.     It  attests  the  energy  of  his 
character,  that  though  already  advanced  in  years,  he  now 
appUed  himself  to  the  study  of  the  language,  and  eventually 
mastered  it  \    The  literary  fame  of  Chrysoloras  bad  preceded 
him;  for  Quarino  of  Verona  had  studied  the  Greek  language 
for  five  years  under  his  guidance  at  Constantinople,  and  he 
now  drew  the  attention  of  his  countrymen  to  the  rare  oppor- 
tunity presented  by  the  arrival  of  so  illustrious  a  scholar. 
Eventually  the  services  of  Chrysoloras  were  secured  by  the 
university  of  Florence,  and  he  soon  found  himself  the  centre 
of  an  enthusiastic  circle  of  learners.     His  success  in  the  field 
of  labour  to  which  he  was  thus  unexpectedly  summoned  was 
as  conspicuous  as  his  efforts  as  an  ambassador  were  fruitless. 
Ilia  eminence  Most  of  those  who  had  Kstoned  to  Petrarch's  famous  pupil. 

M  a  teacher  xr    r     y 

oftireek.  John  of  Ravouna,  at  Ferrara,  in  his  exposition  of  the  Latin 
literature,  now  gathered  with  many  others  round  the  new 
teacher  of  Greek  at  Florence.  For  their  use  he  compiled  a 
Greek  grammar,  the  Erotemata^ — egregium  libellum  gram- 
matictcm,  as  Boemer  justly  terms  it, — the  same  that  after- 
wards served  Reuchlin  for  a  model  at  Orleans*,  that  was  used 


His  Greek 

Gnunmar. 


^  Yoigt's  langnage  implies  that 
ChiyBoloras  was  already  acquainted 
with  Latin,  bnt  the  statement  of  Ju- 
lianas is  explicit: — *Nam  cum  jam 
grandis  esset,  nullius  praBceptoris 
aimlio  nostras  perdidioit  Uteras,  ne- 
que  sibi  oneri  visum  est,  cum  tot 
annis  philosophife  studiis  Taoasset, 
ad  puerilia  literarum  elementa  re- 
verti.'    Boemer,  p.  81. 

'  See  authorities  quoted  by  Boemer, 
p.  21.  Geiger,  Johann  Reuchlifij  19, 
20.  Beuohlin  himself  oompiled  a 
Greek  grammar,  the  fuKporaii€laf  for 


his  own  scholars.  This  however  was 
never  deemed  worthy  of  being  printed, 
and  as  the  title  suggests  contained 
probably  the  merest  elements,  while 
the  Erotemata  went  through  many 
editions,  and  was  par  excellence  the 
Greek  grammar  of  the  first  century 
of  the  Renaissance.  SeeHallam,Littf- 
rature  of  Europe,  i*  101.  According  to 
Constantine  Lascaris  it  suffered  con-- 
siderably  from  being  often  abridged 
by  ignorant  compilers, — to  fiifiXlo^ 
o&K  <iX8*  dv^as  riwir  rw  dfuiBuv  avarti' 
XflVKCf  dti^etptuf.    Hody,  p.  22. 


EXlUNUiX  CHBTSOLOBAS.  393 

by  Linacre  at  Oxford  and  by  ErastnuB  at  Cambridge,  and  "^Af-  '^• 
long  contiDued  to  hold  its  grotmd  agaiiut  fonoidaWe  rivals.  ^— > — ■ 
JTretino  has  left  on  record  the  feelings  with  which  he  has- 
tened to  join  the  circle.  He  was  at  that  time  occupied  in 
studying  the  civil  law;  'but  now,' he  exclaimed  to  himself, 
'  it  was  in  his  power  to  gain  a  far  highw  knowledge,  an  ac- 
quaintance with  Homer,  Flatty  and  Demosthenes,  with  all 
those  poets,  philosophers,  and  orators,  in  short,  of  whom  he 
had  so  often  heard.  Could  he  possibly  let  slip  so  glorious 
an  opportunity  ?  For  seven  hundred  years  no  one  in  Italy 
bad  really  understood  the  Qreek  language,  though  through 
that  language  well  nigh  all  knowledge  had  been  handed 
down  to  men.  Of  doctors  of  civil  law  there  was  plenty,  of 
whom  he  might  learn  at  any  time,  but  of  teachers  of  Greek 
this  was  the  only  one',' 

Chrysoloras  taught  not  only  at  Florence  but  also  atiiitTWiw 
Venice,  Padua,  Milan,  and  Rome;  and  from  the  last  city  he 
addressed  to  his  relative,  John  Chrysoloras,  that  graceful 
letter  wherein  he  describes  the  resemblance  of  the  City  of 
tiie  Seven  Hills  to  the  City  of  the  Golden  Horn,  and  tella 
how,  as  he  gazed  from  each  surrounding  eminence,  be  fancied 
himself  again  in  his  native  city,  until  his  eye  was  fain  to 
seek  out  his  own  home  with  its  cypresses  and  hanging  garden*. 

In  such  useful  but  tranquil  labours  he  would,  it  seems,  cvniiK»n 
have  been  well  coutent  to  pass  the  remainder  of  his  days, 
had  he  not  suddenly  been  called  away  to  duties  of  a  more 
arduous  character.  The  closing  scene  in  his  career,  though 
less  directly  relevant  to  the  progress  of  letters,  is  deserving 
of  careful  study  as  affording  a  very  apt  illustration  of  the 
state  of  the  political  aod  religious  world  at  that  time.  If  we 
may  trust  the  accouDt  given  by  Juhanus,  the  illustrious 
exile  appears,  in  his  latter  years,  to  have  ceased  to  hope  for 
the  country  of  his  birth,  and  his  aims  and  sympathies  had 
begun  to  centre  in  the  land  that  had  afforded  him  so  generous 
a  reception,  and  seemed  destined  to  so  glorious  a  future*. 

'  Muratori  Serif  torn,  m  930; 
Hod;,  pp.  28—30. 

*  Codmlu,  Dt  JnHqtUtatOrm  Cbn- 
ttoalMOp.,  quoted  b;  Boamu,  p.  3S. 


894  THE  HUMANISTS. 

CHAP.  V.  His  efforts  to  arouse  the  western  powers  to  concerted  action 

^-y  .1^  against  the  common  enemy  had  signally  failed,  while  the 

^^^e'  tide  of  invasion  in  the  East  had  begun  to  threaten  the  walls 

pSST"*"'    of  Constantinople  itself.     In  the  opinion  of  Gibbon  it  was 

little  more  than  a  feeling  of  generosity  in  the  foe  that  spared 

the  imperial  city  when  the  crescent  already  gleamed  from 

the  walls  of  Adrianop(^i8\    An  urgent  summons  had  recalled 

Chrysoloras  for  a  short  period  to  Constantinople  to  receive 

Greek  instructionsy  and  what  he  then  heard  sand  witnessed 

appears  to  have  convinced  him  that  the  fall  of  the  capital 

could  not  much  longer  be  averted.     Unlike  the  majority  of 

his  countrymen  in  their  exile,  he  had  been  led  to  renounce 

the  distinctive  tenets  of  the  Greek  Church,  and  had  given 

additional  proof  of  his  orthodoxy  by  a  treatise  on  the  chief 

question  in  dispute — -the  Procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost     It 

femStS  ^^  probably  this  fact,  combined  with  his  high  reputation  as 

^J^^  a  diplomatist,  that  now  marked  him  out  in  the  eyes  of  pope 

John  XXII  as  an  eminently   fit  person  to  accompany  the 

papal  delegates  to  the  council  of  Constance,  where  it  was 

designed  that  the  union  of  the  Churches  of  the  East  and  the 

He  Attends    Wcst  should  as^aiu  become  a  subiect  of  discussion.     The 

ooMtanoeM  projcct  was  oue  which  commanded  his  warmest  sympathies*; 

tiwPope.      and,  apart  from  the  religious  aspect,  the  circumstances  under 

which  that  council  was  convened  must  have  had  for  every 

Greek  a  peculiar  significance.     It  was  summoned  not  by  the 

pope,  but  by  the  emperor  Sigismund'.     For  the  first  time, 

ne  ipsorom  sindionim  yetns  ilia  glo-  agitatsB,  diviB®,  lacerataBqae  religio- 

riadefioeret,mItaliamnavigaYiVeto.  nis  nostraB  divino  prope  affeotu  per- 

Andrea  Juliani  pro  Manuele  Chryto^  motus,  poniifioibus  mazimis,  qui  ip- 

lora  Funebri$  OratiOy  Boemer,  p.  82.  sins  graTitatem,  pmdentiam  et  Titam, 

^  Gibbon-Milman-Smith,  yni  2S.  tanquam  osleste  oraculmn  Tenera- 

'  'NamonmBumnmspontifexCon-  bantnr,  ooncilii  sententias,  quantum 

Btantiam  ire  oonBtituisset,  nonnul-  in  se  fnit,  Busoipiendas  fore,  suadere 

losque  snmmfe  auctoritatis  viros  ei  eonatus  est.    Et  ut  oet^orum  bono- 

sapientin,  atque  ^rga  hane  nostram  mm  judioiis  adhiereret,  omnem  iti- 

religionem  insigni  quadam    pietate  neris  longitudinem,  frigora,  hiemes, 

affectos    dbi  delegisset,  Manuelem  viarum  asperitates  atque  mortem,  si 

inter  primos  habere  oonstituit,  qui  opus  easet,  perferre  instituit.     Qua 

in  hano  laudatissimam  rem  necesBa-  cum,  ut  cogitarat,  perfecta  fuissent, 

riumqne  negotinm  ita  omnem  ouram,  inveteratos  Grsecorum  errores  ad  Bo- 

studinm,  diligentiamque  contulit  ut  manam  religionem  sua  opera  ao  dili- 

neque  vim  ullam,  neque  insidias,  ne-  gentia  deduxisset.'  Boemer,  pp.  26-7. 

que  metuB  proapicere,  nee  senectutis  '  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  Si- 

suiB  incommoda  aut  labores  sBBtimare  gismund  declared  himself,  as  rex  Ro- 

videretnr.    Quooiroa  hujoB  tam  dia  monuf ,  to  be  tuper  grammatieam. 


the  ruler  of  western  Cbristendom  bad  assumed  the  h^hert  (sap.t 
prerogative  of  his  imperial  dignity,  as  the  coeqiial  or  superiOT  —~^~ 
of  the  chief  pontiff  himself*.  At  the  very  time,  therefore,  that 
the  eastern  empire  appeared  od  the  eve  (A  disaolntion,  it» 
rival  of  the  West  was  risiDg  to  the  just  level  of  its  high 
ideal ;  azid  to  ChiTsoloius, — who,  as  he  gazed  from  the  heights 
that  Burroaaded  Rome  had  half  imagined  he  beheld  agtun  the 
city  of  his  birth, — who  had  seen  the  literature  of  his  native 
tongue,  at  the  very  time  that  it  was  dyii^  out  on  the  shores 
of  the  Bosporus,  taking  vigorous  root  on  the  banks  of  the 
'nber, — it  may  well  have  seemed  that  the  £aith  and  the 
Bovereignty  of  Nova  Roma  were  also  summoned  by  no 
obscure  or  trivial  portents  to  find  their  future  home  in  the 
Italian  land. 

In  sentiments  like  these  we  have  a  snfficient  explanation 
of  the  readiness  with  which  be  accepted  ihe  task  confided 
to  his  hands,  and,  though  advanced  in  years,  boldly  faced 
the  severities  of  a  winter  journey  across  the  Alps  to  Con- 
stance: they  serve  also  to  explain  the  bitterness  of  the 
disappointment  with  which  he  witnessed  the  sudden  break- 
ing up  of  that  memorable  assembly.  He  was  seized  with  ^ 
fear  and  died  after  a  few  days ;  the  victim,  according  to 
JulianuB,  of  grief  rather  tbau  of  disease'.  His  remuns 
received  honorable  interment  within  the  precincts  of  the 
Dominican  convent  at  Constance:  and  his  epitaph, — the 
grateful  tribute  of  Poggio  to  his  memory, — declared  that  he 
had  acquired  in  Italy  that  lasting  fame  which  it  was  no 
longer  in  the  power  of  his  native  country  to  confer.     His 


*  'It  can  hard]?  be  said  that  upon 
■ajOMMioD,  except  the  gatbering  of 
tlw  eonnoil  of  CoDBtaniM  by  Sigis. 
nmnd,  did  the  emperor  appear  fiUiiig 
■  trnl;  international  pla«e.'  ProL 
BnM,  Holy  Roman  Empire,  363'. 

*  'Bed  oam,  pnetei  taaxa  opimo- 
sem  atqne  omnium  bononun  JDdi- 
cdnm,  oonuDonem  onmioin  liberta- 
tern  obaesBam  Tideret,  et  ad  tuung 
volnntatem  redacta  omnia,  tandem- 
qne  pontificem  Btmm  ad  Ingam  redao- 
torn,  MWilniii  lebxibni  ohaeaaiu  rat, 
pMieoaqne  post  dies,  dolon  magis 


(tr)t«nl«  qoam  moibo, 

Juliani    Funtbrii    Orati 
pp.  as,  37.     E/ni 


I,  of  o 


g^nnmid;  Cht7M}|orea  was  the  par- 
tiaan  of  pope  John.  JoliaDos'a  ver- 
•ioa  of  the  story  ia  worthy  at  note. 
Hody,  who  is  followad  by  Voigt,  re- 
praaentfl  ChryBoloraa  as  sent  by  the 
tBiperor  ae  inlecpreter  to  Conatano*, 
and  aa  dying  there  before  the  conacil 
had  assembled.  ThequotatioDinn.(3) 
in  preceding  page  ahewB  this  new  to 
beerroneoas:  saeidaoBoemar.pp.  li, 
3e,.37.  VmajmJ}eririMllbiitr^,p.9. 


396 


THE  HUMANISTS. 


OH  A  P.  V. 
Pakt  I. 


HbftiDerml 
oration  by 
JaUanua. 


Guulno, 
dL146a 


Hkfiunei 
a  teacher. 


Eminent 
BnffUahnien 

pupili. 


epitaph  was  not  the  only  memorial  reared  by  the  scholar  to 
his  memory.  With  the  revival  of  the  ancieut  literature  there 
had  been  rekindled  among  the  men  of  letters  of  that  day 
much  of  the  ofatcHical  spirit  of  Greece  and  Rome,  and  by 
the  fifteenth  century  it  was  rarely  that  any  important  public 
event  was  allowed  to  pass  unaccompanied  by  some  rhetorical 
effusion\  Among  such  efforts  the  funeral  oration  held  a 
conspicuous  place;  and  on  the  death  of  Chrysoloras  an 
oration  of  this  kind  was  pronounced  in  Venice,  where  he  had 
once  taught  with  such  signal  success,  by  Andreas  Julianus,  a 
noble  of  that  city.  This  composition,  equally  deserving  of 
notice  for  its  elegant  Latinity  and  as  a  record  of  some  in- 
teresting facts  respecting  the  father  of  Greek  learning  in 
Italy,  is  still  extant;  and  making  all  allowance  for  the 
hyperbole  of  a  Ciceronian  diction  and  the  partiality  of  private 
friendship,  we  may  conclude  that  Chrysoloras  had  earned 
in  no  ordinary  degree,  both  by  his  public  and  private  cha- 
racter, the  esteem  and  admiration  of  his  contemporaries. 

Among  the  disciples  of  Chrysoloras ,  Guarino  was  un- 
doubtedly the  one  on  whom  the  mantle  of  the  master  de- 
scended. His  reputation  as  a  teacher  induced  the  authorities 
of  the  university  of  Ferrara  to  engage  his  services,  leaving 
him  to  fix  the  amount  of  his  own  salary.  Nor  was  their 
liberality  misplaced ;  for  his  fame  soon  attracted  to  the  city 
learners  from  every  country.  Poggio  preferred  his  instruction 
for  his  youthful  son  to  any  that  Florence  could  offer;  and  his 
contemporaries  were  wont  to  apply  to  him  the  saying  of 
Cicero  respecting  Isocrates, — that  more  learned  men  had 
issued  from  his  school  than  chieftains  from  the  Trojan  horse*. 
Even  Englishmen,  little  as  learning  was  then  in  vogue  in  their 
country,  were  to  be  found  among  the  hearers  of  Guarino.  Of 
this  number  was  the  unfortunate  John  Tiptoft,  earl  of  Wor- 
cester, the  author  of  various  orations  delivered  before  pope 
Pius  II,  and  one  of  the  earliest  translators  from  the  Latin 
into  his  native  language, — Robert  Fleming,  the  papal  protho- 

^  For  an  aooount  of  the  difiFerent  '  This  however  waa  a  kind  of  stock 
forms  which  this  spirit  assnmed,  see  compliment  at  this  period :  MafFei 
Borokhardt,  Die  Cultur  der  RetiaiS'      de  yolterra  applies  it  to  John  of  Ba- 


$ance,  180-7. 


yeana,  Platina  to  Bessarion. 


QUABINO. 


897 


notary,  and  author  of  the  Lucvbrationes  JV&wrttame', — John  chap-*- 
Free/a  lawyer  of  considerable  eminencG,  whose  performiinceB    -  v  — 
as  a  translator  from  the  Greek  were  auSiciently  meritorious  to  unr- 
induce  the  Itahans  to  claim  tliem  as  the  work  of  their  cele- 
brated  countryman,   Pt^gio   Bracciolini', — ^John   Guudorp, 
and  William  Gray,  afterwards  bishop  of  Ely*.     To  the  last 
named  learning  in  England  was  indebted  for  an  important 
accession  to  its  rt^sources.     On  his  return  from  Italy,  Gray 
brought  with  him  a  collection  of  manuscripts,  some  of  them 
of  authors  that  had  never  before  crossed  the  channel,  and  all 
of  them  well  calculated  to  impai-t  to  the  few  scbolais  to  be 
found  among  his  countrymen  a  notion  of  the  movement  in 
progress  in  the  Transalpine  universities.     His  collection  i>»-J^^,h- 
cluded  the   letters  of  Petrarch,  and  numerous  orations  by  1^^ 
Poggio,  Aretino,  and  Guarino, — compositions  that  by  their 
more  classic  diction   and  genuine   admiration   of  antiquity 
could  hardly  fail  to  awaken  a  like  spirit  in  the  northern  centres 
of  learning ;  a  new  translation  of  the  TimtBus  and  another  of 
the  Eutkypkron  were  a  contribution  to  an  extended  know- 
ledge of  Plato ;  the  Institutions  of  Lactantius,  versions  of  the 
Golden  Verses  of  Pythagoras  (a  favorite  text-book  at  Can- 
bridge  in  after  years),  hitherto  unknown  orations  and  trea- 
tises by  Cicero  and  Quiotilian,  and  many  of  the  discourses  of 
Seneca,  were  also  important  additions ;  while  Jerome's  Letter 
to  Pammachius,  on  'Origeniam,'  is  deserving  of  notice  as  the 
first  instalment  of  a  special  literature  which  was  shortly  to  give 
rise  to  a  controversy  of  no  ordinary  significance*.   We  have  no  n^<»ii«ctk 
direct  proof  that  bishop  Gray  was  actuated  by  feelings  of  resent-  ^™''»' 
ment  towards  the  university  tike  those  which  Baker,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  attributes  to  bishop  Fordham  and  bishop  Morgan, 
but  so  far  as  the  bequest  of  his  valuable  collection  may  be  looked 


'  Johnson,  Life  of  Linaere,  p.  91. 

'  Thomn  Caii,  Vindicia  Antiquit. 
Acad.  Ozott.  II  334,  ed.  Heame. 

*  Benthun  Myf,  '  being  possesged 
ol  »D  ample  foitnue,  be  removed 
to  Femurs,  where  he  studied  imder 
Onarini  of  Verona,  with  an  great 
beneflt  to  himself  as  credit  to  his 
master;  etpttiaily  in  rhe  Ortfk  and 


Hibme  taitgaaget.' 
...         —      g 

Anglia  Sacra,  i  672;  Poggio,  Epitt 
89  Epiieopo  EUensi  In  Slai  Spieiltg. 
Rom.  z  296. 

*  Catalogut  Codieum  MSS,  qui  in 
ColUgiii  Atdiiqae  Ozoairtuibut  liodit 
adtervantw.  Conteoit  Henrions  O. 
Coie,  H.I.,  Oronii,  1663.     Pars  i. 


398  THE  HUMANISTS. 

CRAP.  v.  upon  as  evidence  the  existence  of  such  resentment  is  far  from 
^*i^"-'>  improbable.  It  is  evident  at  least  tliat  his  affection  for  his 
own  college  at  Oxford  exceeded  his  care  for  the  university  of 
his  diocese^  for  his  library  was  bequeathed  to  BallioP;  and  it 
may  easily  be  conjectured  that  the  one  or  two  scholars  at 
Cambridge  in  those  days  to  whom  the  destination  of  such 
a  legacy  appeared  a  matter  of  any  interest,  when  they  heard 
to  whose  keeping  these  treasures  had  been  confided,  observed 
that  they  might  thank  pope  Martin  V  and  the  XJltramon- 
tanists  for  the  loss  sustained  by  their  own  university.  Like 
Isocrates,  Guarino  also  attained  to  an  advanced  and  vigorous 
ommoc  old  age,  which  foimd  him  still  busied  on  his  literary  labours. 
His  productions  were  chiefly  translations  from  the  Greek ; 
and  only  two  years  before  his  death,  at  the  age  of  88,  he 
completed  a  translation  of  the  Geography  of  Strabo*. 
Leonardo  Not  less  eminent  than  Guarino,  though  distinguished  in  a 

b^wa,        somewhat  different  manner,  was  Leonardo  Bruni,  known 
from  the  place  of  his  birth  as  Aretino,  and  by  his  learned  con- 
temporaries as  'the  modem  Aristotle.'     From  him  we  date 
the  commencement  of  a  more  intelligent  study  of  Aristotle's 
writings, — an    improvement  which    the   increasing  critical 
faculty  of  the  age  rendered  indispensable  if  the  authority  of 
the  Stagirite  were  still  to  hold  its  ground.    The  conviction 
that  forced  itself  upon  Grosseteste  and  Roger  Bacon  in  the 
thirteenth  century  was  now  the  sentiment  of  every  Italian 
Humanist.     Even  pope  Pins  li,  though  ignorant  of  Greek, 
was  ready  to  declare  that,  if  Aristotle  were  to  come  again 
Hiitniit-     to  life,  he  would  be  totally  unable  to  recognise  as  his  own  the 
Aiiatotieu     thoughts  for  which  he  was  made  responsible  by  his  Latin  in- 
terpreters*.   Among  those  who  were  attracted  by  the  fiEune  of 
Aretino,  was  cardinal  Beaufort's  great  rival,  Humphrey,  duke 
gjgjjjj^of  Gloucester.     He  had  already  become  acquainted  with 
hS^^SJ,®'  Aretino's  translation  of  the  Ethics,  and  he  now  besought  him 
G^^Mer.    to  give  to  the  world  a  translation  of  the  Politics, — a  copy 
of  which  had  recently  been  brought  from  Constantinople  by 
Pallas  de  StrozzL    Aretino  acceded  to  his  request,  and  laying 

^  Beniham  says  that  he  also  built      Hiit.  of  Ely  Cathedral,  v.  176. 
a  good  part  of  the  college  library.         *  Voigt,  p.  267.  '  Atia,  e.  71. 


tnde  the  eenseless  word-for-word  method  of  translatioQ  chap.i 
hitherto  in  vogue,  aod  totally  disr^arding  the  endleRs  suh-  — — v— 
tletiea  of  the  Arabian  commentators,  produced,  after  three 
yean*  labour,  a  version  that  with  respect  to  clearness  and 
elegance  threw  every  preceding  version  into  the  shade. 
Scholare  to  whom  criticisms  like  those  of  Petrarch  had  ap- 
peared unanswerable,  began  to  say  that  they  could  now 
understand  how  Cicero  could  praise  the  Aristotelian  style. 
It  was  the  first  real  advance  towards  a  true  knowledge  of  the 
text  of  Aristotle  since  the  time  of  Aquinas,  though  soon  to  be 
eoin]detelj  outdone  hy  the  achievemeuts  of  Argyropulos. 
When  the  translation  was  completed,  Bruni,  it  is  said,  dedi- 
cated the  work  to  duke  Humphrey,  and  forwarded  a  copy  to 
England.  But  his  noble  patron,  immersed  probably  in  the 
anxieties  of  his  pohtical  career,  delayed  his  acknowledgements, 
aod  the  haughty  Italian  recalled  his  dedication  and  Laid  it  at 
the  feet  of  pope  Eugenius  instead'. 

But  if  forgetful  of  Italy,  duke  Humphrey  was  not  un- ouke  rbd 
mindful  of  Oxford,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  the  splendid  quauu 
colleetions  of  manuscripts  with  which  he  enriched  the  univer- 
■ity  in   the   year    1439    and  1443, —  donations   which   Mr 
Ansitey  declares  '  did  more  for  the  university  than  any  other 
benefaction,  before   or  after,  has  done,' — were  partly  the 
meana  of  awakening  that  active  interest  in  the  new  learning 
that  in  the  latter  part  of  the  century  was  exhibited  by  various 
members  of  the  community.     The  theological  authors,  that  vmn  ci*- 
OOCUpy  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  catalogues*  of  these  two<>> 
collections,  would  of  course  appear  to  the  majority  of  the 
Btodeots  of  the  time  the  most  valuable   element ;    but  the 
above-named  translations  by  Aretino,  both  included  in  the 
earlier  list,  and  a  new  translation  of  the  fiepubhc  of  Plato, 
ooold  scarcely  fail  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  '  artists.'     A 
copy  of  Dante  and  numerous  copies  of  Petrarch's  best  known 
I  must  have  also  been  singularly  suggestive  of  bold 

Bodleian :— the  tnuulAtion  of  tlw  Po- 
UticB  BboTo  mentioned,  (the  ideiiti««l 
oopv  pr«8ented  by  Guuino,    iplen- 
tltwHea,  pp.  lao-ix.     umy  uiroe  to-      didly  iUnmiiuted),   the  gpiitlei  ol 
Ijupea   ftre  atiU  to  be  found  in  the      Plin7,utdftaop7olVftleriiulfazuuni, 


4fOO  THE  HUMANISTS. 

CHAP.  V.  and  novel  habits  of  thought.    The  Verrines  and  Philippics  of 
N— v-^   Cicero  and  the  letters  Ad  Familiares  were  an  appreciable 
addition  to  the  stores  of  the  Latin  scholar ;  while  the  theo- 
logian would  find  no  little  material  for  reflexion,  and  much 
that  was  startling  and  strange,  in  the  Historia  Ecclesiastica 
of  Eusebius. 
Fuiof  ooo-         As  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century  drew  to  its  close, 
146S.  it  became  evident  that  the  progress  of  the  Turkish  arms  in 

the  East  was  likely  before  long  to  be  signalized  by  a  decisive 
triumph,  and  in  the  year  1453  all  Christendom  learned  with 
unmistakeable  dismay,  that  the  last  of  the  Constantines  had 
fallen  fighting  at  the  gates  of  his  imperial  city,  and  that  the 
cry  of  the  muezzin  had  been  uttered  from  the  loftiest  turret  of 
St.  Sophia.    Though  long  anticipated,  the  event  did  not  fail  to 
i^crUghttA  awaken  in  Italy  a  feeling  of  profound  commiseration.     For  a 
time  it  was  forgotten  that  the  hapless  fugitives  who  came 
fleeing  across  the  Mediterranean  were  schismatics,  only  to 
remember  that  they  were  Christians,  and  they  were  received 
with  every  manifestation  of  sympathy  and  respect.     Among 
them  there  came  a  few  scholars  of  eminence, — Argyropulos, 
Chalcondyles,  Andronicus  Callistus,  Constantino   and  John 
Lascaiis, — bearing  with  them  whatever  literary  treasures  they 
had  been  able  to  snatch  from  destruction.     The  efforts  of  the 
Prior  impor-  preceding  half  century  had  fortunately  already  introduced 
GnSk  utcm-  into  Italy  many  of  the  Greek  classics ;  the  collection  imported 
by  John  Aurispa  in  1423  forming  probably  the  most  im- 
portant contribution.     He  had  brought,  according  to  Traver^ 
sarins,  nearly  all  the  extant  works  of  Plato,  and  also  those  of 
Plotinus,  Proclus,  Lucian,  Xenophon,  Dio,  Arrian,  Diodorus 
Siculus,  the  Orphic  Hymns,  the  Geography  of  Strabo,  Calli- 
Fonbodings  dnachus,  Pindar,  and  Oppian\     To  this  array  the  poor  exiles 
MhoUra       contributed  the  last  instalment  of  any  magnitude,  but  the 
ijunetitof     loss  was  euofmous.     Quirinus,  a  Venetian,  writing  to  pope 
Nicolas  V,  asserts  that  more  than  a  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  volumes  had  been  destroyed   by  the  conquering 
Turks.    In  his  eyes  the  loss  would  seem  to  have  appeared  not 
merely  irreparable  in  itself  but  fatal  to  the  cause  of  Greek 

^  Ersch  and  Grnber,  Griechenland,  viii  290. 

lb 


THE  GREEK    EXILES.  401 

learning ;  and  he  picdicta,  in  language  that  seems  the  utterance  ciiap.  t. 
of  a  genuine  emotion,  that  the  literature  'which  had  given  — ,— ^ 
light  to  the  whole  world,  that  had  brought  in  wholesome 
lawa,  sacred  philoNopliy,  and  all  other  branches  of  a  noble 
culture,'  will  ab^olutoly  be  lost  to  men',  j^ncas  Sylvius,  in  a  pr^irUDni 
speech  delivered  a  few  months  later  before  the  assenabled  Mjirim- 
priDces  of  Germany  at  Ratisbon,  echoed  his  despairing  tones- 
Constantinople,  he  declared,  had  been  the  home  of  learning, 
the  citadel  of  philosophy,  and  now  that  she  had  fallen  before 
the  Infidel,  the  wisdom  of  Hellas  wa8  destined  also  to  perish. 
'Poetry  and  philosophy,'  he  exclaims,  in  a  letter  written  at 
nearly  the  same  time,  'seem  buried.  There  are.  I  admit,  not 
a  few  illustrious  seats  of  learning  among  the  Latin  race, — 
Rome,  Paris,  Bologna,  Padua,  Sienna,  Perugia,  Cologne, 
Vienna,  Salamanca,  Oxford,  Pavia,  Leipsic,  Erfurt, — but 
these  are  all  but  rivulets  from  the  fountains  of  the  Greeks, 
and  if  you  sever  the  stream  from  its  source  it  dries  up'.'  It 
would  he  unjust  to  set  down  the»e  exaggerated  expressions  as 
mere  rhetorical  outbursts,  and  we  may  fairly  suppose  that  the 
writers  were  in  ignorance  at  the  time  of  how  much  had 
already  been  done  towards  averting  a  calamity  like  that 
which  they  foreboded.  They  both  lived  to  see  the  promise  of  JUlJ^jSU. 
a  very  different  future.  The  light  in  Constantinople  was  far  ^^"^ 
from  being  altogether  quenched',  while  in  western  Christen- 
dom the  capture  of  the  ea-stern  capital,  with  its  immediate 
consequences,  served  only  to  lend  a  new  impulse  to  the  ardour 
of  the  scholar.  '  It  is  hardly  credible,'  says  an  author  of  this 
age,  writing  but  a  few  years  later,  '  how  many  of  our  country- 
men became  almost  like  Greeks  bred  in  Attica  and  Acbaia,  in 
their  capacity  for  comprehending  the  Greek  literature'.'  At 
the  very  time  moreover  that  the  fugitives  from  Constantin- 
ople were  hastening  across  the  Adriatic,  it  is  probable  that 
the  sheets  of  the  Mazarin  Bible  were  issuing^from  the  press 

I  Hody,  p.  191-3.  tnr  enim  BeacWinoB  {De  Arte  Caba- 

'  Ibid.  liMtica,  lib.  i),  "pins  iUic  fniste  dig. 

'  'Qain  vero  constat  in  nibe  Con-  cipnlorun  qnam  dec«iii  millinn],  e 

Btantinopoli,  poBtqasm  &  Tunis  cap-  Penda.  Grscia,  Latio,  et  Jndaiamo."  ' 

te  luiBBet,  flomisae  magno  nnra?n>  Ibid.  p.  193. 

literaruin  non  modo  aliantm  T«ram  *  AD^telna  Decembrins,  Be  Lilrra- 

eUam  Grecamm  aladiosoB.     TsBtft-  ria  Folitia  (qnoted  by  Hod;). 

26 


402  THE  HUMANISTS. 

CHAP.  V.  of  Guttenberg  at  Maintz ;  and  thus,  while  Italy  was  resca- 

-/",_-  ing  from  destruction  the  most  valuable  thought  of  the  ancient 

world,  Germany  was  devising  the  means  for  its  diffusion,  in 

lands  of  which  Strabo  never  heard  and  to  an  extent  of  which 

the  Sosii  never  dreamed. 

owniiictor  There  was  now  no  lack  of  teachers  of  Greek,  or  rather  of 

tbeOroek 

■gg«*n  those  who  professed  to  teach  the  language.  But,  as  Voigt 
observes,  the  estimation  in  which  the  scholarship  of  the  new 
comers  was  held  appears  for  the  most  part  to  have  declined 
in  proportion  as  the  knowledge  of  their  language  and  litera- 
ture increased  among  those  whom  they  aspired  to  teach.  'As 
they  continued,'  he  says,  *  to  arrive  in  ever-increasing  num- 
bers and  yet  more  and  more  in  the  character  of  mendicants, 
the  respect  with  which  these  scions  of  the  Homeric  heroes 
and  of  the  ancient  Athenians  were  at  first  regarded  altogether 
vanished.  It  was  seen  that  they  were  totally  unable  to  lay 
aside  their  Byzantine  arrogance ;  that  they  were  surly  and 
peevish,  though  dependent  for  their  very  existence  on  cha- 
rity, destitute  of  the  ordinary  comforts  of  life,  and  under  the 
necessity  of  occupying  themselves  as  teachers  or  of  paying 
court  to  the  great.  Men  thought  they  would  do  better  if 
they  were  to  endeavour  to  adapt  themselves  to  the  customs 
of  their  new  homes,  to  shave  their  white  beards,  and  lay 
J^^^jj}  aside  their  dull  affectation  of  superiority.  They  shewed 
••'*°*****^  moreover  a  notable  incapacity  for  acquiring  either  the  Latin 
or  the  Italian  language.  Of  the  former,  but  few,  and  these 
only  after  long  years  of  toil,  acquired  any  command,  while 
not  more  than  three  or  four  attained  to  facility  and  elegance 
of  expression*.  To  the  Latins,  who  acquired  the  Greek  lan- 
guage with  such  ardour  and  rapidity,  and  so  zealously  betook 
themselves  to  the  study  of  its  literature,  they  consequently 
appeared  as  boorish  and  indolent  men.     The  sluggish   By- 

^  Even   the  ablest   among  them  profecerint.    Cajus  rei  tnm  ego  tma 

seem  to  have  despaired  of  attaining  alii  de  nostris  digni  sumas  testes,  qui 

to  a  complete  masteiy  of  the  lan»  Latinam  utcomque  mediocriter   in. 

goage :    Bessarion    himself    says : —  teUigimus  liuguam,  nil  tamen,  quod 

' Nostris impossihile est aliqnidsBquali  omatum  Latineqae  compositam  ait,, 

gratia  atqne  Latini  in  lingua  Latina  scribere  possum.'    Eput.  ad  Lageo' 

soribere,  qnantumcamque  vel  Greed  rtn,  Hody,  p.  177. 
in  Latina,  yel  Latini  in  Gneoa  lingoa 


403 

zoDtine  temperament  ill  consorted  with  the   Hrely  Italian  < 
character :  and  even  in  the  time  of  pope  Eugenius  (1431 —  - 
1447)   the  readiness  to  assist  these  Greek  wanderers,  whs 
were  almost  entirely  useless  members  of  society,  had  already 
sensihly  declined'.' 

The  chief  patron  of  the  unfortunate  exiles  at  this  June-  & 
ture  was  the  celebrated  Bessarion,  a  native  of  Trapezus  but  * 
of  Greek  descent*,  and  distinguished  by  his  patriotic  zeal  in 
behalf  of  the  Dational  cattse.     His  efforts  to  sustain  the  tot- 
tering empire  had  been  of  ne  ordinary  kind,  though  he  had 
been  absent  in  Italy  when  the  final  catastrophe  occurred; 
we  even  find  indeed  one  of  bis  admirers  asserting  that  to  his 
absence  that  calamity  was  munly  due,  and  that  the  capital 
bad  never  fallen  had  Bessarion  been  there  to  animate  the 
spirit  of  ita  defenders'.     Long  after  the  event,  be  was  still  hi 
foremost  among  those  who  urged  aggressive  measures  gainst 
the  Turks,  and  be  is  said  to  have  built  and  equipped  at  his 
own  expense  a  trireme  to  cooperate  with  the  Yenetian  fleet. 
In  pursuance  of  the  same  policy  he  sought,  like  Chrysoloras,  h 
to  promote  the  union  of  the  two  Churches ;  for  it  was,  he  a 
maintained,  the  religious  differesces  of  the  East  and  the 
West  which  gave  the  infidel   his  chief  advantage;   it  vras 
those  difierences  that  had  brought  about  the  overthrow  of 
the  great  Churches  of  Antioch,  Jerusalem,  and  Alexandria ; 
and  unless  so  prolific  a  source  of  disunited  counsels  were 
removed,  he  predicted  that  Europe  would  share  the  fete  of 
A^ca,  and  the  Crescent   everywhere  he   seen   triumphant 
over  the  standard  of  the  Cross*.     Such  were  the  sentiments 


>  Voigt,  p.  ssa. 

*  'Ei  vetere  Gtscok  orinndiu,  lU- 
tiuqv*  in  AsU,  atriDsque  coUegit 
genwosi  ■piritUB  gemiiui.'  FUtitut 
Patugyrieut.  Boemer,  p.  63.  Thit 
panegyric,  which  contuiu  much  ti- 
liubl«  materia]  for  the  life  of  Bessa- 
tioa,  «B8  composed  dnrins  the  lila- 
tinie  of  the  cardinal,  and  gives  no 
beta  inbeeqnent  to  the  elevation  of 
hie  rival,  Flue  ii,  to  the  papal  chair. 
Hod;,  vho  had  never  seen  it,  spealu 
of  it  (p.  162)  as  a  tnneral  oration  I 

*  'Constans  est  oerte,  Qoirites, 
omninm  bene  tentientinin  opinio,  et 


mm  oalamitatont  gnari  mat,  doo 
ilia  imperia  nnnqnam  fniase  eoimi- 
tnra,  m  Bensarion.  magni  ahimi  at- 
qne  ooneilii  vir,  illii  in  loeii  tnm 
fnisut,  cam  tempestas  ilia  contra 
□on  Gneoos  tantnm  Bed  hnmanntn 
genna  eiorta  est.  Eicit  asset  enim 
Tir  omnium  vigilantisstmns  dormi- 
entem  Onecam,  armawet  Dimio  otio 
languentes  animoB.  ire  in  hostem 
bhob,  et  a  cervicibos  tantam  calami- 
tatem  avertere  qoantam  passi  ennt, 
spe  vere  et  integra  landia  propoaita, 
oompaliBset.'    Ibid.  pp.  84^. 

*  'Dioebat  enim,  quod  variaimnm 
wt,  Hahometanam    peifldiam  late 
26—2 


404 


THE   HUMANISTS. 


CHAP.  V.  ^0  which  he  gave  expression  in  the  year  1438,  at  the  council 
Part  I.  ^f  FeiTara.  On  the  convening  of  that  assembly  he  had 
appeared  as  the  advocate  of  the  Greek  faith,  and  had  seen  in 
the  opposite  ranks  men  like  Guarino,  Traversari,  and  Au- 
rispa,  whom  Pope  Eugenius  had  deputed  to  defend  the  Latin 
tenets.  As  the  debates  proceeded  Bessarion  had  been 
brought  to  the  conclusion  that  the  chief  question  in  dispute, 
— that  respecting  the  Procession  of  the  Holy  Ghost, — turned 
on  a  merely  verbal  distinction;  and  had  consequently,  with  a 
candour  that  offered  a  marked  contrast  to  the  characteristic 
HbcoiiTer-  obstinacy  of  his  countrymen,  given  in  his  adhesion  to  the 
Romish  faith  as  the  representative  of  his  party  \  He  was 
shortly  after  created  cardinal,  and  twice  during  his  lifetime 
it  seemed  more  than  probable  that  the  supreme  dignity  of 
the  tiara  would  also  fall  to  his  lot.  The  attempted  union  of 
the  two  Churches  however  it  was  beyond  his  power  to  bring 
about.  He  continued  firm  in  his  allegiance  to  the  western 
communion,  and  his  bearded  countenance,  along  with  that  of 
another  convert  of  eminence,  the  cardinal  of  Kiew,  was  con- 
spicuous in  the  throng  of  ecclesiastics  at  the  papal  court;  but 
his  example  attracted  few  or  no  followers.  The  great  major- 
Hit  example  ity  of  his  countrymen  still  insisted  with  wearisome  pertinsr 
Btttenrait  city  on  their  distinctive  views,  which  they  vindicated  by 
appeals  to  the  early  fathers  of  the  eastern  Church.     It  was 


iloDtothe 

wectem 

Church. 


crevisse  dam  religionis  nostree  capita 
inter  se  dissiderent ;  procedatne  Spi- 
ritns  Sanotas  a  Patre  tanttun,  at 
Grffici,  an  a  Patre  et  Filio  ut  Latini 
Yolebant;  his  enim  controversiis  iac- 
tatn,  ut  ad  Mahometanos,  partim  vi, 
partim  sponte,  deficerent  populi,  dam 
ChristiausB  religionis  priucipes  quid 
potissimom  teneant  incertos  vident. 
Hino  amissam  esse  Antiochenam  ec- 
olesiam,  hinc  Hierosolymitanam,  hino 
Alexandrinam;  hino  denique  omnem 
ferme  Asiam  et  totam  Africam  hanc 
pestem  oecupasse,  et,  qaod  gravias 
est,  EaropsB  qaasdam  partes  jamjam 
infecisse  ac  longius  eyagatoram,  ni, 
propere  sablatis  tam  pemiciosis  con- 
troversiis  ao  polsis  ChristiansB  rei- 
pablicfld  hostibas,  in  possessionem 
veterem  labore  vigiliis  ao  sanguine 
mortyrom  comparatam,  armati  com 


vexillo  crucis  pervenerint.*  Ibid.  p.Sfi. 
^  Yoigt  sajs  of  the  conduct  of  the 
representatives  of  the  Greek  party 
on  this  occasion: — 'Sie  kamen  and 
suchten  Hiilfe ;  schon  in  dieser  ein- 
fachen  Situation  war  es  stillschwei- 
gend  ausgesprochen,  dass  sie  bereit 
waron,  eich  um  guten  Preis  den  Dog- 
men  der  lateinischen  Kirche  zu  fii- 
gen.  Dennoch  wurden  erst  lange 
gelehrte  Scheiugefechte  eroffnet, 
mochte  nun  der  griechische  Kleras 
nicht  ganz  so  glaubensbereit  sein 
wie  der  Kaiser  oder  mochte  man 
auch  nur  den  Schein  retten  woUen.* 
p.  333.  Hody,  who  has  taken  his 
account  entirely  from  Sguropnlos, 
HUt.  Cone.  Florent,  gives  a  some- 
what different  aspect  to  the  proceed- 
ings, see  pp.  187-42. 


M 


F«ml. 


AEOYBOPULOS.  405 

thus  that,  unhappily  for  the  progress  of  cUssicat  learning  and  < 
the  peace  of  the  scholar,  the  Greek  language  became  in  the  ■ 
minds  of  many  associated  with  heresy,  and  an  opposition  far  orHtbi- 
more  irrational  even  than  that  which  the  New  Aristotle  had  JJ^T** 
evoked,  confronted  the  professors  of  the  Greek  literature  not 
only  in  Italy  hut  also  in  Germany  and  in  England. 

We  have  ^ready  mentioned  John  Argyropulos  as  one  AiRn^aioh 
of  the  few  men  of  learning  in  the  promiscuous  throng  of<L><H(t>- 
fugitives  from  Constantinople.     He  was  a  native  of  that 
city  and  of  noble  birth.  .  Along  with  the  majority  of  those 
whose  attainments  encour^ed  them  to  look  for  assistance  at 
the  hands  of  the  patrons  of  lettere,  he  betook  himself  to 
Florence,  where  Cosmo  de  Medici  was  then  at  the  height 
of  bis  popularity  and  power.     Argyropulos  was  hospitably  Ti»Midu 
received,  and  the  instruction  of  the  youthful  Lorenzo  was 
confided  to  his  care  :  he  thenceforth  attached  himself  to  the 
family  of  the  Medici,  and  by  the  lustre  which  his  numerous 
dedications,  the  expressions  of  genuine  gratitude  and  admi- 
ration, cast  upon  that  noble  house,  may  be  held  to  have 
more  than  repaid  the  many  favours  he  received.     His  real 
learning,  united  to  such  powerful  patronage,  soon  drew  around 
him   a  distinguished  circle  of  scholars   seeking  to  gain  a 
knowledge  of  the  Greek  literature,  among  whom  the  most 
eminent  was  undoubtedly  Politiaa    Driven  by  the  plague 
from  Florence,  Argyropulos  next  took  refuge  in  Rome,  where 
his  lectures  on  Aristotle  still  further  enhanced  his  reputation. 
According  to  the  testimony  of  his  illustrious   scholar,  hisHiaarsM 
range  of  knowledge  was  unusually  extended,  embracing  not  {pyg;^ 
merely  grammar  and  rhetoric  but  a  perfected  acquaintance  IjS«««. 
with  the  whole  course  of  the  trivium  and  quadrimum};  he 
was  however  singularly  disdainful  of  the  Latin  language  and 
literature,  and  his  efforts  were  almost .  entirely  concentrated 
on  promoting  a  more  accurate  acquaintance  with  the  Aristo-  AdnHM  a- 
telian  philosophy.     Philelphus,  Cortesius,   and  Politian   vie  S^J"'*'^ 
with  each  •other  in  their  praises  of  his  services  in  this  field 
Plara  virorum,  says  Boemer,  after  quoting  their  emphatic 

Cyolici 


406  THE  HUMANISTS. 

• 

CHAP.  V.  encomiums,  taceo  testimonta,  quibus  de  iimgni  exifniaque 
-^^"'•^  iUiu8  eniditione  prcedicarurU,  Theodorus  Gaza,  whose  mo- 
dest worth  stands  in  such  favorable  contrast  to  the  vanity 
and  arrogance  of  many  of  the  scholars  of  this  period,  burnt 
his  own  translations  of  the  Naturalia  and  the  Ethics  when  he 
heard  that  Argyropulos  had  also  versions  of  them  forthcom- 
ing\  We  realise  the  change  that  had  come  about  since  the 
time  of  Petrarch,  when  we  find  the  haughty  exile  declaring 
that  Cicero, — from  whose  writings  Petrarch  had  chiefly 
gained  his  knowledge  of  the  ancient  philosophy, — Cicero, 
whose  ascendancy  over  the  minds  of  educated  Italy  was  in- 
Hitdepndft- creasing  with  every  year, — had  no  true  knowledge  either  of 
Mi^i>iia<Mo-  the  Greek  language  or  of  the  systems  of  the  great  Greek 
thinkers'.  This  jealousy  of  all  Roman  interpreter  of  the 
Greek  oracles  was  however  too  often  exhibited  by  these  un- 
'  grateful  dependants  on  Italian  charity.  Latinos,  said  Poli- 
tian  sarcastically,  in  participatum  sucb  linguoa  doctrinceque 
nan  lU)enter  admittit  ista  natio. 
gg[^2«»»T  Unlike  Chrysoloras  and  Guarino,  his  rivals  in  professional 
fame,  Argyropulos  left  behind  him  considerable  contributions 
to  classical  literature.  They  were  chiefly  translations  from 
Aristotle,  but  translations  which  afforded  such  assistance  to 
the  student  of  philosophy  as  was  to  be  found  in  no  other 
existing  versions.  Dissatisfied  with  the  labours  of  Boethius 
and  Petrus  Hispanus,  he  translated  anew  the  Frasdicamenta 
and  the  De  Interpretatione,  Roger  Bacon,  if  not  completely 
reassured,  would  certainly  have  taken  fresh  heart  could  he 
have  seen  the  versions  that  now  appeared  of  the  Posterior 
Analytics,  the  Physics,  the  De  Ccelo,  the  De  Anima,  and  the 
Metaphysics.  When  we  find  the  most  eminent  critics  of  the 
age  disputing  whether  these  translations  are  to  be  praised 
more  for  their  elegance  or  for  their  fidelity,  it  seems  reason- 
able to  conclude  that  both  characteristics  are  present  in  a 

^  Boemer,  p.  146.  ceteris  turn  quidem  snis  seotatoribtiB 

*  *  £t  at  homo  erat  omnium  (at  persaaserat,  ita  at,  qaiyl  pene  dicta 

tam  qaidem  videbatar)  aoerrimas  in  quoqae    nefas,   pro    ooncesso    inter 

diapatando,  atqae  aarein  (qaod  ait  nos   haberetar,   nee   philosophicam 

Peraias)  mordaci  lotas  aoeto,  pr8Bterea  aoisse  M.  Talliam  nee  Grsecas  lite- 

I  verboram  qaoque  noatroram  fandita-  ras.*    Hody,  p.  199. 

tor  mazimaB,  facile  id  vel  nobis  vel 


XSSLAS   BYLTIUS. 


407 


marked  degree.     Their  general  excellence  was  rarely  called  < 
in  question,  and  they  altogether  surpassed  the  versions  that  ' 
appeared  under  the  auspices  of  Nicholas  Y,  hy  George  Trape- 
zuntius,  Gregory  Tifemas,  or  even  those  by  Theodore  Gaza*. 

At  Rome  Ai^yropulos  was  wont  to  see  cardinals,  nobles, 
and  others  of  high  civic  dignity  assemble  around  him.  On  •- 
one  of  these  occasions,  when  he  was  on  the  point  of  com-  * 
mencing  a  lecture  on  Thucydides,  a  young  man  whose 
modest  retinue  and  address  a£Forded  a  strong  contrast  to 
those  of  many  of  the  august  audience,  stepped  forward  and 
introduced  himself  to  the  lecturer.  He  expressed  in  courtly 
phrase  his  sympathy  with  the  exiled  Greeks,  and  described 
himselfas  a  German  not  wholly  ignorant  of  Greek,  but  anxious 
to  increase  bis  knowledge  of  the  langu^e.  Argyropulos, 
to  test  his  attainments,  forthwith  invited  him  to  proceed  with 
the  translation  of  one  of  the  Thucydidean  orations.  Wbether 
or  no  it  was  the  'Funeral  Oration'  by  Pericles  we  are  not 
informed,  but  the  lecturer  was  startled  by  the  correctness 
of  the  new  comer's  pronunciation  and  the  fidelity  of  bis 
rendering.  Nostra  exilio,  he  exclaimed,  Oraroia  traTwolavit 
Alpea\ 

The  flight  of  Greece  across  the  Alps  had  however  taken  u 
place  long  before  Argyropulos  became  apprised  of  the  fact 
through  the  visit  of  John  Reuchbn  to  Borne.  Before  the 
close  of  the  tirst  half  of  the  century,  the  scholars  of  Germany 
bad  heard  something  about  the  new  learning,  and  were  now 
already  welcoming,  though  not  without  certain  manifesta- 
tions of  that  defiant  spirit  with  which  Teutonism  has  ever 
been  prone  to  regard  the  fashions  of  the  Latin  race,  in  their 
own  land,  the  culture  to  which  tbey  were  in  turn  to  impart 


>  '  Freilicb  iat  ihr  VeidieoBt  so  wie 
d>s  Bmtii'B  in  der  Folge  darch  AigJ- 
ropnloa  verdaukelt  icorden.  nnd  fUr 
«wiee  Zeit«n  haben  rie  »Sle  mcht 
g«ubeitet.'  Toigt,  p^355.  'Divei>» 
at  eontruia  inter  »e  de  Argjropali 
TenionibuB  vironiiD  doctonun  annt 
indicia.  B.  Volaterranns  eleganter 
uugii  qoam  fideliter  Ariatotelis  li- 
broB  sum  oaavertiBse  censet.  Contrk 
•K  lotMh.  Perizonini  fideliter  m»^ 
qnatn  onute  elagiuiterqiiB  illoi  ipra 


tnnBlatoB  ab  eo  fniue  ut.  Fctnu 
Numiofl  antem,  ad  verba  nugiB  qoam 
ad  aenBiiin,  Argyropalam  sttendiaie, 
ipunsqae  adeo  intfifpretationei  nao 
fidelea  Deo  elegantefl  esse  prouuntiat. 
AtbuHBD  aocnrate  inteipretandi  Ian- 
dem  illi  baadqaaqnam  denegandam 
esie,  Hnetins  arbitrator.'  B<mner,  p. 
149.     Bee  alBO  Hodj,  309-9. 

*  Th«  satborilj  for  thii  ii  Helanoh- 
thon;  aeshu  Orolte  dt  loStame  Cap. 
■       -    ■        ■         ,816. 


408 


THE  HUMANISTS. 


aiAP.  V. 

Part  1. 

JKnfmM 
HvlTius 
PiccolomlnL 


Oregoiy 


TheTteliaii 
scholar  and 
Clonuan 
Jurisft  con- 
tnuted. 


Heifiua. 
6. 1420. 
d.1480. 


the  impress  of  the  national  genius.   Of  this  movement  ./Eneas 
Sylvius,  afterwards  pope  Pius  li,  is  perhaps  entitled  to  be 
regarded  as  the  inau^jurator.     At  the  time  that  he  became 
attached  to  the  imperial  court,  all  around  him  seemed  dull 
and  mechanical  as  of  old,  and  it  was  with  but  small  success 
that  he  endeavoured  to  arouse  the  phlegmatic  nobles  to  a 
sense  of  the  higher  pleasures  now  within  their  reach.     He 
describes  them  much  as  Poggio  some  tliirty  years  before  had 
described  the  nobility  of  England.     *They  prefer  their  horses 
and  their  dogs  to  poets,*  he  says,  'and  like  their  horses  and 
their  dogs  they  shall   perish  and  be  forgotten*.'     It  must 
have  been  an  agreeable  surprise  for  him  when  he  one  day,  at 
the  court  of  Neustadt,  heard  a  Gennan  voice  boldly  and 
forcibly  defending  the  merits  of  the  new  learning.    The  voice 
was  that  of  Gregory  Heimburg,  a  sturdy  Teuton,  who  though 
at  that  time,  in  the  enthusiasm  of  his  youth,  led  captive  by 
the  fascinations  of  the  new  school,  lived  to  repudiate  them 
almost  entirely  and  to  exemplify,  in  his  career  as  a  jurist, 
that  nervous  manly  style  of  eloquence  which  he  regarded  as 
altogether  preferable  to  what  seemed  to  him  the  effeminate 
niceties  of  Italian  scholarship.     When  iEneas  Sylvius  filled 
the  papal  chair  he  was  himself  exposed  to  the  lash  of  Heim- 
burg*s  vigorous  rhetoric;  and  Voigt  in  an  admirable  criticism 
has  enlarged   upon   the   characteristics   of  these  two, — the 
Italian  scholar  and  the  German  jurist, — as  affording  an  apt 
illustration  of  the  points  of  national  contrast  that  were  after- 
wards more  fully  brought  out  in  connexion  with  the  progress 
of  the  Humanismus  in  their  respective  countries'.   Pope  Pius 
died  in  the  year  1464,  and  very  soon  after  we  have  ample  evi- 
dence that  his  efforts,  and  those  of  others  like  him,  had  not 
been  expended  on  a  wholly  ungrateful  soil.     Hegius,  who 
combined  in  a  remarkable  degree  the  learning  of  the  school- 


^  In  another  of  his  writings  he  thus 
coutrastH  the  character  of  learning  in 
demand  in  Germany  with  that  in 
Italy : — '  Tentones  omnes  cancellaria) 
aptos  arbitrantur  qui  vel  civilis  vel 
canouici  juris  periti  diountur,  ant 
quos  Yocant  magistros  artium,  qui 
prwter  garrulam  et  loquaccim  dia- 
lecticam  nihil  aliarum  artiom  didi- 


cere..  Florentini  eos  assumant,  qui- 
bus  Ciceronis  et  Quintiliaui  priecepta 
notissima  sunt,  poetorom  et  oratorum 
imbuti  doctrinis,  ....  atque  eos  si 
domi  non  iuveniunt  forts  (luierunt.' 
Hut.  Friedrich  III  p.  827,  (quoted 
by  Prautl,  iv  160.) 
«  Voigt,  pp.  383-9. 


LEARNING   IN  GERMANY. 


409 


man  with  the  spirit  of  an  innovator,  is  to  be  fouod  teaching  chap. 
at  Deveuter,  and,  though  bis  own  knowledge  of  Greek  was  — ^!J 
slender,  strenuously  exhorting  his  scholars  to  the  acquirement  ^^^J^ 
of  the  languE^e.  He  had  himself  been  a  pupil  of  the  re- 
nowned Budolphus  Agricula,  and  among  hia  scholars  was  a 
boy  named  Gerard.  One  day  Agricola  was  on  a  visit  to  his 
old  pupil,  and  the  youthful  Gerard  was  brought  before  bim 
as  one  of  whom  the  master  entertained  more  than  ordinary 
expectations:  tlie  great  teacher  looked  at  the  boy's  bright 
eyes  and  well-shaped  bead,  and  prophesied  the  future  great- 
ness of  Erasmus'.  At  Munster  we  find  the  indefatigable 
Kudolf  von  Lange  watching  with  untiring  greatness  over  Rudotfm 
his  famous  school,  introducing  new  test-books  and  discarding  J^™ 
the  old,  and  remodelling  the  whole  system  of  instruction, 
tfntil  the  monks  of  Cologne  were  ready  to  denounce  him  as 
a  heretic.  The  counsels  of  Agricola  sustained  him  in  bis 
work.  'Your  efforts,'  wrote  the  latter,  'mspire  me  with  the 
fondest  hope,  and  I  predict  that  we  shall  one  day  succeed  in 
wresting  from  proud  Italy  that  ancient  renown  for  eloquence 
of  which  she  has  hitherto  rettuned  almost  undisputed  pos- 
session, and  shall  wipe  away  that  reproach  of  barbarian  sloth- 
fulness,  ignorance,  poverty  of  ezpressioa  and  whatever  marks 
an  unlettered  race,  with  which  she  unceasingly  assails  us, 
and  Germany  shall  be  seen  to  be  in  learning  and  culture  not 
less  latin  than  Latium  herself*,'  In  spirit  a  not  unworthy 
compeer  of  these,  the  theologian,  John  Wessel,  was  manfully  ■ 
advocating  a  less  tame  submission  to  the  scholastic  yoke,  and ' 
sturdily  asserting  that  if  Aquinas  was  a  doctor  be  was  a 
doctor  too, — that  he  was  conversant  with  three  of  the  ancient 
tongues,  while  Aquinas  had  known  but  one,  and  that  imper- 
fectly,— that  he  had  gazed  upon  Aristotle  in  his  native  dress, 
while  Aquinas  bad  scarcely  beheld  his  shadow'. 


'  Geigei,  Johartn  Rruckttn,  Ein- 
leituDg,  pp.  i-xi.  Ton  Bamner, 
Crichichle  der  Padagogik,  i  B6-9. 

'  '  Unum  hoc  tibi  affirmo,  fora 
aliqiundo  ut  priBcam  iusolenti  Ita- 
lin  et  propemodum  occnpatam  bene 
dioendi  gloriam  eitorqaeamaB  vin- 
dioemnsqne  do»,  et  ab  ignavia,  gna 
1108  bubaroB  iudoctoaqae  et  elingnea, 


et  ei  quid  est  hia  incultina,  esse  noB 
jactitaut,  eiBolTamns,  faturamqae 
tam  doclam  et  litleratsm  Genniuiiam 
uoHtram,  ut  Don  latinioa  \el  ippum 
git  LatiniQ."  Eiohhom,  Getchichte 
der  Liltfratur,  ii  157. 

'  Ullmann,  Efformatoren  vor  der 
Bijtirmation,  ii  3S5-685. 


410 


THE   HUMANISTS. 


CHAP.  V. 
.Part  I. 


Rndolphi 
AfricauL 
b.  1443. 
<I.1486. 


TUmD4 

Farmando 

StuMo, 


Of  the  foregoing,  Agricola,  short  as  was  his  career,  attained 
to  by  far  the  greatest  eminence  *.  His  translations  from  the 
Greek  were  numerous  and  accurate;  his  Latinity  was  con- 
sidered by  so  competent  a  judge  as  Vives,  superior  to  that 
of  PoUtian;  and  his  treatise  on  logic  became  a  text-book  in 
our  own  university.  It  was  not  however  by  these  perform- 
ances that  he  exercised  his  chief  influence  on  the  age. 
His  most  enduring  monument  is  a  short,  but  as  Geiger  terms 
it,  an  'epoch-making'  treatise,  the  De  Formando  Studio,  which 
first  appeared  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  Jacob  Barbirianus^ 
dated  June  7,  1484f. 

Few  perhaps  on  turning  to  the  treatise  described  by  so 
high-sounding  an  epithet,  will  fail  at  first  to  experience  a 
sense  of  disappointment.     The  opening  remarks  are  certainly 
not    distinguished    by    any    great    appearance   of    novelty. 
Agricola  commences  by  observing  that  all  students  have  to 
decide  for  themselves  two  preliminary  questions, — ^what  they 
shall  study,  and  how  they  shall  study  it.     Some,  as  capacity 
or  circumstances  may  direct,  choose  the  civil  law;  others,  the 
canon  law;  others,  medicine.     The  majority  however  devote 
themselves  to  the  empty  verbal  trifling  of  an  arts  course,  and 
give  up  their  time  to  bewildering  disputations   and  riddles 
which  for  many  centuries  have  found  no  CEdipus,  and  are 
never  likely  to  find  one*.'    Nevertheless  it  is  his  counsel  to 
Barbirianus  to  make  philosophy  his  choice;  'only  let  it,'  he 
says,  *  be  a  philosophy  entirely  diflFerent  from   that  of  the 
schools,  let  it  be  the  art  of  thinking  aright  and  of  giving 
£wj«wphy    fitting  expression  to  each  thought*.'     Philosophy  may  be  di- 
vided into  two  provinces,  moral  and  natural ;  the  former  is 


^  *  Eann  ein  Mann  als  der  Anf anger 
and  Yorkampfer  dentsoher  Bildung 
im  15teu  «fahrhaudert  betrachtet 
\rerden,  so  ist  es  gewiss  Bndolph 
Agricola.'    Von  Bamner,  i  62. 

*  *  Ciyile  jus  alios,  alius  pontificnm 
sanctiones,  alias  medicinss  artem  dis- 
cendam  samit;  plerique  etiam  lo- 
quaces  has  et  inani  strepita  crepitan- 
tes,  qu€L8  vulgo  artes  jam  vocamus^ 
sibi  vindioant  et  perplexis  disputa- 
tionam  ambagibas  vel  etiam,  ut  verias 
dioam,  enigmatiboB  diem  teront .  . . 


His  miseras  adolescentiam  onerant 
aares,  bsBc  sabinde  ingeront  incal- 
oantque  et  in  plerisque  meliorem 
ingenii  spem  atque  frugem  in  teneris 
acUiuc  annis  enecant.'  Libellas  De 
Fortnando  Studio,  (Coloniie,  1532),  p. 
4.  The  words  italicised  are  worthy 
of  note  as  corroborating  the  obser- 
vations in  the  preceding  chapter,  on 
the  extent  to  which  the  whole  of  the 
arts  coarse  was  pervaded  by  the  dia- 
lectical element. 


^ 


BUDOLFHDB  AQSICOIX  411 

not  to  be  sought  exclusively  in  AristoUe,  Cicero,  and  Seneca    chap.  t. 
IB  but  to  be  gathered  from  the  actions  and  examples  which   — -, — ■ 
histoiy  offers  to  our  notice,  and  especially  from  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  and  the  divine  and  sure  precepts  they  contain.    In 
the  latter  alone  can  we  find  a  right  conception  of  the  true  end 
of  life  and  perfect  freedom  from  error.    The  sciraice  of  nature  Nutnt 
is  less  important  than  that  of  the  moral  law,  and  is  to  be  i 
garded  as  chieSy  ancillary  in  ito  character;  be  recommends 
however  the  study  of  geography,  botany,  geology,  medicine, 
architecture  and  painting.    But  both  natural  and  moral  phi- 
losophy must  be  studied  in  the  classical  authors,  if  we  would 
leam  at  the  same  time  the  art  of  rightly  expressing  our 
thoughts ;  these  authors  a^in  should  be  rendered  with  the 
greatest  possible  accuracy  into  one's  mother  tongue,  and  then 
the  student  on  seeing  a  Latin  word  will  gradually  come  to  asso- 
ciate it  directly  with  its  equivalent  in  his  vernacular.    What-  ^S^SJ. 
ever,  on  the  other  hand,  he  may  wish  to  express  in  Latin  he  g^J^ 
must  always  first  of  all  reduce  to  accurate  expression  in  his  *■*'* 
own  mind  in  his  own  langui^'.     To  write  with  purity  and 
correctness  must  always  precede  any  attempt  at  elegance. 
Further  on,  he  observes  that  there  are  three  points  to  which 
every  student  must  give  particular  attention :  (I)  first  a  clear 
understanding  of  his  author's  meaning ;  (2)  the  firm  retention 
of  each  idea  in  his  memory ;  (3)  the  acquisition  of  a  habit  of 
adding   to   and  enriching   each  idea  out  of  his  individual 
tiumgkt.    After  giving  a  few  hints  on  the  way  to  study  a  dif- 
ficult author  and   to  render  the   memory  more   tenacious, 
Agricola  proceeds  to  amplify  on  the  third  point.     If  we  our-  a 
selves,  he  says,  fail  to  bring  to  our  acquired  knowledge  some-  jj,^ 
thing  of  fresh  thought  in  turn,  our  learning  lies,  not  like  seed  Jj 
in  the  fruitful  soil,  but  as  it  were  dead  within  us;  and  to 
prevent  this  it  is  necessary  that  we  should  not  store  away 
what  we  have  acquired  and  then  foi^t  it,  but  have  it,  as  it 
were,  ready  to  hand,  in  order  that  we  may  always  be  able  to 

I   •Qnidqnid  apnd  antoret  leg«a,  Umimi  erit,  id  ipinm  qnam  plenii- 

aiJliMimnni  taerit,  id  ipaain  qtuin  lune  rMtiwnmeque  patiio   Bennona 

m»Tinn>  propiiii  et  idem  ngnifieaii-  iutn  uummn  taom  fomure,  delude 

tilnw  vertna  reddeie  venuonlo  aer-  T^tini.  pnre  pioprieqne  id  mgnifl- 

mcoM . .  ,  81  qaid  MiibeTe  Tolea,  op-  Mntil>iuTnbi*explioar&'  Ibid.p.B. 


418 


THE.  HUMANISTS. 


CHAP.  V.  compare  it  with  whatever  we  may  ourselves  discover  by 
.-1^!^  original  research.  It  is  accordingly  useful  to  categorize  our 
conceptions  and  to  distribute  our  knowledge  under  different 
heads;  and  also  carefully  to  analyze  every  conception  and 
acquire  a  habit  of  surveying  it  on  every  side.  In  this  way 
the  student  will  acquire  the  facility  of  the  ancient  sophist, 
who  possessed  the  faculty  of  speaking  impromptu  on  every 
given  theme. 

R«iinoTeity        The  thought  Contained  in  the  foresfoinff  outline  is  now 

oruioaghtin  °  .     . 

thia  tnaoae.  almost  as  commonplacc  as  it  was  then  novel,  but  it  is  deserv- 
ing of  notice  that  we  have  here, — (1)  a  distinct  repudiation  of 
scholastic  models  and  an  appeal  to  the  literary  standards  of 
antiquity,  at  a  time  when  the  schoolmen  were  still  omnipotent 
in  Germany ;  (2j  the  necessity  of  an  accurate  connotation  in 
the  use  of  words,  and  the  value  of  the  vernacular  speech  in 
aiding  in  such  a  result,  clearly  pointed  out ;  (3)  a  plea  for  the 
rights  of  the  individual  thinker  and  an  assertion  of  the 
dignity  of  the  individual  enquirer,  at  a  time  when  almost 
every  mind  was  bowing  in  servile  submission  to  the  authority 
of  a  few  great  names  and  that  of  their  almost  equally  servile 
commentators. 

In  Agricola's  De  Inventione  Dialectica  we  are  presented 
with  what  Prantl  characterizes  as  entirely  '  eine  ciceronisch- 
quintilianische  Topik.'  The  dialectical  art,  the  author  con- 
siders, is  simply  a  method  of  establishing  the  probabla  In 
discussing  genus  and  species  he  endeavours  to  reconcile  the 
views  of  Aquina*  with  those  of  Duns  Scotus.  The  treatise, 
though  highly  praised  by  Melancththon  as  the  best  of  his 
day,  is  not  one  to  which  Prantl  concedes  any  real  origin- 
ality^ :  it  was  however  in  general  use  long  after  the  author's 


JO»De 
ItmnUione, 


A  popular 
munual  of 
logic 


^  'Aber  bezliglicli  des  logischen 
Gebietes  denkt  er  ausschlieBslich  nnr 
an  eine  Sammlong  topieoher  Oe- 
Bichtspnnkte,  und  die  Dialcktik  ist 
ihm  noreineMethode  derWalirschein- 
lichkeit,  daher  er  unter  den  Schriften 
dee  Aristoteles,  dessen  nnentwirrbare 
Dankelheit  anob  er,  wie  die  Uebrigen, 
beklagt,  lediglich  die  Topik  beriick- 
Biobtigt,  und  zwar  dieeelbe  nacb  des 
Boothius  Weise  mit  der  cieeroni- 
Boben  vezecbmebsen  wilL  Ju  solcbem 


Binne  gibt  er  im  1  Bucbe  eine  Anf- 
zablnng  der  Topen,  wobei  er  gele- 
gentlicb  der  Definition  auf  die  Be- 
grifte  genuSf  species  xl  dgl.  kommt 
und  sicb  veranlasst  findet,  beireffs 
der  Universalien  die  tbomistische 
AuffasBung  einer  similitudo  essentialis 
in  Verbindung  mit  des  Sootus  Hao- 
oeitat  als  den  ricbtigen  Standpnnkt 
zu  bezeicbnen.'  Prantl,  Gesch.  d.  Lo- 
gik,  IV  168. 


SUDOLPHUS  AORICOLA.  413 

death,  and  appears  to  have  been  one  of  the  most  popular  of  ciiakt 
the  two  or  three  manuals  that,  up  to  the  time  of  SetoD,  — -v^ 
superseiJed  for  a  time  the  purely  scholastic  logic'. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  here  follow  any  further 
the  progress  of  the  new  learning  either  in  Germany  or  in 
Italy ;  our  sole  aim  in  ihe  preceding  pages  having  been  to 
illustrate  a  few  important  points  in  that  progress,  respect- 
ing which  a  certain  amount  of  misapprehension  has  often  pre- 
vailed. It  will  be  seen  that,  so  far  from  Aristotle  being 
displaced  and  set  aside  by  the  earlier  Humanists,  bis  works 
engaged  a  large  amount  of  their  attention,  and  that  we  may 
date  from  the  labours  of  Bruni  and  Argyropnlos  the  com- 
mencement of  that  more  intelligent  Aristotelian  ism  which, 
after  a  long  and  arduous  struggle,  succeeded  in  banishing  both 
the  fanciful  interpretations  of  the  Averroists  and  the  mechan- 
ical versions  of  the  schoolmen.  It  will  also  be  seen  that,  at  GoRmien 
the  very  outset,  indications  were  not  wanting  of  tha  uses  to  ^^^^ 
which  the  Teutonic  and  the  Latin  races  would  respectively 
convert  the  revived  literature  of  antiquity.  With  the  Qer- 
man,  it  became  the  means  of  widening  his  whole  range  of 
thought,  of  modifying  his  conception  of  education,  and  of 
opening  up  a  new  field  of  doctrinal  and  speculative  theolt^. 
With  the  Italian,  it  served  to  refine  bis  style,  to  quicken  his 
fancy,  and  to  convert  him  into  a  meditative  but  generally 
urbane  and  graial  man  of  letters  or  philosopher.  The  former 
betook  himself  to  the  study  of  the  early  fathers,  especially 
those  of  the  Greek  Church,  and  was  thus  gradually  led  to 
reconsider  and  purify  his  religious  faith ;  the  latter,  lost  amid 
the  speculations  of  the  Academicians,  became  in  many  in- 
stances the  victim  of  a  shallow  scepticism  which  he  scarcely 
cared  to  veil.  It  was  exactly  in  harmony  with  these  tenden-  n^nud 
cies,  that  the  German  scholar,  content  with  acquiring  a  fairly  ^^1^ 
correct  and  vigorous  Latin  style,  remained  indifferent  to  those 
minuter  elegances  and  nuances  of  expression  which  lend  a 
charm  to  the  productions  of  Ovid,  Catullus,  and  Martial ; 
while  the  excessive  attention  devoted  by  the  Italian  scholar 


Thdrrs- 
nitlMto 


414  THE  HUMANISTS. 

CHAP.  V.  to  these  same  niceties,  led  him  to  regard  with  servile  admira- 
tion  the  genius  of  those  authors  by  whom  they  had  been 
most  successfully  cultivated.  Hence,  in  his  enthusiasm,  he 
imitated  not  only  the  elegance  of  the  Latinity,  but  the  .im- 
purity of  the  thought.  We  are  here  under  no  necessity  of  illus- 
trating, as  Voigt  and  other  writei*8  have  done,  the  prevalence 
of  this  clement  in  the  writings  of  the  Transalpine  scholars  of 
this  period ;  but  the  most  adverse  critic  of  that  now  some- 
what neglected  literature  will  find  no  difficulty  in  admitting, 
that  in  the  above  respect  the  imitators  fully  reached  the 
standard  of  their  originals.  From  this  taint  the  learning 
of  Germany  was  for  a  long  time  comparatively  free;  and  to 
the  last,  men  like  Reuchlin,  Mutian,  and  Erasmus,  could 
recall  with  honourable  pride,  that  the  party  they  represented 
had  never  sullied  a  noble  cause  by  productions  like  the 
FacetioB  of  Poggio  or  the  Hermaphroditus  of  Beccadelli^ 
lH'aB-  If  we  pursue  our  comparison    into   the   days  of  the    Be- 

SiforauaMi.  formation  we  shall  find  the  above  contrast  still  holding 
good.  The  Humanists  of  Italy  were  for  the  most  part 
hostile  to  the  Reformers,  and  the  denunciations  of  Savonarola 
were  in  turn  not  unfrequently  directed  against  both  the 
learning  and  the  licentiousness  of  the  writers  who  adorned 
the  court  of  Lorenzo  the  Magnificent.  In  Germany,  on 
the  other  hand,  though  Protestantism  was  still  far  from 
implying  free  thought,  the  two  parties  drew  much  more 
closely  together :  and  had  Savonarola  lived  to  witness  the  rise 
of  Luther,  he  could  scarcely  have  denied,  that  the  victory  won 
by  those  whom  he  denoimced  in  Italy,  largely  contributed  to 
the  victory  won  by  those  who  represented  his  spirit  among 
the  Teutonic  race.  It  was  undoubtedly  the  success  in  Italy 
that  made  success  in  Germany  and  England  possible,  or  at 
least  much  less  arduous.  To  the  example  of  a  Nicolas  V,  a 
Pius  II,  and  a  Leo  x,  the  Humanists  chiefly  owed  it  that  the 

^  Von  Baomer  (Gesch,  d,  Pada^  sional  grossness.    Bat  in  the  mere 

gogikf  i  109  n.  1)  has,  as  it  appears  qnestioii  of  degree  there  can  be  no 

to  me  somewhat  mijustly,  compared  comparison  between  the  two,  and  the 

the  Colloquies  of  Erasmus  to  the  coarseness  of  the  Golioquies  is  bat 

Faceting  of  Poggio,  and  severely  cen-  their  accident,  while   that   of    the 

sores  the  former  writer  for  his  ocoa-  Fa^etUs  is  their  essence. 


THE  NEW  WEAPON.  415 

oditim  tkeolofficvm  was  cot  more  powerfully  and  actively  in-  chap.  v. 
voked  against  tbem,  especially  after  the  spread  of  Greek   — v— ^ 
leamiog  had  lent  new  force  to  the  old  aiguments,  from  the 
supposed  coniiesioD  of  its  literature  with  a  formidable  and 
widespread  heresy. 

In  reviewing  these  different  features  it  is  easy  to  perceive  JJJ^^ 
that  the  moot  question  of  the  advantages  and  disadvant^es ^PSbp*?* 
of  classical  Learning  was  again  already  challenging  the  atteU'  £dlj1to 
tion  of  the  world :  and  it  is  impossible  not  therewith  to  he 
reminded  of  those  warning  voices  which,  some  Beven  centuries 
before,  bad  been  so  emphatically  lifted  up  against  the  allure- 
ments of  pagan  genius.  The  evils  which  conservatism  fore- 
tells are  certainly  not  always  mere  chimseras.  We  may  feel 
assured  that  could  Gregory  the  Great  have  revisited  Italy  at 
this  ciisis,  and  have  seen  the  licentious  muse  of  the  Italian 
scholars  sheltering  itself  from  censure  by  pleading  the  exam- 
ple of  classic  models, — or  could  Alcuin  again  have  trod  the 
soil  that  once  acknowledged  the  rule  of  Charlemagne,  and 
have  witnessed  the  changes  that  resulted  from  the  teaching 
of  Erasmus  and  the  Reformers, — they  would  each  have 
pointed  to  what  they  beheld  as  affording  the  amplest  justifi- 
cation of  their  own  oft-repeated  wainiags.  And  not  merely 
this, — they  would  also  have  seen  that  the  ancient  power  of 
the  Church,  to  eradicate  evils  like  those  which  had  come  to 
pass,  was  no  longer  hers.  With  the  discovery  of  printing  the 
tares  sown  by  the  enemy  had  acquired  a  new  and  irrepressi- 
ble capacity  of  reproduction.  With  the  rise  of  the  art  of 
criticism  a  new  weapon  had  been  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
defenders  of  the  Church ;  a  weapon  which,  it  has  been  aptly 
said,  changed  the  whole  character  of  the  strife  between  mind 
and  mind,  as  completely  as  did  the  invention  of  firearms  that 
of  the  art  of  war.  The  student  of  pagan  literature  waa 
no  longer  an  isolated  solitary  monk,  timidly  and  often  fur- 
tively turning  the  page  of  Terence  or  Virgil,  exposed  to  the 
sarcasms  of  his  brethren  or  the  rebuke  of  bis  superior,  but 
one  of  an  illustrious  band  whose  talenU  and  achievements 
were  winning  the  admiration  of  Europe.  The  bigotry  of  the 
adherents  to  the  old  discipline  found  itself  confronted  by 


416 


THE   HUMANISTS. 


cnAP.  V.  weapons  to  whicli  it  coulil  offer  no  effectual  resistance ;  the 
^-^y^J>   ancient  terrorism  was  in  its  turn  besieged  by  the  combined 

forces  of  reason,  eloquence,  and  satire. 
Th«  Human-        As  might  be  easily  conjectured,  but  few  of  the  Humanists 
jpiijtous  or-  were  to  be  found  among  eitlier  the  mtmastic  or  the  mendicant 
fraternities.     Traversari  belonged  to  the  order  of  the  Camul- 
dules ;    Antonio   da   Rho   was  a  Franciscan,  and   Cardinal 
Bessarion  was  protector  of  the  same  fraternity ;  Maffeo  Begio 
retired  in  his  latter  life  to  a  Benedictine  monastery*.     But 
these  were  notable  exceptions,  and  generally  speaking  it  was 
among  the  religious  orders  that   the   most  obstinate   and 
The  Human-  bigotod  Opposition  was  to  be  encountered.     As  regards  the 
univenities.   universities,  it  is  of  importance  to  observe  the  general  cha- 
racter of  their  culture  at  this  period.     We   have   already 
incidentally  noted  the  progress  of  nominjilism  in  one  or  two 
of  the  most  influential  of  these  centres,  and  those  who  may 
be  desirous  of  tracing  its  progress  more  in  detail  will  find 
ample  guidance  in  the  fourth  volume  of  Prantl's  exhaustive 
treatise.     Everywhere  the  Byzantine  logic,  with  its  Scotiaa 
developement-  and  Occamistic  illumination",  was  giving  birth 
to  a  series  of  manuals,  each  designed  to  introduce  some  new 
refinement  on  the  theory  of  the  suppositio  or  the  theory  of 
the  Terminists,  or  on  the  distinctions  between  scimtia  realia 
and  sermocinalis,  or  on  quidditas,  hcecceitas,  and  formalitas. 
The  realists  and  nominalists  however,  now  known  as  the 
Pw«reMof   Antiqui  and  Moderni,  constituted  the  two  ijreat  parties,  and 

nominalism  ■*  ,  ,  .      .         '       , 

JerStiei!"*"  ^^  almost  every  university, — Leipsic,  Greiswald,  and  Prague 
being  the  principal  exceptions, — were  still  waging,  or  had  but 
just  concluded,  the  struggle  for  preeminence.  At  Paris,  as 
we  have  already  seen,  the  overwhelming  strength  of  the 
theologians,  notwithstanding  the  position  assumed  by  Gerson, 
still  kept  the  nominalistic  doctrines  under  a  ban.    At  Heidel- 


1  Voigt,  468-74. 

•  Occam  appears  to  have  been,  in 
the  opiuion  of  many,  the  real  cause 
of  the  interminable  warfare.  Leo- 
nardo Brnni  in  his  treatise  De  Dis- 
putationum  Usn,  says, —  'Quid  est, 
inquam,  in  dialeotica,  qnod  non  Bri- 
tanniois  Bophismatibus  contnrbatom 


sit?"  It  was  in  his  eyes  another 
proof  of  the  degrading  tendencioB  of 
the  study  of  logic  that  it  found  ac- 
ceptance among  a  race  so  barbarous 
as  our  own,  '  etiam  ilia  barbara  quad 
trans  oceanum  habitat  in  illam  im- 
petum  faoit.'  p.  26. 


THE  UNlVEESITIEa  417 

berg,  on  the  other  hand,  whicb  was  now  becoming  a  noted  <"'*'*■  ■"■ 
school  of  liberal  thought,  the  aominalista  had  expelled  their  '»,— < 
antagonists.  It  was  much  the  same  at  Vienna  and  at 
Erfurt, — a  centre  of  considerable  intellectual  activity,  which 
its  enemies  were  wont  to  stigmatise  as  novorum  omnium 
portas.  At  Basel,  under  the  able  leadership  of  Johannes 
a  Lapide,  the  realists,  though  somewhat  outnumbered,  main- 
tained their  ground.  Freiburg,  Tubingen  and  Ingoldstadt 
appear  to  have  arrived  at  a  kind  of  compromise,  each  party 
having  its  own  professor  and  representing  a  distinct  '  nation.' 
At  Maintz  a  manual  of  logic  was  published  with  the 
sanction  of  the  authorities,  which,  with  certain  reservations, 
was  essentially  a  nominalistic  maoifesto.  A  period  of  in- 
ternal discord  might  naturally  be  supposed  to  have  favoured  *"i'2^»' 
the  introduction  of  a  new  culture,  but  the  attitude  of  the  ^^J^a„ 
univeftities  seems  to  have  been  almost  invariably  hostile ""  '~™'^- 
to  the  new  learning,  and  both  nominalists  and  realists  laid 
aside  their  differences  to  oppose  the  common  foe.  To  the 
Humanifits,  Frantl  observes,  two  courses  were  open :  they 
could  either  insist  on  a  restoration  of  the  true  logic  of 
Aristotle  and  a  general  rejection  of  the  misconstructiouB  and 
unjustifiable  additions  made  by  Petrus  Hispanus  and  big 
countless  comment&tors,  or  they  could  denounce  the  whole 
study  of  l<^c,  as  worthless  and  pernicious,  and  demand  that 
it  sLoiiO'be  altogether  set  aside  and  its  place  be  filled  by 
rhetoric'.  In  Italy,  the  latter  course  was  unfortunately  the 
one  almost  uniyersall;  adopted,  and  the  tone  of  the  Hu- 
manists was  irritating  in  the  extreme.  Looking  again  at  the 
position  of  the  universities,  when  compared  with  that  when 
the  New  Aristotle  claimed  admittance,  we  see  that  two 
centuries  had  materially  modified  its  character.  They  had 
acquired  distinct  traditions  in  all  the  branches  of  learning ; 
they  possessed,  in  many  instances,  well-endowed  chairs, 
whose  occupants  were  tenacious  of  the  received  methods  of 
interpretation,  and  strongly  prejudiced  in  favour  of  the 
current  system  of  instruction.  The  literature  which  it  was 
sought  to  introduce  was  not  only  open,  as  formerly,  to  the 
)  FtmU,  Qfchichte  d.  l,agik.  rr  161-3. 

27 


418  THE  HUMANISTS. 

CHAP.  V.  suspicion  of  heresy,  but  was  undeniably  exposed  to  the  chai^ 
''^"  '  of  licentiousness.  Compromise  accordingly  appears  to  have 
been  desired  by  neither  party ;  and  canonists  and  civilians 
offered  as  hostile  a  front  as  the  logicians.  Bologna,  jealous 
on  behalf  of  that  special  learning  to  which  she  owed  her 
fame,  shut  her  gates  in  the  face  of  the  new  comers.  On  the 
one  side  the  cry  was  *No  surrender/  on  the  other,  *No 
quarter/ 
25rJtt2S^i  The  civil  law  was  not,  it  is  true,  the  weakest  point  in 
dTiUuu.  ^1^^  prevailing  culture,  but  the  absorbing  attention  given 
to  the  study  constituted  it  a  central  position  which  the 
assailants  seemed  bound  at  almost  any  cost  to  carry,  and 
it  was  consequently  selected  tor  their  most  energetic  attack. 
It  was  the  predominant  school  not  only  at  Bologna  but  also 
▼•JJj^t^  at  Padua  and  at  Pa  via;  and  when  Valla  received  his  appoint- 
^^^  ment  to  the  chair  of  rhetoric  in  the  last-named  uni^wsity, 
lie  soon  found  that  his  own  readiness  for  the  battle  was 
for  once  fully  equalled  by  that  of  his  opponents.  His  pre- 
vious utterances  had  not  failed  to  attract  the  attention  of  the 
civilians.  The  mercenary  spirit  in  which  they  pursued  their 
calling  had,  as  we  have  already  seen,  been  sharply  commented 
on  by  Poggio  ;  but  the  criticisms  of  Valla  in  his  EleganticB, — 
the  foremost  production  of  the  age  in '  the  field  of  Latin 
philology, — had  wounded  their  pride  much  more  sensibly. 
In  pursuance  of  the  general  assertion  which  he  had  therein 
maintained, — that  the  want  of  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the 
Latin  tongue  obscured  the  true  meaning  of  the  writers  of  an- 
tiquity to  students  in  every  department  of  learning, — ^he  had 
proceeded  to  compare  the  style  of  the  ancient  commentators 
on  the  Pandects  with  that  of  the  more  modem  school,  repre^ 
sented  by  Accursius,  Cinus,  Baldus,  and  Bartolus  (the  most 
highly  esteemed  commentators  in  his  own  day),  and  had 
pointed  out  how  deplorably  the  latter  fell  short  of  the  lucid 
diction  and  terseness  of  expression  of  the  former.  Most 
probably  even  Valla,  notwithstanding  his  dauntless  and  fiery- 
nature,  would  not  have  cared  to  revive  the  controversy  in 
the  very  heart  of  such  a  stronghold  of  the  civil  law ;  but  he 
was  not  suffered  to  remain  at  peace.    A  jurist  of  some 


THB  TTMITKBSmBS.  419 

emiDeoce  in  the  same  city  proceeded  to  inv^h  agunat  the  <s4r.T. 
Humanists  in  a  manner  which  coold  not  be  left  unnoticed.  ^-^^-^ 
A^  Talla  had  called  in  question  the  merits  of  Cinus,  the  ^K^TL 
deity  of  the  civilians,  the  jurist  retorted  by  calling  in  question  S^bST* 
the  merits  of  Cicero,  the  deity  of  the  rhetoricians.  He  IS'SmS. 
assumed  the  most  irritating  of  all  attitudes,  the  attitude 
of  calm  unquestionable  superiority.  To  argument  he  did 
not  condescend,  but  he  laid  it  down  as  beyond  dispute  that 
the  efforts  of  the  greatest  rhetorician  could  not  compare 
with  those  of  tm  average  jurist  The  most  unimportant 
treatise  to  be  found  in  the  literature  of  the  civil  law, — for 
example  that  by  Bartolus,  entitled  De  Ing^jtiig  et  Armia, — 
was,  he  asserted,  of  far  greater  value  than  the  most  admired 
production  of  the  Roman  orator.  '  All  the  rhetoricians  set 
style  above  matter  and  preferred  the  foliage  to  the  &uit ; 
Cicero  was  but  an  empty-headed  babbler.'  Incensed  beyond 
measure,  Valla  hastened  to  borrow  of  his  friend  Cato  Saoco  ti^i 
a  copy  of  this  precious  treatise  by  Bartolus,  and  falling  upon  '•""'^ 
it  tooth  and  nail,  composed,  in  a  single  night,  a  furious 
diatribe  which  he  subsequently  circulated  far  and  wide. 
*Te  gods! '  he  exclaims,  after  a  mercUesB  exhibition  of  the 
triviality  of  thought  and  barbarous  diction  exhibited  in  the 
diss^tation  of  the  defunct  jurist, '  what  folly,  what  pneribty, 
what  inanity  is  here  !  One  would  think  that  the  book  had 
been  written  by  an  ass  rather  titan  a  man!'  In  his  wrath 
he  turns  upon  the  whole  body  of  commentators,  until  he 
seems  to  threaten  even  the  awful  majesty  of  Justinian.  As 
to  the  existing  representatives  of  the  study,  he  avers  that 
there  are  scarcely  any  who  are  not  completely  worthless  and 
despicable.  They  are  nearly  always  ignorant  of  all  other 
branches  of  a  liberal  education.  They  know  nothing  of  that 
precision  and  refinement  of  diction  on  which  the  ancient 
jurists  had  bestowed  such  labour,  and  which  must  in  turn 
be  apprehended  by  the  reader  before  the  treatises  of  those 
writers  can  become  really  intelligible.  Their  poverty  of 
thought,  their  triviahty  of  treatment  are  such,  that  he  cannot 
refrain  &om  commiserating  the  study  they  profess,  since  it 
seems  equally  unable  to  attract  professors  of  any  merit  and 

27—2 


420  THE  HUMANISTS. 

CRAF.Y,  to  rid  itself  of  those  who  at  present  prey  upon  it     The 
***** ''     upshot  of  the  controversy,  if  such  it  can  be  called,  appears 
to  have  been,  that  Valla  narrowly  escaped  being  torn  in 
pieces  by  the  students  of  the  civil  law  at  Pavia*. 

It  is  evident  that  had  the  whole  stniggle  been  waged 
after  the  manner  of  Valla  and  his  antagonist  it  would  have 
been  as  interminable  as  the  controversy  concerning  uni- 
versals.  Style  versus  matter  is  to  a  great  extent  a  question 
of  taste,  and  so  long  as  men  by  reading  Bartolus  could 
qualify  themselves  for  a  lucrative  profession,  Bartolus  would 
continue  to  be  read.  No  one  had  ever  called  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  Pandects  in  question,  and  the  great  weapon  of 
the  Humanists,  the  art  of  criticism,  was  consequently  here 
unavailable.  It  was  however  far  otherwise  when  they 
brought  their  artillery  to  'bear  upon  more  vulnerable  points, 
and  when  once  they  had  succeeded  in  convincing  the  educated 
few  that  reason  and  even  logic  were  on  their  side,  they  had 
gained  an  advantage  which  told  in  their  favour  along  the 
line  of  battle.  While  accordingly  Valla  attacked  with  but 
little  success  the  abstract  merits  of  the  civilian  commen* 
tators,  the  effect  produced  when  he  laid  bare  that  most 
impudent  of  all  forgeries, — the  Donation  of  Constantino, — or 
that  most  feeble  of  all  myths, — the  joint  parentage  of  the 
Poggioand  Symbolum, — ^was  unmistakeable.  The  popular  belief  in  the 
canon  law  was  not  less  severely  shaken  by  the  criticisms  of 
Poggio,  and  from  the  same  able  pen  there  had  also  proceeded 
the  first  exposure  of  the  fictitious  character  of  the  Decretals 
and  of  the  sordid  motives  that  had  given  rise  to  the  whole 
of  this  literature.  The  scholar  could  not  conceal  his  derision 
when  he  found  the  contemporaries  of  Tacitus  and  Quinti- 
lian  cited  as  speaking  the  barbarous  Latin  of  the  twelfth 
century,  and  popes,  who  lived  two  centuries  before  Jerome 
was  bom,  quoting  from  the  Vulgate.  In  short,  Poggio  de- 
nounced the  work  of  Gratian  as  that  of  a  forger,  and  declared 
that  the  chief  result  of  his  labours  and  those  of  his  suc- 
cessors had  been  to  afford  facilities  for  squabbling  over 
ecclesiastical  benefices'. 

1  Voigt,  451-2.  «  Voigt,  p.  468. 


THE   UMVEBSITIES.  421 

But  strenuous  as  was  the  opposition  offered  by  the  Italian 


PimL 


universities,  it  was  of  short  duratioa  when  compared  with 
that  encountered  in  the  universities  of  France  and  Germany.  tt^Slh?~ 
PoUtian,  long  before  his  death,  must  have  felt  himself  master  n 
of  the  field ;  vhile  Erasmus,  who  about  the  same  time  was  i" 
seeking  to  gain  a  knowledge  of  Greek  at  Paris,  found  the 
Scotists  fiercely  denouncing   all   polite  learning  as   incom-  < 
patible  with  the  mysteries  of  the  schools,  and  seems  even  to 
have  been  fain  to  imitate  their  barbarous  Latinity  in  order 
to  escape  molestation';  and    Uelanchthon,  half  a  century 
later,  was  exposed  to  the  full  brunt  of  the  ancient  prejudice 
8t  Wittenberg.     Of  this  difference  the  less  impulsive  cha- 
racter of  the  northern  nations,  their  inferiority  at  this  period 
in  refined  culture  of  every  kind,  and  the  absence  of  that 
direct  contact  with   the  learning   of  Constantinople  which 
operated  so  powerfully  in  Italy,  will  suggest  themselves  as 
obvious  explanations.     But  not  less  potent  than  these  was  tmbwnwia 
perhaps    the  different   constitution   of  the  respective   uni-  J^i^"" 
versfities.     In  the  short  outline  given  in  our  first  chapter  ^^J"" 
of  the  universities  of  Paris  and  Bolc^a,  it  will  have  been  '^  " 
noticed  that  while  the  constitution  of  the  latter  was  demo- 
cratic that  of  the  former  was  oligarchical,  and  just  as  the 
Italian  universities  had  been  modelled  on  Bologna,  so  those 
of  the  Transalpine  nations  had  nearly  all  been  modelled  on 
that  of  Paris.     Hence,  as  we  should  naturally  expect,  there 
prevailed  in  the  latter  centres  of  learning  a  strongly  conserva- 
tive feeling :  a  feeling  which  was  again  more  or  less  intense 
in   proportion  as   each   university  had   acquired   a  special 
reputation  as  a  seat  of  theological  learning,  and  imagined 
that  that  reputation  would  be  endangered  by  the  introduction 
of  studies  either  entirely  p^an  or  partially  heretical. 

But  as  in  Italy,  so  in  Germany  and  in  England,  the  vioon 
successive  victories  of  the  Humanists  produced  an  impression  ""^ 
which  could  not  be  withstood  One  by  one  the  strongholds 
of  mediEBvaLoidture  and  the  idols  of  medieval  credulity  fell 
before  them.  Grocyn,  mounting  the  pulpit  at  St.  Paul's 
Cathedral,  to  confess  with  deep  humiliation,  that  the  same 
'  Ltttrr  to  Thowuu  Grty,  Optra,  ni  77. 


u  phnittiHi  nf 


422  THE  HUMANISTS. 

cHAP.v.  long-revered  treatise  by  Dionysius,  the  genuiDeness  of  which 
he  had  in  his  first  lecture  so  vehemently  asserted,  he  was 
unable  on  honest  scrutiny  to  defend, — Colet,  turning  his 
earnest  searching  gaze  on  Erasmus  as  they  sat  communing 
at  Oxford,  and  disburthening  himself  of  the  conviction  that 
had  long  been  growing  up  within,  that  the  decisions  of 
Aquinas  were  characterised  by  both  arrogance  and  pre- 
sumption,— Erasmus,  in  his  study  at  Queens'  College,  ex- 
posing the  countless  errors  of  the  Vulgate  and  revolting  from 
^he  Augustinian  despotism, — ^William  Tyndal  at  Cologne, 
setting  aside  the  commentaries  of  .Nicholas  de  Lyra,  with  the 
customary  interpretations  moral,  anagogical,  and  aUegorical, 
and  affirming  that  Scripture  has  but  one  meaning,  the 
obvious,  literal  sense, — ^were  each  but  indications  of  the 
revolution  that  was  going  on  in  every  department  of  study, 
in  every  province  of  thought,  as  scholasticism  tottered  to  its 
fall 


CHAPTER  V. 


CAMBRIDGE  AT  THE  REVIVAL  OF  CLASSICAL 
LEARNING. 


Part  II : — Bishop  Fisher. 

In  the  '  famous  old  cytye '  of  Beverley,  as  Lydgate  terms  chap.  t. 
it',  was  bora,  about  the  year  1459,  John  Fisher,  afterwards   £^^^i^ 
bishop  of  Rochester  and,   during  the  first  quarter   of  the  iuan. 
sixteenth  century,   the  leading  spirit  in   the  university  ofd,u». 
Cambridge.     He  was  the  son  of  Robert  Fisher,  tnercer  ofeitpwnrt- 
Beverley,    and  Agnes  his  wife.      It  was  the   father's  wish  jj^j  "iii™- 
that  the  boy  should  receive  a  better  education  than  ordinary, 
and  John   was  accordingly  sent  to  receive   instruction   in 
grammar  in  the   school  attached   to  the  coll^ate  church 
at   Beverley.     It   appears  that   at  the   time  when  he  was 
a  scholar   there,   Rotheram,   the   munificent    chancellor   of 
Cambridge,  was  provost  of  the  church*,  and  it  is  not  im- 
probable that  young  Fisher,  as  a  boy  of  promise,  may  even 
thus  early  have  attracted  the  notice  of  one  whom  he  must 
have   often   met  in  after  years.     When  Fisher  was  still   a 
lad  of  thirteen  he  lost  his  father ;  the  latter  was,  it  would 
seem,  a  man  of  considerable  substance,  and,  judging  from 
his    numerous    bequests    to   different   monastic  and   other 
foundations,  religious  after  the  fashion  of  his  age.     In  the 
course  of  a  few  more  year*  the  son,  then  about  eighteen, 
was   entered   at   Michaelhouse,  under  William  de   Melton,  bimd  it 
fellow  and  afterwards  master  of  the  college.     In  1487  he  to™» 
proceeded  to  his  degree  of  bachelor  of  arts ;  was  soon  after 
elected  fellow,  proceeded  to  his  degree  of  master  of  arts  in 
1491,  filled  the  oSBce.  of  senior  proctor  in  1494,  and  became 
■  See  .^ppenilu  (A).  '  Cooper,  Athtnm,\  1. 


424* 


BISHOP   FISHER. 


CHAP.v.    master  of  his  college   in    1497: — facts  which,  as  his   bi«^- 
>— V — ^  grapher  observes,  sufficiently  indicate  the  estimation  in  which 

Elected  to       I  1111 

tbenuMter-     ho  WaS  held  . 

Pro«peri^  It  may  be   reasonably  inferred  that  Michaelhouse  had 

huuMcSn-'    throughout  enjoyed  the   benefits  of  good  government  and 
the  condition  that  its  resourccs  had  been  wisely  administered,  for  not  lone 

of  other  foun-  ^  •f  ^  o 

***''«°*  after  the  time  that  Fisher  succeeded  to  the  mastership  we 
find  that,  with  respect  to  revenue,  it  stood  sixth  in  the 
list  of  college  foundations".  That  Fisher  himself  was  a 
conscientious  administrator  admits  of  little  doubt;  and  at 
a  time  when  the  neighbouring  hospital  of  St.  John  the 
Evangelist  was  sinking  into  decay  under  the  reckless  rule 
of  William  Tomlyn,  until  the  very  stones  of  the  street  were 
silent  witnesses  against  him',  and  when  the  depredations 
of  bishop  Booth,  as  master  of  Gonville,  were  still  fresh  in 
the  memory  of  the  univei'sity*,  the  members  of  Michaelhouse 
mny  well  have  congratulated  themselves  on  the  character 
of  their  head*.  On  the  other  hand,  we  have  nothing  to 
indicate  that  Fisher  was,  at  this  time,  an  advocate  of 
extensive  reforms  or  of  startling  innovations.  All  in  fact  that 
we  know  about  him  would  lead  us  to  infer  the  contrary. 
He  appears  to  have  been  generally  recognised  as  a  man  of 
exemplary  life,  signal  ability,  extensive  learning,  and  un- 
usual disinterestedness*  but  he  was  now  approaching  his 
fortieth  year ;  he  had  received  his  early  education  in  a  city 
and  at  a  school  pervaded  by  monastic  influences,  and  his 
more  advanced  education  in  one  of  the  most  monastic  and 
conservative  of  our  English  colleges;  over  that  college  he  was 
now  called  to  preside;  it  was  natural  that  he   should  be 


Character 
and  views 
of  riKlier 
at  this 
period. 


1  Lewis,  Life  of  Fisher,  i  4. 

*  Cooper,  Annaht  i  370. 

'  He  was  *  presented '  at  the  Law 
Hundred  or  Leet  of  the  town  in  1502, 
for  having  the  pavement  in  front  of 
the  college  *  broken  and  ruinous.'  Ibid, 
I  258. 

*  Booth,  bishop  of  Exeter,  master 
of  Gonville,  1465-78,  was  charged 
with  having '  most  disgracefully  made 
away  with  the  best  cup  and  the  best 
piece  of  silver  plate,  together  with 
as  much  money  as  he  could  scrape 


together.*  Riley's  Second  Report  of 
the  Royal  CommUnon  of  Historical 
MSS, 

^  At  the  survey  of  the  ooUeges  in 
1545,  conducted  by  Parker,  Be£xuui« 
and  May,  Michaelhouse  and  Queens' 
College  (a  foundation,  it  is  to  be  borne 
in  mind,  that  had  also  for  some  years 
the  benefit  of  Fisher's  administra- 
tion) \tere  the  only  two  where  the 
expendituie  was  not  found  consider* 
ably  to  exceed  the  reveniie.  See 
Cooper,  Annalt,  i  481-8. 


HIS  CAHBB[DaE  COITTEXFORABIES.  425 

strODgly  disposed  in  &vour  of  the  traditions  of  its  rule,  ciMf-  ^> 
aad  there  were  probably  few  in  the  university  vbo  looked  •~^~.' 
for  much  that  was  novel  at  the  hands  of  the  master  of 
Michaelhouse.  It  will  accordingly  be  of  no  little  interest 
to  note  the  manner  in  which  a  mind  like  this,  tenacious  of 
itscoovictioQS,  yet  candid  and  honest  in  ioTestigating  what 
waa  new,  was  gradually  led  to  recognise  the  value  of  a 
culture  in  which  it  bad  not  shared,  and  to  enter  upon  the 
path  of  moderate  but  energetic  reform. 

Tbere  is  little  reason  for  believing  that  if  Fisher  had 
failed  to  apply  himself  to  the  work,  other  reformers  would 
have  been  forthcoming.   Not  that  men  of  mark  were  wanting  niiiiniiiBiii 
at  Cambridge  at  this  time;  on  the  contrary,  we  are  struck h^iuIk 
by  the  fact  that  at   no  former  period  had   the  univeiKity 
been  better  able  to  sustain  a  comparison  with  Oxford.     The 
spiteful  exultation  of  Wood,  as  he  points  out  that,  at  a 
somewhat  later  juncture,  nearly  all  the  bishops  were  from 
his   own   university*,   would  have   found   considerably  less 
cause  for  triumph  in  the  list  of  the  episcopal  bench  in  the 
year  1500.     Out  of  the  twenty  bishoprics  into  which  Eng- 
land ;md  Wales  were  then  divided,  nine  were  filled  by  Cam-  Buwr*. 
bridge  men.     Rotheram  was  archbishop  of  York ;  Savage, 
bishop  of  London ;  Alcock,  bishop  of  Ely ;  Fox,  bishop  of 
Durham  ;  Story,  bishop  of  ChichestA ;  King,  bishop  of  Bath 
and  Wells ;   Redman,  bishop  'of  Exeter ;  Jann  and  Deane 
(claimed,  it  is  true,  by  both  universities),  were  bishops  of 
Norwich  and  SaUsbury  respectively.     But  though  these,  and 
not  a  few   others,  may  be  pointed  out  as  men  conferring 
honour  upon  their  university,  none  of  them,  with  the  notable 
exception  of  Fox,  seem  to  have  been  possessed  by  any  new 
ideas  with   respect   to  learning.     Rotheram,  munificent  as  Rotbnm. 
were  his  benefactions,  was  rather  a  promoter  of  it  in  others 
than  learned  himself.   John  Barker, '  the  sophister  of  King's,'  johaBut* 
and  author   of   the    Scutum   Inerpugnahile,   was    a    much 
admired  dialectician,  hut  nothing  more.     William  Chubbes,  w.ik«, 
the  first  who  bore  the  title  of  president  of  Pembroke  College,  ^Sl*" 
was  the  author  of  an  Introduction  to  Logic  and  a  Oom- 
>  Woad-antoh,  ii  8. 


426 


BISHOP   FISHER. 


CHAP.  T. 
Past IL 


John 

AramtiiM* 

dLUM. 


HitpropoMd 
Aettnthe 

DCbOOltb 


Robert 

Hacomblenew 

<L16S8. 


Henry 

Uornebr. 

dLUlS. 


TlM»e,and 
other  emi- 
nent men 
Inthenni- 
venity,  aUe 
workers 
hat  not  re- 
fimneiE 


mentary  on  Duns  Scotus ;  he  was  also  afterwards  the  first 
master  of  Jesus  College,  and  is  said  to  have  been  the  chief 
adviser  of  bishop  Alcock  in  his  design  of  that  foundation\ 
John  Argentine,  provost  of  King's,  and  physician  to  the  two 
sons  of  Henry  vii,  was  also  a  dialectician  of  some  repute. 
There  is  extant  from  his  pen  a  series  of  verses  on  ail  the 
faculties  (twelve  in  number),  which  he  designed  as  subjects 
for  his  '  act,'  as  incepting  master  of  arts  in  the  year  1470. 
It  appears,  however,  that  the  ambitious  disputant  subse- 
quently discovered  that  it  was  indispensable  that  the  subject 
for  each  disputation  should  be  thrown  into  the  form  of  a 
qwBsiio,  and  his  elaborate  preparation  was  consequently 
thrown  away.  The  manuscript  still  remains  in  the  library 
of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford*,  and  may  be  regarded 
as  a  good  illustration  of  the  scope  of  the  dialectical  practice 
in  the  schools  of  those  days.  Hacomblene,  the  eighth 
provost  of  King's  College,  was  known  as  the  author  of 
a  commentary  on  the  Ethics  of  Aristotle,  but  his  text  was 
the  traditional  text  of  the  schoolmen,  and  his  commentary 
continued  to  slumber  in  manuscript  in  the  library  of  his 
college.  Homeby,  fellow  of  Michaelhouse,  and  afterwards 
master  of  Peterhouse,  was  distinguished  as  a  high-minded 
and  energetic  administrator.  But  the  limited  views  of  these 
men  and  others  like  them  are  sufficiently  shewn  in  the  nature 
of  the  work  they  devised  and  carried  out.  The  erection  of 
the  diflferent  schools,  as  narrateil  in  a  previous  chapter*, — 
the  commencement  in  1479  of  the  rebuilding  of  Great  St. 


1  Cooper,  Athena y  1 10. 

'At  tbecommeuoement  of  the  poem 
18  pasted  a  slip  on  which  is  written 
in  a  different  hand, — Acta*  Mr*  Jo, 
Argentyn  publice  habitut  in  universi- 
tate  CaniahrlgiiB  contra  omius  Re- 
gentes  hujut  universitatis  quoad  op- 
positiones,  a.d.  1470.  (The  year  is  er- 
roneonslj  given  in  Nichols's  edition 
of  Fuller,  as  1407.)  The  following 
lines,  in  the  same  handwriting  as  the 
Blip,  seem  to  indicate  the  ambitions 
design  of  the  young  inceptor: — Neu 
9it  turba  Regent  nostros  ta4:itura  per 
amuM,  I  Hinc  canere  est  animo  variit 
Ittdendo  cicutU.  \  Dulcia  plectra  mihi 
tua  porrige  cantor  Apollo  \  At  Sttl* 


hontis  (Mercury)  ope  mea  ^fistula  per- 
tonet  apte.  I  Sic  mihi  crinitiu  cytha- 
ram  concedat  lopai  |  Threiciam  ut 
Thelim  (?  Chehjn)  Pheheus  spondeai 
Orptieiu.  \  Ac  me  $ifcveat  caute  Usto 
nbere  mater  \  Exigua  ista  euis  modu- 
labor  carmina  rivis  \  Kt  velit  hue 
coiiferre  pedem  sacra  turba  Regentum 
I  Utferat  {?  sciat)  an  motit soeiem  bene 
carmina  nervis.  I  am  indebted  to  the 
courtesy  of  the  Bev.  E.  L.  Hicks, 
M.A.,  librarian  of  the  college,  for  the 
foregoing  particulars,  and  also  for 
two  conjectural  emendations  of  the 
Latin  verse. 
'  See  supra,  pp.  SOO-1. 


TONE  OF  THE  UNITEBSITT. 


427 


Mary's  {a  task  of  forty  years)', — and  other  minor  improTe-  <«*'-t. 
meats  of  the  kind, — did  nothing  to  stimulate  the  intellectual  '-v— ' 
life  of  the  university.     Nor  can  ire  deny  that  the  national 
experiences   of   that  age   were  not  such   as   to  enoourage  tih  piM«>- 
sanguine  sentimente  or  bold  innovations.     The  early  yean  ■i«»5*^" 
of  Englishmen  of  that  generation  had  been  darkened  by  «*«•«■- 
many  a  tale  of  honor,  and  their  maturer  years  saddened  by 
the  sense  of  exhaustion  that  came  over  the  country  wbea 
the  long  struggle  was  at  an  end.     The  flower  of  the  nobility, 
now  the  chief  patrons  of  learning,  had  fallen  on  the  battle- 
field.    In  the  more  distant  horison  the  steady  and  ominous 
advance  of  the  Turkish  power,  by  land  and   by  sea,  was 
striking  terror  throughout  Christendom.     From  the  general 
dejection  induced  by  such  circumstances  the  university  was 
not  exempt.   '  Somehow,  I  know  not  bow,'  said  bishop  Fisher,  fwm^  ^ 
when  in  brighter  days  he  looked  back   upon  these  times,  {^^^^^^ 
*  whether  it  were  the  continual  strifes  with  the  townsmen,  "'«■*»- 
and  the  wrongs  they  did  us, — or  the  long  abiding  of  the 
fever,   that   tried   us  with   a  cruelty  above   the    ordinary, 
carrying  off  many  of  our  learaed  men, — or  that  there  were 
few  or  no  helpers  and  patrons  of  letters, — whatever  were  the 
true  cause,  doubtless  there  had  stolen  over  well  nigh  all 
of  us  a  weariness  of  learning  and  study,  so  that  not  a  few 
did  take  counsel  in  their  own  minds  how  that  they  might 
effect  their  departure  so  as  it  were  not  to  their  own  hurt'.' 
The  circumstances  of  the  time  indeed  were  predsely  of  the 
kind  wherein  we  should  expect  to  meet  with  a  revival  of  the 

'  Or  yet  longer  if  we  take  Pnller's 
Tiew  of  the  matter: — 'The  mention 
ol  St.  Mary's  mindeth  me  of  chnrch- 
Kork  indeed,  bo  long  it  ■woe  from  the 
(onndiug  to  the  fluishing  thereof; 
as  began  Maj  16th,  U78,  vhen  the 
first  atone  thereof  waa  laid  in  the 
17tfa  of  Edward  it  ;  the  chnrcb  ended 
<hDt  withont  a  tower  or  belfry)  1519, 
in  the  eleventh  of  Henry  vui.  The 
tower  finiahed  1608,  in  the  sixth  of 
King  James;  bo  that  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  ending  thereat  were  no 
fewer  than  an  hnndred  and  thirty 
jBW»;  Fuller-Priokett  A  Wright, 
p.  180. 

*  — 'nado  qao  infortimio,  rirs 


litibnB  et  injuriis  oppida- 
nonun  (qnibiu  eramns  impUeati), 
give  dintnrna  plaga  febrinm,  qnibne 
BQpra  modam  Texabamnr,  (nun  ex 
literatoriboB  oomptures  amisimaa,  et 
ei  ipso  dootomm  nnmero  decern 
*iroB  gi»»eB  et  Tnlde  erudiloe),  aen 
tertio  bonarom  artiam  tanlorea  et 
benefactores  panci  erant  et  prope 
nnili.  8ife  hia  aive  aliia  oeeaBioni- 
boB,  profeoto  literuum  et  Btndiomm 
nos  prope  omnee  tadinm  oepit ;  kdeo 
nt  molti  Becom  oogituent,  quorBom 
hino  abirent  oonunode.'  Oratio  ha- 
bita  earam  ilbutrinino  rege  Hni- 
rico  vu,  Cantabrigi^,  i.D.  ISOG, 
Lewn,  Lift  efFUtmr,  App,  vm. 


AeooBtar 


428  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CHAP.  V.  old  theological  notion  of  the  approaching  end  of  the  world; 
paetii.    ^^^   ^^^  dreary  spectacle   of  the   unfinished   structure  of 
King's  CJollege  chapel, — which  from  the  death  of  Henry  VI 
until  within  a  few  years  of  that  of  Henry  Vli  was  almost 
abandoned  by  the  workmen, — might  well  seem,  to  the  Cam- 
bridge  of  those   days,   to   give   a    tacit    sanction    to    such 
forebodings.     But   in   the   midst   of  all  this   lethargy  and 
depression,  one  startling  event,  the  significance  of  which 
could  be  in  some  measure  grasped  by  all,  stood  out  in  bright 
contrast   to  the    general  gloom.     It  was  hard  to  believe 
that  the  Old  World  was  about  to  perish,  when  the  genius  of 
the  navigator  had  just  revealed  the  existence  of  the  New. 
By  that  discovery  as.  it  were  an  electric  shock   was  sent 
through  the  whole  of  Europe  and  the  preconceived  ideas  of 
the  ancient  world;  and  the  faces  of  men,  long  bent  with 
eager  but  wearying  gaze  to  where  the  light ,  of  ancient 
tradition  gleamed  dimly  in  the  east,  were  suddenly  turned  to 
greet  the  tale  of  wonder  borne  upon  the  breeze  that  blew 
freshly  over  the  western  main, 
oootiiiued  It  is  probable  that,  very  early  in  his  Cambridge  course, 

^1^       Fisher  had  heard  of  the  gi*eat  library  which  duke  Humphrey 
'*^y-  had   bequeathed   to  Oxford.     He  must  also  certainly,   we 

should  imagine,  have  heard  how  bishop  Gray*s  valuable  col- 
lection had  been  left  to  Balliol  College.  But  the  interest  that 
a  few  isolated  occurrences  like  these  might  awaken  would 
soon  be  merged  in  a  far  deeper  curiosity,  as  the  intense  and 
almost  servile  admiration  with  which  Italian  scholarship 
now  began  to  be  regarded  in  England  plainly  indicated,  that 
it  would  be  impossible  much  longer  to  ignore  additions  to 
learning  and  literature  compared  with  which  the  New 
Aristotle  seemed  insignificant.  Those  few  of  our  countiy- 
men  who,  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  century,  had  been  found 
among  the  hearers  of  Guarino,  were  now  represented  by  a 
long  array  of  names  which  will  shortly  claim  more  lengthened 
notice  at  our  hands.  Italy  herself  was  fully  sustaining  the 
reputation  she  had  acquired.  Guarino,  Valla,  and  Bruni,  it 
is  true,  had  passed  away.  Argyropulos,  if  still  living,  was  in 
extreme  old-age;  but  his  chair  at  Florence  was  ably  filled  by 


PBOOEESS  IN   ITALT.  429 

Chalcondjles,  an  illustriouB  Atheuian, — the  teacher  of  Grocyn  cbaf.  r. 
and  Linacre.  His  taboriouB  zeal  bad  just  given  to  the  world  —^-^^ 
that  great  glory  of  early  typography, — the  Florence  Homer  ^£^1^ 
of  14^8*, — a  volume  whose  antique  splendour  recalls  to  us  the  k  lat 
change,  so  ably  touched  by  a  living  poetess,  that  had  come  H'«**gy 
to  pass  since  the  days  of  Petrarch, — 

■No  more,  m  once  in  tonu;  AngnDU, 

The  poat-ioliolfti  Eprekda  the  Homerio  page. 

And  gazes  Badly,  like  the  deaf  at  song: 

For  now  the  old  epie  Toioes  ring  again 

And  vibrate  with  the  beat  and  melody 

Stirr'd  by  the  wanath  ol  old  Ionian  days.' 

Folitian,  the  rival  of  Cbatcondyles,  had  been  appointed  in  JJJJJJ 
1483  to  the  chair  of  both  Greek  and  Latin  in  the  same  city,  j^JJJJ; 
snd  the  appearance  of  his  Miscellanea,  in  1489,  was  justly  huhimI- 
regarded  as  marking  an  era  in  the  progress  of  Latin  criti- 
cism.   Theodorus  Gaza,  the  prot^g6  of  Bessarion,  had  died  in.Timiduna 
1479,  after  teaching  with  eminent  success  at  both  Rome  and  *»»■ 
Ferrara :  to  him  belongs  the  honour  of  having  been  the  first 
to  appreciate  the  varied  excellences  of  Plutarch   and  the 
satiric  genius  of  Aristophanes*.     His  rival,  Qeorgius  Trapez-  2!^^ 
untiuB,  whose  morose  vindictive  nature  contrasted  strongly  f^ 
with  the  modest  worth  of  Gaza,  after  forfeiting  the  favour  of ''■^"*- 
Nicholas  y  by  a  series  of  worthless  and  dishonest  translations 
from  the  Greek  Fathers,  and  that  of  Bessarion  by  a  singularly 
venomous  attack  on  Plato  and  his  philosophy,  had  ended  at 
Borne   bis  long  and   unhappy  career;   leaving  behind  him 
however  a  manual  of  logic  that,  as  an  effort  at  an  eclectic  hd  Lsfk 
system,  attained  to  considerable  popularity  at  the  univer- 
sities, and  was  introduced  at   Cambridge  after  the  fall  of 
Duns  Scotus*.     At   Uessana,  in  the  land  which  had  once 


•  Boenier,  pp.  181-91;  Hody,  pp. 
311-26.  See  the  eIowiii4{  descrip- 
tion at  the  typogti^hioal  beauties 
of  the  Tolnme  in  Uaittaire,  Anna!. 
Typograph.  I  183 ;  and  (or  facsimile 
alp.  1, plate  S6in  Hompbrej'sififC. 
0/ Printing. 

*  '  Platwaham  Chsronensem,  pin- 
tei  oeteroB  acriptoiea  Qrecos  in  de- 
lieiia  hahnit  Gaza  . , .  Uaguiflce  id^a 
iUe  da  Aristophoiie,  oonuoonuu  prin- 


oipe,  BiiBtimabat,  et  onmibiis  quot> 
qnot  Qnveae  literu  diaoere  Tellent, 
himo  Boriptorem  Attics  elegantin 
elegantisaimiiDL  awidaa  versandoia 
manu  oommendsbat. '  Boemer,  128. 
*Ibid.,  105-30;  Hody,  103-35, 
His  treatise  on  logio,  De  Be  DiaUc' 
(ten,  was  often  pnnted:  lee  Qtorgii 
Trapeiunlit  Dt  Et  Diattctiea  L^itr, 
(choltif  loajHiU  Heomagi  tt  BarthoUt- 
m«t  Latcmi   llliuimt|i«.    Iiugdoni, 


430  BISHOP  FISHEB. 

CHAP.  T.  reflected  so  much  that  was  most  splendid  and  impoeing  in 
the  old  Hellenic  civilization,  Constantino  Lascaris  was  re- 


yivinfi:  with  siimal  success  the  ancient  admiration  for  the 
HMmJuu    masterpieces  of  Greek  literature  ^     Hermolaus  Barbaras,  at 
Venice,  was  rendering  valuable  service  by  the  restoration  of 
the  text  of  different  Greek  authors,  and  his  reputation  as  an 
elegant  Latinist  was  second  to  that  of  none  of  his  time.  Nearer 
gmiii»  Her-  homo,  the  Spartan,  George  Hermonymus,  at  Paris,  was  as- 
"""^"^     sisting,  though  in  a  somewhat  mercenary  spirit,  and  if  the 
account  of  one  of  his  pupils  is  to  be  trusted,  with  but  small 
ability,  the  efforts  of  Beuchlin,  Budseus,  and  Erasmus,  to  gain 
a  knowledge  of  the  Greek  tongue*.    The  purely  technical 
treatment  of  that  language  had  also  been  considerably  de- 
veloped.    The  little  grammar  by  Chrysoloras,  owing  to  its 
admirable  terseness  and  simplicity,  still  held  its  ground,  but 
in  respect   of  scholarship  had  been  altogether  thrown  into 
the  shade  by  the  appearance,  in  1495,  of  the  treatise  by 
2;j*^g^  Theodorus  Gaza, — a  producticMi  which  competent  judges  at 
^ISwm^  once  recognised  as  superior  to  all  other  manuals  of  the  kind, 
•SmtiMU^'  which  Budseus  praised  as  a  masterpiece  of  the  grammarian's 
art,  and  which  Erasmus  translated  to  his  class  at  Cambridge 
and  Richard  Croke  to  his  class  at  Leipsic*.    As  a  mean  be- 
tween this  and  the  work  of  Chrysoloras,  Chalcondyles  had 
compiled  his  OrammaticcB  Institutiones  Gtcbccb*;  while  Con- 

1559.    Prantl  speaks  of  the  treatise  Ham  naTigans  Messantt  perpettiam 

as  a  medley  of  the  Ciceronian  rhe-  sedem  fixit,  cieli  salabri  temperie, 

torical   conception  with   the  usual  soli  auKsnitate,  homanisaimis  olYiam 

Aristotelian  school  tradition  and  a  moribus  aUectus,  qaodque  frequena 

slight  infusion  of  the  treatment  by  esset  naviom  appnlsus  Messanam  ex 

the  Modemi.    The  following  extract  Oriente,  nnde  snorom  litter«  nltro 

wiU  explain  to  the  student  of  logic  citroque  perferrentur  facilios.*    See 

its  scope : — '  Nunc  breyiter  dabimus  Boerner,  pp.  170-80. 

oporam    ea    prime    exponere    qua  '  Boerner,  p.  195,  n.  4;    Geiger, 

GrsBci  Yoces^  Latin!  pnedicabilia,  so-  Johann  Reuchlint  p.  17. 

lent  appellare,   deinde  de  prasdica-  '  *  Id  tamen  plerique  yere  nota- 

mentis  et  de  prsBdicatorio  syllogismo  runt,   proveotioribus   et   GraBcamm 

panca  admonebimus,    postremo   de  litterarum  gnaris  magis  illam  inser- 

propositione   hypothetica   et    syUo-  vire  quam  GrsBca  dimere  indpienti- 

gismo  et  de  definitione  et  diyisione  bus;    et  librum  primum,  breyitate 

disseremus  nee  omnino  ea  prascepta  nimia  obscoriorem,  quartum  yero, 

contemnemus,  qusB  ejus  rei,  quam  qui  est  de  stmetura  sermonis  et  ya- 

juniores  obligationem  yocant,  yim  et  riis  dicendi  modis,  et  in  quo  ApoUo- 

naturam  complectuntur.'  Prantl,  Ge-  nium   maxime    secutus    est   Gaza, 

aehichte  der  Logik,  rr  169.  prioribus  longe   esse   diffioiliorem.* 

^  Jerome  of  Bagusa  in  his  Eulogia  Boerner,  pp.  180-1. 

SicuUmtmBoym: — 'Postremo in  Sioi-  ^  'Haiio  eo  oomposuisse  yidetor 


PROOAESS   OI   n-ALT.  431 

Btantine  Lascaris  had  also  put  forth  a  treatise,  less  elaborate  char  r. 
than  that  of  Theodoras,  but,  in  the  opinion  of  Erasmus  —  y^ 
second  to  it  alone  in  merit*. 

We  can  hardly  be  in  error  in  supposing  that  the  master  ^l^^fS* 
of  Michaelhouse  and  bis  contemporaries  at  Cambridge  were  ^J^°ST^ 
frequently  receiving  intelligence  respecting  the  new  studies  I^^Si? 
that  were  slowly  fighting  their  way  in  the  continental  uni- 
versities, but  there  is  also  good  reason  for  believing  that  the 
intelligence  created,  in  the  first  instance,  much  more  alarm 
than  emulation.     They  could   not  have  &iled  at  the  same 
time  to  be  aware,  that  those  cities  where  the  new  learning 
most  flourished  were  also  becoming  the  centres  of  a  yearly 
more  faintly  disguised  infidelity  and  a  yearly  more  openly 
avowed  licentiousness'.  Tbe  religious  tone  which  the  example 
of  Nicholas  v  hod  imparted  to  the  circle  of  scholars  whom  he 
patronised  had  passed  away;  and  the  idea  of  a  reconciliation 
between  Christian  dogma  and  the  doctrines  of  tbe  Academy, 
similar  to  that  which  the  schoolmen  had  attempted  on  the 
appearance  of  the  New  Aristotle,  bad,  after  a  brilliant  effort  at 
Florence,  been  contemptuously  abandoned*.    The  scientific  »SS^ 
scepticism  of  the  Aveiroista  was  now  reinforced  by  tbe  philo-  "*^' 
Bophic  scepticism  of  the  Platonists.   Universal  doubt  and  dis- 
trust of  all  authority  appear  to  have  been  the  prevailing  sen- 
timents of  those  whogave  the  tone  to  public  thought;  and  con- 
currently, as  is  almost  invariably  the  case,  the  public  moraUty,  o«b«i  d>- 
which  had  already  seemed  at  its  worst,  manifested  a  yet  further  1^^ 
decline.     MacLiavelli,  no  squeamish  censor,  openly  declared  TMini«r  or 
that  Italy  exceeded  all  other  nations  in  irreligion  and  de-  "^^'<"*~ 
pravity*.     The  young  Savonarola,  when  he  fied  to  the  Domi- 
nican convent  at  Bologna,  declared  in  his  letter  to  his  father, 
that  he  could  no  longer  endure  the  'enormous  wickedness' 
of  his  countrymen, — the  right  of  virtue  everywhere  despised, 

eoiudlio  nt  anditonun  snonuii  One-  CotiBt.IiMearisribJiimmoTendiMt.' 

MB  literaa  ab  ipso  diseeDtimn  eon-  Dt  Jtatione  Studii  (quoted  bjfHodj). 

■nleret  atilitati,   ita  ridelieet  com-  *  Bnrnkhardt,  Die  Ctiltur  der  lU- 

p«n>tiim,  ut  et  plenior   tit  'Epvnt-  naiuancc  in  Italim,  p.  404. 

timat  OhiyaoIoTte  et  intelleotn  lacilior  *   Ibid.,    S41-6S.      8m   >1io  Von 

inatitntionibcs  Qaxs.'    Ibid.  p.  187.  Banmsr,   Qeiehichte  der  Pddagogik, 

*  '  Inter  GreooB  gnmmatieos  ii«-  i  65-6. 

mo  DOD  pcininm  loenin  tribnit  Tbeo-  *  Diteorti,  i  13  (qwit«d  bj  Bvrok- 

itm  OuB,  proxunom  mea  Esnteutik  hudt^  p.  MS). 


432 


BISHOP  FISHEB. 


C7HAP.  V.  q{  vice  everywhere  in  honour*.    To  facts  like  these,  that 

^■^v  ■^^  could  not  but  awaken  the  alarm  of  the  more  earnest  and  con- 

vmMiJioi    scientious  leaders  of  the  university,  must  be  added  those 

tll6  cup* 

gjJJ5J^*>»«  apprehensions  which  aroused  the  hostility  of  a  far  more 
numerous  and  prejudiced  section,  actuated  only  by  a  dull 
antipathy  to  all  change.  Both  sections  again  were  united  by  a 
common  jealousy,  as  they  became  aware  that  the  Humanists 
were  waging  a  war  of  something  like  extermination  against 
all  those  studies  to  which  their  own  best  years  had  been 
devoted,  and  wherein  whatever  academic  reputation  they 
possessed  had  been  acquired.  They  must  expect,  if  teachers 
of  the  new  school  once  gained  a  footing  in  Cambridge,  to 
have  all  those  subtle  distinctions,  in  which  they  had  so  long 
delighted,  treated  as  the  creations  of  a  perverted  ingenuity, — 
those  latent  meanings  of  Scripture  which  they  had  laboured 
to  evolve,  characterised  as  unauthorised  tamperings  with  the 
plain  and  literal  sense, — ^their  great  oracle  disparaged, — their 
own  efforts  at  interpreting  his  thought  described  as  vain  and 
nugatory,— each  of  them,  in  fine,  would  be  called  upon  to 
confess 

*  After  a  search  thus  painful  and  thus  long 
That  aU  his  life  he  had  been  in  the  wrong.' 

*  Behold  these  men,'  had  been  the  cry  of  Petrarch  at  the  very 
commencement  of  the  struggle,  as  he  exulted  in  the  prospect 
of  a  certain  victory,  *  who  devote  their  whole  lives  to  wrangling 
and  to  the  cavillmgs  of  sophistry,  wearying  themselves  un- 
ceasingly in  idle  speculations,  and  hear  my  prophecy  concern- 
ing them  all  I    All  their  fame  shall  perish  with  them  I    For 


^  The  position  of  Savonarola  with 
reference  to  the  Humanists  in  Italy 
is  worthy  of  note,  as  illustrating  the 
entirely  different  spirit  in  which  the 
revival  of  learning  was  there  carried 
on  from  that  which  characterised  the 
scholarship  of  Qermany  and  England. 
When  he  became  prior  of  St.  Mark 
he  kept  entirely  aloof  from  the  court 
of  Lorenzo;  and  the  scheme  of  go- 
vernment that  he  drew  up  during 
his  short  supremacy  as  ruler  of  the 
destinies  of  Florence,  was  merely  a 
somewhat  servile  transcript  of  the 


political  theory  of  Aquinas.  Of  the 
Italian  Humanists  Burckhardt  truly 
observes, '  Dass  Menschen  von  einem 
so  beschafifenen  Innem  nicht  taugen, 
um  eine  neue  Eirche  zu  bilden,  ist 
unlaugbar,  aber  die  Geschichte  des 
abendlandischen  Qeistes  ware  un- 
voUstandig  ohne  die  Betrachtung 
jener  Gahrungszeit  der  Italiener, 
wahrend  sie  sich  den  Blick  auf  an- 
dere  Nationen,  die  am  Qedanken 
keinen  TheU  hatten,  getrost  ersparen 
darf.»    Ibid.  p.  443-4. 


STMFTOHS   OF   PROGBESS.  433 

their  oaine  and  their  bones  the  same  sepulchre  aboil  suffice' I'  chap. 
Aod  bis  trumpet  note  of  defiance  bad  been  echoed  by  almost  ^^^ 
every  Humanist  since  the  poet's  time. 

Among  the  earliest  indications  that  the  new  thought  in  gj^Trf 
Italy  was  beginning  to  be  a  matter  of  interest  to  Cambridge  ^^ 
scholars,  is  the  presence  of  a  copy  of  Petrarch's  letters  in  the  S^u^ 
original  catalogue  of  the  library  of  Feterhouse,  of  the  year  mI£.^ 
142G,  referred  to  in  preceding  chapters',  A  few  years  later  we 
find  Ottringham,  who  preceded  William  de  Melton  as  master 
of  Michaelhouse,  borrowing  a  copy  of  Petrarch's  well-knowa 
treatise  De  Bemediis  utriusqae  FortuntE.    The  manuscript  ^^Jjf 
was  the  property  of  one  Robert  Alne,  who,  in  his  will  dated  JU^J^' 
24>  December,  1440,  directs  that  Ottringham  shall  be  allowed 
to  retain  possession  of  the  volume  during  bis  lifetime,  after 
which  it  is  to  become  the  property  of  the  tmiveraity,  along 
with  other  works  directly  bequeathed  by  the  testator'.     In 
the  catalogue  of  the  university  library  drawn  up  in  1473,  of 
which  some  account  has  been  given  in  a  preceding  chapter*, 
we  accordingly   find   the  treatise   in  question  among  the 
volumes  enumerated, — though  it  is  not  one  of  those  few  that 
have  been  preserved  down  to  the  present  time.     We  have  no 
evidence  that  Fisher  ever  read  this  treatise,  but  the  fact  that 
it  bad  been  borrowed  from  the  owner  by  a  former  master  of 
Michaelhouse,  shews  that  there  were  some  among  the  in- 
fluential members  of  the  university  who  were  beginning  to 
take  an  interest  in  the  writings  of  the  Humanists.     Perhaps 
after  the  volume  had  been  deposited  in  the  common  library, 
and  bad  been  duly  chained  as  No.  57  in  its  appointed  place, 
other  students  were  occasionally  to  be  found  intent  upon  ita 
pages,  contrasting  its  comparatively  pure  Latinity  with  the 
uncouth  diction  to  which  they  were  more  accustomed,  or — as 
yague  rumours  of  great  battles  reached   the   half-deserted 
university,  while  Red  and  White  were  contending  for  the 

'  'Beepico  hnn,  qni  in  altercatio-  nomioi  OBsibasqiia  Bofficiet  t '  EpiiL 

nibns  et  cavillutiambnB   BuphUticia  Familiar,  i  571, 

tolnm  TJtat  tempua  eipendnnt  seque  *  See  Bnpra,  pp.  32*,  370. 

inanibiu  Bemper  qnaeBtiiuiciiliB  ex-  *  Sm  P»per  b;  Hr.  Bradghair  in 

agituit,    et   proiBagiain    mBnm    de  Can.  Ant.  Soe.  Cam.  ii  239-40. 

omnibiuhftbeto:  omninmnempecDm  <  See  inpra,  pp.83S-4. 
ipBu  fftma  eorraet,  nntuu  BepnUhrnm 


434  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CHAP.  y.  mastery, — gathering  consolation    from  the  placid   stoicism 
fabtil    preached  by  the  great  Florentine.    If  to  such  rare  indications 
^jM  Aub»-  ag  the  foregoing,  we  add  that  there  was  an  Italian,  one  Cains 
^SSSfin    Auberinus,  resident  in  the  university,  writing  Latin  letters 
tt»  uniTw-    ^^  formal  occasions  for  a  fee  of  twenty  pence  each,  and  also 
giving  by  permission  a  Terence  lecture  in  vacation  time*,  we 
shall  have  before  us  nearly  all  the  existing  evidence  that, 
with  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century,  may  be 
held  to  shew  that  there  was  at  Cambridge  a  certain  minority, 
however  small,  to  whom  it  seemed  that  the  prevalent  La- 
tinity  was  not  altogether  irreproachable,  and  who  were  con- 
scious that  a  new  literature  was  rising  up  which  might  ere 
long  demand  attention,  even  to  the  displacement  of  some  of 
the  scholastic  writers  and  mediaeval  theologians. 
™J^»*  We  have  already  mentioned  the  election  of  Fisher  to  the 

senior  proctorship  in  the  year  1494.  The  duties  of  the 
office  at  that  time  appear  to  have  involved  occasional  attend- 
SJI!^^  ance  at  court,  and  in  his  official  capacity  Fisher  was  sent 
motto!^^-  down  to  Greenwich  where,  the  royal  court  was  frequently 
S!!r^*mSi'-  held.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  he  was  introduced  to  the 
™**  notice  of  the  king's  mother,  the  munificent  and  pious  coun- 

tess of  Bichmond.  '  I  need  say  nothing,'  says  Baker  in  his 
History  of  St.  John's  College,  rising  to  unwonted  eloquence 
as  he  recalls  the  proud  lineage  of  the  foundress  of  his  house, — 
SSSlTi^  *  I  need  say  nothmg  of  so  great  a  name :  she  was  daughter  of 
•'"**»'^-  John  Beaufort  duke  of  Somerset,  grandson  of  John  of  Gaunt^ 
and  so  descended  from  Edward  the  Third ;  consort  of 
Edmund  Tudor  earl  of  Bichmond,  son  of  Catharine  of  France, 
and  so  allied  to  the  crown  of  France ;  and  mother  of  Henry 
the  Seventh,  king  of  England,  from  whom  all  our  kings  of 
England,  as  from  his  elder  daughter  Margaret,  who  bore  her 
name,  all  the  kings  of  Scotland,  are  ever  since  descended. 
And  though  she  herself  was  never  a  queen,  yet  her  son,  if  he 
had  any  lineal  title  to  the  crown,  as  he  derived  it  from  her, 
so  at  her  death  she  had  thirty  kings  and  queens  all  ?d  to  her 
within  the  fourth  degree  either  of  blood  or  affinity,  ind  since 
her  death  she  has  been  allied  in  her  posterity      )   thirty 

>  Cooper,  AnnaUt  i  240;  Athena,  i  9. 


THE  COUNTESS  OF  RICHMOND.  435 

more'.'     This  sugiiat  lady  appears  to  have  at  once  .recog-  chap,  v, 
nised  in  Fisher  an  ecclesiastic  after  her  own  heart/and  in  the  -  *"  ,  - 
year  1497  ho  was  appointed  her  confessor.     It  was  aa  aiis-  JUfiSi^ 
picious  conjunction  for  Camhridge;  for  to  the  wealth  and"*""* 
liberality  of  the  one  and  the  enlightened  zeal  and  disinterest- 
edness of  the  other,  the  university  ie  chiefly  indebted  for  that 
new  life  and  prosperity  which  soon  after  began  to  be  per- 
ceptible in  its  history.    'As  this  honourable  lady,'  says  Lewis,  g^***"* 
'  waa  a  person  of  great  piety  and  devotion,  and  one  who  made 
it  the  whole  business  of  her  life  to  do  good,  and  employed 
the  chief  part  of  her  noble  fortune  for  that  purpose,  this  her 
confessor,  who  was  a  man  of  the  same  excellent  spirit,  soon 
became  very  dear  to  her,  and  entirely  beloved  by  her.     Thus 
■  Mr  Fisher,  a  good  while  after,  very  gratefully  remembers  her 
alTcction   towards   bim.     He    styles  her  an   excellent  and 
indeed  incomparable  woman,   and  to  bim  a  mistress  most 
dear  upon  many  accounts ;  whose  merits  whereby  she  bad 
obliged  him  were  very  great'.' 

His  promotion  at  court  served  ^till  further  to  recommend  3'5i^*'** 
Fbher  to  the  favour  of  his  university,  and  in  the  year  1501,23?'"''"' 
when  be  had  already  commenced  D.D.,  he  was  elected  vice- 
chancellor.     In  the  same  year  that  the  countess  appointed  S'S^y 
him  her  confessor  (though  how  far  her  design  is  attributable  ^SSm- 
to  his  influence  is  uncertain)  we  find  her  obtaining  a  royal '*''''■  *** 
licence  for  the  establishment  of  a  readership  in  divinity  in 
each  university ;  and  a  course  of  lectures  on  the  Quodlibeta 
of  Duns  Scotus,  given   by  one   Edmund   Wilsford   in  the 
common  divinity  schools  at  Oxford',  and  certain  payments 
made  for  the  delivery  of  a  similar  course  at  Cambridge*,  are 
sufficient  evidence  that  the  scheme  was  forthwith  c&nied  into 
effect.     The   final  regulations  however,  in  connexion  with 
each  readership,  do  not  appear  to  have  been  given  before  the 
year  1503,  when  the  deed  of  endowment  was  executed*.     In 

'  Baker-Mayor,  p.  ,^5.  *  Coopor,  ^nnoj*,  i  2i7. 

*  Lewis,  Life  of  Filhtr,  1  5.  '  ThecouDtess,  sccoriiing  tcWood, 

*  'EdiDimd  WjUford.  doctor  of  '  for  eevvral  jeara  malDtained  a  reader 
divinity  and  tellow  of  Oriel  College,  withoat  any  settled  revenue  on  him 
began  to  read  this  lecture  on  the  mor-  and  his  Bocoeasora.  At  length  mak- 
row  atter  the  Trinit;,  una.  1497.'  ing  a  formal  foondatioB  according  to 
Wood-Gntch,  II  838-9.  law  b;  her  charter,  bearing  date  on 

28-2 


43d  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CHAP.  V.  the  absence  of  any  assigned  motive,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
'^"'^  conjecture  the  reasons  that  led  the  foundress  to  entrust 
the  management  of  the  revenues  set  apart  for  the  readers' 
salaries  to  other  than  the  academic  authorities.  The  lax  mo- 
rality of  the  age  in  financial  matters,  the  frequent  instances 
of  maladministration  in  the  different  colleges,  and  the  poverty 
of  the  university,  would  hardly  fail  to  suggest  the  possi- 
bility, if  not  the  probability,  of  misapplication  of  the  funds. 
If  however  there  was  one  corporate  body  in  England  that 
from  feelings   of  gratitude  towards  the  countess,   from  its 

The  wj^t»«  reputation  for  sanctity,  and  its  enormous  wealth,  might  be 

S*^}!fyjy  supposed  superior  to  such  temptations,  it  was  the  great  ab- 
bey of  Westminster;  and  to  this  society  the  administration 
of  the  estates  and  the  payment  of  the  salaries  were  en- 

ThesabuT    trusted\  The  salary  of  the  reader  must  have  seemed  a  liberal 

attached  to  ,  , 

tiM  office,  one  in  those  days,  for  it  amounted  yearly  to  £13.  fo.  8a. ;  it 
was,  that  is  to  say,  more  than  three  times  that  of  the  Rede 
lectureships  (founded  twenty  years  later),  considerably  more 
than  that  of  any  of  the  parochial  livings  in  Cambridge,  and 
nearly  equal  to  the  entire  yearly  revenue  of  the  priory  of 
St.  Edmund  or  to  a  third  of  that  of  St.  Catherine's  HaU. 
As  so  considerable  an  endowment  might  be  expected  to  com- 
mand the  best  talent  of  the  univei'sity,  and  as  the  instruction 
was  to  be  entirely  gratuitous,  the  theological  students  must 
have  looked  upon  the  newly-created  chair  as  no  slight  boon, 
and  it  is  deserving  of  notice  that  the  regulations  laid  down 
seem  to  have  been  singularly  well  adapted  for  guarding 
The  subjects  agaiust  a  perfunctory  discharge  of  the  specified  duties.  Each 
the  lecturer   reader  was  bound  to  read  in  the  divinity  schools  libere,  sol- 

to  be  subject  ,  *'  ' 

tteJof  toT  ^*^>  ^  aperte,  to  every  one  thither  resorting,  without  fee 
or  other  reward  than  his  salary,  such  works  in  divinity  as 
the  chancellor  or  vicechancellor  with  the  '  college  of  doctors,' 
should  judge  necessary,  for  one  hour,  namely  from  seven  to 
eight  in  the  morning,  or  at  such  other  time  as  the  chancellor 

the  Feast  of   the   Nativity  of  the  lands  and  revenues)  to  pay  to  the 

blessed  Virgin  (18  Hen.  vn  1502),  reader,  and  his  successors  of   thia 

did  then  agree  with  the  abbat  and  lecture,  a  yearly  pension  of  twenty 

convent  of  Westminster,   (to  whom  marks.*    Wood-Gutoh,  ii  826. 

she  had,  or  did  then,  give  divers  ^  Lewis,  Life  of  Fish^tf  i  ?• 


authorities. 


THE  UAROABSI  PBOFE8S0BSH1P.  437 

or  vicechaDcellor  should  think   fit.     He  was  to  read  enery  .chap.  t. 
accuMomed  day  in  each  term,  and  in  the  loDg  vacation  up  to  — v— ^ 
the  eighth  of  September,  but  to  cease  in  Lent,  if  the  chan-  iljiSS*" 
cellor  should  think  fit,  in  order  that  during  that  aeaa&n  he  and^Uurm, 
Au  auditors  might  be  occupied  in  preaching.     He  was  not  toJSi?"*" 
cease  from  reading  in  any  term  for  more  than  four  days,  iba  udr  o( 
unless  licensed  for  reasonable  cause,  to  he  approved  by  the  tf™»_ 
chancellor  or  vicechancellor  and  major  part  of  the  doctors  of 
divinity,  such  licence  not  to  extend  to  more  than  fourteen 
days,  and  his  place  to  ho  supplied  in  the  mean  time  by  a 
sufficient  deputy  to  be  paid  by  him.     The  election  was  ton^Mt^M 
take  place  biennially,  on  the  last  day  of  the  term  before  the  gj^gi*" 
long  vacation,  in  the  assembly  house,  the  electors  being  the  JSBSl- 
chancellor  or  vicechancellor,  and  all  doctors,  bachelors,  andj^."*** 
inceptora  in  divinity,  both  seculars  and  regtdars  (having  been 
regents  in  arts),  who  were  to  swear  to  choose  the  most  wor- 
thy, without  favour,  partiality,  reward,  fear,  or  sinister  affec- 
tion'. 

It  can  be  a  matter  of  little  surprise  that  the  choice  of  the  ^j;^ 
first  election  to  the  lady  Ifargaret  Professorship  of  Divinity  *<*- 
fell  upon  John  Fisher.     By  the  regulations  given  in  1503,  it 
was  provided  however  that  the  reader,  if  elected  to  the  office 
either  of  chancellor  or  vicechancellor,  should  vacate  his  chair 
within  a  month  from  the  time  of  such  election,     "With  the 
new  academic  year,  Fisher  accordingly  resigned  the  office, 
and  Cosin,  master  of  Corpus,  was  elected  in  his  stead.   Cosin,  BBt  wcew 
at  the  expiration  of  two  years,  was  succeeded  by  Burgoyne, 
afterwards  master  of  Peterhouse,  and  he  in  turn  by  Deside- 
rius  Erasmus. 

The  clause  in  the  second  provision,  directing  that  lectures  si^ti  of 
shall  be  discontinued  during  Lent,  in  order  that  both  the 'T^^^ 
reader  and  his  class  may  devote  themselves  to  preaching,  ja™"?"*^ 
deserving  of  special  note  as  the  corollary  to  the  main  object 
of  the  lectureship.     The  revival  and  cultivation   of  pulpit 
oratory  of  a  popular  kind  bad  for  a  long  time  past  been 
strongly  urged  by  the  most  eminent  reformers  both  at  home 
and  abroad.    Nearly  a  hundred  years  before,  Nicholas  de 
>  CcK^ar,  AmaU,  1 371-2, 


dbsounto- 

DMMMdoO 

■oeoimtof 


438  BISHOP  FISHEB. 

CHAP.  V.  Clemangis,  a  leading  spirit  in  the  university  of  Paris  in  his 
day,  had  maintained  that  the  chief  end  of  theological  studies 
was  the  training  of  able  preachers  \  But  with  the  close  of  the 
fifteenth  century  both  theology  and  the  art  of  preaching 
seemed  in  danger  of  general  neglect.  At  the  English  uni- 
versities, and  consequently  throughout  the  whole  country, 
the  sermon  was  falling  into  almost  complete  disuse ;  and  how- 
ever truly  it  might,  in  a  later  century,  be  affirmed  of  the 
laity, — 

'  The  hungry  sheep  look  np  and  are  not  fed/ 

the  description  was  never  truer  than  in  the  days  of  bishop 
Fisher.     By  some  indeed  the  usefulness  of^  preaching  was 

ftiStfijl^  openly  denied ;  or  rather  it  was  maintained,  that  its  liability 
to  abuse  outweighed  its  probable  advantages;  and,  com- 
pletely as  Reginald  Fecock's  doctrines  had  been  disavowed 
by  the  Church,  his  views  on  this  point  were,  at  least  in  prac- 
tice, very  widely  adopted.  Times  had  greatly  changed  since 
the  day  when  Grosseteste  declared  that  if  a  priest  could  not 
preach,  there  was  one  remedy,  let  him  resign  his  benefice*. 
The  activity  of  the  Lollards  had  brought  all  popular  haran- 
gues and  discourses  under  suspicion,  and  a  secular  found 
preaching  without  a  licence  was  liable  to*  summary  punish- 

ooiueqiMnt   mout,    Thus  the  sermon  had  ceased  to  form  part  of  an  ordi- 

rarltyof  * 

•^/rmooM,  nary  religious  service.  The  provincial  clergy  were  directed 
to  preach  once  a  quarter  to  their  congregations,  but  no 
penalty  appears  to  have  attached  to  the  neglect  even  of  this 
rare  duty;  and  Latimer  tells  us  that,  in  his  own  recollection, 
sermons  might  be  omitted  for  twenty  Sundays  in  succession 
without  fear  of  complaint*.  Even  the  devout  More,  in  that 
ingenious  romance  which  he  designed  as  a  covert  satire  on 
many  of  the  abuses  of  his  age,  while  giving  an  admirably 
conceived  description  of  a  religious  service,  has  left  the  ser- 

^  J^eBSider^  Church  History,  (Claxk*B  pendiout  olde  treaty se  shewynge  howe 

Series),  ix  78 — 81.  that  we  ought  to  haue  the  scripture 

'  'Also  Lincoln  sayeth  in  a  sermon  in  Englysshe^  Arber's  ed.  of  Rede  me 

that  begynneUi,  Scriptum  est  de  Le-  and  he  not  urothe^  p.  176. 

vitia :   '*  Yf  any  prieste  saye  he  can-  '  Blunt,  Hist,  of  the  Reformation^ 

not  preache,  one  remedye  is  resigne  c.  4 ;  Latimer,  Sermons^  i  id2. 
he  uppe  his  benef^j^oe.'"    See  A  com- 


THE  lUBQABBT  PBEACHEBSHIP. 


139 


mon  altogether  unrecognised'.  In  the  unireraities,  for  one 
master  of  arts  or  doctor  of  divinity  who  could  make  a  text  of 
Scripture  the  basis  of  an  earnest,  simple  and  effective  faomiJy, 
there  were  fifty  who  could  discuss  its  moral,  anagogical,  and 
figurative  meaning,  who  could  twist  it  into  all  kinds  of  un- 
imagined  significance,  and  give  it  a  distorted,  unnatural  appli- 
cation. Bare  as  was  the  sermon,  the  theologian,  in  the  form 
of  a  modest,  reverent  expounder  of  scripture,  was  yet  rarer. 
Bewildered  audiences  were  called  upon  to  admire  the  per- 
formances of  intellectual  acrobats.  Skelton,  who  well  knew 
the  Cambridge  of  these  days,  not  inaptly  described  its  young 
scholars  as  men  who  when  they  had  'once  superciliously 
caught ' 

'A  lytell  lagge  of  rhetorieke, 
A  leiM  ]imip«  ol  logicke, 
A  peee  or  pfttohe  of  philof<^ihy, 
Then  forthwith  bj  and  by 
The;  tumble  eo  in  theology. 
Drowned  in  dieggei  of  diniuite^ 
That  th^  jnge  them  lelle  Able  to  ba 
Doctonre  of  the  oh&yre  in  the  viutia 
At  the  Thre  Cnnee 
To  magnil^e  their  nunea*.' 

The  efforts  made  towards  remedying  this  state  of  things 
had  hitherto  been  rare  and  ineffectual  We  find  In  the  year 
144-6,  one  Tbomafi  Collage  bequeathing  forty  pounds  for  the 
payment  of  Ga.  8d.  to  preachers  in  each  of  the  universities, 
long  as  the  money  lasted, '  to  the  end  that  encoun^ment 
might  be  bestowed  upon  divinity,  now  at  a  low  e&&* ;  while  in 
1503,  pope  Alexander  VI,  in  response  to  a  special  application,  a 
issued  a  bull,  empowering  the  chancellor  of  the  university  u 

giani  of  Italy  in  bis  da;,  \a  worth; 
of  note; — 'Enuit  olim  hajna  leientis 
[theologiiE]  pioIeBsorefl;  hodie,  qood 
mdignans  dico,  sacnun  nomeii  pio- 
(aiii  et  loqoaces  dialectioi  dehones-  ' 
tant ;  qaod  nisi  bIo  asset,  non  htM 
tanta  tarn  subito  pnllnlaHet  segea 
umtilioai  magiiitKrum.'  DeRemrdiU 
utriiuqut  Forfume,  p.  46. 

'  Cooper,  Attnalt,  i   198;  Wood- 
Ontch,  1 626. 


Tamil 

AnMcteluKi 


apeatttdtnr 
TbamiCM- 
la«<UOi- 
bidudCkB- 


I  Utopia,  ed.  Arber,  pp.  163-7. 

'  A  Replycaeion  agayntt  eertayne 

Sang  Scholin  ai^urtd  of  laU,  ttt. 
kelton-Djoe,  i  20H.  These  lines,  it 
is  true,  were  really  aimed,  some 
twent;  years  after  the  foundation  of 
the  lad;  Margaret  preadiemliip.  at 
the  young  Cambridge  BeformerB: 
bat  Uie;  describe  with  perfect  ao- 
anrae;  ttie  ordinar;  theological  train- 
ing of  the  time.  Petrttfch's  oor- 
mponding  i 


440  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CHAP.  V.  yearly  to  appoint  under  the  university  seal,  twelve  doctors  or 
^J^v  »>  masters,  and  graduates,  being  priests,  most  capable  of  preach- 
ing, to  preach  the  word  of  God  in  all  parts   of  England, 
Scotland,  and  Ireland,  both  to  the  clergy  and  the  people, 
notwithstanding  any  ordinance  or  constitution  to  the  con- 
trary \'     But  the  evangelizing  spirit  had  been  too  long  and 
too  sternly  repressed  for  merely  permissive  enactments  to 
restore  it  again  to  life.     Men  began  to  surmise  that,  in  seek- 
ing to  extirpate  the  *  tares,'  the  rulers  of  the  Church  had  also 
torn  up  much  of  the  good  wheat ;  and  to  some  it  seemed  that 
the  certainty  of  an  uninstructed  and  irreligious  laity  was  a 
worse  evil  than  the  possibility  of  heretical  preaching.  Among 
these  were  the  lady  Margaret  and  her  adviser.     Like  One  of 
Foviidmtion   old,  they  were  moved  with  compassion  as  they  saw  the  flocks 
{JJwjuj^      wandering  and  fainting  for  want  of  the  shepherd  s  care.    The 
■*»**•  lady  Margaret  preachership  was  the  outcome  of  no  pedantic 

effort  to  uphold  a  system   of  effete  theology;   it  was   an 
eminently  practical  design  for  the  people's  good;   and   it 
reflects  no  little  credit  on  the  discernment  of  bishop  Fisher, 
Double  aim   that  this  cudeavour  was  a  direct  anticipation  of  like  efforts 
reriij  the     ou  the  part  of  the  most  enlightened  reformers  of  his  own  and 
torathT     ^^^  succeeding  generation, — from  moderate  Anglicans,  like 
pSSrMiJ'    Parker,  to  unflinching  denouncers  of  abuses,  like  Latimer. 
Nor  was  his  aim  confined  to  the  simple  revival  of  preaching; 
he  was   also   anxious,   as  we   learn    long  afterwards   from 
gj^jjy  ot  Erasmus,  whom  he  incited  to  the  composition  of  his  treatise 
De  Batione  Concionandt,  to  change  the  whole  character  of 
the  pulpit  oratory  then  in  vogue,  *  to  abolish  the  customary 
cavillings  about  words  and  parade  of  sophistry,  and  to  have 
those  who  were  designed  for  preachers  exercised  in  sound 
learning  and  sober  disputations,  that  they  might  preach  the 
word  of  God  gravely  and  with  an  evangelical  spirit,  and  re- 
commend it  to  the  minds  of  the  learned  by  an  efficacious 
eloquence*.* 
lusffuiatioiii         By  the  regulations  no^^  given  in  connexion  with  the  new 
prwchenhip.  foundation,  the  preacher  was  required  to  deliver  six  sermons 

^  Cooper,  Annals,  i  260. 

•  Erasmi  Opera,  m  1253.    Lewis,  Life  ofFUher,  1 10,  277. 


THE  HABOABET  PKEACHEBSHIF.  441 

annualli/,  that  is  to  say,  one  in  the  course  of  every  two  years  chap.  t. 
at  each  of  the  following  twelve  places  :-^on  some  Sunday  at  **'"  "'- 
St  Paul's  Cross,  if  able  to  obtain  permiflsioti,  otherwise  at 
St.  Margaret's,  Westminster,  or  if  unable  to  preach  there, 
then  in  one  of  the  more  notable  churches  of  the  city  of 
London ;  and  once,  on  some  feast  day,  in  each  of  the  churches 
of  Ware  and  Cheshunt  in  Hertfordshire,  BassiDgboume, 
Orwell,  and  Babraham  in  Cambridgeshire ;  Maney,  St.  James 
Deeping,  St.  John  Deeping,  Bourn,  Boston,  and  Swineshead 
in  Lincolnshire.  The  preacher  was  to  be  a  doctor  of  divinity 
if  a  competent  doctor  could  he  found  to  undertake  the  duty, 
otherwise  a  bachelor  in  that  faculty  and  perpetual  fellow  of 
some  college ;  by  a  clause  subsequently  added  the  preference 
was  to  be  given,  ceteris  paribus,  to  members  of  Christ's 
College.  The  preacher  was  to  be  resident  in  the  university 
and  to  hold  no  benetice.  The  election  to  the  office  was 
vested  in  the  vicechancellor  and  heads  of  colleges,  the  vice- 
cbancellor  having  the  right  of  giving  a  casting  vote.  The 
appointment  was  to  be  made  trienniaU}),  the  salary  being  tim  ippoiDt. 
fixed  at  ten  pounds  per  annum,  payable  by  the  abbat  and  "fe"^*^ 
convent  of  Westminster'. 

On  the  whole,  looking  at  the  scope  of  these  several  ^^^ 
designs  of  the  countess  and  her  adviser, — the  provision  for  J«3^^ 
gratuitous  theological  instruction  in  the  university, — the 
direct  application  of  the  learning  thus  acquired,  in  sermons  to 
the  Iaity,~-and  the  introduction  of  a  more  simple  and  evan- 
gelical method  of-  ocripturai  exposition, — we  can  scarcely 
deny  Fisher's  claim  to  rank  with  the  theological  reformers  of 
his  own  and  the  preceding  age,  with  Gerson,  Hegius,  Eu- 
dolf  von  Lange,  and  Rudolphus  Agricola,  and  those  other 
eminent  men  whose  services  have  entitled  them  to  the 
honorable  designation  of '  reformers  before  the  reformation.' 

Both  at  the  university  and  at  court  Fisher  continued  to  iicii«i(cted 
grow  in  favour.  In  the  same  year  that  the  foregoing  preach-  '•"'^Jj^ 
erehip  was  founded,  he  was  elected  chancellor  of  the  univer-  o™i««4 

■  Cooper,  Jnnalf  i  273-4.     'The      Id  English  t"  the  Duivenut;.'  Wood- 
pT«Mh«r,'    BftjB    Wood,    'WBB   pio-      Gutcb,  II  8a7. 
Mbl;  the  onl^  peibon  that  preached 


442  BISHOP  FISHER. 

cHAP.v.   8ity,  and   at  nearly  the  same  time  was  promoted  to  the 

^■^^^^  hishopric  of  Rochester.     The  circumstances  under  which  he 

ift^S^^    succeeded  to  the  latter  dignity  were  of  an  exceptional  and 

**^  more  than  ordinarily  gratifying  kind.    In  those  days  the  royal 

court, — or  as  Wolsey  began  to  grow  in  influence^  Hampton 

Court, — was  thronged  by  eager  and  often  far  from  scrupulous 

candidates  for  office  and  promotion ;  unobtrusive  merit  and 

the  faithful  discharge  of  duty  rarely  won  for  the  parish  priest 

the  recognition  of  the  dispensers  of  ecclesiastical  rewards; 

oitmm-       and  it  would  seem  that  no  one  was  more  taken  by  surprise 

Km^^Mto  ^^^  Fisher  himself,  when,  without  solicitation  or  expectation 

tbeuibopric.  ^^  j^jg  ^^^  pg^^^  ^^  y^^  unbeneficcd,  and  still  somewhat  under 

the  age  when  long  service  might  be  held  to  mark  him  out 
for  such  signal  favour,  he  was  called  upon  to  succeed  Richard 
Fitzjames  (who  was  translated  to  the  see  of  Chichester),  as 
bishop  of  Rochester.  Conjecture  would  naturally  incline  us 
to  refer  his  promotion  to  the  influence  of  his  patroness,  but 
the  account  given  by  Lewis,  authenticated  by  the  express 
statement  of  Fisher  himself  \  proves  that  the  initiative  was 
taken  by  king  Heniy — desirous,  it  would  seem,  as  he  ap- 
proached the  close  of  life,  of  redeemiAg  many  an  ill-consi- 
dered act  of  preferment  by  promotion  that  shewed  a  more 
careful  consideration  of  the  personal  merits  of  the  individuaL 
Fbher'8  The  influence  of  Fisher  on  behalf  of  his  university  now 

with  the  began  to  make  itself  still  more  distinctly  perceptible.  In  the 
scheme  of  the  foundation  of  the  professorship,  Oxford,  as  we 
have  seen,  was  an  equal  sharer  in  his  patroness's  bounty ; 
and  in  that  of  the  preachership,  Anthony  Wood  has  endea- 
voured to  prove  that  it  was  her  intention  to  have  equally 
befriended  the  sister  university^  That  his  assumption  is  en- 
tirely unwarranted  by  the  facts  is  clearly  shewn  by  Baker, 
and  Cooper's  industrious  research  has  discovered  nothing 
that  gives  it  countenance.  It  seems  accordingly  not  un- 
reasonable to  conclude  that  the  university  was  chiefly  in- 

^  *  Qoippe  qui  paucos  annos  haba-  nibns  liqmdo  constaret  illomm  caosa 

erim,  qui  nunquam  in  curia  obse-  id  factum  esse  .  .  Te  nullius  aut  viri 

quium  prsestiterim,  qui  nullis  ante  aut  feminaB  precibus  addnctum    ut 

dotatus  beneficiis.    Et  quam  ob  rem  id  faceres  asserebas.*    Lewis,   Life 

ego  ad  episoopatum  assumerer?  Nihil  0/  Fisher ,  n  270. 

profecto  aliud  nisi  at  studiosis  om-  '  Wood,  Annals,  n  827. 


HIS  INFLUENCE  WITH  THE  CODNTESS.  443 

debted  to  Fisher  for  the  latter  benefaction;  while,  in  the  chap. v. 
design  that  next  claims  our  attention, — the  foundation  of  a  -  .t"^. 
new  college, — it  is  certain  that  the  countess  was  not  only 
decided  in  her  choice  between  the  two  universities  by  his 
counsels,  but  that  neither  Oxford  nor  Cambridge  would  have 
been  thus  enriched  had  those  counsels  been  wanting. 

Among  the  most  noticeable  characteristics  of  the  mu-  SSSm^ 
nificenoe  of  nearly  all  founders  of  great  institutions  in  these  '•'~''™* 
pree-reformation  times,  is  one  on  which  it  would  perhaps  be 
unwise  to  insist  too  strongly  as  detracting  from  the  merit  of 
really  generous  acts,  but  which  cannot  be  altogether  dis- 
regarded in  estimating  the  motives  that  led  to  the  alienation 
of  BO  much  wealth.  It  is  certain  that  the  patrons  of  learning 
never  themselves  sought  to  disguise  the  fact  that  their  own  spi- 
ritual welfare  entered  largely  into  their  calculations.  Through- 
out the  Middle  Ages,  the  Augustinian  theoiy,  set  forth  with 
80  much  emphasis  by  Peter  Lombard  in  the  Sentences, — that 
good  deeds  are  to  be  performed,  not  from  conformity  to  any 
abstract  conception  of  right  and  wrong,  but  as  acts  of  obe- 
dience to  the  mandates  of  the  Great  Disposer  of  earthly 
events  and  humaa  destinies', — was  the  all-prevailing  doctrine ; 
and  this  principle,  conjoined  with  the  belief  in  purgatory,  not 
unfrequently  imparts  to  the  designs  of  genuine  benevolence 
an  air  of  deliberate  calculation  that  might  seem,  to  a  super- 
ficial observer,  to  divest  them  of  all  claim  to  disinterestedness. 
The  efficacy  of  prayers  offered  up  on  behalf  of  those  in 
purgatory  was  universally  taught.  The  more  masses  offered 
up  for  the  souls  of  the  departed,  the  shoi-ter,  it  was  held, 
would  be  the  period  of  their  suffering.  And  thus  it  waa 
rarely  indeed  that  either  a  church  was  built,  or  a  monastery, 
college,  or  'hospital'  founded,  without  a  proviso  requiring 
that  every  year  so  many  masses  or  prayers  should  be  offered 
for  the  spiritual  repose  of  the  founder  or  foundress  and  of 
their  families.  Both  the  lady  Margaret  professor  and  the 
lady  Margaret  preacher  were  bound  to  pray  at  stated  seasons, 
and  whenever  they  took  part  as  celebrants  in  the  mass,  for 

>  Sao  anpro,  p.  59,  itote  1. 


444  BISUOP  FISHER. 

CHAP.  V.  the  souls  of  the  countess  and  certain  of  her  relations.    While 
^^^^21^  respecting  king  Henry,  we  learn  on  the  authority  of  Fisher, 
that  notwithstanding  his  habitual  parsimony,  '  there  was  in 
his  realm  no  virtuous  man  that  he  might  be  credibly  in- 
formed of,  but  he  gave  him  a  continual  remembrance  yearly 
and  daily  to  pray  for  him ;  some  ten  marks  and  some  ten 
USnteMifi**  pounds \'     But  the  prayers  of  the  secular  clergy  were  never 
with  the       80  highly  prized  as  those  of  the  regulars,  and  over  the  mind 
wettminster.  of  the  dcvout  countcss  the  great  community  of  Westminster, 
with  its  ancient  sanctity,  new  splendour,  and  imposing  orga* 
nisation,  appears  to  have  exercised  no  ordinary  fascination. 
The  gorgeous  chapel  in  the  abbey  church,  which  perpetuates 
the  memory  of  her  royal  son,  was  already  commenced,  and  it 
was  designed  that  at  his  side  she  too  should  find  her  earthly 
resting  place ;  and  though  the  wealth  of  the  abbey  was  enor- 
mous and  had  been  already  largely  augmented  by  her  libe- 
rality, it  would  seem  that  her  remaining  charities  would  have 
fiSdlSdiJthe  ^on  similarly  bestowed,  had  it  not  been  for  the  disinterested 
^hSf"**  ^^  aiid  unanswerable  remonstrances  of  Fisher.     *  That,'  in  the 
language  of  Baker,  '  the  religious  house  at  Westminster  was 
already  wealthy  enough  (as  it  was  the  richest  in  England), 
and  did  not  want  support  or  maintenance, — that  the  schools 
of  learning  were  meanly  endowed,  the  provisions  for  scholars 
very  few  and  small,  and  colleges  yet  wanting  to  their  main- 
tenance,— that  by  such  foundations  she  might  have  two  ends 
and  designs  at  once,  might  double  her  charity  and  double  her 
reward,   by   affording   as  well  supports  to  learning  as  en- 
couragements to  virtue V — were  cogent  arguments  that  for- 
tunately  prevailed   over  the  superstitious  devotion  of  the 
countess,  and  brought  it  to  pass  that  her  wealth,  instead  of 
oJSi'iSi^r-  swelling  the  coffers  soon  to  be  plundered  so  mercilessly',  was 
^'  given  to  the  foundation  of  two  societies,  which,  after  having 

graced  the  university  for  more  than  three  centuries  with 

*  Lewis,  Life  of  Fisher ^  t  30.  Nothing  shows  more  clearly  the  hold 

•  Baker-Mayor,  p.  69.  which  the  Abbey  had  laid  on  the  af- 
'    *  Nothing    shows    more   clearly      fections  of  the  English  people,  than 

the  force  of  the  shock  that  followed,  that  it  stood  the  shock  as  firmly  as 
than  the  upheaving  even  of  the  solid  it  did.'  Dean  Stanley,  Memorials  of 
rock  of  the  Abbey  as  it  came  on.       Westmintter  Abbey ^  p.  167. 


GOD  S   HOUSE. 


445 


roaDj  a  distinguished  i 


,  are  still  contributing  with  uu-  chap.  ▼. 


diminished  efficiency  to  its  reputation,  adornment,  and  i 
fulness. 

The  foundation  of  Ood'e  House,  aa  a  school  of  grammar  gJJ^^ 
under  the  government  of  the  authorities  of  Clare  and  in  the  J^JJ"**"' 
immediate  vicinity  of  the  college,  has  already  come  under 
our  notice'.     Shortly  after  its  foundation,  in  consequence  of 
the  numerous  alterations  involved  in  the  erection  of  King's 
College,  it  was   removed  to   St.  Andrew's  parish*;   here  it 
appears  to  have  attained  to  independence  of  Clare  College*, 
being  aided  by  a  grant  from  Henry  vi  of  property  once  in 
possession, — '  two  cottages  formerly  belonging  to  the  abbey 
of  Tiltey  and  a  tenemeot  adjoining  which  had  formerly  be- 
longed to  the  abbess  of  Denny,  with  gardens  adjacent.'     We  i>aiii>>( 
learn  indeed  from  the  charter  of  Christ's  College,  that  it  was 
the  design  of  the  good  monarch '  to  have  endowed  the  society 
with  revenues  sufficient  for  the  maintenance  of  sixty  scholars, 
but  the  revenues  actually  granted  sufficed  only  for  four*.' 
In  the  second  of  Edward  iT  we  find  the  society  receiving  a  Aca^mto 
slight  accession  of  revenue  in  the  shape  of  a  rent  of  ten  marks  atmw^itj. 
• — '  which  the  prior  of  Monmouth  used  to  pay  to  the  chief  lord  of 
the  priory  in  foreign  parts,'— and  also  a  rent  of  forty  shillinga 
which  the  prior  of  Newstead-upon-Ancolme  used  to  pay  to  the 
abbat  and  convent  of  Longvillers*.     Such  was  the  foundation  nH%BD(iba 
which  the  lady  Margaret,  acting  under  the  advice  of  Fisher  ho- 
bs above  described,  resolved  to  take  under  her  protection, 
and  to  raise  from  a  grammar  school  to  a  school  of  arts.     The 
revenues  of  the  present  society  afford  accordingly  a 


>  Se«p.  349,  andLi 

tolltgiun  culgariUr  nunrupalum  God- 
dtihout  (gireii  SO  Henry  vi),  in  Doeu- 

'  The  fact  tliat  Cluiat'a  College 
stood  in  tbiH  parish  is  said  to  hsTe 
decided  the  historian,  John  Major,  in 
his  choice  of  a  college  (St.  Andrew  be- 
ing the  patron  eaint  of  his  nation). 
He  resided  at  Christ's  for  about  a 
jear.     Cooper,  Alhemr,  t  93. 

>  There  is  no  mention  in  the  licence, 
BJien  21  Hen.  ti,  of  the  master  and 
•cbolara  of  Clare  Hall;  bat  the  head 
of  the  Boeietj  of  Ood'a  Honw  is  still 


.fundandi      spoken  of  as 
-    ■  •  C«.p.r, 


endowed  with  ci 
the  monasteries  of  Momaontb,  Tot- 
ness,  Newatewl,  Sawtre;,  and  Cam- 
well  in  South  Wales;  with  the  pri- 
orj  of  Chipstowe,  the  priotj  and 
manor  of  Ikeham,  ftnd  the  advowBons 
of  Fen  Drajion  and  of  Nanmbj  in 
Lincolnshire.  DoeunuaU,  iii  1(^9. 
*DocumtHtt,i59.  The  same  grant* 
had  been  made  in  the  preceding  reisn 
(f  Hd.  p.  55);  there  wonldeouMqnenaf 
appear  to  hSTe  been  ■  leaomptioa. 


446  BISHOP   FISHER. 

CHAP.  V.  of  a  double  conversion, — from  monastic  uses  to  those  of  a 
-■  y  ^'  grammar  school,  and  from  those  of  a  grammar  school  to  those 
of  a  college. 

The  precise  time  at  which  Fisher  resigned  his  mastership 
at  Michaelhouse,  is  not  recorded,  but  in  the  year  1505  we  find 
one  John  Fotehede  elected  to  the  post^  and  Fisher's  retire- 
ment  was  therefore  probably  somewhat   earlier.      Though 
chancellor  of  the  university,  the  duties  of  that  office  were 
such  as  he  could  for  the  most  part  easily  delegate  to  his 
subordinate,  and  the  affairs  of  his  bishopric  and  the  necess^ity 
for  frequent  attendance  at  court  may  naturally  have  induced 
him  to  make  his  palace  at  Rochester  his  habitual  residence. 
So  soon  however  as  the  countess  had  resolved  upon  can-ying 
out  her  new  scheme,  his  presence  at  Cambridge,  in  order  to 
superintend  the  new  works,  became  apparently  indispensable ; 
and  it  appears  that  his  election  to  the  presidency  of  Queens* 
Fiiherdecf-  College,  which  now  took  place,  was  not  improbably  designed, 
or^ms"    as   Lewis  suggests,   a&  a  means  of  providing  him  with   a 
11,140^       suitable  place  of  residence  during  the  erection  of  Christ's 
College  *.     The  president  of  the  former  society,  Thomas  Wil- 
kinson, voluntarily  retired  from  his  post  at  the  request  of  the  . 
countess*,  and  his  place  for  the  next  three  years  was  filled  by 
Fisher.     There  can   be  little  doubt  that  while  the  latter 
rendered  important  service  to  the  rising  society,  it  was  in  no 
way  at  the  expense  of  the  one  over  which  he  presided,  for 
we  find  that  when  he  resigned  the  presidency  in  1508,  the 
fellows  were  unanimous  in  their  expressions  of  regret,  and 
that,  at  their  urgent  request,  he  undertook  the  responsibility 
of  appointing  his  successor*. 
FoundMion         Ih  the  year  1505   appeared   the  royal  charter  for  the 
couM?*    foundation  of  Christ's  College,  wherein,  after  a  recital  of  the 
facts  already  mentioned  together  with  numerous  other  details, 

^  Cooper,  Atherue,  i  23.  dear  to  them  aU  not  only  on  ae- 

'  Lewis,  Life  of  Fishery  i  16.  connt  of  his  ingenuous  humanity,  bat 

'  Wilkinson  had   succeeded  An-  for  his  excellent  learning  and  pm- 

drew  Doket  in  the  prefiidentship  in  dence,  who  they  wished  had  as  great 

14S4,  and  was  probably  at  this  time  a  desire  to  be  their  president,  as 

an  elderly  man.    He  died  in  1511.  they  had  of  continuing  him.*  Lewis, 

*  *  The  bishop,*  they  said,  *  was  a  Life  of  Fisher ,  p.  2G. 
man  that,  without  flattery,  was  yeiy 


ifiufi. 


CHBIST  3  COLLEGE. 


447 


it  was  notified  that  king  Henry,  at  the  representations  of  his  chap.  v. 
mother  and  other  noble  and  trustworthy  persons, — -percarie-  ■■*  y 
strrue  matris  nostrat  necnon  aliorum  nobilium  et  fide  dignorum — 
and  having  regard  to  her  great  desire  to  exalt  and  increase  the 
Christian  faith,  her  anxiety  for  her  own  spiritual  welfare,  and  the 
sincere  love  which  she  had  ever  borne  '  our  uncle'  (Henry  Vl), 
while  he  lived, — had  conceded  to  her  permission  to  carry 
into  full  effect  the  designs  of  her  illustrious  relative.  That 
is  to  say, — to  enlarge  and  endow  the  aforesaid  God's  House 
sufficiently  for  the  reception  and  support  of  any  number  of 
scholars  not  exceeding  sixty,  who  should  be  instructed  in 
grammar  or  in  the  other  liberal  sciences  and  faculties  or  in 
sacred  theology.  The  arrival  of  the  charter  was  soon  followed 
by  the  intelligence  of  the  countess's  noble  benefactions ;  and 
the  university  next  learned  that  the  humble  and  struggling 
society  hitherto  known  as  God's  House,  had  received,  under  its 
new  designation  as  Christ's  College,  endowments  which  placed 
it  fourth,  in  respect  of  revenue,  among  existing  colleges'. 

'On   the   14th  of  July,  1507,'  says  Cooper,   'the  king  ErttiM 
granted  to  the  countess  the  abbey  of  St.  Mary  de  Pratis,  at  ^"^^ 
Creyke  in  Norfolk,  with  licence  to  assign  the  same  to  this™^** 
college,   to   which   it   was   subsequently  granted   with   the 
sanction  of  the  pope.     The  king,  by  other  letters  patent  of 
the  same   date,  empowered  the  countess  to  grant   to  the 
college  the  advowson  of  Manobre  in  Pembrokeshire,  which 
ebe  accordingly  did.    She  abo  granted  the  manors  of  Malton, 
Meldreth,  and  Beach,  with  lands  in  those  places,  and   in 
Whaddon,  Kneesworth,  Oakington,  Orwell,  and  Barrington, 

ing  society, — and  the  appoiDtment 
ol  .Tohn  Sickling,  the  proctor  ot  Ood's 
House,  to  the  miuterabip  of  CbiiiVt, 
ore  evict  eat  proof.  Baker,  in  hia 
Hiitory  of  St.  Joknt  Callrgt,  apeaka 
of  the  old  Bociet;  ae  having  been 
•mppreind  upon  the  fovuidjng  of 
Christ's  College.'  and  considers  that 
this  '  auppreseion'  nas  the  re&aon 
that '  we  meet  with  go  few  dep^ea 
in  graminar  after  that  foondatioD.' 
He  also,  with  eqnal  inaccaracy ,  epeaka 
of  Ood'B  House  as  originallj  an 
adjnnct  to  King's  College  instead  of 
to  Clare.    See  Baker-Hayor,  p.  SO. 


— the  developement  of  a  grami 
■ohool  into  a  college  tor  the  whole 
oonrseof  thetririum  and  <7UiKJniiium. 
The  mode  of  procedure  was  therefore 
kltogetber  different  from  that  where- 
by the  uumiery  of  St.  Bhadegimd 
was  converted  into  Jesus  College, 
and  the  honae  of  the  Brethren  of  St. 
John  into  St.  John's  College;  ot  this 
the  eipressions  addtrc,  anmcttre, 
vnirt, — used  with  respect  to  the  elec- 
tion ot  the  new  scholars  by  the  exist- 


448 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


Other  be- 
qoMtato 


CHAP.  V.  Jq  Cambridgeshire,  the  manor  of  Ditesworth,  with  lands 
there,  and  in  Kegworth,  Hathern,  and  Watton,  with  the 
advowson  of  Kegworth  in  Leicestershire,  also  the  advowson 
of  Sutton  Bonnington  in  Nottinghamshire,  and  the  manor  of 
Roydon  in  Essex,  and  procured  the  appropriation  of  the 
churches  of  Fendrayton  and  Helpstone.  By  her  will,  she 
directed  that  the  college  buildings  should  be  perfectly  finished 
and  garnished  at  her  cost ;  that  the  college  should  have  other 
lands,  of  the  yearly  value  of  £16  ;  that  £100  or  more  should 
couegt.  be  deposited  in  a  strong  coffer  for  the  use  of  the  college,  to 
which  she  gave  a  moiety  of  her  plate,  jewels,  vestments,  altar- 
cloths,  books,  hangings,  and  other  necessaries  belonging  to 
her  chapel ;  and  that  the  manor-house  at  Malton  should  be 
sufficiently  built  and  repaired  at  her  cost,  *'soo  that  the 
maister  and  scolers  may  resort  thidder,  and  there  to  tarry  in 
tyme  of  contagiouse  siknes  at  Cambrige,  and  exercise  their 
lernyng  and  studies  \"* 

Before  the  close  of  the  year  1505  the  countess  honoured 
the  university  by  her  presence.  We  have  no  details  of  this 
visit,  beyond  the  fact  that  she  was  met  at  a  distance  of  three 
mUes  from  the  town  by  the  dignitaries  and  other  members  of 
the  community,  whose  gratitude  she  had  so  well  deserved'; 
but  in  the  following  year  we  find  her  repeating  her  visit, 
accompanied  by  her  royal  son.  King  Henry,  with  that 
ostentatious  devotion  wherewith  in  his  latter  years  he  strove 
to  efface  the  recollection  of  many  a  cruel  act  of  oppression, 
was  on  his  way  to  visit  the  famous  shrine  of  St.  Mary  at 

Hertecnnd    Walsiugham,     He  was  met,  in  the  first  instance,  at  three 

^TISl^  WlUI  ^^ 

J|njHe*y.  miles  distance  from  the  town,  by  the  civic  authorities ;  as  he 
approached  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  he  found  awaiting 
him,  in  long  array,  first  the  four  orders  of  the  Mendicants, 
then  the  other  religious  orders,  and  finally  the  members  of 


The  countess 
TbiuOun- 
bridge  in 
UOfiw 


1  Cooper,  Annals,  i  275. 

*  It  was  perhaps  on  this  occasion 
that  the  incident  recorded  by  Fuller 
oocorred : — *  Once  the  ladj  Margaret 
came  to  Christ's  College  to  behold  it 
when  partly  built;  and,  looking  out 
of  a  window,  saw  the  dean  call  a 
faulty  scholar  to  correction ;  to  whom 


she  said  Lente,  lentef  **  Gently, 
gently,"  as  accounting  it  better  to 
mitigate  his  punishment  than  to  pro- 
cure his  pardon :  mercy  and  justice 
making  the  best  medley  to  offenders.' 
'This,*  says  Fuller,  *I  heard  in  a 
cl4trum  from  Dr  Ceilings.'  Fuller — 
Prickett  &  Wright,  p.  182. 


THE  EOTAL  VISIT.  449 

the  nniveraity  accordiDg  to  tlieir  degree.  As  the  monarch  cbJlT.  v. 
passed  aloDg  he  stooped  &om  his  saddle  to  kiss  the  cross  borne  ->— y^ 
by  each  order,  and  at  last  arrived  where  the  university  cross  SSSS^ 
was  planted,  nith  a  bench  and  cushion  beneath.  Here  the 
chancellor,  with  the  other  doctors,  was  stationed  to  give  him 
welcome ;  the  monarch  alighted  from  his  horse ;  and  Fisher  JJ^J^^J 
thereupon  delivered  what  Ashmole  terms 'a  little  proposi-"™'' 
tioQ,'  or  in  other  words,  a  short  Latin  oration,  which  has 
fortunately  been  preserved  entire.  It  is  not  certainly  in  the 
florid  oratory  customary  on  occasions  of  this  kind  that  we 
should  expect  to  meet  with  the  most  severe  fidehty  to  his- 
tone  truth ;  but,  after  making  all  allowance  for  any  necessity 
that  the  orator  may  have  felt  himself  under  to  play  the 
courtier,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  speech  in  question 
does  more  honour  to  his  heart  than  to  his  head,  and  affords 
a  noteworthy  illustration  of  that  intense  and  credulous  re- 
verence for  tradition,  which,  notwithstanding  his  natural  good 
sense  and  discernment,  Fisher  so  often  exhibited  in  the 
course  of  his  life.  The  speech  opens  with  the  usual  ei-  g.^jjiggy'*' 
pressions  of  fulsome  adulation.  King  Henry  is  complimented 
on  his  skill  in  languages  and  on  his  finished  eloquence ;  on 
his  stately  form  and  grace  of  figure,  his  strength,  fleetness, 
and  agihty;  these  natural  gifts  however  the  orator  seems 
rather  disposed  to  regard  as  miraculous,  'inasmuch  as,'  he 
observes  (complimenting  the  son,  it  would  seem,  somewhat 
at  the  expense  of  the  mother),  'the  countess  was  but  small  of 
persoD,  and  only  fourteen  years  of  age  when  king  Henry  was 
bom.'  But  however  this  may  be,  it  is  impossible  not  to 
discern  the  direct  interposition  of  Providence  in  the  fi^uent 
royal  escapes  from  peril  and  danger  in  early  life,  and  ^m 
the  plots  and  treasons  that  at  a  later  period  had  endangered 
the  stability  of  the  throne.  Other  subjects  of  congratulation, 
the  orator  holds,  were  to  be  found  in  the  prosperity  of  the 
kingdom,  the  warlike  prowess  of  the  people,  and  the  mon- 
arch's enormous  wealth.  It  seems  singular  that,  at  a  time 
when  the  country  was  groaning  under  the  extortion  of  the 
royal  commissioners,  so  delicate  a  topic  should  have  been 
touched  upon ;  but  Empeon  was  M  that  time  steward  of  the 

S9 


450 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


TMdIliOM 


ttonortht 


cbap.  y.  uniyersity^  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  Fisher  may  have 
^**  believed  him  to  be  unjustly  assailed  and  have  designed  a 
rebuke  to  the  prevalent  discontent.  Then  follows  a  recital 
of  some  of  the  most  extravagant  fables  respecting  the  origin 
of  the  university.  Cambridge  was  founded  by  Cantaber,  a 
king  of  the  East  Saxons,  who  had  been  educated  at  Athens. 
The  archives,  unfortunately,  that  should  have  preserved  the 
records  of  this  illustrious  commencement,  had  been  lost  in 
the  'carnage,  conflagrations,  and  plunderings'  of  a  former 
age.  But  other  facts  in  the  early  history  of  the  university 
were  attested  by  independent  evidence.  It  was  notorious 
that  Cambridge  had  been  known  as  a  seat  of  learning  long 
before  the  time  of  Honorius,  'for  we  have,'  says  Fisher, 
'  copies,  3vb  plumbo,  of  a  letter  which  he  sent  us,  and  in  that 
letter  he  expressly  refers  to  times  far  more  ancient  thah  his 
own.'  Honorius  again,  as  every  one  knew,  was  pope  sixty 
years  before  Charlemagne  'founded  the  university  of  Paris;' 
nor  could  it  be  reasonably  doubted  that  Paris  owed  its  origin 
to  Cambridge,  when  we  know  that  Alcuin,  John  Scotus,  and 
Babanus  Maurus  were  educated  here, — Chxguinum  testem 
citab%mtt8\  After  thus  propping  up  one  fiction  by  another, 
the  orator  turns  to  the  less  questionable  rec(»rds  of  the  suc- 
cessive benefactions  of  former  monarchs ;  and  recalls,  in  a 
passage  already  partly  quoted',  how  the  favour  of  the  mon- 
arch whom  he  addressed  had  quickened  the  utiiversity  to 
new  life  when  sunk  in  lethargy  and  despondency.  Then 
follows  an  undoubtedly  genuine  expression  of  feeling, — 
Fisher's  acknowledgement  of  the  bene&ctions  he  had  himself 
»«»^«^  received  at  the  royal  hands;  and  finally  the  oration  closes 
^SJtnS'^  "^^^  *  devout  prayer  that  length  of  days,  an  undisputed 
succession  (prince  Henry  appears  to  have  been  standing  at 


FUmKiio- 


^  €o6per,  AtheruB,  1 14. 

*  Gagoinos  was  an  aoodpted  au- 
thority at  this  time.  He  was  the 
author  of  De  Origine  et  Gestii  Fran- 
eorumt  a  ohronicle  of  French  history 
from  the  time  of  Fharamond  down 
to  1491,  and  held  a  ohair  of  rhetoric 
in  the  nniversity  of  Paris.  His  ao- 
couAt  of  contemporary  histozy  has 


-generally  been  regarded  m  troftt- 
worthy.  See  Potthast,  Bibliotkeea 
HUtonca  Medii  JSvi,  ed.  1862,  240, 
825.  Erasmns  speaks  of  him  in  the 
highest  terms, — '  Bobertus  Qagoi* 
nils,  qno  nno  litterarom  parente,  an- 
tistite,  piindpe,  Franoia  non  injuria 
gloriatnr.'  Opera,  m  1782. 
'  See  rapra,  p.  427. 


THE   BOTAL  VISIT. 


hifl  father's  side),  and  every  temporal  and  spiritual  UessiDg  tmAP.  v. 
may  desceDd  on  the  monarch  and  hie  son.  pwil 

'This  ceremony  over,  the  king  remounted  his  hdtse,  and  ^^g™*: 
the  procession  moved  on;  it  appears  to  have  made  a  kind ■■»*<>™- 
of  circuit  of  the  best  part  of  the  town,  passing  by  the  house 
of  the  Dominicans,  where  Emmanuel  College  now  stands, 
until  the  monarch  alighted  at  the  lodge  of  Queens'.     It  was 
not  his  first  visit  to  this  society,  for  he  had  already,  in  1497, 
daring  the  presidency  of  Wilkinson,  been  entertained  under 
the  same  roof.     After  resting  fen-  an  hour,  be  agun  rose  and 
'did  on  his  gown  and  mantle  of  the  Qarter,'  his  example 
being  followed  by  all  the  knights  of  that  order  in  his  train, 
and  then  mounting  his  horse  rode  in  solemn  state  to  King's.  Kb«HwT 
The  chapel  there,  commenced  half  a  century  before,  was  at  ^?^^ 
this  time  onfy  half  completed';   ever  since  the  accession  of  ]SS[,^S£' 
Edward  IT  the  work  had  either  altogether  stood  still,  or^^^ 
been  carried  on  in  a  spiritless  and  inadequate  feshion,  owing 
to  the  want  of  funds.     As  yet  the  red  rose  of  Xjancaster 
gleamed  not  from  the  variegated  pane;  the  rich  details  of 
the  architecture,  wearing  the  greyhound  of  Beaufort  and  the 
poftcuUis  of  Blanche  of  Navarre,  were  still  mostly  wanting ; 


■  dig  Henry  yi  had  Mt  sport, 
frpnt  the  reTenoes  of  the  dnfll^  of 
l^neMter,  s  special  fund  for  oorry. 
isg  on  ths  bnilding.  Bat  'after 
Bchnid  IT  ma  procliimed  .King,' 
.Mji  Cole,  '  which  wM  on  Gth  March, 
USD,  an  entire  stop  was  pat  to  tb« 
mnka,  tor  the  dnch;  of  Lanoaitei 
and  the  whole  revenne  of  the  college 
was  Mixed  b;  him,  part  of  wbiobviB 
ngranted  to  the  proToat  and  Boholar* 
for  Utcir  maiDtenanoe,  but  nothing 

Jrcm  (k«  dnehn  Jot  tht  imil^ng 

1479— SS.  £1296.  U.  Sd.  vare  ex- 
pended on  the  works,  of  wbiob  £1000 
was  pren  hj  the  King,  and  £140  b; 
ThomaB  Botbeiam,  bishop  of  lin- 
Mtat  and  ehanoellor  of  England,  and 

fonm^tellow  of  the  college 

U8S.  Thoma*  Cliff  was  ^  His.  m 
^ipointed  OTeraeer  of  the  worki,  and 
Wntinned  to  till  December  33  fol- 
Inring,  1.  B.  3  Ric.  lu;  daring  tine 
time  £746.  10*.  9\d.  ma  expended 
on  the  worke,   of  irhioh  the   King 

MWM  to  have  giren  £700 At 

lUa  time  the  B.  end  ol  the  ahapel 


seemi  to  have  been  carried  np  to  the 
top  ol  the  B .  window,  and  the  two  fint 
veetriee  towards  the  E.  on  the  K. 
oorered  in,  bnt  tlie  battle- 


towordi  the  W.  end,  being  earned 
no  higher  than  the  white  etone  liaee, 
till  SSth  Maj,  i.  b.  S8  Henr;  Tn, 
from  wliioh  time  the  work  went  tn 
at  the  aipenee  of  Henry  tu  and  hie 
ezeontore,  till  the  ease  of  the  diapel 
waa  finiBhad,  wbiob  it  waa  39  Ji^, 
i,D.  1516,  i.  B.  7  Hen.  nii.'  Cede 
MSS.  1  105-7.     The  roofing  of  the 


ISIS.  The  claiue  in  the  royal  will 
relating  to  the  completion  ot  the 
ofaapel  IB  printed  by  Cooper,  AtaaU, 
I  S89— eo.  A  fDrther  >tnn  of  £5000 
was  giTen  by  the  eieenton  in  1613 
— IS.  The  window!,  aeoording  to 
oontraet  of  1G26,  were  to  be  after 
'the  form,  manner,  enrioei^,  and 
oleanneee  of  thoie  in  the  Sing'i  sew 
ohapel  at  Weatminiter.' 

2»— S 


452  BISHOP  FI8HSR. 

CHAP.  Y.  the  building  was  not  yet  roofed.     Sufficient  progress  had 
^■"  m*'  however  been  made  to  admit  of  the  performance  of  di- 
vine seWice,  in  which  Fisher  took  part  as  chief  celebnftit 
PoMiM^food  It  is  not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  the  monarch's  visit, 

•ffitett  Of  ttw  t»   \        f 

loyaitut    g^^  personal  observation  of  the  fate  that  seemed  threatening 
to  overtake  an  unequalled  design,  may  have  roused  him  to 
his  after  liberality  in  behalf  of  this  great  memorial  to  the 
*  holy  Henry's  shade.'    He  had  at  one  time,  it  is  said,  in- 
tended that '  the  body  and  reliques  of  his  uncle  of  blissful 
memory  should  rest  in  his  own  chapel   at  Westminster/ 
but  this  design  was  never  carried  into  effect:  perhaps,  in 
abandoning  it,  he  conceived  the  idea,  which  he  carried  out 
only  on  his  death-bed,  of  proving  his  regard  for  the  memoxy 
of  his  Lancastrian  ancestor  in  another  way, — by  finishing, 
in  noble  fashion,  the  work  that  Henry  vi  had  commenced 
at  Cambridge.    However  this  may  have  been,  within  three 
years  after  the  above  visit,  he  left  those  princely  bequests 
that  converted  a  sad  spectacle  of  apparent  failure  into  one 
The  mo-       of  Splendid  completion.    Three  weeks  before  his  death  he 
•^2J[2*}JJr    made  over  for  this  purpose  to  the  college  authorities  the  sum 
^^"SE^   of  five  thousand  pounds,  and  left  directions  in  his  will,  that 
•*****■        his  executors  should  from  time  to  time  advance  whatever 
additional  sums  might  be  required  for  tjie  '  perfect  finishing' 
of  the  whole.    We  can  better  estimate  the  magnitude  of 
these  grants  in  the  eyes  of  that  generation,  when  we  find 
Hit  gifts  to    that  a  gift  of  one  hundred  marks  to  the  university,  and 
tStt2L'i£^    another  of  a  hundred  pounds  towards  the  rebuilding  of 
^'•**a^-        Great  St.  Mary's,  made  by  king  Henry  before  his  departure 
£rom  Cambridge  on  the  foregoing  occasion,  were  hailed  as 
indications  of  special  favour  in  one  whose  parsimony  was  so 
notorious. 

There  is  some  reason  for  conjecturing  that,  among  those 
who  followed  in  the  royal  train  on  this  occasions  was  Desi- 
derius  Erasmus,  for  we  find  that  he  was  in  England  during 

^  Dr  John  Oaiui  directly  assertg  riooB  etiam   Septimaf  Anglue  res 

(Hist.  Cant,  Acad.   p.    127),    that  prudentissimas   Cantabrigiam  invi- 

EraimnB  was  liying  at  Cambridge  dt:'  but  this  statement  appears  to 

at  the  time  when  Kmg  Henry  visited  be  withoat  sufficient  anthority.    See 

the  oniTersity, — *  quo  tempore  Hen-  Knight's  Life  of  Eratmut,  pp.  86-S. 


lilMT. 


STATtlTEa  OF  CHBISt'b  COLLEGK. 


453 


the  spring  of  tlie  same  year,  and  we  also  know  that  he  wag,  chap.  t. 
about  the  same  time,  admitted  by  accumulation  to  the  de-  -J^^-^ 
grees  of  bachelor  and  doctor  of  divinity  of  the  university'.  JIS^uSl 
He  was  already  well  known  to  Fisher,  whose  guest  he  after-  ^^Sf^ 
wards  became  at  the  lodge  of  Queens'  College ;  it  is  therefore 
far  from  improbable  that  in  the  statutes  of  Christ's  College 
given  about  this  time  by  the  lady  Margaret,  the  influence  of 
the  great  scholar  was  not  without  effect,  and  that,  in  the 
clause  which  provides  for  the  study  of  the  poets  and  orators 
of  antiquity,  is  to  be  discerned  the  result  of  many  a  con- 
versation between  the  president  of  Queens'  and  his  illus- 
trious guest.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  certain  that  ia 
the  statutes  that  now  invite  our  attention  we  have  a  more 
important  and  interesting  code  than  any  that  has  hitherto 
come  before  us, — ^presenting  aa  it  does  the  first  endeavour  to 
introduce  a  new  element  of  culture, — being  also  a  code  given 
as  the  rule  of  a  third  society  by  a  distinguished  .leader  in 
the  university,  who  had  already  presided  over  the  diecipline 
of  two  other  foundations, — a  code  destined  moreover  aft^r^ 
wards  to  serve  as  the  rule  of  a  fourth  society,  and  one  yet 
more  illustrious  thui  that  for  which  it  was  first  compiled*. 

In  the  commencing  chapter  we  miss  the  ordinary  pre- oottei  ik- 
unble  respecting  the  motives  and  designs  of  the  foundresi^  hmdrS*" 
it  being  evidently  understood  that  the  college  is  to  be  looked  "**" 
opon  as  an  extension  of  the  design  of  God's  House :  and  it  is 
expressly  stated  that  Sickling  and  the  three  remaining  fellows 
of  the  old  society  have  given  their  assent  to  the  new  rule. 
The  prefatory  chapter  contains  a  somewhat  quunt  comparison 
between  the  human  frame  and  the  organisation  of  a  college. 

'  This  ftot  ia  referred  to  by  dean      talnr  bMealBiueiu  in  ekdem  et  in. 
""  '         '   "        tret  libioB  SententiAniD)  bedellisqtiA 

UtiatatiAt.'  Liber  Gratiar.  B,  foL 
239  b.  Tbe  lermo  txaniyuUoriut, 
uoording  to  CaioB  (Antij.  Cant, 
Acad.,  liib.  II),  wu  to  eaUed,  '  qnik 
ante  a  doctoribas  theologida  eiuni. 
nabatnr  qaam  de  sagt;eato  pnman- 
eiabatnr  propter  Wicliffi  doctrinua.' 
Tbe  feat  of  LoUardiam  wai  eriduitlj 
far  from  extinct. 

*  Theie  itatnte*   ar«  ptinM  in 
DoeuwtemU,  m  174—313. 


Oxford  Rffarmeri ;  the  entrj  in  tbe 
Orue  Book  bawerer  plaoea  it  bejond 
diipat«  ; — '  AnDo  1505  conceditor 
Des.  Eraamo  at  onicum  vel  si  exi- 
gaotar  dao  responsa  una  com  dnobm 
MrtDQnibm  ad  clenun  aermoneqn* 
flzamiu^rio,  et  lectors  pnblica  in 
BfUtolam  ad  Romano;  Tel  qnoria 
aliA,  mflleiant  nlri  ad  iDeipieadDin 
1b  tbwdogiK  (ia  ^poA  priiu  adnit- 


454  BISHOP  FISHEB. 

GHAP.T.  In  the  statute  ^rhich  follows  next,  relating  to  the  duties 
'^■*  ^  and  authority  of  the  master,  a  contrast  to  preceding  codes  is 
*'  observable  in  the  numerous  limitations  imposed.    Hitherto 
^^  ^^^J^  the  main  object  would  seem  to  have  been  to  secure  obedience 
kdanomitf.  ^  j^j^  ^ule;  Xko  appreheusioB  is  manifested  lest  he  should  over- 
step the  proper  bounds  and  prove  forgetful  of  the  college 
interests  while  promoting  his  own ;  and  he  is  generally  to  be 
found  enjoying  what  was  virtually  almost  unrestricted  liberty 
of  action.    We  find,  it  is  true,  in  the  statutes  given  to  Jesus 


jA^thoM     College  a  few  years  before,  that  he  is  required  to  take  an 
Jam  Col-    Qi^j^h  that  he  will  neither  alienate,  pledge,  nor  mortgage  any 
of  the  property  without  the  consent  of  the  visitor  and  the 
majority  of  the  fellows;  and  he  is  also  required  to  consult 
with  the  fellows  in  rAus  et  negotits  arduis^.    But  these 
obligations  are  vague  and  easily  evaded  when  compared  with 
those  here  imposed.    To  the  master  of  Christ's  it  is  forbidden 
to  take  action  with  respect  to  any  complaint  or  concession^ 
until  the  majority  of  the  fellows  have  given  their  assent; 
to  alienate  or  farm  out  the  lands,  houses,  tithes,  dues,  or 
other  sources  of  revenue  '  whether  spiritual  or  temporal, — ^to 
bestow  any  office,  fee,  or  pension  from  the  college  revenue, — 
to  present  to  any  of  the  college  livings, — and  finally,  to  enter 
upon  any  matter  wherein  the  college  may  be  liable  to  suffer 
disgrace  or  detriment,-^until  all  the  fellows  have  been  sum- 
moned and  the  consent  of  the  majority  obtained.'    It  is  also 
required,   'inasmuch  as  it  is  not  fit  that  the  head  should 
be  separated  from  the  body '  (the  statute  here  following  up 
the  metaphor  originally  instituted),  that  the  master  shall  be 
jMdoiee     resident  two  months  out  of  every  three  throughout  the  year, 
foraiL        unless  engaged  elsewhere  in  college  business,  or  able  to  plead 
juu-jmsiy  exceptional  circumstances.    He  is  also  required  to  render, 
u  rcodend  twice  a  vear,  a  true  and  faithful  account  of  all  receipts  and 

of  the  collflgt     . 

disbursements  and  to  account  for  the  surplusage* 

The  fellows,  twelve  in  number,  are  required,  at  the  time 
of  their  election,  to  be  masters  of  arts  or  at  least  of  bachelor 
standing,  and  in  priest^s  orders,  or  within  a  year  of  admission 
to  the  same;  they  are  to  be  chosen  if  eligible  firom  the 

'  Document*^  lu  98. 


STATUTES  OF  CHRIST  S  COLLEGB. 


4-55 


Bcholars,  but,  if  fitUng  candidates  be  not  forthcoraing  from  cbap.t. 
among  the  number  of  these,  from  the  whole  university:  at    ^*"°'. 
no  time  arft  there  to  ho  more  than  two  ftho  aro  uot  in  priest's 
ordera.     Ttie  northeru  sympathies  of  both  the  touudress  and  Qumtia- 
her  adviser  are  evinced  in  the  statute  requiring  that  at  least  ^IJ^^' 
half,  bub  not  more  than  nine,  of  the  fellows  shall  be  natives  (^^^i!!^^ 
of  one  or  other  of  the  nine  counties  of  Morthumberland,  Dur-  ^SS™" 
ham,  Weatmoreland,  Cumberland,  York,  Richmond,  I^inca- 
shire,  Derby,  and  Nottingham ;  no  one  of  these  counties  how- 
erer  is  to  be  represented  by  more  than  one  fellow  at  a  time. 
The  remaining  three  fellows  to  be  from  any  three  of  the 
remaining  counties  of  the  realm. 

In  connexion  with  both  the  masterahip  and  the  fellow-  fMggMh 
ships  there  is  one   feature   which  calls  for  special   notice, 
namely  the  form  of  oath  administered  at  the  time  of  election. 
In  the  statutes  of  Jesus  College  we  also  find  forms  of  oath  cmubn 
imposed,  but  between  the  oaths  prescribed  at  the  two  coU^^  SScSKa  i> 
there  is  an  important  difference;  as  regards  the  point  iuj^^^^ 
question,  a  comparison  of  the  two  fellotoship  oaths  will  suffice. 
The  fellow  of  Jesus  College  is  required  to  swear, — 'I  will  JSta^ 
hold  and  maintain  inviolate  all  and  each  of  the  statutes  and  '' 
ordinances  of  this  college,  without  any  cavilling  or  wrongful 
or  perverse  interpretation  whatever,  and  as  far  as  in  me  lies 
I  will  endeavour  to  secure  their  acceptance  and  obseiraace 
by  others'.'     Similarly  the  fellow  of  Christ's  is  required  to 
swear, — '  I  will  truthfully  and  scrupulously  observe  all  and 
each  of  the  statutes  which  Margaret,  tbe  mother  of  our  moat 
illustrious  king  Henry  vii  and  foundress  of  this  college,  has 
cither  herself  or  by  her  advisers  given  for  its  rule,  and  will  as 
far  as  in  me  Ues  enforce  their  observance  by  my  brother 
fellows'.'    Thus  far  the  oaths  are  evidently  substantially  the 


1  '  Ego  N.  in  Terum  et  perpetniun 

fodnm  bujiu  ooliegu  elmtos,  ad- 
muBUB  et  institiitUB,  jaro  >d  hwi 
Mtnote  Dei  evuigelia,  per  me  eor- 
innlitar  taota,  qnod  amnia  et  sicga. 
la  Btatata  et  ordiaatioDeB  hnjiu  ool- 
legii  absqne  omni  cavillatione.  ant 
inala  aat  sinistra  inteipretaUone, 
qnatoDDB  ipsa  me  oonoemiuit,  in. 
violabililer  taoebo  •(  obaerrabo,  et 


103. 

■  ' — □nlbun  dUo  t«mp<ii«  advar- 
lOB  aliqaod  statatorom  Fondatriaia 
DOBtrs  sive  adveraua  hoa  jniameii- 
tnm  mean]  dispenaationem  impetn- 
bo,  neo  oonba  impatrari,  uaqne  ab 
aliis  impetratam  amaptabo  nlli)  mo- 
do.'    Ibid.  HI  194. 


456 


BISHOP  FISflER. 


for  this 
elMueln 
itatutMof 
King'tOol- 


OHAP.  T.  same,  but  in  a  subsequent  clause  of  the  oath  administered  at 
Christ's  we  find  this  addition, — '  I  will  at  no  time  seek  for  a 
dispensation  with  respect  to  any  one  of  the  statutes  of  our 
foundation,  or  this  my  oath,  neither  will  I  take  any  steps  for 
the  obtaining  of  such  dispensation  or  in  any  way  accept  it 
if  obtained  by  others/  It  is  to  be  observed  that  this  latter 
clause  has  a  precedent  in  the  fellowship  oath  administered  at 
Eling's  College  (which  in  dean  Peacock's  opinion  Fisher  had 
taken  as  his  model)  \  that  it  is  inserted  in  the  oath  adminis- 
tered at  St.  John's, — as  contained  in  the  later  codes  drawn  up 
by  Fisher  in  the  years  1524  and  1530', — that  it  is  retained  in 
the  statutes  given  by  Elizabeth  to  the  same  society  in  1576, 
and  in  those  that  received  the  royal  sanction  in  the  twelfth 
of  Victoria.  It  is  also  to  be  observed  that  at  each  of  the 
above  three  colleges,  as  also  at  Queens',  Clare*  Hall,  and 
Pembroke',  the  queen  in  council  has  always  been  the  su- 
preme authority;  and  that  to  this  authority  there  has  al- 
ways belonged,  as  either  implied  or  distinctly  asserted  in  the 
several  codes,  an  unquestioned  right  to  alter,  rescind,  or 
dispense  with  any  of  the  statutes  of  each  foundation.  In 
gj^y^j  dean  Peacock's  view  we  are  consequently  here  presented  with 
ta^^m^Sm  '  *  °^08*^  diflScult  question.'  *  How/  he  asks  (in  discussing  the 
with  this  clause  as  it  appears  in  the  statutes  of  King's  College),  'couM 
the  authorities  of  the  college,  the  provost  and  fellows,  con- 
sistently with  the  oath  which  they  had  taken,  either  pro- 
pose a  change  themselves,  or  accept  it>  if  procured  by  others*?' 

^  Dean  Peacock,  Obiervatioru,  etc 


p.  103. 

*  Early  Statutes  of  St.  John's  Col- 
lege (ed.  Major),  pp.  806  and  600. 

•  *In  Caius,  Corpus,  Downing, 
Trinity  HaU,  Catherine  HaU,  it  is 
the  qaeen  in  council  or  in  a  conrt  of 
equity.  In  Peterhouse,  Jesus,  Mag- 
dalen, Sidney,  Emmanuel,  the  visit- 
ors, as  representing  the  founders 
and  deriving  from  them  peculiar 
jurisdiction  and  authority,  would 
either  be  competent  to  sanction  such 
changes,  or  at  all  events  to  authorise 
an  application  to  the  queen  in  coun- 
cil or  in  a  court  of  equity.'  Peacock, 
p.  101.  Dean  Peacock  observes  with 
reference  to  Christ's  College, '  There 
is  no  power  expressly  reserved  by 


the  statutes  of  this  college  to  effect 
or  to  authorise  such  alterations  aa 
time  and  other  circumstances  might 
render  necessary'  (p.  99).  This 
does  not  quite  agree  with  the  con- 
clusion of  the  final  statute,  chapter 
48,  where  we  read,  *  Et  reservamos 
item  nobis  auctoritatem  mntandi  et 
innovandi  quaecuuque  statuta  priora 
aut  alia  adjiciendi  pro  nostro  arbitrio 
cum  expresso  consensu  magistri  et 
sociorumprffidictorum.*  Documents^ 
III  p.  212.  In  the  oath  taken  by  the 
master  he  again  swears  to  observe 

all  'ordinationes  et  statuta jam 

edita  sive  in  posterum  edenda.*  IHd^ 
HI  187—8. 
«  Ibid.  p.  96. 


BTATT7TIS  OI"   CHBIST'b  COLLEGE.  457 

In  other  words,  how  could  the  crown  reaerre  to  itself  a  right  chap 
to  alter,  and  the  master  or  the  fellow  swear  at  the  same  time  ■~i^ 
never  to  accept  any  alteration  whatever.  '  It  is  known,'  he 
subaeqaently  adds,  *  as  an  historical  fact,  that  such  dispenst^ 
tions  were  repeatedly  granted  by  the  authority  of  the  crown, 
and  it  was  never  contended,  nor  even  conceived,  that  the  same 
royal  authority  which  in  those  days  was  considered  competent 
to  dispense  with  or  alter  the  whole  body  of  the  statutes, 
could  be  controlled  in  the  exercise  of  a  temporary  dispensa- 
tion of  one  or  more  of  them,  in  favour  of  any  specified 
individual.  But  if  it  be  admitted  that  the  same  power  which 
gave  the  statutes,  did  not,  from  the  moment  of  the  complo- 
tion  of  that  act,  abdicate  and  renounce  its  authority,  but 
continued  to  retain  and  practically  to  exercise  it  in  the  modi- 
fication and  dispensation  of  its  own  laws,  and  that  conse- 
quently the  clause  in  the  oath  against  the  acceptance  of 
dispensations,  could  not  refer  to  those  which  were  granted 
by  the  crown,  it  may  very  reasonably  be  asked  what  were  tha 
dispensations  which  it  was  designed  to  exclude,  by  subjecting 
those  who  sought  for  or  accepted  them  to  the  imputation  of 
perjury)'  The  answer  which  he  gives  to  the  question  he 
raises  is  somewhat  unsatisfactory,  inasmuch  as  he  discusses 
it  in  coonexioD  with  the  original  statutes  of  Trinity  College, 
'when,'  as  he  observes,  'the  reformation  of  religion  in  this 
Uogdom  was  only  in  progress  towards  completion,  and  when 
the  minds  of  all  men  were  fumiliar  with  the  dispensations 
from  the  distinct  obligations  of  oaths  which  were  so  readily 
granted  and  accepted,  both  in  the  university  and  elsewhere'.' 
It  is  obvious  that  this  latter  observation  is  not  applicable  to  tim  dux 
the  prEB-Reformation  period,  and  we  are  consequently  under  ^S!i£. 
the  necessity  of  enquiring  what  may  be  supposed  to  have  JSJi^ 
been  the  design  of  this  oath  as  originally  framed  in  the 
fifteenth  century !  It  is  to  be  noted  then  that  there  is  satis- 
tatAovy  evidence  that  these  precautions  were,  in  the  first 
instAQce,  aimed  at  dispensations  from  Home.  In  the  twen- 
tieth of  the  statutes  given  by  the  lady  Margaret  to  Christ's 
College,  we  have  what  is  entitled  Forma  et  Conditio  Obliga- 

» aid.  p.  97. 


458 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


CHAP.  T. 
Pais  IL 


CUoMin 
the  form 
of  oftthad- 
inlnlitwrcd 
to  the  nuater 
ofOixiat't. 


PnlMbl* 

explanatioii 

of  thereten* 

tloBofthe 

claoaeln 

•abaeqnent 

revUontof 

tbe  Statutes. 


tumia  qtta  Magister  sive  Cu9tos  obligabitur:  and  by  this  statute 
the  master  is  required  to  execute  a  bond  for  the  payment  of 
£200  to  the  provost  of  King's  and  the  master  of  Michael  house. 
So  long  however  as  he  abstains  from  obtaining  2/tercw  aiiqucu 
apostoUcaa  dispensatorias  releasing  him  from  his  own  oath, 
and  also  refuses  to  allow  the  acceptance  of  any  such  letter 
by  any  of  the  fellows,  the  bond  is  to  remain  inoperative 
{niMius  robaris^).  In  other  words,  the  dispensations  referred 
to  were  papal  dxspmsationa  from  an  oath  of  obedience  to  the 
royal  authority;  and  the  spiiit  in  which  the  prohibitory  clauses 
were  enacted  was  identical  with  the  spirit  of  the  law  which 
made  it  high  treason  for  any  ecclesiastic  to  exercise  the  powers 
of  a  legate  a  latere  in  England, — ^the  law  so  basely  called  into 
action  by  the  crown  in  the  prosecution  of  Wolsey.  So  far 
therefore  from  this  clause  presenting  any  'great  difficulty,' 
as  enacted  before  the  Act  of  Supremacy,  it  would  appear  to 
be  entirely  in  harmony  with  the  legislation  of  the  period. 
The  difficulty,  if  such  it  can  be  termed,  belongs  to  times 
subsequent  to  that  Act,  when  of  course  the  oath  became 
almost  unmeaning,  and,  as  we  learn  from  Baker, — who  found 
many  of  these  bonds  among  the  archives  of  St.  John's, — ^the 
name  of  the  king  was  inserted  instead  of  that  of  the  pope*. 
After  this  alteration  the  statute  necessarily  wore  the  appear- 
ance, to  which  dean  Peacock  adverts,  of  direct  contradiction 
to  the  founder's  reservation  of  a  right  to  alter  or  rescind  any 
statute  in  the  future.  But  it  is  sufficiently  notorious  that 
statutes  of  every  kind  are  frequently  to  be  found  embodying 
clauses  which,  whatever  may  have  been  their  original  utility, 
have  in  the  course  of  time  lost  much  of  their  significance 
and  effect.    If  however  any  explanation  can  be  given  of  the 


1  DocunwnU,  iii  ISS;  fee  also 
Early  Statutes  of  St,  John%  p.  64. 

*  '  The  f eUows  at  their  admiBsion 
were  to  take  a  strict  oath  for  the  ob- 
servanoe  of  the  statutes,  and  withal 
to  give  a  bond  of  £100  not  to  obtain 
or  cause  to  be  obtained,  directly  or 
indirectly  from  the  pope,  the  court 
of  Borne,  or  any  oUier  place,  any 
licence  or  dispensation  contrary  to 
their  oaths,  or  to  accept  or  use  it  so 
obtained.  Many  of  which  bonds  are 
yet  extant,  only  the  pope  was  soon 


after  altered  for  the  King^  or  else  the 
bonds  run  in  general  expressions.* 
In  Baker's  opinion  these  bonds 
*  were  a  just  and  reasonable  security,' 
and  *  such  as  it  were  to  be  wished 
had  been  continued.*  Baker-lfayor, 
p.  99.  By  what  refinement  the  fel- 
low was  supposed  to  be  debarred 
from  obtaining  a  dispensation  dis- 
pensing him  firom  his  oath  not  to 
obtain  a  dispensation,  I  do  not  pre- 
tend to  explain. 


STATUTES  £ir  CBBIST'S  COLLEGE.  459 

rotention  of  this  clause  down  to  the  reign  of  Victoria,  that  f^^^'-  ''• 
suggested  by  the  above  writer  would  certainly  appear  to  be  -^-^—^ 
the  moBt  probable, — that  the  object  was  '  to  preveat  the  juror 
from  seeking,  by  any  direct  or  indirect  enertiom  of  his  own, 
to  procure  a  dispensation  from  the  obligations  and  penalties 
of  the  statuteB,  or  from  availing  himself  of  an  offer  or  oppor- 
tunity of  procuring  it  by  the  indulgence  or  connivance  of 
those  persons  or  bodies  with  whom  was  lodged  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  laws'.' 

In  the  statute  relating  to  the  scholars  (discipuH  tckolarts),  iihicIioiuu 
we  find  Chat  they  are  to  be  students  of  promise,  as  yet  neither  ^!^^i°|i 
bachelors  nor  in  holy  orders,  able  to  speak  and  understand  £*f^- 
the  I^tin  tongue,  and  intendiog  to  devote  themselves  to  ^^^[!!ij' 
literature  (bonas  artea),  and  theology,  and  the  sacred  profes-  ""''''•''■ 
sion.     They  must  be  competent  to  lecture  in  sophistry,  at 
least;  in  elections  the  same  preference,  under  the  same  re- 
strictions, as  in  thii  elections  to  fellowships,  is  to  be  shewn  to 
candidates  from  the  nine  northern  counties  already  named. 
Throughout  the  statutes  we  find  not  a  single  reference  to  TtMOBN* 
the  canon  or  civil  law  or  to  medicine,  and  the  master  is  ui  nwudiw 
bound  by  his  oath  not  to  allow  any  of  the  fellows  to  apply 
himself  to  any  other  fiiculty  than  those  of  arts  and  theoli^y. 

The  admission  of  pensioneis  or  comn'tw,  as  they  are  also  PnAnnto 
termed,  is  here  first  provided  for;  and  it  is  required  that  ^^^ 
special  vigilance  shall  be  exercised  in  admitting  only  such  as  ^ 
are  probaUe  vita  et  /anue  inviotata,  and  who  are  prepared  to 
bind  themselves  by  oath  to  a  strict  observance  of  the  pre- 
scribed order  of  discipline  and  instruction. 

In  the  course  of  study  innovation  is  again  apparent. 
A  college  lecturer  is  appointed  who  is  to  deliver  four  lectures  a  aiin* 
daily  in  the  hall ;  one  on  dialectics  or  sophistiy,  another  on  i"i°'«i- 
logic,  a  third  on  philosophy,  and  a  fourth  on  the  works  of^'*'^^ 
the  poets  and  orators*.  The  other  provisions,  it  is  to  be  JJJf^ 
noted,  also  make  a  much  closer  approach  towards  bringing  JjlJ^,^ 
the  college  course   into   rivalry   with   that  of  the  schools. 

>  PeMoek,  Obiervaliotu,  p.  96.  bitrio  ntinqnimns  quoad  Ipd  eondn* 

*  '  Qnem  libnun  tcio   in   qnaqae  oibilins  maditorio  fore  jndicaTeiint.' 

hamm  tacnltatnni  dt  eipoaitnnu,  et  DoeuauRti,  in  301. 

qua  hont,  niagiitri  et  decanornm  ar- 


460  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CRAP.  V.  There  are  to  be  '  oppositions '  every  Monday  and  Wednea- 
***   *    day,   between   twelve   and    one;    sophistry   exercises   every 

Monday,  Tuesday,  and  Wednesday,  between  three  and  five; 

a  problem  in  logic  every  Monday  after  supper  until  seven; 

a  problem  in  philosophy  every  Friday  between  three  and 

five;  and  in  the  morning  a  disputation  in  grammar  between 

^to    nine  and  eleven:  and  in  the  lon^  vacation,  in  addition  to  all 

ttwijof      the  foregoing,  there  are  to  be  sophistry  exercises  on  Monday, 


Tuesday,  and  Wednesday,  from  eight  to  ten,  in  quibvs  omnibus, 
says  the  statute,  diligentia  et  industria  utetvr  sua,  quomodo 
speraverit  se  avditorio  frofuturum. 
JJ^«^_  In  the  statute  relating  to  the  visitor,  Joannes  Roffensis 
•*^*"^  episcoptis,  nunc  universitatis  Cantahrigxce  cancellarius,  is  ap- 
pointed to  the  office  for  life*. 

Another  provision  among  those  contained  in  these  sta- 
tutes, though  apparently  a  mere  matter  of  detail,  is  proba- 
bly as  significant  a  fact  as  any  that  the  statutes  present. 
We  have  already  had  occasion  to  notice  in  connexion  with 
▲uowaiiM     earlier  foundations  the  sums  allowed  for  the  weekly  expend!- 

for  comnioDt* 

ture  in  commons':  and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  by  stringent 
regulations  in  relation  to  expenses  of  this  kind,  the  founders 
availed  Aemselves  of  the  only  means  in  their  power  for 
preventing  the  introduction  of  luxury  like  that  which  had 
proved  the  bane  of  the  monasteries.  The  pleasures  of  the 
table  were  extolled  and  sought  with  little  disguise  in  these 
ruder  times,  and  if  the  colleges  rarely  presented  a  scene  like 
that  which  startled  Giraldus  at  Canterbury,  it  was  mainly 
because  they  were  under  definite  restrictions,  while  the 
monastic  foi^ndations  were  in  this  respect  ruled  only  by  the 
SiM^tric  discretion  of  the  abbat  or  prior.  Wherever  at  least  such 
limitations  were  not  prescribed,  abuses  seem  generally  to 
have  crept  in.  The  house  of  the  Brethren  of  St.  John  was 
at  this  very  time  sinking  into  ruin,  chiefly  as  the  result  of 
unchecked  extravagance  of  this  character.  At  Peterhous^ 
•where  no  amount  had  been  prescribed,  '  the  whole  being  left 
indeterminately  to  the  judgement  of  the  master,'  the  bishop 
of  Ely  found,  when  on  his  visitation  in  1516,  that  'no  little 

1  Documents,  iii  208, 208, 201, 209.        '  See  supra,  pp.  254,  n.  2 ;  and  370. 


STATUTGS  or  CBBIBT'S  COIXEOS. 


461 


disadrantage  and  considerable  dami^  had   arisen  to  the  < 
aaid  college,'  and  decided  that  the  amount  for  the  fellow^ 
weekly  commons  should  not  in  fiiture  exceed  fourteen  pence'. 
The  amount  now  fixed  upon  for  Christ's  College  by  bishop 
£^her  was  only  twelve  peace:  and  when  we  consider  that 
the  same  amount  had  been  assigned  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  fellows  of  Michaelhouse  more  than  two  centuries  before, 
we  can  only  infer  that  he  regarded  an  ordinarily  frugal  table 
as  an  indispensable  element  in  college  discipline.     It  is  to  be  n 
obserred  also  that  he  presciibed  the  same  amount  for  the  « 
commons  at  St  John's,  and  maintained  it,  notwithstanding  ^ 
the  general  rise  in  prices,  in  the  revisions  of  the  code  of  the  k 
latter  foundation  which  he  instituted  in  the  years  1524  and  m 
1530'.     Long   after   Fisher's   death,  in  the  year  1545,  the  „ 
fellows  of  the  same  society  found  that  this  compulsory  eco- 
nomy had  done  them  good  service ;  for  when  the  greedy  hand 
of  the  courtier  was  stretched  out  to  seize  the  property  of 
the  college,  kii^  Henry  refused  to  sanction  the  spoliation, 
observing  that  '  he  thought  he  had  not  in  his  realm  so  many 
persons  so  honestly  maintained  in  land  and  hving,  by  bo 
little  land  and  rentV 

The  university  had  scarcely  ceased  to  congratulate  itself  fi 
on  the  foundation  of  Christ's  College,  when  it  became  known  « 
that  the  lady  Margaret  was  intent  on  a  somewhat  similar  ^ 
design  in  connesioD  with  the  ancient  Hospital  of  the  Bre-  ti 
tbrea  of  St.  John.     In  this  case  however  the  original  stock  ^ 
had  gone  too  &r  in  decay  to  admit  of  the  process  of  grafting, 
and  the  society,  as  we  have  already  noticed,  presented  a  more 
than  usually  glaring  instance  of  maladministration.     Through- 
out its  history  it  appears  to  have  been  governed  more  with 

>  Utjirood,  Early  College  SlatuUi, 
p.  E7.  Bee  mpn  p.  254,  d.  2;  Fol- 
let  mentioitB  the  laot  that  arohbiabop 
Arnnd^  in  1105,  gnwted  a  twiijty 
for  inorewiing  »  fellow's  weekl;  oom- 
iiw(wtoie<I.j  andthUUtbeunomit 
w«Mribed  in  the  early  statates  of 
Jmom  College. 

■  Early  Siatvtei  lei.  Mayor),  pp. 
J£B,  830,  879. 

■  Parker   Corrapondenee   (Parker 
^-•ielir),  p.   86:  '   '   '      "  " 
H^or,  p.  671. 


maintained  at  the  tame  nim  np  to 
the  ttaga  of  Edward  n,  when,  in 
oonEOqnenoe  of  the  great  riae  in 
piioea,  it  became  reallj  imniBeient, 
and  the  ocdlege  addrested  a  renioii- 
■tranoe  to  the  protector  SomerMt, 
repreienting  that '  the  prioe  of  eveiT- 
thing  was  enhanced,  bnt  their  iuoome 
was  not  iQcreaeed ;  iniomnoh  that 
now  the;  oould  not  live  lor  twen^ 
penee  lo  well  as  formerly  they  eanU 
do  lor  twelve  penoe.'  Lewie,  I^f*  4/ 
Ftthtr.uaa, 


462  BISHOP  FISHER. 

ORAP.Y.  reganl  to  the  convenience  of  a  few  than  to  extended  utility; 

^■■^^■■>>  for  though  possessed  of  a  revenue  amounting  to  nearly  one- 
third  that  of  the  great  priory  at  Barnwell,  a  house  of  the 
same  order,  it  never  maintained  more  than  five  or  six  canons, 
while  the  priory,  though  noted  for  its  profuse  hospitality  and 
sumptuous  living,  often  supported  five  or  six  times  the 
J^ilJiSS?*  number*.    But  with  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth 


5'SrS?    century,  under  the  misrule  of  William  Tomlyn,  the  condition 
twTw  *^    of  the  hospital  had  become  a  scandal  to  the  community,  and 
in  the  language  of  Baker,  who  moralises  at  length  over  the 
lesson  of  its  downfiedl,  the  society  had  gone  so  far  and  were 
so  deeply  involved  *  that  they  seem  to  have  been  at  a  stand 
and  did  not  well  know  how  to  go  farther;  but  their  last 
stores  and  funds  being  exhausted  and  their  credit  sunk,  the 
master  and  brethren  were   dispersed,  hospitality  and  the 
service  of  Qod  (the  two  great  ends  of  their  institution)  were 
equally  neglected,  and  in  efifect  the    house    abandoned*/ 
Such  being  the  state  of  affidrs,  the  biiAop  of  Ely, — at  this 
litpjSgggd  time  James  Stanley,  stepson  to  the  countess, — ^had  nothing 
to  urge  in  his  capacity  of  visitor  against  the  proposed  sup- 
pression of  the  house,  and  gave  his  assent  thereto  without 
demur:  but  the  funds  of  the  society  were  altogether  in- 
■j*jjj«p«»  adequate  to  the  design  of  the  countess,  who  proposed  to  erect 
fMtt&^  on  the  same  site  and  to  endow  a  new  and  splendid  college, 
■^"^'^■^  and  she  accordingly  found  herself  under  the  necessity  of 
revoking  certain  grants  already  made  to  the  abbey  at  West- 
Kfa«H«u7  minster.    To  this  the  consent  of  king  Henry  was  indispen- 
Mot     *^  «able;  and  the  obtaining  of  that  consent  called  for  the  exercise 
df  some  address,  for  the  monarch's  chief  interest  was  now 
centred  in  his  own  splendid  chapel  at  Westminster.    The 
task  was  accordingly  confided  to  Fisher,  who  conducted  it 
with  his  usual  discretion  and  with  complete  success.    'The 
second  Solomon,'  as  the  men  of  his  age  were  wont  to  style 
him,  was  now  entering  upon  the  'evil  days'  and  years  in 
which  he  found  no  pleasure:  he  responded  however  to  his 

^  The  reTentiefl  of  the  hospital  at  Baker  in  eetimating  the  latter,  hj 

its  diBBolntion  amoimted  to  £80.  It.  what  he  ealls  *  a  middle  compntatioii»' 

lOd.:  those  of  the  prioiy  to  £256.  at  £800,  has  plaeed  them  too  la^ 
lit.  10\d,  (Cooper,  AnnaU,  i  870.)  *  Baker-Mayor,  p.  SO. 


DEATH  OP  THE  LAST   1U.BQAKET. 


463 


mother's  petition  in  a  '  very  tender  and  affectionate '  manner, 
but,  as  Baker  informs  us, '  his  sight  was  so  much  appayi'd  * 
that  'he  declares  on  his  &itfa  "that  he  had  been  three  days 
or  he  could  make  an  end  of  his  letter." '  His  consent  having 
been  readily  given,  nothing  more  was  wanting  to  enable  the 
coontess  to  proceed  with  her  design,  and  everything  would 
seem  to  have  been  progressing  towards  a  satisfactory  accom- 
plishment, when,  before  the  legal  deeds  could  be  duly  drawn 
up  and  ratified,  king  Henry  died,  and,  within  little  more  than 
two  months  after,  the  countess  also  was  home  to  rest  by  his 
mde  in  the  great  abbey.  Erasmus  composed  her  epitaph' 
Skelton  sang  her  elegy*;  and  Torrigiano,  the  Florentine 
sculptor,  immortalised  her  features  in  what  has  been  charac- 
terised as  'the  most  beautiful  and  venerable  figure  that  the 
abbey  contains'.'  Upon  Fisher,  who  had  already  preached 
the  funeral  sermon  for  the  son,  it  now  devolved  to  render  a 
like  tribute  to  the  memory  of  the  mother. 

A  large  gathering  at  St  Paul's  listened  as  he  described, 
in  thrilling  tones  and  with  an  emotion  the  genuineness  of 


llDftlH 


E!!^nl 


UovDis.  SiniMi  HiR- 
Bici.  UiTsi.  OcriTi.  Ar- 
ia. Qts.  BrmiiDU 
CoHsnmT.  Tub.  Hoc 
coinobio.  honicbih. 
Et.  Doctobi.  Obuhuti- 
cii.  Aptd.  Wtmbobk. 
Pbbi):  AhoLUV  Torrut. 
DiTni.  Tebbl  Prxcomi. 
Dtob.  Iti>.  Ihtibtrx- 
m.  LrmBu:  Huibib: 

AliTIHI.   OlONlIB.   Ai.- 

Taai.  CmiBBioiA 
Tbi.  bt.  Colliou.  dto. 
Cbkibtd.  it.  Iolini. 
Dnctivui.  KnjB.  Stbct- 
IT.  MoBiTttB.  Ax.  Domini. 

*  ^  bi>  oapftoit?  of  Uoreate,  in 
tiw  year  1516,  of  whisb  tlie  followini; 
liiua  Butj  serve  bb  a  apecimBa  of  ihe 
■buidBrd  attainsd  at  Cunbridgs  ia 
Lfttin  elegiacB  at  that  timii:^ 

Aspirata  meis  elegis,  pla  torma 
iOTOTiutt.  I  Et  UargBretAin  eollBcrj. 
Bi»to  piBiuj  I  Hm  tab  mole  lBt«t 
Mgii    eelebenima    nutei  |  Hmrici 


nugnl,  qnem  loens  irte  ferret;  ]  Qoetn 
loom  iBte  Moei  edebri  oelebnt  polf- 
andro,  |  llliiis  «n  genetrii  boo  tomn- 
Iktsr  btmo  I  |  Cm  oedkt  Tuiaqnil 
(Titna  huie  inper  istrB  reportet),  | 
C«d»t  Penelope,  ouni  UUxiB  amor ;  j 
Huio  Abi^Bil,  velat  HMtcr,  ei*t  "^i- 
tate  aeonnda :  |  En  ti«a  jun  piooMM 
nolnlitkle  parea  I 
etc.  eta. 

Skelton'B  Worlu,  bj  Djee,  i  196. 
*  Dean  Stanley,  Hittorieal  Memo- 
ridU  of  Watmiiuter  Abbey,  p.  IM; 
'  Uoie  noble  and  more  reGiied  tbui 
in  any  of  her  nnmcroni  portraits,  hw 
effigy  well  ties  la  tbat  obapel,  toe  to 
bei  the  King,  her  bod.  owed  every, 
tbing.  For  bim  abe  liTed.  To  end 
tbe  Civil  Wars  by  his  marriage  with 
Elizabeth  of  York  she  ooonted  ai  an 
holy  doty.  On  her  tomb,  as  in  her 
life,  her  second  and  third  biubaDiIa 
have  no  pUee.  It  bean  tbe  beraldio 
emblems  only  of  her  Snt  youthful 
love,  tbe  fatfaei  of  Henry  tii.  Sbs 
was  always  "Uargaret  Biebmond." 
Ibid.  p.  16S. 


464  BISHOP   FISHER. 

CHAP.  V.  which  none  could  doubt,  the  manner  of  her  life*.   On  the  ears 

'f^**°'i  of  the  present  generation,  much  that  most  edified  and  moved 
the  audience  he  addressed,  falls  doubtless  somewhat  strangely. 
We  hear  with  more  of  pity  than  of  admiration  the  details  of 
her  devout  asceticism, — of  her  shirts  and  girdles  of  hair,  her 
early  risings,  her  interminable  devotions  and  countless  kneel- 
ings,  her  long  fasts  and  ever-flowing  tears, — ^but  charity 
recalls  that  in  features  like  these  we  have  but  the  super- 
stitions which  she  shared  with  the  best  and  wisest  of  her 
contemporaries,  while  in  her  spotless  life,  her  benevolence  of 
disposition,  and  her  open  hand,  may  be  discerned  the  out- 
lines of  a  character  that  attained  to  a  standard  not  often 
reached  in  that  corrupt  and  dissolute  age. 

With  the  death  of  his  patroness  the  troubles  of  bishop 
Fisher  began.     In   conjunction  with  seven  others  he  had 

H«r«ueii-  been  appointed  executor  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  her 
designs :  his  coadjutors  were  Richard  bishop  of  Winchester, 
a^d  Charles  Somerset  lord  Herbert ;  Thomas  Lovell,  Henry 
Mamey,  and  John  St.  John,  knights;  and  Henry  Hornby 

chutOTof     and  Hugh  Ashton,  clerks.     On  the  ninth  of  April,  1511, 

tb«  found*-       . 

jowtISl-  executors  proceeded  to  draw  up  the  charter  of  the 

uM«,im.    foundation,  setting  forth  the  royal  assent  together  with  that 

of  the  pope,  and  of  the  bishop  and  convent  of  Ely,  whereby 

the  old  hospital  was  formally  converted  into  'a  perpetual 

college  uniiis  magistri,  sodorum  et  scholarium  ad  numerum 

quinquaginta  secvlarium  personarum  vel  circa,  in  scientiis 

liberalibus  et  sacra  iheologia  stvdentium  et  oraturarum:  it 

being  also  ordained  that  the  college  should  be  styled  and 

called  St.  John's  College  for  ever,  should  be  a  body  coiporate, 

should  have  a  common  seal,  might  plead  and  be  impleaded, 

and  purchase  or  receive  lands  under  the  same  name.    At 

Bobwt  Bhor.  the  samo  time  Robert  Shorten  was  elected  first  master, 

*on.iirti      j^j  James  Spooner,  John  West,  and  Thomas  Barker,  fellows, 

on  the  nomination  of  the  bishop  of  Ely,  of  the  said  college'/ 

crthT**^  Of  the  above-named  executors^  the  four  laymen  appear 


*   The  Sermon  has   been   twice      tniy  by  Baker,  and  in  the  preMOft  hf 
edited;    in  each  case  bv  feUowB  of      Dr Hymere. 
St  John's  College :  in  tne  last  oen-         *  Baker-Mayor,  p.  68. 


ST.  John's  college.  465 

to  hare  taken  little  or  do  active  interest  in  the  scheme,  chap.t. 
LoTell,  described  by  Cavendish  in  his  Life  of  Wolsey  as  'a   ""l^^- 
very  sago  counsellor  and  witty','  was  probably  well  able  tOLanu. 
render  good  service,  for  he  stood  high  in  the  royal  favoar ; 
bnt  he  was  throughout  his  life  a  busy  politician  and  was  at 
this  time  much  occupied  as  executor  to  the  late  monarch*. 
Of  the  four  ecclesiastics.  Fox,  next  to  Fisher,  was  by  far  f™. 
the  most  influential,  and,  as  master  of  Pembroke,  might  fairly 
have  been  expected  to  interest  himself  in  an  undertaking  on 
which  his  services  could  be  so  easily  bestowed.     But  he  hitd 
received    his    earlier   academic   education   at  Oxford,   and 
according  to  Baker,   his  sympathies  with  that  university,  TOtot 
which   subsequently  found  expression  in  the  foundation  of 
Corpus  Christi  College,  were  already  beginning  to  declare 
themselves.    He  was  also  the  intimate  friend  of  Wolsey, 
who  wea  believed  to  be  adverse  to  the  design  of  the  lady 
Margaret,  while  with  Warham,  who  warmly  befriended  that 
deaign,  and  who  was  generally  to  be  found  in  opposition  to 
Wobey,  he  was  at  this  time  engaged  in  an  irritating  law- 
8oit*.      Ashton,   who   had    also  received   his  education   at  a«m«& 
Oxford,  though  afterwards  a  distinguished  benefactor  of  the 
coll^^  seems  to  have  possessed  at  this  time  but  little 
power  to  afford   effectual  aid.     Hornby,  formerly  fellow  ofHantr. 
Hicbselhouse  and  now  master  of  Peterhouse,  alone  appears 
to  have   entered   heartily  into   the  scheme*,   and   it  soon 
became  evident  that  on  Fisher  would   mainly  devolve  the  ^"^"^ 
arduous  task  of  bringing  to  its  accomplishment,  in  spite  of  ^"5;^^ 
the  dishonest  rapacity  of  a  few  and  the  indifference  of  many, ""  "•*"■ 
the  final  and  most  important  design  of  the  greatest  bese- 
fiutress  that  Cambridge  has  ever  known.     But  at  the  very 
oatset,  grounds  for  considerable  apprehension  began  to  appear. 
The  revenues  of  the  estates  bequeathed  l^  the  lady  Margaret,  VSuSi 
together  with  those  of  the  hospital,  amounted  annually  toSSffiS 
nearly  £500,  an  income  second  only  to  that  of  King's  in  the  ^n^L- 
lilt  of  college  foundations.     It  was  well  known  however  that  *»?nw&iM 


466 


BISHOP   FISHER. 


CHAP.  T. 
Paev  H. 


beeomerab- 

Jecttothe 

rofmldis- 


Appttraii 
contndlc- 
tkmfaitlM 
origiBal 


Blihop 

Stanley 

opposes  th* 

diMolution 

oftheUot- 

pttaL 


Illsduune- 


it  depended  entirely  on  the  royal  pleasure  whether  the 
executors  would  be  permitted  to  carry  into  fiill  effect  a 
scheme,  which,  though  there  could  be  no  doubt  of  the 
executrix  8  design,  had  never  received  the  final  legal  ratifi- 
cation; the  young  monarch,  to  use  the  language  of  Baker, 
'not  having  the  same  ties  of  duty  and  affection,  was  imder 
no  obligation  to  make  good  his  father's  promises  ;  and  having 
an  eye  upon  the  estate,  had  no  very  strong  inclination  to 
favour  a  design  that  must  swallow  up  part  of  his  inheritance^.' 
The  executors  indeed  already  found  considerable  cause  for 
perplexity  in  the  fact,  that  in  the  royal  licence  above  referred 
to,  granted  Aug.  7,  1509,  the  revenue  which  the  new  society 
was  permitted  to  hold  ('  the  statute  of  mortmain  notwith- 
standing '),  over  and  above  the  revenues  of  the  hospital,  was 
limited  to  fifty  pounds.  But  as  the  licence  also  permitted 
the  maintenance  of  fifty  fellows  and  scholars,  and  it  was 
evident  that  so  large  a  number  could  not  possibly  be  sup- 
ported on  an  income  of  £130  a  year,  the  executors  were 
fain  to  hope  that  the  royal  generosity  would  provide  the 
most  favorable  solution  of  the  difficulty  thus  presented,  and 
determined  on  the  bold  course  of  carrying  on  the  works  as 
though  nothing  doubting  that  the  intentions  of  the  countess 
would  be  respected.  A  new  difficulty  however  met  them  in 
another  quarter,  in  the  reluctance  exhibited  by  Stanley  to 
take  the  final  steps  for  dissolving  the  old  house.  The 
influence  of  his  mother-in-law  could  no  longer  be  brought 
to  bear  upon  him,  and  though  as  the  promulgator  of  the 
statutes  of  Jesus  College  and  founder  of  the  grammar  school 
attached  to  that  foundation,  it  might  have  been  hoped  that  he 
would  not  be  wanting  in  sympathy  with  the  new  schema 
he  was  evidently  little  disposed  to  favour  it.  The  fact  that 
he  was  visitor  of  the  hospital,  and  that  its  suppression  might 
appear  to  reflect  on  his  past  remissness,  partially  accounts 
perhaps  for  his  disinclination,  but  the  explanation  must 
mainly  be  sought  in  his  personal  character.  From  his  boyhood 
he  had  evinced  if  not  actual  incapacity,  at  least  considerable 
averseness  to  study;  but  with  so  splendid  a  prize  as  a  bishopric 

^  Baker-Mayor,  p.  63. 


ST.  JOHN'S  COLLEGE.  467 

within   his  reach,  it  was  oecessary  that  he  shonld  prove  chap.t. 
himself  not  totally  illiterate,  and  when  a  student  at  Paris  he  .  "-.. 
endeavored  to  gun  the  assistance  of  Erasmus.     Indolence 
promised  itself  an  easier  journey  on  the   back   of  geniusL 
But  the  great  scholar  flatly  refused  to  undertake  the  instnio- 
tion  of  a  pupil  who  could  bring   him   no  credit,  and  the 
noble  youth  was  obliged  to  seek  the  requisite  aid  elsewhere*. 
His  promotion  to  the  see  of  Ely,  for  which  he  was  entirely 
indebted  to  the  interest  of  the  countess,  took  place  in  due 
course.     '  It  was  the  worst  thing,'  says  Baker, '  that  she  ever 
did.'    The  diocese   soon   began   to   be   scandalized   by  the 
bishop's  open  immorality ;  and,   with  all   the  meanness  of 
s  truly  ignoble  nature,  he   now   thought  fit  to  exhibit  his 
gratitude  to  his  late  benefactress  by  thwarting  her  benevo- 
lent design.     The   dishonest,  self-indulgent  Tomlyn   was  a 
man  far  more  to  the  heart  of  James  Stanley  than  the  austere 
and  virtuous  Fisher.     The  necessary  steps  for  the  dissolution 
of  the  hospitfd  were  met  by  repeated  evasions  and  delay- 
It  was  found  necessary  to  have  recourse  to  Rome.     A  bullnntnM- 
was   obtained.     When    it    arrived    it   was   discovered  that  ^J;^*^ 
certain   omissions  and  informalities  rendered  it  absolutely  jygjj; 
nugatory,  and  application  was  made  for  a  second.     The  latter  ^:[f^^ 
was   fortunately  drawn  up   in   terms   that  admitted   of  no  '■^^ 
dispute.     '  For  this  pope,'  says  Baker,  (it  was  Jvliut  Exduaw), 
'was  a  son  of  thunder;  it  struck  the  old  house  at  one  blow, 
did  both  dissolve  and  build  alone,  without  consent  either  of 
the  king  or  of  the  bishop  of  Ely.'     'And  so,'  he  adds,  'thd 
old  house,  after  much  solicitation  and  much  delay,  after  s 
long  and  tedious  process  at  Rome,  at  court,  and  at  Ely,  under 
an  imperious  pope,  a  forbidding  prince,  and  a  mercenary 
prelate,  with  great  application,  industry,  and  pains,  and  with 
equal  expense,  was  at  last  dissolved  and  utterly  extinguished  tHwioiioa 
on  the  20th  day  of  January,  an.   1510,  and  falls  a  lasting  piul 
monument  to  all  future  ages  and  to  all  charitable  and  re- 
ligious foundations,  not  to  neglect  the  rules  or  abuse  the 
institutions  of  their  foundera,  lest  they  fall  under  the  same 
fate'.' 

'  Eni^t,  Lift  ofBroMma,  p.  10.  ■  "Bt^M-Vvjw,  P-  M. 

30—2 


468  BISHOP   FISHER. 

rnAP.  V.         During  all  this  time  the  newly  constituted  society  could 

ii^iL   scarcely  be  said  to  exist.    The  three  fellows  received  their 

SnteMT    peiisions,  lodging  in  the  town;  and  Shorton,  in  his  capacity 

^^  of  master,  was  rendering  valuable  service  by  the  energy  with 

which  he  pushed  on  the  erection  of  the  new  buildings,  while 

the   infant   society   awaited   with   anxious   expectation   the 

decision  respecting  its  claim  to  the  estates  bequeathed  by 

the  lady  Margaret.     At  first  there  seemed  reason  for  hope 

that  the  voice  of  justice  might  yet  prevail.     The  cause  of  the 

defendants  was  not  altogether  unbefriended  at  court,  and 

Warham,  in  his  double  capacity  of  chancellor  of  England  and 

DMUoBin    archbishop,  rendered  them  cood  service.     At  last  a  tedious 

the  Court  of         ...  .  »    .        111  •   •  »    t 

g»«no^«n  suit  m  chancery  termmated  m  the  legal  recognition  of  the 
«*»"*»^  validity  of  the  late  countess's  bequest,  and  it  was  thought 
that  the  chief  cause  for  anxiety  was  at  an  end.  But  the 
laborers  in  the  cause  of  learning  were  now  beginning  to  enter 
upon  that  new  stage  of  difficulty  when  the  little  finger  of 
the  courtier  should  be  found  heavier  than  the  thigh  of  the 
Aweond      monk.    Through  the  influence  of  'some  potent  courtiers,' 

•alt  iiMtttiit-  ...  . 

edbytbe      a  frcsh  suit  was  instituted  by  the  royal  claimant     The  ex- 
J2JJ2J2i^ecutors  perceived  the  hopelessness  of  a  further  contest  and 
tiMirdain.    reluctantly  surrendered  their  claims.    The  beneficent  bequest 
of  the  lady  Margaret  was  lost  to  the  college  for  ever.    Fuller, 
— in  recording  this  *  rape  on  the  Muses,*  as  he  quaintly  terms 
it, — vents  his  anger,  in  harmless  fashion,  on  certain  nameless 
*  prowling,  progging,  projecting  promoters,'  such  as,  he  says, 
<will  sometimes  creep  even  into  kings'  bedchambers.'     But 
the  rumour  of  the  day  was  less  indefinite,  and  it  was  gene- 
rally believed  that  Wolsey  had  been  the  leading  aggressor*. 
TiMioMthin  It  is  certain  that,  many  years  after,  the  college  assumed  it  as 
trflmtedto    unquestionable  that  their  loss  had  been  mainly  owing  to  his 
AvMOM.       hostility*.    It  may  seem  lingular  that  one  to  whom  the 
learning  of  that  age  was  so  much  indebted,  should  have 
advised  an  act  of  such  cruel  spoliation.     But  the  sympathies 

1  Baker-Mayor,  p.  72.  solieit  his  aid  in  a  Bait  with  which 

'  See  abstract  of  Latin  letter  from  they  are  threatened  by  Lord  Cobham. 

the  coUege  to  John  Chambre,  m.d.  *  The  cardinal/  they  say,  'had  befoi« 

{Ibid,  p.  849).    The  coUege,  writing  robbed  them  of  landa  to  the  yearly 

in  I53C  the  year  after  Wolsey's  death,  yalne  of  £400.* 


ST.  JOHN  8  COIXEQE.  469 

of  the  '  boy-bachelor  of  llagdalen '  were  chiefly  with  bis  own  chap.  t. 
university,  and  very  early  in  hia  career  of  power  he  seems  to  -^^■^' 
have  detected,  with  his  usual  sagacity,  the  presence  of  an  !«u^'w 
element  hostile  to  his  person  and  his  policy  at  Cambridge.  mMA"*" 
Along  with  Fox,  be  may  also  have  grudged  to  see  the  latter 
university   thus   enriched    by    two   important   foundations, 
when  Oxford, — if  we  except  the  then  scarce  completed  founda- 
tion of  Brazenose, — had  received  no  addition  ta  her  list  oS 
colleges  since  Magdalen  College  rose  in  the  year  1157. 

It  was  only  through  Fisher's  direct  apphcation,  and  even 
then  not  without  considerable  difficulty,  that,as  some  compensa- 
tion for  the  heavy  loss  thus  sustained,  the  reveaites  of  another 
Qod's  House  (a  decayed  society  at  Ospringe  in  Kent),  withnHowo. 
several  other  estates,  producing  altogether  an  income  of  £80,  unaoMHi 
were  made  over  to  the  college  by  the  Crown.  'This,*  say»u»i™*>' 
Baker,  '  with  the  lands  of  the  old  bouse,  together  with  the  £^,  ^ 
foundress'  estate  at  Fordham  which  was  charged  with  debts  STiSr'  ** 
by  her  will  and  came  bo  charged  to  the  college,  with  some- 
other  little  things  purchased  with  her  moneys  at  Steukley,. 
Bradley,  Isleham  and  Foxton  (the  two  last  alienated  or  lost),, 
was  the  original  foundation  upon  which  the  college  was 
first  opened;  and  whoever  dreams  of  vast  revenues  oi  larger 
endowments,  will  be  mightily  mistakea  Her  lands  put  in 
feoffment  for  the  performance  of  her  will  lay  in  the  counties 
of  Devon,  S<Hnerset  and  Northampton,  and  though  I  should 
be  very  glad  to  meet  with  lands  of  the  foundation  in  any 
of  these  three  counties,  yet  I  despur  much  of  such  a  dU- 
covery.  But  whoever  now  enjoys  the  manors  of  Mazey  and 
Torpell  in  the  county  of  Northamptcm,  or  the  manors  of 
Martock,  Currey  Reyvell,  Kynsbury  and  Queen  Camell,  in 
the  hundreds  of  Bulston,  Abdike  and  Horethom  in  the 
county  of  Somerset,  or  the  manor  of  Sandford  Peverell  with 
the  hundred  of  AllertOD  in  the  county  of  Devon,  though  they 
may  have  a  very  good  title  to  them,  which  I  will  not  ques- 
tion, yet  whenever  they  shall  be  piously  and  charitably 
disposed,  they  cannot  bestow  them  more  equitably  than  by 
leaving  them  to  St.  John's*.' 

>  B«k«r-Miqtir,  p.  71. 


470 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


CHAP.  ▼. 
Pan  II. 


COILMI  Of 

At.  Jobs  m 
Rtavoblist, 
JuIt,  1616. 
FblMrpffv- 
tUetattlM 

OeTODMMIJ. 

It  dekKBted 
todecuire 
the  ■tatntet. 


ThlrtyHNM 

fellows 

elected. 

AlanFerex 

enoceede 

BhortooM 


Theitatutee 
giren  ldentl> 
oal  with  those 
of  (drift's 
OoUese. 


Such  were  the  circumstances  under  which  the  college  of 
St.  John  the  Evangelist  was  at  last  opened  in  July,  1516. 
Fisher  presided  at  the  ceremony  and  was  probably  thankful 
that  they  now  knew  the  worst.  He  had  not  anticipated 
being  present,  for  he  had  been  delegated  to  the  Lateran 
Council  at  Some,  and  was  already  counting  upon  the  com- 
panionship of  Erasmus  in  the  journey  thither,  when  he  was 
recalled  by  some  fortunate  chance  at  the  last  moment  \  To 
his  presence  in  England  at  this  juncture,  the  college  was 
solely  indebted  for  the  partial  compensation  which  made  it 
the  possessor  of  the  estate  at  Ospringe.  He  now  came  up 
from  his  palace  at  Rochester',  with  full  powers,  delegated  to 
him  by  his  fellow-executors,  to  declare  the  rule  of  the  new 
society  and  to  arrange  the  admission  of  additional  fellows 
and  scholars.  Thirty-one  fellows  were  elected,  and  Alan 
Percy  was  appointed  master  in  the  place  of  Shorten.  The 
latter,  from  some  reason  not  recorded,  voluntarily  retired, 
carrying  with  him  no  slight  reputation  as  an  able  and  vigo- 
rous administrator,  and  was  shortly  after  elected  to  the 
mastership  of  Pembroke  College.  His  successor,  a  man  of 
greatly  inferior  abilities,  held  the  mastership  only  two  years, 
when  he  in  turn  gave  place  to  Nicholas  Metcalfe,  whose  long 
and  able  rule,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  contributed  largely 
to  the  consolidation  and  prosperity  of  the  college. 

The  statutes  given  by  Fisher  were,  as  we  have  already 
stated,  identical  in  their  tenour  with  those  of  Christ's 
College;  and  there  were  now  accordingly  two  societies  com- 
mencing their  existence  at  Cambridge,  under  a  rule  which 
may  be  regarded  as  almost  the  exclusive  embodiment  of  his 
views  and  aims  with  respect  to  college  education.    It  is  not 


^  'Ante  bienninm  igitar  adomaram 
iter,  oomes  futums  K.  Path  D.  lo- 
axini  Episcopo  Roffensi,  viro  om- 
nium Episcopalium  virtiitum  gonere 
cumulatiHsimo :  et  ut  compendio 
laudes  illius  explicom,  Cantiiaricusi,* 
(Warham)^  'cni  subsidiariuB  est,  si- 
millimo.  Venim  is  ex  itinere  Bubito 
revocatus  ent.-  Letter  to  Cardinal 
Grvmanitit  Erasmi  Opera,  iii  142. 

•  Fisher  had  received,  just  before 
leaving  Boohester,  a  copy  of  Eras- 


mus's Novum  Imtrumentttm,  and  he 
hastened  to  acknowledge  it.  'Etai 
plurimis  negotiis  impediar  (paro  enim 
me  Cantahrigiam  iturum  pro  eoUegio 
nunc  tandeminstituendoj^nolvdiianeii 
uiis  tuus  Petrus  meis  litteria  vactiiifl 
ad  te  rediret.  Ingentium  gratianun 
debitorem  me  constituisti  ob  Instm- 
mentum  Novum,  tua  opera  ex  Qrmeo 
traductum,quomedonav6ra8.'  £n«- 
mi  Opera,  lu  1587. 


OTATOTES  OF  ST.  JOHN'S  COUXQE,  471'- 

difficult  to  recognise  in  the  difiereot  provisions  at  once  the  cba^.t. 
strength  and  the  weakness  of  his  character.     His  life  pre-   •— y  — 
sentu  us  with  more  than  one  significant  proof,  how  little  mere  tbrrmM« 
moral  rectitude   of  purpose  avails  to  preserve  men  fromcianctv' 
pitiable  supentition  and  fatal  mistakes.    As  his  faith  in  the 
past  amounted  to  a  foolish  credulity,  so  his  distrust  of  the 
future  became  an  unreasoning  dread.     And  consequently,  we 
here  find,  side  by  side  with  a  wise  innovation  upon  the  exist- 
ing coune  of  studies,  a  pusillanimous  anxiety  to  guard  against 
all  future  innovations  whatever.     Nor  can  it  be  accepted  as 
a  sufficient  juiitification  of  this  vague  jealousy  of  succeeding 
administrators,  that  herein  he  only  imitated  the  example  of 
William  of  Wykeham,  just  as  Wainflcte  bad  imitated  it  at 
Elng'&     The  experiences  that  surrounded  men  at  the  time 
that  Fisher  drew  up  the  rule  of  Christ's  College,  were  of  a 
very   different  character  from   those   of  a  century  before. 
The  age  in  which  he  lived  was  manifestly  onp  in  which  the 
old   order  of  things  was  breaking  up;  and  the  leaders  of 
thought  at  so  significant  a  crisis  were  specially  called  upon, 
not  only  to  recognise  this  fact  in  their  own  policy,  but  to 
foresee  the  possibility,  if  not  the  probability,  of  yet  greater 
changes  in  the  future.     In  proof  that  there  were  those  whomdsHM 
could  thus  rightly  interpret  the  signs  of  the  times,  we  may^ikutia 
point  to  one  illustrious  example.    Within  two  years  after  g*™^ 
the  day  when  St.  John's  College  was  formally  opened,  a  con-  cMrt^Vul 
temporary  of  Fisher, — in  no  way  his  inferior  in  iut^prtty  of  pS-J'"*' 
life,  in  earnestness  of  purpose,  in  ripe  learning,  or  even  in  the 
practice  of  a  rigid  asceticism,  but  gifted  with  that  spirit  of 
'  prophetic  liberality,'  aa  it  has  been  termed',  in  which  Fisher 
was  BO  signally  deficient, — drew  up  a  body  of  statutes  as  the 
rule  of  a  foundation  for  the  education  of  youth,  to  which  he 
had  consecrated  his  entire  patrimony.     In  the  original  sta- 
tutes of  St  Paul's  School*  given  by  John  Colet,  we  find  the 
following  clause, — a  provision  which  every  would-be  beoe- 

'  DeM)  MilmM,  Euayt,  p.  lOS.  knished  uid  «iolnded,'  and  'to  in- 

*  St.  Paul's  School  wu  tonnded  bj  creue  Imowiedge  uid  wonhippiiig  of 

Colet  in  the  jeax  1510,  tx  ■  school  Ood  moA  out  Lord  Jobos  Cbrut,  and 

■when  the  Iiatin  kdultenta  which  good    Chiutiui    lite    mnd    roMUien 

ignoiant    blind    tool!    tnonght  into  among    the    childien.'      SMbohm, 

thii  world'  aboQJd  be   'sttalj  ab-  O^ml A^^bnMn,  MS-f. 


472  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CHAP.  V.  factor  of  his  race  in  future  times  will  do  well  to  potider,  ere 
^*  y  -'^  he  seeks  to  ensure  for  any  institution  immunity  from  the 
great  law  of  human  progress,  the  law  of  frequent  and  constant 
change, — lest  securities  devised  against  imaginary  evils  prove 
eventually  a  shelter  for  actual  abuses,  and  the  stepping-stones 
laid  down  for  one  generation  become  the  stumbling  blocks  of 
another : — 

'  And  notwithstanding  the  statutes  and  ordinances  before 
written,  in  which  I  have  declared  my  mind  and  will;  yet 
because  in  time  to  come  many  things  may  and  shall  survive 
and  grow  by  many  occasions  and  causes  which  at  the  making 
of  this  book  wcls  not  possible  to  come  to  mind;  in  considera- 
tion of  the  assured  truth  and  circumspect  wisdom  and  faith- 
ful goodness  of  the  mercery  of  London,  to  whom  I  have 
confided  all  the  care  of  the  school,  and  trusting  in  their 
fidelity  and  love  that  they  have  to  God  and  man,  and  to 
the  school ;  ai^l  also  believing  verily  that  they  shall  always 
dread  the  great  wrath  of  God : — Both  all  this  that  is  said, 
and  all  that  is  not  said,  which  hereafter  shall  come  into  my 
mind  while  I  live,  to  be  said,  I  leave  it  wholly  to  their 
discretion  and  charity:  I  mean  of  the  wardens  and  assist- 
ances of  the  fellowship,  with  such  other  counsel  as  they 
shall  call  unto  them, — ^good  lettered  and  learned  men,-— 
they  Co  add  and  diminish  of  this  book  and  to  supply  it  in 
every  default*.* 
Erasmus.  The  presence  of  Erasmus  in  Cambridge  in  the  year  1506, 

d.  15M.        and  his  admission  to  the  doctorial  degree,  have  already  come 
under  our  notice.     Of  his  visit  on  that  occasion  there  is 
nothing  more  to  be  recorded,  as  none  of  his  extant  letters 
were  written  during  his  stay,  or  supply  us  with  any  further 
HksaooDd    details;  but,  either  in  the  year  1509  or  1510,  he  repeated  his 

TisittoCten-      ... 

iwidge,M(»-  visit,  and  resided  for  a  period  of  not  less  than  four  years. 
His  lengthened  sojourn  at  the  university  on  this  occasion,  is 

owectofhis  probably  to  be  attributed  to  the  inducements  held  out  by 
Fisher,  whose  influence  appears  to  have  obtained  for  him 
the  privilege  of  residence  in  Queens'  College, — though  Usher 
himself  was  no  longer  president  of  the  society ;  and  a  room 

*  Seebohm,  Oxford  BfformerSj  466*. 


ERiSHUH.  473 

at  the  top  of  the  south-vest  tower  in  the  old  court  was,  chaf.t.  ' 
according  to  tradition,  the  one  aneigDed  for  his  occupation.  ■- y '• 
So  far  as  we  can  gather  from  his  own  statements  the  main 
design  of  Erasmus,  on  this  his  second  visit  to  the  university, 
was  to  gain  a  position,  at  once  independent  and  profitable, 
as  a  teacher.  He  seems,  at  one  time,  to  have  imagined  that 
he  might  be  at  Cambridge  what  Guarino  had  been  at  Fh>- 
rence  or  Argyropulos  at  Rome ;  that  he  might  there  gather 
round  him  a  circle  of  students,  wiHing  to  leam  and  well  able 
to  pay,  such  as  his  experience  of  the  generous  Mountjoy  and 
the  amiable  young  archbishop  of  St  Andrews  had  suggested 
that  he  might  find,  and,  while  thus  earning  an  income  that 
would  amply  suffice  for  all  his  wants,  at  the  same  time  pro- 
secute those  studies  on  which  his  ambition  was  mainly  cen- 
tered. That  his  project  ended  in  disappointment,  and  that 
his  Cambridge  life  was  clouded  by  dissatisfaction,  despond- 
ency, and  pecuniary  difficulties  is  undeniable ;  and  we  shall 
perhaps  better  understand  how  it  was  so,  if  we  devote  some 
consideration  to  the  previous  career  and  personal  character- 
istics of  the  great  scholar. 

It  will  be  an  enquiry  not  without  interest,  if  we  first  of  orb^ 
all  examine  the  circumstances  that  led  to  Erasmus's  selec-  miom»— 
tion  of  Cambridge,  as  the  field  for  his  first  systematic  effort  ^~^jgt» 
as  an  academic  professor,  at  a  time  when  France  and  Italy,  *" 
Louvain  and  Oxford,  were  all,  according  to  his  own  express 
statement,  either  willing  to  welcome  him  or  actually  making 
overtures  to  prevail  upon  him  to  become  their  teacher.     It 
wuuld  seem  that  Paris,  as  his  alma  mater,  might  have  fairly  tua, 
claimed  his  services,  but  the  considerations  against  such  a 
choice  were  too  weighty  to  be  disregarded.    It  was  not  the 
dismal  reminiscences  of  his  student  life  that  repelled  her 
former  disciple;    for,   to   do  him  Justice,   Erasmus  always 
speaks  of  that  ancient  seat  of  learning  in  terms  of  warm,  if 
not  exi^gerated,  admiration*.     But  in  truth,  the  university 

>  '  Qnn   temper  in  ra  theologie*  lilteramm  genere,  quod  dbi  propo- 

noD  aliler  piindpem  leanit  locom  aoit,  Mmper  piimaB  tennit. '    Lttter 

qiuiii  BomuiB  eedea  Chiiitifton  r»-  to  Yivii,  Ibid,  ui  ES6.     '  AoadcmU- 

ligionu  priuoipBtiun.'   Opera,  ui  600.  rnin  """■""'  regina  Lntetuk'    IM. 

■  Puinenaia  ■Mdemik,  Mrte  in  boe  m  1S7. 


474  Bisuop  nsHER. 

CHAP.  ▼.  of  Paris,  at  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  century,  as 
^  ,^^m  \  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  note,  was  no  longer  what 
she  had  once  been.  Lou  vain  was  now  competing  with  her, 
not  unsuccessfully,  as  a  school  of  theology;  and  to  the  main- 
tenance of  her  theological  reputation  Paris  had  subordinated 
every  other  branch  of  liberal  culture.  The  new  learning 
had  accordingly  found,  as  yet,  but  a  cold  reception  at  her 
hands.  Erasmus,  in  his  thirtieth  year,  and  almost  entirely 
ignorant  of  Greek,  had  been  sought  out  as  the  ablest  instruc- 
tor in  the  university*.  When  in  quest,  in  turn,  of  a  teacher 
of  that  language,  he  had  been  compelled  to  fall  back  on  his 
own  imaided  resources.  Her  students  had  perhaps  regained 
nearly  their  former  numbers,  but  they  were  drawn  from  a 
far  more  limited  radius*.  The  nations  of  Europe  no  longer 
assembled  round  the  '  Sinai  of  the  Middle  Ages ;'  but,  already 
leaving  behind  them  the  desert  wastes  of  scholasticism,  and 
nearing  what  seemed  to  be  the  Promised  Land,  were  exulting 
in  the  fair  prospect  that  lay  before.  The  fame  that  deserted 
ifAtT,  Paris  had  undoubtedly  been  transferred  to  Italy,  and  Italy 
had  offered  to  Erasmus  a  friendly  welcome  and  a  permanent 
home.  Notwithstanding  his  satire  of  the  Roman  court,  in 
his  Encomium  Morim,  he  seems  always  to  have  spoken  of  the 
Italian  land  as  at  least  one  where  the  man  of  letters,  what- 
ever his  nationality,  was  had  in  honour';  and  he  readily 
admitted  that,  in  finished  scholarship,  its  men  of  learning 
greatly  surpassed  those  of  Germany  or  France*.  In  a  letter 
to  Ambrosius  Leo,  a  physician  of  Venice,  he  cannot  re&ain 

1  *  Videbant  enim  Angli  inter  pro-  Be  V Organisation  de  VEnseignement^ 

fessores  bonarom  litteramm  in  tota  etc.  p.  2. 

academia  Parisiensi  nullum  existere,  *  '  Equidexn  fayeo  gloriffi  Italie, 

qui  vel  eruditioB  posset,  vel  fideliua  vol  ob  hoc  ipsum,  quod  hane  equio- 

dooere  consuesset.'  Bhenanus,  quoted  rem  experiar  in  me  quam  ipaam  pa* 

by  Knight,  p.  13  n.  1.  triam.'  Letter  to  Wm,  Latimer  (lol8)» 

*    'Au    commencement    du    xvi*  Opera,  lu  879.     *Exo8Culor  Italic 

sidcle,  Tuniversite  de  Paris  comptait  candorem,  quse  favet  exterorum  in- 

peut-dtre   plus    d'^tudiants    qu'elle  geniis  cum  ipsi  nobis  inyideamos.* 

n*en  avait   jamais    eu;    mais   elle  Letter  to  Bartholinus,  Ihid,  in  685. 

avait    perdu    sa    puissance   et    sa  See  also  his  letter  to  More  in  1520, 

grandeur.     Au  lieu  d'etre  le  s^mi-  iii  614-5. 

naire  de  la  chr^tient^,  elle  tendait  &         ^  'Gallus  aut  Germanos  com  Italls, 

devenir   une    institution    purement  imo  cimi  Musuri  posteris  inire  oer- 

nationale.    La  r^forme  de  1598  ne  tamen,  quid  nisi  sibUos  ao  rianxn 

fit  que  sanctionner  des  changements  lucrifaotums  ?*    Litter  to  Ambmiui 

aooomplis  depuis  un  sidcle.*    Thorot,  Leo,  Ibid,  m  507. 


EBASHCS.  475. 

from  expressing  his  envy  at  the  lot  of  one  who  could  look  chap.  t. 
forward  to  passing  his  life  in  that  splendid  citj,  surrounded  • — , — ^ 
hy  the  learned  and  the  noble'.  But  Italy,  at  the  time  of 
Erasmus's  own  residence  there,  bad  been  the  scene  of  civil 
war ;  Mars,  to  adopt  old  Fuller's  phrase,  was  frighting  away 
the  Muses.  She  had  moreover  recently  lost  her  most  dis- 
tinguished scholars ;  while  her  Latin  scholarship  was  becom- 
ing emasculated  by  a  fastidiousness  of  diction  and  foppery  of 
style,  which,  as  a  kind  of  here^  in  learning,  all  the  most 
eminent  teachers, — PoUtian  and  Hermolaus  Barbarus  among 
her  own  sods,  Budsus  in  France,  and  Linaere  in  England,— 
in  turn  deemed  it  their  duty  loudly  to  disavow.  How  Eras- 
mus himself,  in  after  years,  directed  ag»nst  this  folly  those 
shafts  of  ridicule  hy  which  it  was  most  effectively  assailed,  is 
a  famihar  story*.  But  the  learning  of  Italy  also  lay  under 
another  and  graver  imputation,  one  moreover  to  which  ila 
ablest  representatives  were  equally  exposed, — the  imputation 
of  infidelity ;  and  Erasmus,  who  amid  all  his  antipathy  to 
mediaeval  corruptions  retained  throughout  life  a  sincere 
faith  in  Christianity,  openly  expressed  his  apprehensions  lest 
the  scholars  of  Italy  in  bringing  back  the  ancient  learning 
should  also  rebuild  the  temples  of  p^anism*.  If  to  consi- 
derations such  as  these  we  add,  that  the  light-hearted  and 
witty  scholar,  in  whom  discretion  of  speech  was  by  no  means 
a  conspicuous  virtue,  mistrusted  his  own  prudence  and  reti- 
cence in  the  land  of  the  Inquisition*,  we  shall  be  at  no  loss 
to  understand  how  it  was  that  Italy  wooed  Erasmus  in  vain. 
His  frequent  visits  to  Louvain  would  seem  to  prove  that  that  uiutum, 
rising  school  possessed  for  him  considerable  attractions.  It 
was  natural  that  such  should  be  the  case.  Louvain  was  on 
the  confines  of  his  native  country.  He  speaks,  more  than 
once,  in  high  terms  of  the  courteous  manners  and  studious 

'  Letter  to  Ambn)iiu4  Lea,  Ibid. 
Ill  607. 

'  See  hia  Cicfronianut. 

'  '  Saspicoi  ietic  esse  oUn^iiXoui, 
qaoB  Ultra  Bmoin  nrit,  qnod  uego 
quicqaiim  eaae  [Miuidiuil,  qood  DOn 
■it  OhriatiuiaiD...  Venun  adverana 
iitoi  omni,  qnod  ainnt,  ped«  standnm 
Bit,  qai  moliniitDr  nt  Rib  iito  litolo 


nomiaeqne  bonanuD  litteramm  n- 
pullnl&scat  PasanitoB.'  Letter  to 
Germantu  Briztiu,  Opera,  ill  II 19. 
'  Uuna  Bdhac  scrnpalng  habet  anl- 
nmni  mennt,  oe  Bab  obtentii  prieew 
litteratuTB  renaeoeiitii  caput  eri^re 
conetur  Faganixmiu.'  Letter  to  Ca- 
nto (ISIS),  Ibid.  Ill  186. 
«  iortin,  I VL 


476 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


CHAP.  V.  habits  of  its  youth,  and  its  freedom  from  turbulent  outbreaks 

Pakt  II. 

'•^v-^  like  those  which  he  had  witnessed  at  Paris  and  at  Oxford*. 
He  was  charmed  by  its  pleasant  scenery  and  genial  climate. 
But  at  Louvain,  as  at  Paris,  theological  influences  were  as 
yet  all-predominant ;  in  after  years  we  find  him  speaking  of 
the  university  as  the  only  one  where  an  unyielding  opposi- 
tion to  polite  learning  was  still  maintained* ;  it  prided  itself, 
moreover,  on  a  certain  cold,  formal,  stately  theology,  that 
oflfered  a  singular  contrast  to  the  Parisian  fur(yr\  but  was  in 
no  way  less  adverse  to  the  activity  of  the  Humanists ;  and 
Erasmus  saw  but  little  prospect  of  a  peaceful  career  at  Lou- 
vain.    Under  these  circumstances  it  can  hardly  be  a  matter 
for  surprise  that  he  again  sought  the  English  shores ;  but  the 
question  naturally  arises  how  it  was  that  he  did  not  return 
ozioKBi      to  Oxford.     His  early  experiences  there,  during  his  eighteen 
months'  sojourn   in   the  years   1498  and  1499,   had  been 
among  the  most  grateful  in  his  whole  career.     He  had  found 
a  home  in  the  house  of  his  order,  the  college  of  St.  Mary  the 
Virgin,  then  presided  over  by  the  hospitable  Chamock ;  and 
at  an  age  when  new  friendships  have  still  a  charm,  he  had 
FHsDdaorB-  bccR  brought  into  contact  with  some  of  the  noblest  spirits  in 
uSmi^.  ^  England, — with  the  genius  of  More  and  the  fine  intellect  of 


^  *  Nosqaam  est  aoademia,  qrue 
modestiores  habeat  juvenes,  minus- 
que  tmnultaantes,  quam  hodie  Lova- 
nium.*  Letter  to  lodocut  Noetiut, 
Opera,  iii  409. 

*  *  Geterum  illnd  seepe  mecum  ad- 
miror,  quum  omnes  ferme  totius  orbis 
aoademiiB,  veluti  resipiscentes,  ad 
sobrietatem  quandam  oomponant 
sese,  apnd  solos  Lovanienses  esse, 
qui  tarn  pertinaciier  obluotentnr  me- 
lioribas  Uteris ;  pnesertim  qnum  neo 
in  boo  sopbistioo  doctriusB  genere 
magnopere  prfficellant.'  Letter  to 
Ludovicut  Vives   (a.d.  1621).    Ibid. 

m689. 

'  See  an  interesting  letter,  written 
from  LouYain,  1522,  by  one  fellow  of 
St.  Jobn's  to  another,  giving  an  amus- 
ing account  of  tbe  university  (Har- 
leian  MSS.  6989,  t  7;  Brewer,  Let- 
ter$  and  Papers,  Hfn.  viii,  in  880-1). 
Nicholas  Dazyngton  tells  Henry  Gold 
that  he  finds  the  theological  exeroisefl 


yery  little  to  his  taste;  they  read  and 
argue  coldly,  what  th^  call   with 
modesty,  but  they  are  lazy  and  te- 
dious.   *Parisiis  olamator  Tere  sar- 
donice ;  et  voce  (quod  dicitur)  sten- 
torea,  fremunt  aliquando  ad  spnmam 
usque  et  dentium  stridorem.'     He 
would  like  something  between  the 
two.    Like  Erasmus  he  admiree  the 
beauty  of  the  scenery,  but  he  dialikee 
the  habits  of  the  people.    They  are 
great  gluttons  and  dnnkers.    Th^ 
go  on  draining  fresh  cups  tiU  hands, 
feet,  eyes,  and  tongue  refuse  their 
oflSoe;    and   you  are  an   enemy  if 
you  don't  keep  up  with  them.    Tlieir 
food  is  coarse  and  greasy,  et  (at  ita 
loquar)  ex  omni  parte  hutyrattu:   a 
dinner    without    butter   would    be 
thought  monstrous.     '  Ecoe  deeorip- 
simus    tibi    felicitatem    Teutonioo- 
rum !  *  See  also  Asoham's  very  aimi- 
lar    testimony,    ScholemaHer     (ed. 
Major),  p.  220. 


EBASHUS.  '477 

Colet ; — while  in  acquiring  a  further  knowledge  of  Greek,  he  ' 
had  been  aided  and  encouraged  by  the  able  tuition  and  ex-  ' 
ample  of  men  like  Grocyn,  Linacre,  and  William  liatimer.  We 
have  it  on  his  own  statement  that  Oxford  would  have  been 
glad  to  welcome  him  back,  and  yet  we  find  that  he  preferred 
availing  himself  of  Fisher's  invitation  to  go  down  to  Cam- 
bridge. According  to  Knight'  bis  chief  reason  for  this  pre-  ^ 
ference  was  the  removal  or  death  of  most  of  bis  former " 
friends  at  the  siater  university ;  but  our  information  respect- 
ing Oxford  at  this  time,  together  with  the  few  hints  to  be 
gathered  from  Erasmus's  own  language,  will  perhaps  enable 
us  to  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  there  were  other  reasons, 
of  a  less  purely  sentimental  character,  which  for  the  present 
rendered  his  return  thither  at  least  unadvisable.  And  here  » 
it  will  be  necessary  to  turn  aside  for  a  while,  to  trace  out ; 
the  successive  steps  whereby  the  study  of  Greek  had,  in, 
the  preceding  century,  again  become  planted  on  English  eoiL ' 
Among  the  earliest,  if  not  the  first,  of  those  who  in  this 
country  caught  from  Italy  the  inspiration  of  the  Grecian 
muse,  was  William  Selling,  a  member  of  the  recently  founded 
and  singularly  exclusive  foundation  of  All  Souls,  Oxford,, 
and  subsequently  one  of  the  society  of  Christchurch,  Canter- 
bury. His  own  taste,  which  was  naturally  refined,  appears 
in  the  first  instance  to  have  attracted  him  to  the  study  of 
the  I^tin  literature,  and  this,  in  turn,  soon  awakened  in  him 
a  lively  interest  in  the  progress  of  learning  in  Italy*.  He 
resolved  himself  to  visit  the  land  that  had  witnessed  so 
wondrous  a  revival,  and  having  gained  the  permission  of  his 
chapter  to  travel, — partly,  it  would  seem,  under  the  plea  of 
adding  to  bis  knowledge  of  the  canon  and  civil  law, — lost  no 
time  in  carrying  his  design  into  execution.  At  Bologna,  it 
is  stated,  he  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Politian,  and  forth- 
with  placed   himself  under   his    instruction*.      From    this 


'  I^t  o/Eramna,  p.  128. 

>  ■  Ecce  Bnbito  illi  pne  ocolii  noo- 
tea  atqne  diet  obserTabatar  lUli*, 
post  Gneciam,  bononim  mgemomm 
et  pueQB  et  altrii.'  L«lAiid  (qaotad 
l^  Jobntoa),  Life  of  LijUKTt, -p.  fi. 

'  I  giv»  Uiia  atatement  on  the  ta- 


thorit;  of  Jolmsoii.  If,  m  Antbonj 
Wood  implies.  Selling  was  a  fellow 
at  AU  Soala  at  the  time  that  linaor* 
was  bom,  he  miut  have  been  oon- 
nderablj  PolitUn's  senior.  Oreewf^, 
In  hi*  Lift  of  Politian,  maksa  no 
mentiou  of  that  esninnit  lehtdar^ 


478  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CHAP.  V.  eminent  scholar  ho  gained  a  knowledge  of  Greek,  while  his 
N...^-,.^   leisure  was  devoted,  like  that  of  William  Gray,  to  the  col- 
lection of  numerous  manuscripts.     On  his  return  to  England, 
Selling   bequeathed   these    treasures    to    his   own   convent, 
and   his   aajuirements   in    Greek   and  genuine  admiration 
for  the   Greek   literature  became  the  germ   of  the   study 
in  England.     His  attainments  as  a  scholar  now  led  to  his 
appointment  as  master  of  the  conventual  school,  and  among 
ThottM       his    pupils  was   Thomas   Li  nacre.     From   Selling,   Linacre 
dial'        received  his  first  instruction   in  Greek,  and  when,  at  the 
?3iiii°J?**'age  of  twenty,  he   in   turn  went  up  to  All  Souls,  Oxford, 
^^*'**^'"**' it  was  probably  with   a    stock   of  learning  that,  both   as 
regards   quality   and   quantity,  diflfered  considerably   from 
the  ordinary  acquirements  of  an  Oxford  freshman  in  those 
days.     In  the   year   1484?  he  was,  like   Selling   (to  whom 
he  was  probably  related),  elected  to  a  fellowship  at  All 
Souls,  and   became  distinguished   for  his   studious  habits. 
Like  Caius  Auberinus  at  Cambridge,  there  was  at  this  time, 
aadofviteui  at  Oxford,  a  learned  Italian  of  the  name  of  Cornelius  Vitelli ; 
but  while  Auberinus  taught  only  Latin,  Vitelli  could  teach 
Greek.     Linacre  became  his  pupil,  and  his  intercourse  with 
the  noble  exile  soon  excited  in  his  breast  a  longing  to  follow 
in  the  steps  of  his  old  preceptor.     It  so   happened  that 
Selling^s  acquirements  as  a  scholar  had  marked  him  out  foi> 
a  diplomatic  mission  to  the  papal  court,  and  he  now  gained 
He  Micompa- permission  for  Linacre   to  accompany  him  on  his  loumey. 
JjjJjr.»bout   On  his  arrival  in  Italy,  he  obtained  for  hb  former  pupil  an 
introduction   to   Politian,  who,  removed   to   Florence,   waa 
there,  as  narrated  in  the  former  part  of  this  chapter,  dividing 
the  academic  honours  with  Chalcondyles.    After  studying  for 
some  time  at  Florence, — where  he  was  honoured  by  being 
BecoBBjia    admitted  to  share  Politian's  instruction  along  with  the  young 
vJStiMn.      Medicean   princes, — Linacre   proceeded    to  Rome.     In  the 
splendid  libraries  of  that  capital  he  found  grateful  employ- 
ment in  the  collation  of  different  texts  of  classical  authors, — 
many  of  them  far  superior  in  accuracy  and  authority  to  any 

residence  at  Bologna.    See  Johnson,      et  AtUiq.  Univ.  Oxon.  lib.  n  p.  177. 
Life  of  Linacre^  p.  6,    Wood,  HUU 


EEASHUS.  479 

that  it  had  previoasly  been  his  fortuoe  to  find.     One  day  coat.  t. 
while  thus  engaged  over  the  Pheedo  of  Plato,  he  was  accosted   ^.i^^. 
by  a  stranger ;  their  conversation  turned  upon  the  manuscript 
with  which  he  was  occupied ;  and  from  this  casual  interview 
sprang  up   a  cordial  and   lasting  friendship   between   theMaknUHH)- 
youDg  'English  scholar  and  the  noblest  Italian  scholar  of  the  |2^J^^ 
period, — Hermolaus  Barbaras.   It  became  Linacre'e  privilege  "™* 
to  form  one  of  that  fovored  circle   in    whose  company  the 
illustrious  Venetian  would  forget,  for  a  while,  the  Borrows  of 
exile  and  proscription  ;  he  was  a  guest  at  those  simple  but 
delightful  banquets  where  they  discussed,  now  the  expedition 
of  the  Argonauts,  now  the  canons  for  the  interpretation  of 
Aristotle ;  he  joined  in  the  pleasant  lounge  round  the  ex- 
tensive gardens  in  the  cool  of  the  evening,  and  listened  to 
discussions  on  the  dicta  of  Dioscorides  respecting  the  virtues 
and  medicinal  uses  of  the  plants  that  grew  around.   It  eeenu  1^°^ 
in  every  way  probable  that,  irom  this  intercourse,  Linacre  J;^  ^^ 
derived  both  that  predilection  for  the  scientific  writings  of  "'™' 
Aristotle  for  which  he  was  afterwards  so  distinguished,  and 
that  devotion  to  the  study  of  medicine  which  afterwards  found 
expression  in  the  foundation  of  the  College  of  Physicians, 
and  of  the    IJnacre   lectureships   at  Merton   College,  Ox- 
ford, and  at  St.  John's  College,  Cambridga     From   Rome 
Linacre  proceeded  to  Padua,  whence,  after  studying  medicine 
for  some   months  and  receiving  the  doctorial  degree,  he 
returned  to  England.     His  example,  and  the  interest  excited  miiMtn  •( 
by  his  accounts  at  Oxford,  proved  more  potent  than  the  ex-  g  iStaKo 
ample  of  Selling.  Within  a  few  years  three  other  Oxonians, —  "^  '■""•^ 
William  Qroc}^,  William  Lily,  and  William  I^timer, — also 
set  out  for  Italy,  and,  after  there  acquiring  a  more  or  less 
competent  acquaintance  with  Greek,  returned  to  their  uni- 
versity to  inspire  among  their  fellow-academicians  an  interest 
in  Greek  literature.    To  the  united  efforts  of  these  illustrious  rahnntao- 
Oxonians,  the   revival  of   Greek    learning    in   England   is  t)»  tun  nr 
undoubtedly  to  be  attributed ;  but  the  individual  claims  of  ^^  ^JJ^" 
any  one  of  the  four  to  this  special  honour  are  not  so  easily  '"'- 
to  be  determined.     That  Grocyn  was  the  father  of  the  new 
study,  is  in  Stapleton's  opinion  iDcontestab)^  inasmuch  as 


480  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CHAP.  y.  he  was  the  first  who  publicly  lectured  at  Oxford  on  the 
^"^'  subject* ;  *  if  he  who  first  publishes  to  the  world  the  fruits 
of  his  studies/  says  Johnson, '  merits  the  title  of  a  restorer 
of  letters  above  others,  the  award  to  Linacre  will  not  be 
questioned';'  while  Polydore  Virgil  considers  that  Lily,  from 
his  industry  as  a  teacher,  ought  to  be  regarded  as  the  true 
founder  of  a  real  knowledge  of  the  language*. 
Twtinionyor       Such  wcro  the  men  from  all  of  whom  Erasmus,  when 

Kkaflmus  to 

{hjmjriuofhe   came  to  Oxford   in   1498,  received   that  guidance  and 

^^■■■^        assistance  in  his  studies  which  he  had  so  vainly  sought  at 

Paris,  and  of  whom,  in  his  letter  to  Robert  Fisher,  he  speaks 

in   oft-quoted  terms  of  enthusiastic  admiration\    But    to 

Linacre  his  obligations  were  probably  the  greatest,  and  in 

that  eminent  scholar  Cambridge  may  gratefully  recognise  an 

important  link  in  the  chain  that  connects  her  Greek  learning 

with   the   scholarship   of  Italy.     Oxford   indeed  has   never 

DsbtciQun- ceased  to  pride  herself  on  the  obligation  under  which  the 

oifoi^        sister  university  has  thus  been  laid ;  and  there  are  few  of 

Gibbon's      Gibbon's  sayings  more  frequently  quoted  than  that  wherein 

he  has    described  Erasmus  as  there  acquiring  the   Greek 

which  he  afterwards  taught  at  Cambridge.     The  statement 

however,  like  many  of  the  epigrammatic  sentences  in  which 

the  great  historian  has  epitomised  his  judicial  awards,  is  not 

to   be  accepted  without  considerable   qualification'.     It  is 

certain,  on  the  one  hand,  that  Erasmus  knew  something  of 

^  *  Becens  tano  ex  Italia  vetforat  cipUnamm  orbem  non  xniretnr  ?    Li- 

Grooinns,  qui  primus  ea  astate  Gras-  nacri)];idicio  quid  aontias,  quid  altins, 

cas   litteras    in   Angliam   iuTexerat  quid  emunotius?    Thome  Mori  in- 

Oxoniique  publice  professu^'  fuerat,  genio  quid  unquam  fiiudt  natnra  Tel 

a   oujus  BodsL^  Tho.  Linacro   (Mo-  mollius,  Tel  didciuB,  Tel  felieios?' 

rus)  Grascas  litteras  Oxonii  didicit.'  Opera,  iii  13. 

Tret  Thomce,  in  ThomcB  Mori  Vitn,  ^  Hallam  goes  to  the  opposite  ez- 

o.  I.  treme  in  describing  the  statement  as 

*  Life  of  Linacre f  p.  152.     *  His  *  resting   on  no   OTidence'  (Lit.  of 

translation  of  the  Sphere  of  Proclus,'  Europe,  i^  237):  the  following  passage 

Johnson  adds,  *  was  the  first  correct  in  a  letter  from  Erasmus  to  Latimer 

Tersion  of  a  Greek  author  executed  in  1518,  can  hardly  be  otherwise  un- 

in  this  country  after  the  reTiTal  of  derstood  than  as  implying  that  he 

letters,  and  in  this  the  justice  of  his  had  formerly  benefited  by  his  oor- 

claim  is  Tested.'  respondent's  instructions  as  weU  as 

'  Hittoria  Anglica  (Basel,  1570),  those  of  Linacre: — 'sed  ut  ingenue 

lib.  xxiT  p.  618.  dicam  quod  sentio,  si  mihi  oontingat 

^  *  Coletum  meum  cum  audio,  Pla-  Linacrus  aut  Tonstallus  pneoeptor, 

tonem  ipsum  mihi  Tideor  audire.   In  nam  de  te  nihil  dicam,  non  deside- 

Grooino  quis  ilium  absolutum  dis-  rarim  Italiam.'    Opera^  ni  879. 


ERASUL'S.  ■  481 

Greek  when  he  went  to  Oxford;  it  is  equally  certtuD  on  < 
the  other  hand,  that  when  he  left  he  did  not  know  much ; 
considerably  lesa,  that  is  to  eay,  than   he  knew  whea  1 
entered  upon  the  datiee  of  instmctor  in  Greek  to  our  own  S 
univerBity.     In  the  year  in  which  he   left  Oxford,  we  find  o 
him  speaking  of  an  acquirement  of  the  language  as  still  the 
ohject  he  had  most  at  heart,  and  of  himself  as  yet  unpossessed 
of  the  necessary  authors  for   his   purpose'.     Nearly  twelve 
years  elapsed  from  that  time  hefore  he  gathered  round  him  a 
Greek  class  at  Cambridge,  and  it  was  undoubtedly  during 
this  period  of  his  life  that  his  chief  acquirements  in  the 
language  were  made.     Writing  to  Colet  in  1504,  he  describes 
himself  as  having  been  for  the  last  three  years  intent  on  the 
study,  as  he  found  he  could  do  nothing  without  it*.    The 
year  1507  he  spent  in  Italy, — at  Florence,  Padua,  Rome,  and 
Venice, — where  his  acquirements  could  scarcely  fail  to  he 
augmented   by  his   intercourse   with  scholars  like  Marcus 
Musurus   and  Scipio  Carteromachus*.     But  his  own  inde-a 
fatigable  industry,  it  is  evident,  accomplished  the  main  part  ■" 
of  the  work ;  and  his  expression  in  relation  to  the  subject,  as 
being  himself  avroSHoKTiK,  clearly  shews,  as  Milller  observes, 
that  he  .was  his  own  chief  instructor*.  , 

During  the  time  that  Erasmus  was  resident  at  Oxfofd,  Pi 
the  study  of  Greek  appears  to  have  gone  on  among  the  few  » 
earnest  students  by  whom  it  was  pursued,  quietly  enough. 
There  was  as  yet  nothing,  in  the  af^lication  they  seemed 
disposed  to  make  of  their  acquirements,  that  afforded  dny  pre- 
text for  interference  on  the  part  of  those  who  hated  the  new 
study  simply  because  it  was  an  innovation.    Linacre,  who  was  u 
Aristotehan  to  the  backbone,  and  heartily  despised  the  Pla- 
tonists,  was  occupied  in  translating  Galen ;  while,  in  conjunc- 

*  'AdOneou  Uttoraa  totmnwiiiiiiiin 
■pplieui;  BUUmqae  at  peonnum  m- 
cepero,  Grtecos  primam  auctorea, 
dtonde  vestes  emun.'  Lttter  to  Ja- 
e^Hu  Battut,  Opera,  ui  37. 

>  •  Qiumqaam  antem  intarim  Mm 
tnteto,  tortasau  hnmilioiem,  lunen 
dnm  in  Oisoonun  boitiB  venor,  mnl- 
te  obiter  decaipo,  in  poitenmi  nmi 
fntnn  etiam  Hcrii  in  littaif.    Nun 


hoo  nnnm  eipertiu  rideo,  nollia  in 
litterii  not  «Ma  aliqnid  tine  Gneci- 
tftta.'    LetUr  to  Colet,  Ibid,  ill  98. 

*  Jortin,  1 36.  'ItaUam  adivimaa 
GrBoitatii  potiasiniam  oatua,  TBram 
hi«  jam  (riiteiit  itndia,  ferrent  bella, 
qna  matnriiu  terolare  stodebimiu.' 
To  Servatixi  (BtHogoA,  1607),  tbid. 
mlBTL 

*  HQUer,  p.  171. 

31 


482  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CHAP.  V.  tion  with  Qrocyn  and  Latimer,  he  had  conceived  the  vast  de- 

Pamt  II. 

^'  V  -'  sign  of  giving  to  the  world  a  new  Latin  veraion  of  the  whole 
of  Aristotle's  writings^.  Neither  Grocyn*  nor  Latimer  gave,  by 
their  pens,  the  slightest  clue  to  their  sentiments  with  respect  to 
those  questions  out  of  which  a  controversy  was  likely  to  arise; 
and  it  was  probably  not  before  some  years  of  the  sixteenth 
century  had  elapsed,  that  the  growing  jealousy  of  the  conti- 
nental theologians  began  to  find  expression  among  theologians 
JJj^gjj;^  in  England.    Li  the  first  part  of  the  present  chapter  it  has 
already  been  pointed  out,  how  materially  the  schism  between 
the  eastern  and  western  Churches  had  impeded  the  progress 
of  Greek  learning,  by  the  belief  which  was  concurrently 
diffused  that  Greek  could  not  fail  to  be  heretical;  and  it 
is   easy  to  understand   that  such  a  conviction  must  have 
operated  with  no  little  potency  in  universities  like  Paris, 
Oxford,  Maintz  and  Louvain,  whose  reputation,  as  yet,  was 
almost  entirely  derived  fix)m  their  theological  activity.     Up 
to  the  fifteenth  century  however  we  hear  but  little  of  this 
distrust ;  and  during  the  pontificate  of  Clement  Y,  in  the 
The  vtoAj  of  year  1311,  Greek  had  been  expressly  sanctioned  as  an  ortho- 
g^jj^^«  dox  study,  by  a  decree  for  the  foundation  of  two  professor- 
JSJUS*;^^  ships  of  the  language,  at  the  universities  of  Paris,  Oxford, 
Bologna,  and  Salamanca*.    At  the  same  time  a  like  provision 
was  made  for  instruction  in  Hebrew,  Arabic,  and  Chaldee. 
Neither  Grosseteste  and  the  continental  translators  of  Aris- 
totle in  his  day,  nor  Richard  of  Bury  and  Nicholas  Oresme, 
at  a  later  period, — ^though  imputations  of  heresy  were  suf- 
ficiently rife  in  their  time, — ^betray  any  consciousness  of  any 
such  stigma  attaching  to  the  study  of  Greek.    The  earliest 
indication  of  the  Church's  mistrust  is  perhaps  the  fact  that, 
somewhere  in  the  fifteenth  century,  it  was  discovered  that,  in 
sabwqiMiit   ^^^  papal  decree  above  referred  to,  the  provision  for  the 
ch^SiS^  study  of  Greek  had  been  silently  withdrawn,  while  that  for 
aemtntfiiM.  the  three  other  languages  was  retained.    The  subsequent 

^  Lt/e,  by  Johnson,  p.  204.  oyn's  friendship.    See  his  Letter  to 

'  Grooyn's  reputation  f or octhodozy  a  monky  Jortin,  n  678. 

was  such,  that  More,  writing  in  1519,  '  Thorot,    De    VOrganUation   de 

considered   it   no  little  proof   that  VErueignement,  etc.,  p.  86.     ViTW, 

Erasmos  was  sound  in  the  faith,  in  De  Caueit,  iv  141. 
that  he  had  been  honored  by  Gro. 


EaASMDs.  489 

commentators  on  the  Clemeatines  had  the  hardihood  to  chaf.t. 
assert,  that  Qreek  had  BOTur  been  included  in  the  original  -  *"  - 
decree  that  received  the  pontiff's  signature* ;  but  the  testi* 
mony  of  Erasmus*,  and  his  comments  on  the  motives  that  had 
led  to  the  alteration,  are  eatisfoctory  evidence  that  their 
assertion  obtained  no  credence  among  scholars;  and  his 
letter  to  Christopher  Fisher  (in  which  his  observations  are 
to  be  found)  is  an  interesting  indication  of  the  approach  of 
the  great  struggle  between  the  old  theology  and  the  new 
scholarship. 

It  is  evident  that  the  prejndicea  gainst  Greek  did  not 
diminish  as  its  literature,  especially  the  patristic  writings,  ^^ 
began  to  be  better  known.    An  acquaintance  with  the  early  ^l^th- 
Greek  fathers  awakened  in  many  only  additional  mistrust ;  ^^*     . 
and  that  acquaintance  was  now  more  easily  to  be  guned.  ^ 

Traversari  had  translated  portions  of  the  writings  of  both 
St.  ChrysoBtom  and  St  Basil ;  versions  of  the  latter  had  also 
appeared   from   the  competent  huid  of  Theodonis  Gaza; 
George  of  Trebizond  had  given  to  the  world  ttanslations 
of  some  of  the  treatises  of  Eusebiua.     But  the  chief  alarm  rutir  Ma- 
was  undoubtedly  excited,  not  by  the  direct  study  of  these  and  ^jjj^ 
similar  writers,  but  by  the  tone  of  thought  and  occasional  <^ 
bold  expressions  of  those  who  were  able  to  form  their  opinions 
on  the  subject  without  the  aid  of  translationsi    Sentiments 
were  now  to  be  heard  which  sounded  strangely  in  the  ears  of 
men  who  had  been  taught  to  regard  Augustine  as  an  in- 
falhble  oracle.     Vitrarius, — that  noble  Franciscan  in  whom,  vKrutiw. 
and  in  whom  alone,  Erasmus  could  recognise  a  genius  that 
might  compare  with  that  of  Colet, — ^preferred  Origen, — Arian 
though  he  was  called, — to  any  of  the  other  fathers' ;  Erasmus  auna 
himself,  who  entertained  a  decided  preference  for  the  Greek 
theology,  declared  that  Jerome  was  worth  the  whole  of  the 

'  Corutitutionei  Clementiita  Papa  Letter  to  ChrUtopher  PUker,  Oper^ 

Quinti,  una  eun  Apparatti  loannii  in  99.    EnsmoB,  it  is  to  be  noted, 

Andrea  (Venioe,  1479);  JohannM  da  ipetUu  of  proriBian  being  made on^'- 

ImoU, /n  C'I«nvnlin<inn>  Columtni biu  unity  tot  ingtrnetiail  in  only  Oate 

OfuUiUiMiima  CommenUiTia  (1539),  p.  kngiueu,  of  which  howeTw  Onek 

136.  WMone. 

~  ■  Utmer,  UbeH  dt*  Sranwt,  p. 


484  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CTiAP.  V.  Latin  fathers ;  and  even  ventureil  to  point  out  how  far,  by 
pamth.    virtue  of  his  long  and  arduous  study  of  the  Scriptures  and 
his  real  knowledge  of  Greek,  he  was  entitled  to  rank  as 
an  authority  above  Augustine,  who  knew  but  little  of  the 
language,  and  whose  labours  had  been  carried  on  amid  the 
o>i«t  onerous  duties  of  his  episcopate^ ;  Colet,  though  ignorant  of 

Greek,  shared  the  same  views,  and,  of  all  the  fathers,  seems 
RmdiUD.     to  have  liked  Augustine  the  least;  Reuchlin  confessed  to 
an  admiration  for  Gregory  of  Nazianzum  far  exceeding  that 
which  he  felt  for  any  of  the  oracles  of  the  western  Church*. 
TraecMueof  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that  none  of  the  early 
jjjj^  {j-^     Greek  fathers  could  fairly  be  charged  with  the  special  heresy 
Snftfq?"  of  the  Greek  Church,  for  they  had  lived  and  written  long 
*•****•  P^^-  before  the  doctrine  of  the  Filioque  became  a  subject  of  dis- 
pute :  nor  can  it  be  said  that  they  gave  countenance  to  the 
Reformers,  by  affording  authority  for  rejecting  the  method  of 
interpretation  that  characterised  the  mediaeval  Church, — ^for,as 
is  well  known,  it  was  this  very  same  allegorising  spirit,  in  the 
works  of  the  Alexandrian  fathers,  that  Porphyry  singled  out 
for  special  attack;   nor  did  they  necessarily  encourage  an 
appeal  from  the  ceremonial  traditions  of  the  Romish  Church, 
as  countenanced  by  Isidorus  and  the  Decretals,  for  Laud  and 
.Andrewes  are  to  be  found  among  their  chief  admirers  in  the 
jwrft  of  tho/ seventeenth  century.     The  gravamen  of  the  charge  against 
the  lAtin    I  them,  in  the  days  of  Erasmus,  was,  that  they  favored  rebellion 

tneolcMQr  con*  *'  '  '  •'  ** 

•'■•'^  Xagainst  ike  authority  of  Augustine.  The  theologian,  as  he 
\tumed  their  pages,  found  himself  in  a  new  atmosphere ;  he 
sought  in  vain  for  those  expressions  so  familiar  to  the  western 
Church, — the  reflex  of  the  legal  ideas  that  dominated  in  the 
Roman  mind, — 'merit,'  'forensic  justification,'  'satisfaction/ 
'  imputed  righteousness  ;*  he  found  little  that  favored  the 
doctrine  of  predestination ;  while  there  was  often  discernible 
a  tolerance  of  spirit,  a  diversity  of  opinion,  and  a  wide  sym- 
pathy with  whatever  was  most  noble  in  pagan  philosophy, 
which  fascinated  the  man  of  letters  no  less  than  it  alarmed 
the  dogmatist.  Nor  was  it  possible  to  deny  that,  compared 
with  Augiistine,  these  early  Greek  fathers  stood  for  the  most 

Seebohm,  Oxford  Reformen,  p.  362.     *  Geiger,  Johann  Reuchlin^  p.  99. 


BBASKUS.  485 

part  much  closer  to  apostolic  times,  and  were  more  nearly  chap.  v. 
related,  not  only  chronologically  but  ethnically  and  geographi-    ''*^  !*•- 
cally,  to  the  most  ancient  Christian  Churches ;  that  some  of 
them, — tt  fact  singularly  calculated  to  win  the  reverence  of 
mediseval  minds, — ^had  lived,  written,  died,  in  that  very  land 
'  Orer  vhoK  aorei  w&lked  thoM  blewed  feet 

Whiob  (onrtoen  hnndred  jeus  ago  weie  n&iled 

For  nun's  redemption  to  the  bitter  etoga,' — 

that  land  for  the  recovery  of  which  Christendom  had  so  long 
and  so  unsuccessfully  contended.  It  was  thus  that  some  even  'j^Jj'^'^ 
ventured  to  m^ntain  that  Augustine,  and  not  Origen  or  Euse-  s£*S!£ 
hius,  was  the  real  schismatic,  and  such  was  the  position 
taken  up  by  those  who  at  a  later  period  advocated  the 
doctrine  of  free-wilL  'I  follow  the  doctrine  of  the  Greek 
Church,'  says  Burnet,  in  the  prefuce  to  his  Exposition  of  the 
Thirty-nine  Articles,  'from  which  St.  Austin  departed  and 
founded  a  new  system.' 

But  the  authority  of  the  great  African  father,  intertwined  Pmtima 
with  the  traditions  of  a  thousand  years,  was  not  easily  to  ibHi  Ub- 
be  set  aside ;  and  whether  we  consider  the  teaching  of  Luther 
or  of  Calvin,  of  the  Bomish  or  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  Augustinianism  has  held  its  ground 
with  remarkable  tenacity.  The  educated  few  and  the  philo- 
sophic divine  have  from  time  to  time  risen  in  revolt  against 
its  sombre  tenets;  the  eminent  school  of  Flatonists  that 
graced  the  university  of  Cambridge  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, were  distinguished  by  their  advocacy  of  a  different  doc- 
trine; but  with  the  systematic  theologian  and  the  rigid  dogma- 
tist, not  less  than  with  the  illiterate  multitude,  the  traditional 
theory  has  always  commanded  by  far  the  more  ready  assent. 

There  is  a  story  told  by  Eusebius,  in  his  Prteparatio sti^baa 
Euanjelica,  concerning  the  deacon  Dionysius  Alezaadrinus, 
which  certainly  had  its  moral  for  the  theologians  of  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  in  Erasmus's  day.  Dionysius,  it  seems,  was 
in  the  habit  of  reading  the  works  of  heretical  writers,  being 
desirous  of  *knowing  the  arguments  of  those  from  whom  he 
dissented,  in  order  that  be  might  the  more  successfully  refute 
them.  An  elder  of  the  church  however  remonstrated  with 
him  on  this  practice,  and  pointed  out  the  danger  he  ran  of 


486 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


CHAP.y. 
Pau  IL 


GnekttiidiM 

iMgintobe 

regudedM 


RfficliUn'i 
experienoe  at 


becoming  contamiDatcd  by  the  specious  reasonings  of  error. 
Dionysius  admitted  the  justice  of  the  rebuke,  and  would 
have  probably  for  ever  turned  aside  from  such  literature, 
had  he  not  been  reassured  by  a  dream  from  heaven  i^pa/ia 
OeoTrefiTTTOp),  and  heard  a  voice  utter  these  words: — 'Exa- 
mine whatever  comes  into  thy  hands ;  for  thou  art  able  to 
correct  and  to  test  all  doctrine,  and  the  foimdations  of  thy 
faith  were  laid  even  in  this  manner*.'  Perhaps  if  this  story 
could  have  been  brought  under  the  notice  of  those  who,  at 
this  time,  were  denouncing  the  study  of  Greek  in  the  univer- 
sities of  Germany,  France,  and  England,  it  might  have  been 
not  without  avail  in  inducing  them  to  reconsider  the  reason- 
ableness of  their  opposition.  But  unfortunately  the  passage 
lay  hid  in  that  very  literature  which  they  so  greatly  feared ; 
and  the  Grecian  muse, — as,  to  use  the  expression  of  Argyro- 
pulos,  she  winged  her  flight  across  the  Alps, — seems  to  have 
been  regarded  by  the  great  majority  as  little  better  than  an 
evil  spirit.  Erasmus  himself,  ardent  as  was  his  love  of 
learning,  was  well-nigh  turned  back  in  his  youth  from  the 
pursuit  of  lore  which  might  expose  him  to  the  imputation  of 
iieresy;  he  could  not  forbear  giving  expression  to  his  sur- 
prise, on  hearing  Vitrarius  praise  Origen,  that  a  friar  should 
thus  admire  a  heretic ;  to  which  the  gentle  Franciscan  could 
only  reply,  that  he  would  never  believe  that  one  who  wrote 
with  so  much  learning  and  fervent  piety  could  be  otherwise 
than  divinely  inspired.  Even  the  application  of  a  know- 
ledge of  Greek  to  the  text  of  Aristotle  was  looked  upon  by 
many  with  suspicion ;  and  Beuchlin  tells  us  that  when  he 
first  attempted  such  a  method  of  treatment  at  Basel,  and 
was  already  diverting  large  numbers  from  the  disputations  of 
the  schools,  he  was  vehemently  assailed  by  the  seniors  of  the 
university,  who  declared  that  to  give  instruction  in  the  opi- 
nions of  schismatic  Greeks  was  contrary  to  the  faith  and  '  an 
idea  only  to  be  scouted'.'     It  was  precisely  the  same  spirit 


*  Uaav  irrvyxope  oTf  3r  e/f  x^'pat 
X<£/3oif  *  bievdvwtuf  yb^p  iKoara  koI  Soki- 
fid^uf  Ueu^s  el,  koU  ffoi  yhfwt  tovto 
^^«VX^»  «f«i  Tijt  wlffTftat  aXncm,  HUt, 
Eccle$,  lib.  ?u  o.  7.    Migne,  zz  648. 


*  Dedication  to  Cardinal  Hadrian^ 
prefixed  to  his  Z>e  AceentihuM  et  Or^ 
thographia^  quoted  by  Oeiger,  Jo- 
hann  ReucMin,  p.  17. 


EEASXU3.  '  487 

that  was  now  beginuiiig  to  manifest  itself  at  Oxford.     In  chat.  r. 
many  cases,  no  doubt,  those  who  were  loudest  in  their  out-   -  *^''' 
cries  i^ainst  Greek,  would  have  been  quite  unable  to  prove,  273117*°' 
by  the  citation  of  a  single  passage,  tbe  existence  of  thoee^S^*"'" 
heretical  tenets  in  the  Greek  fatheis  from  which  they  pro- 
fessed to  shrink  with  such  alarm ;  and  it  may  seire  as  evi- 
dence how  little  the  much-vaunted  logical  training  of  those 
times  availed  to  preserve  the  judgement  from  error,  that  the 
majority  of  the  dialecticians  at  both  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
saw  no  inaccuracy  in  the  framing  of  a  syllogism,  which,  hav- 
ing  for  its  major  premise  the  admitted  Heterodoxy  of  cer- 
tain Greek  authors,  deduced  from  thence  the  necessity  (^ 
excludiDg  the  whole  body  of  Greek  Uterature.     At  Oxford 
however,  as  we  have  already  explained,  these  prejudices  were 
most  active ;  and  it  is  in  every  way  probable  that  the  know- 
ledge of  this  fact  materially  influenced  Erasmus  in  his  elec- 
tion between  tiie  two  universities^  and  decided  him  to  make 
his  first  essay  as  a  teacher  of  Greek  in  England,  under  the 
powerful  protection  of  bishop  Fisher  at  Cambridge. 

In  entering  upon  the  experiences  that  now  befell  the  ckuMte  gf 
great  scholar,  some  attention  to  the  peculiarities  of  his  cha- 
racter will  perhaps  be  of  service,  in  enabling  us  to  form  our 
conclusions  without  injustice  either  to  himself  or  to  the  uni- 
versity. It  is  impossible  to  deny  to  Erasmus  the  attribute 
of  genius,  though  that  genius  was  certunly  not  of  the  highest 
order,  and  sympatiietic  rather  Uian  creative  in  its  manifesta- 
tions. He  could  appreciate  and  assimilate  with  remarkable 
power  whatever  was  best  and  most  admirable  in  the  works 
of  others,  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  name  a  scholar,  whose 
inSuence  has  been  equally  enduring,  gifted  with  a  like  capa- 
city for  recognising  true  excellence  in  whatever  quarter  it 
might  appear.  But  nothing  that  Erasmus  himself  designed 
or  executed,  strikes  us  as  of  more  than  secondary  merit.  He 
left  behind  no  such  finely-wrought  conception  as  the  Utopia 
of  More;  he  lacked  altogether  the  prophetic  instinct  of  Colet; 
in  his  boldest  enterprise,  his  .YovEtm  In^rumentam,  he  was 
inspired  by  Valla ;  the  most  poweriul  passages  of  the  Enco- 
■  Sm  inin,  p.  4«v  n.  S. 


488 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


CHAP.  V. 

Pam  II. 

IndioUioiu 
of  character 
afforded  by 
hisletten. 


Luther  on 
Erasmut. 


Impolihre- 
neuof  Krat- 
mus't  charac- 
ter. 


mitivi  Morice  pale  by  the  side  of  the  fury  and  the  scorn  of  the 
Julius  Uxclusus,  In  his  letters  we  naturally  look  to  find  the 
man ;  and  however  much  they  may  increase  our  sympathy 
for  him  in  his  career,  it  can  scarcely  be  said  that  they  tend 
to  raise  our  respect  for  his  character.  The  proud,  sensitive 
scholar,  easily  elated  and  easily  depressed,  impulsive,  san- 
guine, resentful,  vain,  stands  out  amid  all  the  apparent  con- 
tradictions of  the  evidence.  He  affected  the  philosopher, 
but  his  philosophy  was  often  discredited  by  a  querulousness 
somewhat  below  the  ordinary  measure  of  manly  fortitude. 
He  wished  to  be  thought  indifferent  to  applause,  but  the 
praise  of  others, — the  praise,  be  it  in  justice  admitted,  of  the 
best  and  wisest  of  his  time, — was  his  most  cherished  reward 
for  all  his  toil  '  Erasmus,'  said  Luther, — ^who,  though  unable 
to  appreciate  the  tolerance  and  charity  that  formed  one  of 
the  best  phases  of  his  antagonist's  character^  clearly  saw 
through  his  weaknesses, — 'Erasmus  wishes  to  be  thought 
contemptuous  of  the  world's  opinion,  but  wants  the  con- 
tempt to  be  all  on  his  own  side".'  His  temperament  was 
singularly  impulsive :  a  few  courteous  phrases,  a  dexterous 
tribute  to  his  reputation,  together  with  a  very  moderate 
amount  of  substantial  kindness,  at  once  gained  his  good 
opinion  and  drew  from  him  profuse  expressions  of  gi'atitude*. 
But  when  the  temporary  impression  thus  produced  had  sub- 
sided, and  the  poor  scholar  was  left  to  contrast  vague  assu- 
rances with  subsequent  performances,  his  resentment  at  neg- 
lect or  insuflScient  aid  was  proportionably  keen.  Of  all  the 
eminent  men  who  befriended  him  in  England,  there  are  few, 


^  We  may  search  in  vain  throngh 
Luther's  writings  for  snch  a  truly 
Pauline  sentiment  as  the  following: — 
'  Sacris  qnidem  litteris  ubique  prima 
debetur  auotoritas,  sed  tamen  ego 
nonnunqnam  offendo  qniedam  Tel 
dicta  a  veteribus,  vel  soripta  ab  eth- 
nicis,  etiam  poetis  tam  caste,  tarn 
sancte,  tam  divinitus,  ut  mihi  non 
possim  persuadere,  quin  pectus  illo- 
mm,  quum  ilia  scriberent,  numen 
aliqnod  bonum  agitaverit.  Et  for- 
tasse  latins  se  fundit  spiritus  Ghristi 
quam  nos  interpretamur.  Et  multi 
sunt  in  consortio  sanctorum,  qui  non 


sunt  apud  nos  in  eatalogo.*  Cofwv" 
vium  Religiotum, 

*  *  PecuniiB  stndium  nnnqnam  me 
attigit,  famiB  gloria  nee  tantillnm 
tangor.'  Erasmus  to  Servatiui,  Ope^ 
ray  lu  1527.  *  At  ille  sic  oontemneire 
gloriam  voluit,  ut  oontemptus  essei 
non  ab  aliis  sibi  illatus  sed  apud  seee 
oogitatus.'  (Luther,  quoted  by  MQl- 
ler,  Lehen  des  Eratmut,  p.  296.) 

'  '  Erasmus,  whose  tongue  makefh 
of  little  gnats  great  elephants,  and 
lifteth  up  above  the  stars  whoso- 
ever giveth  him  a  little  exhibitioii.* 
Tyndale-Walter,  p.  896. 


^^^1 


ERASKUS.  489 

— Fisher  and  Warham  being  the  most  notable  exceptiona, —  c 
of  whom,  after  having  spoken  in  terms  of  heartfelt  gratitude,  I 
he  is  not  suhsequeatl;  to  be  found  complaining  as  parsimo- 
nious and  forgetfuL     Hence  the  contradictions  with  which  a 
hie  letters  abound;  contradictions  so  glaring  and  ao  frequent,  " 
that  both  the  panegyrist  and  detractor  of  the  men  and  ten- 
dencies of  these  times,  hare  claimed  the  sanction  of  his 
authority.    If  we  seek  to  gather  his  final  and  deliberate  esti- 
mate of  the  scholarship  of  Italy  at  this  period,  we  are  con- 
fronted by  the  fact,  that  almost  every  complimentary  phrase 
in  his  letters  has  to  be  weighed  against  an  equally  uncom- 
plimentary criticism  in  hia    Ciceronianua.    When  he   leftoi 
Rome,  in  1509,  his  EtKonUum  MoricB  was  mainly  dictated  by  - 
chagrin  at  the  neglect  he  had  experienced  at  the  Roman 
court';  in  letters  of  a  later  date,  he  declares  that  Rome  was 
of  all  capitals  the  one  that  had  extended  to  him  the  most 
flattering  recognition, — that  Italy  was  the  one  land  where 
learning,  whatever  its  nationality,  was  certain  of  receiving  , 
due  honour*.     His  native  Holland  is  at  one  time  stigmatised  oi 
OS  a  country  of  barbaric  ignorance  and  the  grossest  sensual- 
ity ;  he  would  sooner,  he  asserts,  take  up  his  abode  among 
the   Phfeacians  of  antiquity*;   while   on  another  occasion, 
when  repelling  the  sarcasms  of  an  antagonist,  he  exalts  his 
countrymen   to  the  skies*.     Ou  his  first  visit   to   England  a 
nothing  could  exceed  his  delight  at  the  climate,  the  men, 
the  learning,  and  the  manners:  in  writing  to  his  old  pupil, 
Robert  Fisher,  he  asJiures  him  that  he  has  found  at  Oxford 


>  Jortin,  I  35.    Knight,  p.  137. 

*  8eeqnotetiomBnpiftp.471.  Con- 
mlt  »1bo  his  letter  to  Uore,  imtten 
1630.  Opera,  ni  614-6.  'Uebri^iu 
Bind  wine  Urtheile  Uber  Bom  nnd 
Itolien  on  veracMedenen  Orten  seiner 
Schriften  sebr  tmgleioh.  Hier  nennt 
ei  die  It&liiuier  du  Volk  daa  ilun  km 
bestea  gefollen,  desses  DmgKDg  ihm 
Mn  ftngeoehmitea  geweeen  sei;  an 
eiuem  aDdeni  Orte  sprioht  er  tod 
ihrem  ^LnEliohen  Mui{[el  onAiilHoh. 
tigkeit;  einmal  rtlhmt  er  ibre  giMM 
OelehrMinkeit  nnd  tbren  i^Uhendan 
Eifer  tSx  die  oluaiBehe  IdtterattiT, 
nnd  aadenwo  ugt  a,  er  bsb«  ge- 


glanbt  mehr  GelBhrBamksit,  Bin  le- 
bendigeiM  Leben  in  den  WUaen- 
■ohAtten  dMelbat  ADEatreOen;  jk  er 
Ittgte  hiniD,  er  wttnaehte  lUlien 
mehr  aehnldi^  zn  sein,  ate  er  ihm 
■ei ;  denn  er  hftbe  ehei  neoe  Eennt- 
niBse  nnd  Bildnng  dahin  gebnoht 
•1b  daraUB  Eorllck  {fenommeu.*  Mdl- 
ler,  p.  196. 

'  '  Id  HoUandia  feie  bimestrei  Don 
sedimns  qnidem,  Md,  oti  in  JEgji^ 
eanea,  auidne  enonirimni  ao  biU- 

PhMWM  TiTere.'  Jatebo  Titori,  m 
S9. 

*  ifuikr,  p.  an. 


490 


BISHOP  FISHEB. 


CHAP.  Y.  such  finished  scholarship,  both  in  Greek  and  in  Latin,  that 
'^"''*  his  motives  for  desiring  to  visit  Italy  have  lost  half  their 
original  force*;  in  writing  to  Faustus  Andrelinus,  he  tells 
him  that,  if  he  only  knew  England,  he  would  long  to  ex- 
change the  boorish  society  in  France  for  a  land  so  highly 
adorned  with  every  attractive  grace*;  and  yet  within  five 
years  later, — before  any  additional  experience  of  our  coun- 
try could  have  afforded  grounds  for  a  change  .in  his  opinion, 
— he  is  to  be  found  lavishing,  in  a  deliberately  composed 
oration,  pronounced  in  the  presence  of  a  distinguished 
audience,  the  most  unbounded  praise  on  France  and  its 
capital,  and  ranking  Englishmen  with  the  Scythians  and 
Carians  of  antiquity'.  Swayed  by  the  mood  of  the  hour, 
while  that  mood  in  turn  often  reflected  only  some  petty  dis- 
appointment or  delusive  hope,  he  left  on  record  each  tran- 
sient impression ;  little  deeming,  we  may  charitably  suppose, 
how  each  hasty  verdict  would  be  pondered  and  quoted  by 
distant  generations. 

In  studying  the  details  of  his  more  familiar  intercourse, 
we  are  struck  by  the  fact  that  he  rarely  seems  to  have  .added 
to  his  reputation  by  his  personal  presence.  It  was  not 
merely  that  his  modest  stature,  with  the  blue  eyes  and  flaxen 
hair  that  bespoke  his  Batavian  extraction,  was  not  imposing ; 
his  timid,  vacillating,  sensitive  spirit  faltered  in  the  presence 
of  more  robust  though  far  more  vulgar  natures ;  and  even 
over  those  few  who  could  discern  the  finer  traits  of  his  cha- 
racter, much  as  they  envied  his  attainments  and  admired  his 
Hisportnit  dcvotiou  to  letters,  his  genius  cast  no  spelL  Lavater,  who 
by  UTftter.  carefully  compared  five  portraits  of  the  great  scholar,  declared 
that  they  all  indicated  with  remarkable  agreement  the  same 


1  See  supra,  p.  474,  n.  8, 4. 

*  *  Tn  quoque,  si  sapis,  huo  adyola- 
bis,  quid  ita  juvat  te  hominem  tarn 
nasutom  inter  merdas  Gallicas  oon- 
senesoere  ?...  Quanqoam  si  Britanniie 
dotes  satis  pemosces,  Fauste,  nsB  tu 
alatis  pedibus  huo  acoorreres:  et  si 
podagra  tna  non  sineret,  Dsedalam  te 
fieri  optares.'    iii  56. 

>  *  Annon  yidemas,  at  inter  feras, 
ita  et  inter  nationes  hominum,  fero- 


dssimas  qnasqne,  maximeqae  bar- 
baras,  pngnaoissimas  esse  ?  rioati 
Cares,  Scythas,  et  Britannos.'  Ora* 
Hon  to  Philip t  duke  of  Burffundy^  a.d. 
1604  (Jortin,  n  171).  Jortin  under- 
stands the  reference  to  be  to  the 
English  of  Erasmus's  own  day;  but 
it  is  at  least  possible  that  Erasmus 
meant  to  refer  to  the  andent  Britons. 
See  also  Knight's  observations,  p. 
121. 


ERAEinJS.  '4f^l 

characteristics.  In  each  there  was  the  mme  retreating,  ca^ 
timorous,  half-suspicious  bearing  of  the  head;  the  furtive  ^-J^ 
humour  playing  round  the  well-formed  mouth;  the  quiet 
half-closed  eyes,  gleaming  with  the  self-constrained  enjoy- 
ment of  a  shrewd  observer  and  skilful,  dexterous  contriver ; 
the  nose,  full  of  refinement  and  sensibiUty ;  the  broad  well- 
shaped  chin,  indicating  a  meditative  nature,  equally  removed 
from  indolence  and  from  violence.  In  the  lines  that  crossed 
the  forehead  the  physiognomist  saw  traces  of  a  less  Cavorable 
kind,  a  wont  of  moral  strength;  while  nowhere  could  he 
discern  the  signs  of  destructive  power,  of  a  bold,  resolute, 
combative  nature*. 

Such  was  the  man,  and  such  had  been  his  career,  who  mttM 
early  in  the  October  term  of  the  year  1611,  saw  gathered  >■''■*- 
round  him  at  Cambridge  a  small  circle  of  auditors  to  whom, 
he  offered  instruction  in  this  same  Greek  language,  the  study 
of  which  they  all  had  probably  heard  both  violently  abused 
and  warmly  defended;  and,  with  all  his  defects,  we  may  yet 
allow  that  learning,  in  that  day,  could  have  had  no  worthier 
apostle  than  Erasmus, — the  student  no  more  inspiring  exam-  aitpM 
pie.  Like  some  ship, — ^to  use  the  trite  dmile  under  which  he  f^  <^ 
often  spoke  of  his  vicissitudes*, — driven  from  its  course  by 
violent  storms  or  becalmed  in  strange  latitudes,  the  poor 
scholar  had  many  a  time  been  carried  whither  he  would  oot^ 
and  left  with  no  guide  save  that  one  dominant  resolve  which 
formed  the  polar  star  of  his  career.     One  he  was,  whom  a 
cruel  fate  had  bastardised  and  driven  from  his  native  land, — 
whom  mercenary  guardians  had  coerced  into  that  very  pro- 
fession which  most  of  alt  threatened  to  mar  his  projects  and  to 
break  his  spirit, — ^who  had  been  exposed  to  all  that  oonld 
crush  life  and  high  purpose  out  of  a  young  heart  amid  the 
harsh  discipline  of  the  fiiais  of  Herzogenbusch,  to  all  that 

^  Qnoted  hv  UdUer,  pp.  106-9.  *  *  Qnippe  qni  jam  ummn  Kilidam 

The  portrait  I7  Holban,  now  Uia  mdTenia  Tentii,  kdvono  flnmme.  ira- 

piopOTty  of  the  earl  of  Badoor,  n-  to  c»1o  nangem.'     Opera,  iii  8S — 

oentljp  on  view  at  tli«  Bc^al  Aeademy  '  Com  me  mena  gewtu  plniibna  ead- 

ol  Arts,  has  the  diMdvanUge  of  har-  bna  atqne  enoribiu  eierenerit,  qnam 

"  nnqnain  Neptnnoi  UljSMm  Honuri* 
earn.'    IWdL  m  MM. 


492 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


CHAP.  Y. 
Paw  II. 


TTnoerUln 
chronokiKyof 
his  Omii* 
Mdge  letters. 


AmnKmiiis 
oTLuoca. 

k  i4rr. 
dLiur. 


Bnunitu*! 
first  Greek 
lecture  at 
Gunbridge. 


could  ensnare  and  chain  down  the  intellect  among  the  sensual 
unlettered  natures  that  composed  the  community  at  Stein, — 
who  had  known  the  pestilential  precincts,  unwholesome  fare, 
and  merciless  floggings  of  '  Montaceto,' — in  whom  an  excru- 
ciating malady,  that  left  him  only  with  his  life,  marred  the 
very  enjoyment  of  existence, — and  who  yet,  triumphant  over 
every  difficulty  and  every  disaster,  had  risen  to  be  an  oracle 
in  Europe,  to  gain  the  favour  of  princes  and  courts,  who  was 
finally  to  inaugurate  a  new  religious  era,  and  to  win  a  death- 
less fame.  Such  was  Desiderius  Erasmus,  as,  with  the  little 
grammar  of  Chrysoloras  in  his  hand,  he  stood  confronting  the 
gaze,  half  curious,  half  reverent,  of  his  Cambridge  class, — em- 
phatically one  of  those  who,  in  a  higher  sense  than  the  poet's, 
vitai  lampada  traduiU. 

In  endeavouring  to  connect  together  the  few  disjointed 
facts  that  have  reached  us  respecting  Erasmus's  Cambridge 
experience,  we  find  an  additional  source  of  uncertainty  in  the 
doubtful  chronology  of  his  letters  written  during  this  time^ 
So  far  however  as  the  correct  dates  are  to  be  inferred  from 
the  contents,  it  seems  probable  that  his  earliest  Cambridge 
letter  is  one  to  Ammonius,  written  from  Queens'  College, 
wherein  he  speaks  of  himself  as  in  but  indifferent  health 
and  even  deferring  work  with  pupils  until  more  thoroughly 
recruited'.  Ammonius  of  Lucca  was  a  courtly,  refined,  and 
kindly  hearted  Italian,  who,  by  virtue  of  his  attainments  aa  a 
scholar,  was  afterwards  appointed  to  be  Latin  secretary  to 
Henry  viii ;  and  also  held  the  post  of  collector  of  the  papal 
dues  in  England*.  He  seems  to  have  taken  a  special  interest 
in  Erasmus's  Cambridge  prospects,  and  throughout  the  period 
of  the  latter's  residence  there,  to  have  acted  the  part  of  a 
generous  and  sympathising  friend.  It  is  in  a  second  letter  to 
Ammonius,  accordingly,  that  we  find  the  oft-quoted  passage, 
in  which  Erasmus  states  that  he  has  already  lectured  on  the 


^  On  the  chronology  of  Erasmus's 
earlier  letters  see  Prof.  Brewer's  ob- 
Bervations,  Letters  and  Papers  of  the 
Reign  of  Hen.  vin,  yol.  i/  letters  1842 
and  1849;  and  Mr  Seebohm's  Oxford 
Beformers,  p.  186. 

*  *  Anditoribns  ncmdom  oopiam  mei 


feci,    onpiens  yaletadini  inseryire.' 
Operat  iii  108. 

»  Knight,  pp.  132-8 ;  Jortin,  i  85-6; 
Brewer,  Letters  and  Papers,  n  4, 189. 
Ammonius  was  the  sucoessor  of  Pdly- 
dore  Vergil  when  Wolsey  had  ihzowu 
the  latter  into  priaoii. 


ERAsinrs.  493 

gnunnmr  of  ChrysoloraB,  bat  faas   had  but  few  hearers,  cbap.  r. 
'  Perhaps,'  the  poor  sanguine  scholar  goes  on  to  say,  '  I  shall   ''t*^!^,- 
hare  a  larger  gathering  when  I  begin  the  grammar  of  Theo- 
dorus ;  it  is  also  possible  that  I  shall  undertake  a  lecture  in 
theology'.'     The  lectureship  to  which  he  refers  is  no  other 
than  that  recently  founded  by  the  lady  Margaret,  uid  in  this 
respect  his  hopes  were  realised ;  for  he  was  not  only  ap-  Stiiwgiai- 
pointed  lady  Margaret  professor,  but  was  re-elected  at  thepgyyro- 
expiration  of  the  first  two  years  and  continued  to  fill  the  post 
during  the  period  of  his  residence*.    But  with  resp^  to  his  fuotiriii 
Greek  class  he  was  doomed  to  almost  complete  disappoint*  gj^  of  , 
ment.     The  elaborate  treatise  by  Theodoras  possessed  no 
more  attractions  for  Cambridge  stadeut«  than  the  more  ele- 
mentary manual  by  Chrysoloras.     In  fact,  it  is  evident  &om 
Erasmus's  own  occasional  observations,  Uiat  the  few  students 
who  were  disposed  to  occupy  themselves  with  Greek  learning 
were  not  sons  of  wealthy  &miliee,  but  comparatively  poor 
men  seeking  to  add  to  their  store  of  marketable  knowledge, 
and  of  course  totally  unable  to  shew  their  appreciation  of  his 
services  after  the  fashion  of  lord  Mountjoy,  Grey,  and  the 
young  archbbhop  of  St.  Andrews.     Erasmus  had  looked  for- 
ward to  receiving  handsome  presents,  and  appears  to  have 
stipulated  for  no  fees '.     He  was  accordingly  ch^rined  be- 
yond measure,  when  his  pupils  literally  interpreted  his  cour- 
teous refusals  of  the  ordinary  payments,  and,  if  they  learnt 
but  little,  paid  less.     '  I  see  no  prospect,'  he  says,  in  another  ^■bumm 
letter  to  his  friend  Colet,  'of  making  money,  for  how  can  I 
demand  it  of  men  with  empty  pockets,  inasmuch  as  I  am  not 
without  some  sense  of  shame ;  and  was  bom,  moreover,  with 


'  'HMtemu  pneleghma  Ciajio- 
loiM  gnmmaticeii,  led  pknou;  for- 
tMui  fnqnmtiari  knditorio  Tbeodoii 
gramniatiaun  *iupie*biiiint;  forta*- 
■u  et  tbeologlcuii  le«tioiietii  nud- 
piemDi.iiBmidnimeseitiir.'  Opera.  la 
110.  8mabonipr»,pp.  893and4S0. 

■  FUh«r,  Funeral  Sermm  for  tk» 
Caanttn  of  Richmond  (ed.  BftkM  and 
HTmers),  p.  B8. 

'  It  U  most  probable  Uut  hit  pro- 
fesstoD,  ai  au  AognEtinlan  canon, 
readerad  it  diffieolt  lor  him  to  tCMh 


openly  for  gain,  withoat  Inenrring 
eenrare.  In  a  letter  to  Serratiaa, 
the  prior  ol  bia  oonveiit  at  Stein, 
mittai  the  same  year  that  lie  floallj 
qnitied  Cambridge,  he  (aya, '  Caitta- 
brigic  mensea  oomplnrei  domi  Gne- 
eaa  et  aamaa  litteraa,  idqut  gratU, 
itaque  temfer  faetre  dtentvm  ttt.' 
(Op«ra,iu  1639.)  Whatever  constme- 
tkm  we  may  pot  upon  thii  asrartion, 
it  DBTtainlj  eontraata  etrangelv  with 
bia  oompUiinta  quoted  in  the  mUo«' 


494 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


CHAP.  Y.  Mercury  entirely  uiipropitiou8\'    '  The  gain  is  too  contempti- 
^    V  --  ble  to  be  worth  taking  into  account*,'  he  writes  somewhat 
later  to  Ammonius;  while  in  a  third  letter,  he  seems  to 
imply  that  he  might  get  pupils  if  he  were  disposed  to  tout 
for  them'.    At  one  time  he  had  quite  resolved  to  leave  for 
London,  but  the  plague  had  broken  out  there,  and  he  was 
also  detained  at  Cambridge  by  the  hopes  of  shortly  receiving 
some  thirty  nobles  which  he  had  earned  \    Then  the  plague 
travelled  on  to  the  university;  most  of  the  students  dispersed, 
umS£^^  and  his  hopes  of  pupils  grew  fainter  than  ever.    If  indeed  we 
Jgjjjf*"  were  to  fonUiOur  conclusions  respecting  Erasmus's  success  at 
Cambridge,  solely  from  his  own  statements  during  the  period 
of  his  residence^  we  should  infer  that  his  projects  were  at- 
tended by  unredeemed  failure.    It  is  only  when  we  turn  to 
note  the  eventful  changes  that  followed  upon  his  teaching, 
long  afler  his  voice  was  no  longer  heard  from  the  professorial 
chair,  that  we  perceive  that  his  exertions  were  really  produc- 
tive of  important  and  lasting  results.  And  not  only  this :  even 
during  his  stay,  his  own  pecuniary  loss  proved  the  world's 
J2jttj«jgj  great  gain.    Disappointed  in  the  class-room,  he  took  refuge  in 
"*'*»''      his  study ;  and  to  his  labours  there,  the  men  of  his  generation 
were  indebted  for  his  two  most  notable  achievements, — 
2Jj5J2J^   the  Ncnmm  Instrumentum  and  his  edition  of  Jerome*.    By 
the  one  he  directly  paved  the  way  for  the  Reformation ;  by 


1  <De  qTuesta  nibil  Tideo,  quid 
enim  auferam  a  nndis,  homo  neo 
improbufl  et  Meronrio  iraio  natiis.* 
Ibid,  m  109. 

'  *  QiUBstnB  minor  est  qnam  nt  me 
moYeat'    Ihid.  ui  110. 

'  'Tom  qiuestns  Tideo  nonniliil 
Biqaisardelionempossitagere.'  Ibid. 
ni  112. 

^  *  Londini  non  minus  saBvit  pestifl, 
qnam  iaihio  Mara.  Itaque  Ganta- 
biigiflB  no6  tenemoB,  qnotidie  drcmn- 
apcwtantea  at  commode  aTolemna. 
8ed  non  datnr  opportonitas.  £t  re- 
tinent  triginta  nobiles  qnos  ad  Mi- 
ohaelifl  exspeoto.*  To  AmmoniiUt 
Ibid.  UI  109. 

*  To  the  latter  work  he  applied 
himself  with  more  than  nsoal  ar- 
dour : — *  Ad  Hieronymom  emendan- 
dom  et   Boholiis   moBtnuidam,  ita 


mihi  f enret  animna,  nt  afflatus  a  Beo 
qnopiam  mihi  Tidear.  Jam  pene  to- 
tom  emendati  coUatione  mnltorom 
ao  yetemm  exemplarimn.  Atqne  id 
ago  inoredibili  meo  sompto.'  To  the 
tame.  Ibid,  To  these  labours  we 
may  add  a  collation  of  certain  mana- 
scripts  of  Seneca's  writings, — *Poro 
CantabrigifB  nacti  veteres  aliqnot  co- 
dices, adgressi  snmns  Senecam  ora- 
torem,  magnis  qoidem  laboribos  nos- 
tris,  sed  qnomm  editio  panun  felici- 
ter  cesserit.'  The  manuscript  was 
entrusted  to  a  friend  and  lost.  Jor- 
tin  (Appendix),  ii  424.  Cooper  {Aiu 
naUf  I  282)  mentions  a  short  trea- 
tise, De  Contcribendii  EpistoUs,  as 
both  written  and  printed  by  Erasmus 
during  his  residence ;  but  the  work  had 
certainly  been  written  long  before: 
see  Jortin,  1 15 ;  Knight,  p.  87. 


495 

the  other  he  guided  the  student  of  bis  a^  to  that  juster  cbap.  t. 
estimate  of  the  v^ue  and  authority  of  mediieval  theologiauB,  ^*""' 
which  BO  laxgelj,  though  less  immediately,  conduced  to 
the  same  great  rerolution.  In  hrief,  we  cannot  perhapa 
better  express  the  importance  and  significance  of  his  work, 
than  when  we  say  that  the  new  Margaret  professor, — whom, 
during  the  greater  part  of  his  residence  at  Cambridge,  we 
may  picture  to  ourselves  as  thus  toiling  away  in  his  chamber, 
high  up  in  the  south-west  tower  of  the  first  court  of  Queens' 
College, — was  mostly  engaged  in  investigations  the  result  of 
which  was  to  be  the  eventual  consignment  to  neglect  and 
oblivion  of  nearly  nine-tenths  of  the  literature  on  which  the 
theologians  in  the  imiversity  oronnd  him  looked  with  moet 
reverence  and  r^ard. 

It  is  certmnly  a  remarkable  circumstance  that  holding, 
as  he  did,  those  decided  opinions  to  which  he  had  a  few 
years  before  given  expression  in  his  letter  to  Christopher 
Fisher,  the  papal  prothonotary  at  Paris, — a  letter  of  which 
Von  der  Hardt  speaks  as  'a  presage  of  the  Reformation V 
and  described  by  Mr  Seebohm  as  'an  assertion  of  the  gram- 
marian's rights  in  relation  to  theology,' — ^Erasmus,  notwith- NoHnnKf 
standing,  appears  to  have  succeeded  in  avoiding  anything  ™  "mg. 
approaching  to  a  collision  with  the  opposite  party  during  the  ^ 
time  that  he  filled  the  professorial  chair.  We  can  hardly 
suppose  that,  in  the  dischtuge  of  his  office,  he  made  any 
attempt  to  conceal  his  views,— especially  when  we  remember 
how  those  views  began  to  operate  soon  after  he  had  quitted 
the  unirendty;  it  is  equally  difficult  to  believe  that,  with 
bis  habitual  want  of  reticence*,  he  could  have  managed  to 
steer  clear  of  such  questions  in  his  more  Euniliar  intercoutse. 
Very  soon  after  he  had  taken  up  his  residence  at  Qneens* 
College,  we  find  him  intimating  in  a  letter  to  Colet,  that  he  ^a 

'  nut.  Litt.  Btformationit,  p.  4.  qoun  fortuM  deeMt,  «t  lingnn  libe- 

Ur  Seebohm  pnta  mama  moMiiuit  of  riorii  qnam  nonnimqiuun  ezpediat, 

the  letter  in  his  Oxford  Rtformtn,  metior  enim  alionuii  uumoe  ei  meo.' 

pp.  97-8.    The  letter  ii  tiao  tnni-  (quoted  by  Knight,  p.  B31).     '  Am- 

Uited  ftt  length  by  Muller,  Leben  dt*  monitu  non  ignonbkt  quanta  liber- 

Eratmil*,  pp.  S47-G9.  tate    eolaun    ftpnd   unieos   eflntuv 

*  ■  Ut  ingenue  qnod  Teram  eat  fit-  qiiiaqiud  in  bnoMm  veoarit.'    Opera, 

tew,  Bom  natm  propeunor  *A  joeo*  m  1469> 


496 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


CHAP.  ▼.  was  beginning  to  be  aware  of  the  presence  in  the  university 
fampil  ^£  ^  certain  class  of  men  respecting  whom  his  friend  had 
forewarned  him".  They  were  probably  men  of  the  same 
intolerant  character  as  those  who,  a  few  years  later,  at  one  of 
the  colleges,  prohibited  the  introduction  of  his  edition  of  the 
New  Testament.  That  their  opposition  was  not  more 
demonstrative  during  his  stay,  is  perhaps  to  be  attributed  to 
by  the  influence  of  Fisher.  The  latter  indeed  was  at  this  time 
almost  omnipotent  at  Cambridge;  he  had  been  regularly 
re-elected  chancellor,  at  the  expiration  of  each  term  of  office, 
ever  since  his  first  election ;  and  it  would  have  been  perhaps 
impossible  to  find,  in  an  equal  degree,  in  any  one  of  his  con- 
temporaries, at  once  that  moderation,  integrity  of  life,  and 
disinterestedness  of  purpose,  which  left  the  bigot  no  fault 
to  find,  and  that  liberality  of  sentiment  and  earnest  desire 
for  reform,  which  conciliated  far  bolder  and  more  advanced 
thinkers.  Over  Erasmus,  whose  wandering  career  had  not, 
by  his  own  ingenuous  confession,  been  altogether  free  from 
reproach*,  a  character  so  saintly  and  yet  so  sympathising 
exercised  a  kind  of  spell.  Of  all  the  men  whom  he  ever 
Htoidmim-  knew,  Fisher  seems  to  have  most  inspired  his  reverence  and 
Fhyt  cbft-  regard.  To  Fisher's  influence  he  attributes  all  that  is  most 
hopeful  and  encouraging  in  the  university;  to  Fisher  Cam- 
bridge was  indebted  for  the  peaceful  introduction  of  the 
study  of  Greek',  and  for  that  salutary  effort  on  behalf  of 
theological  learning,-;— the  lady  Margaret  professorship,  to 
which  he  had  himself  been  appointed ;  he  praises  with  spe- 
cial emphasis  the  design  of  the  lady  Margaret  preachership, 
as  opposed  to  the  prevailing  artificial  style  of  pulpit  oratory ; 
of  Fisher  himself,  he  observes  that  he  preserved  the  golden 
mean, — ^neither  adhering  doggedly  to  the  ancient  learning, 
nor  siding  with  those   who   were   wishing  to  set  all  tradi- 


1  *  Jam  nnno  snbodoror  genns  hoc 
bominam,  de  quo  memineras ;  qua 
de  re  plora  coram.'    Opera,  iii  109. 

*  <  Voluptatibns,  etsi  quando  fui 
inqninatos,  nmiqnam  servivi.'  Ibid, 
in  1527.  See  also  letter  671,  Ibid. 
in  790. 

*  *Anglia  dnas  habet  aoademias 


handquaqnam  ineelebres,  Cantabri- 
giam  et  Ozoniam.  In  utraque  ira- 
dimtur  OrsBoiB  littene,  ted  Canta- 
brigia  tranquilUt  qnod  ejus  sohoUB 
princeps  sit  Johannes  Fisoherios 
episcopos  Boffensis,  non  emditione 
tantom,  sed  vita  theologioa.'  JMd. 
ni407. 


SRASKUEL  497 

tioDal  studies  aside';  he  deKiibes  him  as  one  in  whom  were  oiap.t. 
united  the  highest  attainments  and  the  most  blameless  cha-  -  y  — ■ 
racter,  and  in  whom  every  virtue  that  became  a  bishop  waa 
combined  in  an  extraordinarjc  degree*.  On  tfae  other  hand,  it  iniBasirf 
is  equally  evident  that  Fisher  was  not  less  influenced,  though  nibw. 
in  a  difTerent  manner,  by  bis  successor  in  the  professorial 
chair.  Of  the  tnoderation  which  Erasmus  so  much  admired 
in  his  patron,  he  was  himself  a  com^picuous  example.  The 
good  bishop  took  heart  in  his  advocacy  of  the  new  learning, 
when  he  found  the  foremost  scholar  of  the  i^e  not  less  ready 
to  denounce  the  profanity  of  the  Italian  sceptics  than  the  de- 
generacy of  the  mendicant  orders,  and  able  both  to  discuss 
with  masterly  discrimination  the  merits  of  classical  authors 
and  to  recognise  the  real  value  of  the  writings  of  St.  Thomas 
or  St.  Jeroma  The  various  evidence  indeed  which  we  find 
of  their  interchange  of  opinion  on  such  subjects,  would  seem 
to  indicate  that  Erasmus's  influence  over  Fisher,  and  through 
Fisher  over  Cambridge  at  large,  was  far  greater  and  more 
enduring  tbau  their  respective  biographers  would  lead  us  to 
suppose.  In  their  views  with  respect  to  the  necessity  for  a 
thorough  reform  in  the  provuling  style  of  preaching,  they 
wera  so  &r  at  unison,  that  Fisher,  as  we  have  already  noted, 
could  think  of  no  one  better  qualilieil  than  Erasmus  to  pro- 
pare  a  manual  of  the  preacher's  art*.  After  Erasmus  had 
left  Cambridge  we  find  Fisher  writing  to  tell  him  that  he 
had,  on  his  recommendation,  bought  and  read  Agrioola's  De 
IntmUioM*,  and  only  regretted  that  he  had  not  himself  had 
the  benefit  of  Agricola's  instruction  in  his  youth,  for  he 
had  never  read  anything  at  once  so  elegant  and  masterly*. 
Under  the  same  influence  again  Fisher  was  led  to  conceive 


'  Lewis,  Lift  of  FUIvt,  1 13. 

'  ■  Vir  nuuB  Tere  epiaoopm,  Tare 
theologaa.'  Lrtler  la  Virri  lt.D.  1621), 
Opera,  iii  6M).  'Vir  oioiiiiim  epii- 
oopolinm  Tirtutom  genere  coiaiila- 
tUKimna.'  Letlrr  to  tardinal  Gryma- 
mu  (i.D.  1615),  Ibid,  m  US.  'Tir 
piet^  doctiinaqne.  ringnlari.'  Let- 
ter to  cardinal  St.  Qtorge  (lo.  1G15), 
Jbid.  m  UG. 

*  Seenpra,  p.4S9. 

*  See  snpn,  p.  413. 


*  '  Perlegimiu,  EtBsme,  his  diebna 
Bodolplii  AgrioolB  DlaleetieaM:  tb- 
nalem    enim    earn   reperimni  inter 

Iiibliopolai Puiois  disun,  nitdl 

nnqnam,  qnuitam  tA  txiem  illsm 
pertinet,  l^^ni  jacnndina  et  amdi- 
titu.  iU  mngnlk  quidem  poneta  ex- 
preuuM  Tidetiu.  Utinun  jnTenu 
pnBoeploram  iUom  fniuem  nactait 
MaUem  id  piofeeto,  tMqne  nn*  men- 

qiMB.'    Opera,  m  1819. 

3S 


502 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


CTiAP.  Y.  Christian  philosophy  than  ten  pages  of  St.  Augustine  ^    Of 
^  r^"  ">    St.  Hilary,  it  is  true,  he  spoke  with  praise ;  but  in  the  pre- 
BL  BOmrj.    f^^^j^  ^^  j^jg  subsequent  edition  of  that  father's  works,  there  oc- 
curred what  was  perhaps  to  the  scholastic  theologian  the  most 
galling  passage  Erasmus  ever  wrote, — a  passage  that  roused 
the  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne  to  a  man.    It  is  that  wherein  he 
contrasts  the  reverent  and  moderate  tone  in  which  St.  Hilary 
approaches  the  mysteries  of  Christian  doctrine,  with  the  fierce 
and  shallow  dogmatism  and  unhesitating  confidence  shewn  by 
the  interpreters  of  such  subjects  in  his  own  time'.     Towards 
Nichotoidt   Nicholas  de  Lyra  and  Hugo  of  St  Victor,  the  two  great  lights 
^^ofst   of  mediaeval  theology, — whose  pages  were  more  diligently 
•studied  at   Cambridge   than  those  of  any  other  mediaeval 
theologian,  Lombardus  alone  excepted, — he  shewed  but  scant 
respect.     He  considered  indeed  that  the  errors  of  De  Lyra 
might  repay  the  trouble  of  correcting,  and  of  these  he  subse- 
quently pointed  out  a  large  number,  and  challenged  any 
writer  to  disprove  the  arguments  whereby  he  impugned  their 
accuracy;  with  regard  to  Hugo  however,  he  declared  that 
his  blunders  were  too  flagrant  to  deserve  refutation '.     But 


'  *  Aperit  enim  quasi  fontes  qnoB- 
dam,  et  rationes  icdioat  artis  theo- 
logic».'     OperOj  iii  95. 

'  'Sabinde  necessitatem  banc  [de 
tcUibus  pronunfiandi]  deplorat  Banc- 
tissimas  yir  Hilarius  baudqaaqaam 
ignaras  qnam  pericnli  plenum  sit, 
qoam  parum  religiosum,  de  rebus 
ineffabilibus  eloqui,  incomprebensi- 
bilia  Bcnitari,  de  longe  semotis  a 
captn  nostro  pronunciare.     Sed  in 
boo  pelago  longius  etiam  provectus 
est  ddvus  Augustiuus,  videlicet  felix 
hominis  ingeuium,  queerendi  volup- 
tate,  velut  aura  secundiore,  aliunde 
alio  proliciente.    Moderatior  est  et 
PetruB  Lombardus,   qui   sententias 
alienas  recitans  non  temere  de  suo 
addit;  aut  si  quid  addit,  timide  pro- 
ponit.  Bes  tandem  usque  ad  impiam 
audaciam  progressa  est.     Sed  veteri- 
bus  sit  Tenia,  quam  precantur,  quos 
hue  adegit  n^cessitas.     Nobis  qua 
ironte  veniam  po6oemus,qui  de  rebus 
longe  semotissimas  a  nostra  natura, 
tot  euriosaSf  ne  dicam  impias,  move- 
mus  qu4tstion€i;    tarn  multa  defini- 


mu$f  qva,  eitra  8aluti$  dispendiuwi^ 
vel  ignorari  poterant^  vel  in  ambiguo 

relinqitif Doctrina  Cbristi,  que 

prius  nesciebat  \oyo/iaxlap,  ooepit  a 
philosopbisB  praesidiis  pendere:  bie 
erat  primus  gradus  ecdesisB  ad  de- 
teriora  prolabeutis.  Accrevenmt 
opes,  et  acoessit  Tis.  Porro  admizta 
buio  negotio  CsBsarum  auotoritas, 
non  multum  promovit  fidei  sinceri- 
tatem.  Tandem  res  deducta  est  ad 
sopbistieas  contentioneB,  articulomm 
mjriades  proruperunt.  Hino  deven- 
tum  est  ad  terrores  ac  minas.  Qaum- 
que  vita  nos  destituat,  quum  fid€$  tit 
in  ore  magit  quum  in  animot  qunm 
tolida  ilia  taerarum  LitUrarum  cog- 
nitio  nos  dejiciat^  tamen  terroribus 
buo  adigimus  bomines,  ut  eredant 
quod  non  credunt,  ut  ament  quod  non 
amant,  et  intelligant  quod  non  intel- 
Ugunt.*  Ibid,  iii  693,  696. 

'  *Qui  quicquid  Lyranns  scripse- 
rit  oraouli  instar  baberi  Tolont,  tn» 
eantur  iUum  in  illis  locis  in  qnibns 
ab  eo  disseutio.  Nam  in  Hugone 
qusrere  quod  reprebendas,  BtoUissi- 


the  most  unpardonable  offence  of  all,  in  the  eyei  of  the  chat,  t 
majority  of  contemporary  theologians,  was  probably  the  open  -t-y  — 
countenance  he  gave  to  that  hold  heresy  of  the  coldly  critical 
Qrocyn,   respecting   the   authenticity  of  the   Hierarchy  '^^^^^^ 
Dionysius.     Almost  alone  amid  the  accepted  oracles  of  the^^ 
Middle  Ages,  that  plausible  forgery,  with  its  half  mystic^ 
half  Platonic  tone,  and  glowii^  speculations,  inapired   the 
student  with  a  rapture  and  an  ecstasy  which  the  pasaionlesa 
doctrinafe  of  the  schoolmen  could  never  awaken, — and  of 
this  too,  the  merciless  critic  demanded  the  total  sacrifice' 

It  is  true  that  there  were  some  of  these  views  which 
Erasmus  had  not  as  yet  put  forth,  beyond  recall,  through  the 
press ;  hut  it  is  in  every  way  probable  that  they  were 
already  perceptibly  foreshadowed  by  his  tone  and  conversa- 
tion ;  and,  if  so,  we  can  hardly  doubt  that,  throughout  the 
latter  part  of  his  residence  at  Cambridge,  he  must  have  been 
conscious  of  a  surrounding  atmosphere  of  dislike  and  sus- 
picion ;  while  it  is  evident  that  his  sojourn  was,  in  many 
respects,  an  irritating  and  depressing  experience^  Dis^»- 
pointed  in  bis  main  object,  he  was  little  disposed  to  take  a 
favorable  view  of  minor  matters.  He  professed  to  be  scan- 
dalized at  a  university  where  a  decent  amanuensis  could  not 
be  met  with  at  any  price'.  He  disliked  the  winter  fogs*;  he  g^^ 
grumbled  sadly  over  the  collie  ale,  which  a^ravat«d  hisj™jj2£ 
complaint,  and  was  always  writing  to  the  goodnatured 
Ammonius  for  another  cask  of  Gi-eek  wine*.  Unable,  from 
bis  ignorauce  of  their  language,  to  converse  with  the  towns- 
people, he  probably  misunderstood  them,  and,  being  in  turn 
misinterpreted,  encountered  frequent  annoyances,  which  led 
him  to  denounce  them  as  boorish  and  malevolent  in  tbe 


mum  ubitroT.  Psoenla  tantnm 
uiDotftvi,  sod  iiuigniter  abaiuda, 
quo  uiminim  cantiore*  rodderam  aoa, 
qui  hnjnHmodi  aoriptorea  ■ninma 
fidncia  noJlo  jodicio  leguut.'  Ibid. 
Ill  138. 

>  'Et  hio  (O  Aoademiunt),  nnUna 
inTeniri  potest,  qui  olio  imtio  iti 
mcdioeriter  aaribat.'    Ibid,  in  120. 

*  '  Nam  hid  aativara  maUm  qnaa 
liiboniMe.'    Ibid,  m  lia. 


*  —'pro  TJno  bibimns  Tappun,  at 
u  quid  Tappa  deteriaa.'  {Ibid,  in 
105.)  'CerruiahajuB  loci  mihi  nojlo 
modo  pUeet,  neo  admodnm  aatia- 
faoiimt  villi;  ai  possis  eCQoare  Dt  Dlei 
ftliqnla  rini  Grteoauici.  qnantom  pa- 
t«it  optimi,  hue  deportetui,  |^« 
beuia  Enaanun  toom,  (mI  qnod 
aliannm  ait  •  iulea^iM,'    Hid.  ui 

loe. 


504 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


CHAP.  Y.  extreme*.  When  accordingly  he  took  exercise,  he  seems  to 
Fam  h,  j^^^^  contented  himself  either  with  pacing  up  and  down  the 
long  walk  which  skirts  the  grounds  of  Queens'  College  on 
the  other  side  of  the  river",  or  else  he  mounted  the  white 
horse  with  which  Aramonius  had  generously  presented  him, 
and  rode  round  and  round  the  Market-hill'.  Many  a  friar  in 
hlack  or  in  grey,  darted,  we  may  be  sure,  far  from  friendly 
glances  at  the  dreaded  satirist  of  his  order.  Many  a  staunch 
conservative  eyed  askance  the  foreign  scholar,  who  had  come 
Mfaior         to  turn  his  little  university  world  upside  down.     Even  from 

■oiiro«sordi§>  j  r  ^ 

tatkiaKAoxi.  thg  community  of  his  own  order  at  Barnwell,  he  received  no 
such  flattering  attentions  as  had  been  paid  him  by  prior 
Chamock  at  Oxford ;  and  there  were  probably  not  a  few  of 
the  members  who  thought  it  was  quite  time  tliat  their 
truant  brother  was  back  at  Stein.  With  ordinary  prudence, 
his  income  must  have  more  than  sufficed  for  his  wants ;  he 
received  from  his  professorship  over  thirteen  pounds  an- 
nually ;  he  had  been  presented  by  Warham  to  the  rectory  of 
Aldington  in  Kent  *;  and,  though  non-resident,  he  drew  from 
thence  an  income  of  twenty  pounds*,  to  which  the  arch- 
bishop, with  his  usual  liberality,  added  another  twenty  from 
his  own  purse.  To  these  sums  we  must  add  an  annual 
pension  of  a  hundred  florins  from  Fisher,  and  a  second 
pension,  which  he  still  continued  to  receive,  from  his 
generous  friend,  lord  Mountjoy*.    His  total  income,  therefore. 


1  'Nisi  YulgUB  Cantabrigiense  in- 
hospitales  Britaunos  antecedit,  qui 
cum  samma  rusticitaie  summam 
malitiam  coujonzere.*  (Quoted  by 
FuUer). 

*  Wright  and  Jones,  Queens^  CoU 
lege,  p.  14. 

'  Aaeham,  English  Works  (ed.  Ben- 
nett), p.  77. 

^  An  exception  to  Warham*s  prac- 
tice, and  a  deviation  from  Erasmus's 
principles,  honorable,  under  the 
circumstances,  to  both.  See  Knight, 
pp.  168-00. 

•  Jortin,  1  66;  Knight,  p.  169; 
Opera t  iii  1628-9.  The  statements 
in  the  text  are,-  of  course,  made 
under  the  supposition  that  these 
sums  were  actually  paid  and  that 


the  recipient  was  not  too  heavily 
mulcted  by  those  through  whose 
hands  the  moneys  pass^  In  a 
letter  written  some  seventeen  years 
later,  he  says: — *E  duabns  AiigUs 
pensionibus  debentur  quotannis  pluB 
minus  ducenti  floreni,  sed  ea  pecunia 
ad  me  pervenit  accisa,  nonnonquam 
usque  ad  quartam  partem,  interdum 
et  intercipitur.*  iii  1292.  He  was 
however  one  of  the  few  foreigners 
who  in  the  heavy  tax  imposed  on  the 
clergy  in  1622  was  allowed  to  pay 
*only  as  natives  did.'  Bumet-Po« 
cock,  I  63.  To  the  notice  of  those 
who  hold  up  this  age  to  oor  admira- 
tion, as  one  of  rough  bat  honest 
virtues,  I  would  commend  the  fact 
that,  at  no  period  in  car  national 


EBASHUS. 


505 


could  scarcelj  have  been  lees  than  £703  in  Engtieh  money  of  chap.  t. 
the  present  day;  but  Erasmus  was  do  economist,  and  his   -It^^^ 
literary  labours   involved   a  considerable   outlay ;  notwith-  "h^rtririM- 
standing  therefore  these  liberal  aids,  he  was  always  pestering  "'"'^" 
Ammonius  for  further  loans,  as  he  preferred  to  call  them, — 
though  he  appears  to  have  taken  a  flat  rerusal  with  perfect 
good   temper.     An   acute  attack   of  his   chronic  complaint 
completed  the  long  list  of  his  minfortunes. 

At  last  the  plague,  which  had  long  been  hovering  in  the 
distance,  again  made  its  appearance  at  Cambridge'.  The 
university  sought  safety  in  flight,  and  Erasmus  was  left 
almost  alone.  It  was  then  that,  ia  his  last  Cambridge  letter  &»■■■-■ 
to  Ammonius,  he  gave  full  vent  to  his  distress  and  despou-  mi%(  inotf, 
deucy.  '  For  some  months  past,'  he  writes,  '  I  have  been 
living  the  life  of  a  snail  iu  its  shell,  stowing  myself  away  in 
college,  and  perfectly  mum  over  my  books.  The  university 
is  a  solitude ;  most  are  away  through  fear  of  the  pli^^ 
though  even  when  all  are  here,  I  And  but  little  society.  The 
expense  is  past  enduring ;  the  gain,  not  a  farthing.  Believe 
me,  as  though  I  were  on  my  oath  :  it  is  not  five  months  since 
I  came  back  and  I  have  spent  sixty  nobles,  while  I  have 
received  only  one  from  my  pupils,  and  that  not  without  much 
protesting  and  declining  on  my  part.  I  have  decided  not  to 
leave  a  stone  unturned  this  winter,  and  in  fact  to  throw  out 
my  sheet-anchor.  If  this  succeeds,  I  will  build  my  nest  here; 
if  otherwise,  I  shall  wing  my  flight, — whither  I  know  not*.' 

hittoTj,  —Dot  even  after  tha  Reiton- 
tiuD,— have  we  more  frequent  evi- 
dence of  eontemptible  ■wiodUng 
and  corrupt  practioeg  pervodiiig  all 

'  In  coaseqnence  of  this,  ■  gnee 
had  alreadj  been  passed  for  dispeni- 
ing  with  the  ordinary  lectnree,  and 
those  in  divinity  and  sophistry,  until 
the  feast  of  St  Iieonaid's.  Baker, 
H99.  mm  173;  Cooper,  AnnaU.t 
395. 

>  ■  Nob,  mi  Aminoni,  jam  meiiie* 
aliquot  plane  eoobleae  vitam  Tivimiu, 
domi  contract!  conditiqi 


litiqoe  muuamtu 
I  iludiii.  Magua  bio  solitndo: 
absant  peatilentia  meta  pleriqua, 
quanqnam   qDum    adnutt  nniTeni, 


tmn  qnoqne  aolituda  est.  Snmptos 
intolerabUeB,  lacmm  ne  teruncii  qoi- 
dem.  Fnta  me  jam  boo  tibi  per 
omnia  sacra  dejerasae-  l^ondmn 
qoinque  menses  gont,  qnod  hno  me 
eoutuli,  interim  ad  s^iaginta  Dobilea 
ingmnpsi.  UnumdDDtaxat  ab  andi- 
toribui  quibn^dam  accepi,  eumqns 
maltmn  deprecans  ae  reousani. 
Certmn  est  hiB  hibemis  menaibna 
rolrra  \i9or  tirur,  planeqna  sacnm, 
qnod  ainnt,  anooram  solvere.  Bi 
•oeoadit,  nidnm  aliqnem  mihi  pa- 
labo;  sin  minna,  oartnm  eat  him) 
avolani,  ineertnm  quo :  ai  nihil  alind, 
aerta  aliU  moritdiniB.  Bane  valet' 
Olpen,  in  IIC  Thla  letter,  in  tb* 
I«yd«i  Mlitton,  b«an  tha  date^  Hov. 


50G 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


CHAP.  V. 
Pau  II. 

ThelMt 
fftanpwof 
Brmnaaa  at 
Guibrtdge. 


Such  then  is  the  final  glimpse  that  we  gain  of  Erasmus 
at  Cambridge: — it  is  that  of  a  solitary,  isolated  scholar, 
prematurely  old  with  anxiety  and  toil,  weighed  down  by 
physical  suflfering,  dejected  by  disappointment,  and  oppressed 
with  debt;  rarely  venturing  beyond  the  college  gates,  and 
then  only  to  encounter  hostile  or  indifferent  glances ;  while 
all  around  there  waited  for  him  an  invisible  foe, — the  pesti- 
lence that  walketh  at  noon-day;  often  by  night,  in  his 
study  high  up  in  the  south-west  tower,  'outwatching  the 
Bear*  over  the  page  of  St.  Jerome,  even  as  Jerome  himself 
bad  outwatched  it  many  a  night,  when  transcribing  the  same 
pages  in  his  Bethlehem  cell,  some  eleven  hundred  years 
before.  Then  winter  came  on,  and,  towards  the  close  of  each 
shortening  day,  Erasmus  could  mark  from  his  window  the 
white  fogs  rolling  in  from  the  surrounding  marshes,  remind- 
ing him  of  the  climate  he  most  of  all  disliked, — the  climate 
of  his  native  Holland ;  while  day  after  day,  the  sound  of 
footsteps,  in  the  courts  below,  grew  rarer  and  rarer.  At  last 
the  gloom,  the  solitude,  the  discomfort,  and  the  panic, 
became  more  than  he  could  bear ;  and,  one  night,  the  cus- 
tomary lamp  no  longer  gleamed  from  a  certain  casement  in 
the  south-west  tower.  And  when  the  fear  of  the  plague  was 
over,  and  the  university  returned,  it  was  known  that  Erasmus 
had  left  Cambridge ;  and  no  doubt  many  a  sturdy  defender 
of  the  old  learning  said  he  was  veiy  glad  to  hear  it,  and 
heartily  hoped  that  all  this  stir  about  Greek,  and  St  Jerome, 
and  errors  in  the  Vulgate,  was  at  an  end. 

It  would  be  obviously  unjust  to  interpret  the  hasty 
expressions  used  by  Erasmus,  when  embittered  by  a  sense  of 


28,  1511,  and  the  reply  of  Amxnonins 
(ui  164),  is  dated  Nov.  24,  in  the 
same  year.  The  internal  evidence 
however  clearly  proves  the  assigned 
year  to  he  erroneous,  for  hoth  letters 
contain  a  reference  to  the  epitaph  hy 
Carmilianns  on  the  death  of  the  King 
of  the  Soots  at  Flodden,  and  must 
•onseqnently  have  been  written  sub- 
aeqnent  to  Sept  9,  1518.  Carmili* 
antui  thought  himself   a  master  of 


Latin  verse,  and  to  the  great  amuse- 
ment  of  botii  scholars  had  made  the 
first  syllable  in  pullulare  short.  By 
the  expression,  auod  hue  me  contuli, 
Erasmus  must  tnerefora  refer  to  his 
return  after  one  of  his  journeys  to 
London,  which  he  appears  to  have 
visited  more  than  once  during  his 
residence  at  Cambridge;  I  have  ac- 
cordingly translated  the  words  agteO' 
ably  to  this  sense. 


KUASMVS.  507 

failure   and  in  perplexity  as  to  his  future  couree,  as  bis  oiap.  v. 
deliberate  estimate  of  a  university  which,  in  reality,  afforded   •— ^. 
him  far  more  substantial  aid  than  he  received   from  any 
other  learned  body  throughout  hia  whole  life  ;  and  the  follow- 
ing passives  from  subsequent  letters  may  fairly  be  reguded 
as  altogether  outweighing  hitt  peevish  complaints  to  Ammo- 
nius.     'There  are  there,'  he  sajTs,  speaking  of  Cambridge  >DoaaMri«ii' 
a  letter  to  Servatius,  writton  in  the  sante  year  that  he  leftnnaita 
the  university, '  colleges  of  such  devoutness  of  spirit,  such  sane-  tkuiirtdii. 
tity  of  life,  that  were  you  yourself  a  witness  thereof  the  com- 
panion would  make  you  ready  to  despise  the  houses  of  the 
religious  orders'.'     In   a  letter,  writton  Bome  seven   years  ptwimIb 
lator,  to  Everard,  the  stadtholder  of  Holland,  he  declares  that  X"^^ 
sound  theology  is   6ourishing  at  Paris  and  at  Cambridge 
more  than  at  any  other  university.     'And  whence,'  he  says, 
'  is  this  ?   Simply  because  these  two  universities  are  adapting 
themselves  to  the  tendencies  of  the  age,  and  receive  the  new 
learning, — which  is  ready,  if  need  be,  to  storm  an  entrance,— 
not  as  an  enemy  but  courteously  as  a  guest*.'     And  again,  in 
a  third  letter,  to  the  archbishop  of  Toledo,  writton  in  hisMipjJ"*' 
sixty-fourth  year,  when  his  recollections  of  Cambridge  must  **» 
have  b^un  to  grow  dim,  he  yet  recalls  with  special  delight 
'those  three  coUeffea,  where  youth   were   exercised,  not  io 
dialectical  wrestling  matehes,  which  serve  only  to  chill  the 
heart  and  unfit  men  for  serious  duties,  but  in  true  learning 
and  sober  ailments ;  and  from  whence  they  went  forth  to 
preach  the  word  of  God  with  earnestness  and  in  an  evan- 
gelical spirit,  and  to  commend  it  to  the  minds  of  men  of 
learning  by  a  weighty  eloquence*.' 


■  'Sunt  hie  collesift,  in  qaiboB 
tnotam  cnt  religionia,  t«iit&  vits  mo- 
dentia,  nt  nnUun  T^ligioDeni  eia  pis 
hac  non  eontamptnTns,  u  lideu.' 
Oprra.  iil  1529. 

'  '  Lntetiie  CnnUbriftueqne  ric  floret 
theologin  Btndiiun,  nt  nanqnam  aliaii 
Kqne.  Qnidineaniiar  Hunimmqnod 
cese  Mcomnioduit  leenlo  alio  ie  flee- 
tmti,  qaod  haR  melioraE  littenui,  vel 
vi  irrampere  eonantes,  non  repellunt 
nt  hoitM.  wd  nt  hoipitea  eomiter 
ampleclnntiir.'     Ibid.  lu  677. 


' — '  in  qnibai  non  «« tradantar  qn» 
jnvenei  ad  ■ophistieas  paloatrai  in- 
Btmant,  ad  aeriaa  fanetioneB  tiigidoa 
reddant  et  ineptos,  sed  nnde  prodeant 
Teris  discipliDis  ae  gobriis  diiipntatio- 
uibns  eiercitati,  qui  graviter  eraD^e- 
licoqne  spirita  pnedicent  Terbiun  Dei, 
■  et  effieaei  qandam  eloqnentia  oom- 
mendeot  eniditomm  animis.*  Ibid, 
m  1263.  The  three  eoUegefl,  it  ia 
hardly  neoessary  to  say,  are  QaeeDi', 
Chriit'a,  and  St.  Jofan'a.  With  ra- 
■peet  to  hia  deliberate  ertimate  of 


508 


BISHOP   FISHER. 


CHAP.  V. 
PabtU. 

Hit  own  bu- 

cuanMid 

thiUonils 

bioKraplien 

InullMft 

mueof 

bdhiN. 


HteflUhm 
ntlMrUiu 


Ingfrumen- 
turn. 


Nevertheless,  judging  from  his  own  account  and  from  the 
silence  of  contemporaries,  it  must  be  admitted  that  Erasmus 
appears  to  have  regarded  his  sojourn  at  Cambridge  as  a 
failure,  and  the  language  used  by  his  different  biographers 
implies  apparently,  that  such  was  also  their  opinion.  He  had 
almost  totally  failed  to  gather  round  him  a  circle  of  learners 
in  any  way  worthy  of  his  great  reputation ;  respecting  his 
lectures,  as  divinity  professor,  not  a  single  tradition  remains ; 
while  so  completely  were  his  efforts,  as  a  teacher  of  Greek, 
ignored  by  the  university,  that  on  the  occasion  of  Richard 
Croke  (his  virtual  successor  in  this  respect)  being  appointed 
to  the  office  of  public  orator  a  few  years  later,  the  latter  was 
honored  by  admission  to  certain  special  privileges,  expressly 
on  the  ground  that  he  'had  been  the  first  introducer  of 
Greek  into  the  university\'  But  on  a  careful  examination 
of  the  tendencies  perceptible  within  a  short  time  after 
Erasmus's  departure,  we  shall  probably  be  inclined  to  infer 
that  his  failure  was  far  more  apparent  than  real ;  and  even 
to  believe,  that  if  the  impulsive,  sensitive  scholar  could  have 
abided  his  time,  he  might  have  been  rewarded  by  the  realisa- 
tion of  substantial  success,  and  have  for  ever  directly  associated 
his  name  with  the  most  important  movement  that  Cambridge 
has  ever  originated.  It  is  certain,  that  in  the  years  imme- 
diately following  upon  his  residence,  we  are  met  by  indica- 
tions of  a  mental  and  speculative  activity  that  is  almost 
startling  when  compared  with  the  lethargy  that  had  reigned 
only  a  few  years  before,  and  we  can  have  no  hesitation  in 
assigning  his  Novum  Instrunientwm  as  the  centre  round  which 
that  activity  mainly  revolved. 

The  Novum  Instrumentum.*  of  Erasmus,  appeared,  as  is 


England  at  large,  we  can  ask  for  no 
more  favorable  verdict  than  the  fol- 
lowing:— *ubi  favore  principum  reg- 
nant bonsB  litteriB,  viget  honesti 
Btndium,  exsulat  aut  jacet,  cum  fa- 
oata  personataque  sanctimonia,  f  utilis 
et  insnlsa  dootrina  quondam  airaidcu-  * 
T«w  w€7rcud€UfAivu)if,^  Letter  to  Richard 
Pace  (A.D.  1617),  Opera,  iii  237. 

>  — *  qnia  Ule  primus  invexit  litteras 
Hd  no8  Griecas.'    Stat.  Ant,  p  112. 


'  '  Novum  Instrumentnm  omne^  di- 
ligenter  ab  Erasmo  Boterodamo  re- 
cognitum  et  emendatum,  non  boI  am  ad 
Grscam  veritatem,  verom  etiam  ad 
maltorum  utriusque  linguie  codicum, 
eorumque  veterum  simul  et  emendato- 
rum  fidem,  postremo  ad  probatissimo- 
rum  antorum  citationem,  emendati* 
onem,  et  interpretationem,  pneoipne, 
Origenis,  Chrysostomi,  Cyrilli,  VtUoa- 
n't,  Hieronymi,  Cypriani,  Ambroui, 


THE   NOVCH   INSTRUMENTIM.  £09 

well  known  to  every  scholar,  from  the  printing  press  of  chap.  r. 
FrobeniuR  at  Basel,  on  the  1st  of  March,  1516;  hut,  as  Fro-  li!^^ 
fesBor  Brewer  observes,  '  it  was  strictly  the  work  of  his  resi-  JJ'Jtawkta 
dencc  in  England '  (that  is  at  Cambridge).  ' In  the  collation  ^t^^b^ 
and  examination  of  maouscripta  required  for  the  task,  he  had  " 
the  assistance  of  Englishmen;  Englishmen  supplied  the 
funds,  and  English  friends  and  patrons  lent  him  that  support 
and  encouragement  without  which  it  is  very  doubtful  whether 
Erasmus  would  ever  have  completed  the  work.. ..The  ezperi-  p 
meat  was  a  bold  one, — the  boldest  that  had  been  conceived  tt 
in  this  century  or  for  many  centuries  before  it.  We  are 
accustomed  to  the  freest  expression  of  opinion  in  Biblical 
criticism,  and  any  attempt  to  supersede  our  English  version, 
to  treat  its  inaccuracies  with  scorn,  to  represent  it  as-far 
below  the  science  and  scholarship  of  the  age,  or  as  a  barbar- 
ous, unlettered  production,  made  from  inaccurate  manuscripts, 
and  imperfectly  executed  by  men  who  did  not  understand 
the  language  of  the  original,  would  excite  little  apprehension 
or  alarm.  To  explain  the  text  of  Scripture  exclusively  by 
the  rules  of  human  wisdom,  guided  by  the  same  principles  aa 
are  freely  applied  to  classical  authors, — to  discriminate  the 
spurious  from  the  genuine,  and  decide  that  this  was  ca- 
nonical, and  that  was  not, — might,  perhaps,  be  regarded  aa 
audacious.  Yet  all  this,  and  not  less  than  this,  did  Erasmus 
propose  to  himself  in  his  edition  and  translation  of  the  New 
TeRtament.  He  meant  to  subvert  the  authority  of  the  Vul- 
gate, and  to  shew  that  much  of  the  popular  theology  of  the 
day,  its  errors  and  misconceptions,  were  founded  entirely  on 
a  misapprehension  of  the  original  meaning,  and  inextricably 

Eilaiii,  Angiutiiii,  niu  earn  umoUti-  tba  kathorit;  of  both  AngostiiiA  and 

oiiibiuqiue]ectoremdooMiit,i]ni{|i]iM  Jerome: — >Nm   iotelligniit  ad  enm 

iKtione  mDtatum  sit.    QoiBqais  igitor  modaiD  aliqiuitieB  loqni  divnm  Hient* 

unM   Terun   theologiam,  lege,  oog-  nTiniim,  neo  legisee  videDtor  Aogni- 

IKMOB,  etdeindejadioa.   Neqae  itatim  tumm,  qnidooetaptinidiei/iutruiiwii- 

offeudeie,  ai  quid  mDUtmn  oflenderia,  titni  qoam  TaUitKtntum.    Idque  Teiii- 

led  eipende.  Dam  in  melioi  mutan-  limnm  eet.qnotieB  hod  de  re,  led  4a 

dam  Bit.'   Eraamni  preferred  the  wpid  Tolnminibai  Teiba  flont.  Nam  Teata- 

/MtruiiunEuin  to  TalaneiUitM.  on  the  mentom  euet,  etiamai   nnllam   er- 

grooud  that  it  more  flttin^jr  eipreaa-  ilatet    icriptnm :    qanm   eoim   Do- 

ed  tlie    deed   or   written    doonment  miniu  dio^t,  "  Hio  Mt  ealix  Not! 

oontAining   the   TeitMnetit,   and  ha  Tertamanti,"  nnllDi  nat  liber  Nori 

defended   hii    pnferenM   hj   dtlng  Tcetamentiproditna.'  Oym.mlOOS. 


510 


BISHOP   FISHER. 


CHAP.  V.  entangled  with  the  old  Latin  vereion.  It  was  his  avowed  object 
^^  '  to  bring  up  the  translation  of  the  sacred  books,  and  all  criti- 
cism connected  with  them,  to  the  level  of  that  scholarship  in 
his  day  which  had  been  successfully  applied  to  the  illustration 
of  ancient  authors;  to  set  aside  all  rules  of  interpretation 
resting  merely  on  faith  and  authority,  and  replace  them  by 
the  philological  and  historical.  And  it  was  precisely  for  this 
reason  that  Luther  disliked  the  work.  In  this  respect  the 
New  Testament  of  Erasmus  must  be  regarded  as  the  founda- 
tion of  that  new  school  of  teaching  on  which  Anglican  theo- 
logy professes  exclusively  to  rest ;  as  such  it  is  not  only  the 
type  of  its  class,  but  the  most  direct  enunciation  of  that  Pro- 
testant principle  which,  from  that  time  until  this,  has  foimd 
its  expression  in  various  forms:  "The  Bible  alone  is  the 
religion  of  Protestants."  Whatever  can  be  read  therein  or 
proved  thereby,  is  binding  upon  all  men ;  what  cannot,  is  not 
to  be  required  of  any  man  as  an  article  of  his  faith,  either  by 
societies  or  by  individuals.  Who  sees  not  that  the  authority 
of  the  Church  was  displaced,  and  the  sufficiency  of  all  men 
individually  to  read  and  interpret  for  themselves  was  thus 
asserted  by  the  New  Testament  of  Erasmus^  V 

If  from  the  foregoing  general  estimate  of  the  influence  of 
the  work,  we  turn  to  the  consideration  of  its  abstract  merits, 
we  may  discern,  from  the  vantage-ground  of  three  centuries 
of  progressive  biblical  criticism,  more  clearly  than  either 
bishop  Fisher  or  bishop  Lee,  its  merits  and  defects.  Nor  is 
it  possible  to  deny  the  existence  of  numerous  and  occasionally 
serious  errors  and  shortcomings.  The  oldest  manuscript  to 
which  Erasmus  had  access,  was  probably  not  earlier  than  the 
tenth  century;  the  typographical  inaccuracies  are  frequent; 
the  very  title-page  contains  a  glaring  and  singularly  dis- 
creditable blunder";  he  even  shews  such  ignorance  of  ancient 


DeTeetiand 
•errors  in  the 
work. 


*  Preface  to  Letters  and  PaperSt 
vol.  npp.  cclxiv-Y. 
^  '  *  lliis  was  the  mention,  in  the 
list  of  the  Fathers  whose  works  had 
been  nsed  in  the  preparation  of  the 
text*  (see  note  2,  p.  508),  «of  Vulga- 
riiu,  a  writer  no  one  had  ever  heard 
of  before.    The   mistake    arose   in 


the  following  way.  Erasmns  had 
a  copy  of  Theophylaot  on  Matthew, 
with  tnis title:  Tov Beo^cXecrrcCrov  'A/>- 
XttTiffK6frou  Bov\yapla9  Kvpiov  8eo0U' 
\&Krov  ^(^yiyo'cr  </t  rb  card  Martfcu- 
w  'Eva77^Xior.  In  his  haste  he  took 
Geo^vXarrov  for  an  epithet,  while  for 
'Bwkyaplat  he  must  have  read  BovXTa- 


THE  NO^-UX  ISSTBUMENTUH.  511 

geography  as  to  Msert  that  Neapolis,  the  port  where  the  caaf.  t, 
apostle  Fa.ul  arrived  on   bis  journey  from   Samothirace   to  -^*7^- 
Philippi,   was  a  town   in   Caria;  and  even  in  subsequent 
editions,    he   stubbornly  maintained,   in    opposition  to  his 
critics,  that  the  Herodians  mentioned  by  St.  Matthew  were 
the  soldiers  of  Herod  the  Great  I     But  even  errors  like  these  i;^mi 
become  trifling,  when  weighed  in  the  balance  against  the 
substantial   service  nevertheless   rendered   to  the  cause  of 
biblical  studies, — the  conscientious  labour, — the  courageous 
spirit  of  the  criticiams, — the  scholarly  sagadty  which  singles 
out  the  Gospel  by  St.  Luke  as  superior  to  the  others  in  the 
purity  of  ite  Greek,  which  discerns  the  peculiar  mannerism 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and  detects  the  discrepancies 
in  the  quotations  from  the  Septnagint 

Un  the  13th  of  the  August  following  the  appearance  of  Bonoditiit- 
the  work,  Bullock  wrote  from  Cambridge  to  inform  his  old  pre-  m^Ai*. 
ceptor  how  matters  were  there  progressing,  and  his  report  was 
certfunly  encouraging.   Greek  was  being  studied  at  the  univer- 
sity with  coDsiderable  ardour ;  the  Novum  Ijiatrummtum  was 
in  high  favour ;  and  Erasmus's  Cambridge  friends  would  be 
only  too  glad  to  see  him  among  them  once  more'.     It  is 
evident  indeed  that  by  all,  whose  good  opinion  was  most  wnrth 
having,  Erasmus's  performance,  even  on  its  first  appearance, 
was  regarded  as  a  highly  meritorious  achievement     Fisher  pwiMbu 
had  throughout  steadily  promoted  the  scheme.   Warh&m  was  'j^Jl^ 
emphatic  in  his  praise.     Fox, — whose   opinion   on   such   agS^J|2i* 
subject  carried  perhaps  as  much  weight  as  that  of  any  living  "^ 
Englishman, — publicly  declared,  in  a  large  assembly,  that  he 
valued  Erasmus's  labours  more  than  those  of  any  ten  com- 

pleu,   vhich  be   conTerted  from  the  oeptor  dootuaime,  eat  ommbiu  unteil 

name  of  a  eonntry  into  the  name  of  tois  Cantkbrigunu  oppido  qnun  gnu 

a  man,  and  tntuilated  "  Vnlganns";  tna;  gaps*  cetaM  tiJHii  miU  liMiga 

And  imder  tbi>  name  Tbeopbf  lact  vu  gratuaimiu,  atpot«  qui  kliii  omnibua 

qnoted  in  bis  note*.     To  nuke  mat-  inm  tibi  mnltil  paitibua  derinetior... 

ten  wone,  he  attribnled  to  Tnlga-  Hieaerit«rmeiuiibnntlitteruanMM, 

rins  a  reading  irhieh  ig  not  to  be  toond  optantqne  non  mediocaiter  tnnm  ad- 

in  Theophfloct,   and  in  one   plana  Tentnm :  et  hi  magnopers  lareiit  hnie 

gioaalf  miseoDBtnied  him.'    See  an  tun  in  MoTum  Teatamentiun  aditiooi : 

article,  Tht  Qrttk  Tfitamtnt  af  Enu-      ... 

■nw,b7R.RI>rniiimoiid.  Thiologieal 

Jkrinr T.  637.  MriBt'     Opm.n 
*  'Tuna  in  Angliam  ndiliu,  pia- 


510 


BISHOP   FISHER. 


CHAP.  V.  entangled  with  the  old  Latin  vension.  It  was  his  avowed  object 
^"  '  to  bring  up  the  translation  of  the  sacred  books,  and  all  criti- 
cism connected  with  them,  to  the  level  of  that  scholarship  in 
his  day  which  had  been  successfully  applied  to  the  illustration 
of  ancient  authors;  to  set  aside  all  rules  of  interpretation 
resting  merely  on  faith  and  authority,  and  replace  them  by 
the  philological  and  historical.  And  it  was  precisely  for  this 
reason  that  Luther  disliked  the  work.  In  this  respect  the 
New  Testament  of  Erasmus  must  be  regarded  as  the  founda- 
tion of  that  new  school  of  teaching  on  which  Anglican  theo- 
logy professes  exclusively  to  rest ;  as  such  it  is  not  only  the 
type  of  its  class,  but  the  most  direct  enunciation  of  that  Pro- 
testant principle  which,  from  that  time  until  this,  has  found 
its  expression  in  various  forms:  ''The  Bible  alone  is  the 
religion  of  Protestants."  Whatever  can  be  read  therein  or 
proved  thereby,  is  binding  upon  all  men ;  what  cannot,  is  not 
to  be  required  of  any  man  as  an  article  of  his  faith,  either  by 
societies  or  by  individuals.  Who  sees  not  that  the  authority 
of  the  Church  was  displaced,  and  the  sufficiency  of  all  men 
individually  to  read  and  interpret  for  themselves  was  thus 
asserted  by  the  New  Testament  of  Erasmus^  V 

If  from  the  foregoing  general  estimate  of  the  influence  of 
the  work,  we  turn  to  the  consideration  of  its  abstract  merits, 
we  may  discern,  from  the  vantage-ground  of  three  centuries 
of  progressive  biblical  criticism,  more  clearly  than  either 
bishop  Fisher  or  bishop  Lee,  its  merits  and  defects.  Nor  is 
it  possible  to  deny  the  existence  of  numerous  and  occasionally 
serious  errors  and  shortcomings.  The  oldest  manuscript  to 
which  Erasmus  had  access,  was  probably  not  earlier  than  the 
tenth  century;  the  typographical  inaccuracies  are  frequent; 
the  very  title-page  contains  a  glaring  and  singularly  dis- 
creditable blunder";  he  even  shews  such  ignorance  of  ancient 


Defeetiand 
■errors  in  the 
work. 


*  Preface  to  LetUrs  and  Papers, 
Tol.  n  pp.  ccbdv-Y. 

>  *  This  was  the  mention,  in  the 
list  of  the  Fathers  whose  works  had 
been  nsed  in  the  preparation  of  the 
text'  (see  note  2,  p.  508),  *of  Vulga- 
riiu,  a  writer  no  one  had  ever  heard 
of  before.    The    mistake    arose    in 


the  following  way.  Erasmns  had 
a  copy  of  Theophylaot  on  Matthew, 
with  this  title:  TovBeo^cXeo-rcCrov  'A/>- 
XttTiffK&irov  BovXyofUat  Kvpiov  Qco^^v- 
XdKTOv  i^^hrVf^*'*  ^^'  '''^  icard  Mard^cu- 
ov  'EvayyiXtop,  In  his  haste  he  took 
Oeo^vKaKTov  for  an  epithet,  while  for 
BovKyaplat  he  most  have  read  Boukya* 


THE  NOVUH  INSTBUICESTUH.  Sll 

gec^raphy  as  to  assert  that  Neapolis,  the  port  where  the  ca±r.Yi 
apoHtle  Paul  aniTed   od   hia  journey  Jrom   Samothrace   to      "^ ,  - 
Philippi,   was  a  town  in   Caria;  and  even   in  Buhsequent 
editions,    he   stubbornly  niaintiuned,   in   opposition   to   bis 
critics,  that  the  Herodiaos  mentioned  by  St.  Matthew  were 
the  soldiers  of  Herod  the  Great  I     But  even  errors  like  these  itapat 
become  trifling,  when  weighed  in  the  balance  against  the 
substantial   service  nevertheless  rendered   to  the  cause  of 
biblical  studies, — the  coDscientions  labour, — the  courageous 
spirit  of  the  criticisms, — the  scholarly  sagacity  which  singles 
out  the  Qospel  by  St.  Luke  as  superior  to  the  others  in  the 
parity  of  its  Greek,  which  discerns  the  peculiar  manneriun 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and  detects  the  discrepancies 
in  the  quotations  from  the  Septuagint. 

On  the  13th  of  the  August  following  the  appearance  of  BoiiockiM- 
the  work,  Bullock  wrote  from  Cambridge  to  inform  his  old  pre-  J™^"*- 
ceptor  how  matters  were  there  progressing,  and  bis  report  was 
certainly  encouraging.   Greek  was  being  studied  at  the  univer- 
sity with  considerable  ardour ;  the  Novum  Instrumentum  was 
in  high  favour ;  and  Erasmus's  Cambridge  friends  would  be 
only  too  glad  to  see  him  among  them  once  more*.     It  is 
evident  indeed  that  by  all,  whose  good  opinion  was  moat  worth 
having,  Erasmus's  performance,  even  on  its  first  appearance, 
was  regarded  as  a  highly  meritorious  achievement     Fisher  Pk™^ 
bad  throughout  steadily  promoted  the  scheme.   Warham  was  ^^m 
emphatic  in  his  praise.     Fox, — whose   opinion   on   such   a  j^j^JUp 
subject  carried  perhaps  as  much  weight  as  that  of  any  living  "^ 
Englishman, — publicly  declared,  in  a.  large  assembly,  that  he 
valued  Erasmus's  labours  more  than  those  of  any  ten  com- 

floa,   vbicfa  he  eoorerted  from  tha  oeptor  doctiMune,  art  onmibiu  unids 

name  of  a  coimtry  into  the  name  of  tnia  CaDtabriguniB  oppido  qnam  gra- 

a  man,  and  translated  "  Vnlgarioa  " ;  toa :  anper  oeteioa  lajnen  mihi  longa 

and  nnder  thia  name  Theophylaet  wa*  gntiBBinma,  alpote  qui  aliia  omoibiia 

quoted  in  hia  Dotea.     To  mikke  niBt-  BDin  tibimiiltiapaitibaBd«<nneiior... 

tan  worse,  he  attiibnted  to  Volga-  E^e  aeriter  uununbnnt  litteria  Orceii, 

rina  a  reading  whieh  is  not  to  be  foimd  optantqne  non  medioeriter  taum  ad- 

in  Theophjiaet,  and  in  ona   plaoa  TOitnm;  et  himagDopeiefaTenthnM 

granl;  miaMnBtmed  him.'    Be*  «a  tiueinNovnmTaatameDtauBeditiMU: 

aitiele,  The  Greek  Tatamnt  of  Enu-  dii  boai,  qoain  degsnti,  argut«,  ao 

■nu,b7R.B.I>cmnmond.  Tittologitai  omnibnaBanigQatnBtaATiaopMUMM- 

Jtrri«wT.637.  nml'    Opmi.mlft?. 
■  'Tnni  in  Angliam  nditoB,  pre- 


512 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


at<:km- 


oiAP.v.   mentatora*.     Cuthbert  Tunstall,  just  created  Master  of  the 

^M*J  J>  Rolls,  was  an  avowed  patron  of  the  undertaking.     The  fact 

indeed  that  the  dedication  of  the  work  had  been  accepted  by 

^u  tEide-  ^'^  ^  might  alone  seem  sufficient  to  disarm  the  prejudices 
of  the  most  bigoted.  But  the  suspicions  of  the  theologians 
were  not  thus  to  be  lulled  to  sleep ;  and  in  Erasmus's  reply 
to  the  foregoing  letter  from  Bullock,  dated  Aug.  31,  we  find 
that  he  had  already  become  informed  of  the  manifestation  at 

oranter  d«-  Cambridge  of  a  very  different  spirit  from  that  which  Bullock 
had  reported.  In  the  Novum  Instrumentum  the  opponents  of 
Greek  had  recognised,  as  they  believed,  the  opportunity  for 
which  they  had  long  been  watching ;  and  having  now  more 
definite  ground  whereon  to  take  their  stand,  they  were  en* 
deavouring  by  mere  force  of  numerical  superiority  to  over- 
whelm the  party  of  reform. 

It  would  however  be  unjust  not  to  admit,  that  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  work  had  more  definite  grounds  for  their  hos- 
tility than  a  mere  general  aversion  to  the  special  culture  with 
which  that  work  was  identified,  and  that  their  opposition  was 
not,  as  Erasmus  himself  alleged,  commenced  and  carried  on 
in  utter  ignorance  of  the  contents  of  the  volume.  Merits 
and  defects  like  those  to  which  we  have  already  adverted, 
lay,  it  is  true,  somewhat  beyond  the  range  of  their  criticism ; 
but  there  was  in  the  commentary  another  feature,   which 

SMCMiiefti-  touched  them  far  more  closely, — and  this  was  the  frequent 
application,  which  the  sarcastic  scholar  had  'taken  occasion 
to  make  (often  with  considerable  irrelevance  and  generally 
without  necessity)  of  particular  texts  to  the  prevailing  abuses 
of  the  times.  For  example,  he  had  progressed  no  further 
than  the  third  chapter  of  St.  Matthew,  before  he  contrived 
to   find   occasion  for  dragging  in   a  slur  upon  the  whole 

•u attacked,  priestly  Order*;  in  commenting  on  Matt.  xv.  5,  he  censures 


ImioBslnUie 


oTtlMAov. 
intlrwmm- 


TbeiecnlAT 

cterxT,  Um 

monuand 

mendlouita 

andtlM 

•ehoolmen 


^  'Wmioniensis  episcopns,  vir  at 
Bois  pnidentissiinas,  in  celebenimo 
eoBtn  magnAtam,  qaam  de  te  ac  tiiis 
Incnbrationibiis  inddiBset  seimo,  teB- 
tatiifl  eBt  omnibus  approbantibas,  ver- 
Bionem  toam  NoTi  Testamenti,  Tice 
esBe  dbi  oommentarionun  deoem, 
tantiun  afferre  lucis.*  Opera,  iii  1650. 


*  It  iB  when  Bpeaking  of  the  MSS. 
of  the  Goepels  to  which  he  had  had 
accesB  at  the  GoUege  of  St.  Donatian 
at  Bruges.  'Habebat  eabibliotheca,* 
he  goes  on  to  say,  *eompliireB  alios 
HbroB  antiqoitatiB  yenerands,  qui 
neglectn  quorondam  perienmt,  ut 
nunc  femu'  $unt  taeerdotum  morea 


THE  MQVUM  INSTKOHENTUU.  513 

tbe  monks  and  friars  for  the  artifices  whereby  they  prevuled  <^a^-  »• 
on  the  wealthy  to  bequeath  their  estates  to  religious  houses  --v  — ' 
rather  than  to  their  rightful  heirs ;  in  a  note  on  Matt  iiiiL  2, 
he  indulges  iu  a  tirade  gainst  the  bishops ;  Mark  tL  9 
affords  an  opportunity  for  attacking  the  Mendicants, — Christ, 
he  says,  never  belonged  to  that  order ;  when  he  comes  to  the 
mention  of  Bionysius  the  Areopagite,  in  Acts  xriL  34,  he 
does  not  omit  to  tell,  with  evident  relish  and  in  his  very  best 
Latin,  the  story  of  Grocyn's  humiliating  discovery* ;  while  in 
a  note  on  Timothy  L  6,  he  attacks  the  disputations  of  the 
schools,  and  supports  his  criticisms  by  a  long  list  of  qtuestiones, 
designed  as  specimens  of  the  prevailing  extravagance  and 
puerility  of  the  dialecticians.  Whatever,  accordingly,  may 
be  our  opinion  of  the  policy  tliat  imperilled  the  success  of 
a  work  of  such  magnitude,  by  converting  it  into  a  fortress 
from  whence  to  shoot  singularly  galling  darts  against  the 
enemy,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  by  criticisms  tike 
tbe  foregoing  that  the  active  hostility  of  the  conservative 
party  at  Cambridge  was  mainly  provoked,  and  that  they 
were  induced  to  have  recourse  to  acts  of  retaliation  like  that 
referred  to  in  the  following  letter  from  Erasmus*,— a  letter 
that  affords  perhaps  the  most  valuable  piece  of  contemporary 
evidence  with  respect  to  the  state  of  the  university  that  re- 
mains to  us  of  this  period. 

The  letter  is  dated  from  Fisher's  palace  at  Rochester ;  obbb^ 
and  Erasmus  commences  by  saying,  in  response  to  Bullock's  g^^i^"* 
expressed  wish  for  his  return,  that  he  would  be  only  too  glad 
to  resume  Ms  old  Cambridge  life  and  to  find  himself  again 

magi*  tneumbfrt  patiniiqaampaginii,  dimiilinm  eoateciaBsl,  nbf  gustani  tt- 

et  potiortm  habrre  curam  nununonin  tentim  cepiBset,  ingenne  coram  ftodi- 

quam  voluminum.'  (Quoted  by  Jortin,  torio  funu  est,  sibi  verso  salenlo  non 

II 306.)  videri  id  opiu  esse  Dlonysii  Aieo- 

■  'AJiteeomplnreB  aimoa,  atmem-  pagita.'   Ibid.  n21i.   In  the  present 

ini,    vir    incompBrabiltB    Willelmns  daj.  it  tuu  seemed  fit  to   the  tno- 

OrociDUB,  nt  tbeologas  snmmnn,  itk  dem    representatireB   ol   ErfcamtK'l 

in    noils    disciplins   non    eiqniute  Rnlagoijiats,   to  maintain  that  Oro- 

doetna   et   eiercitatua,   aiiBpicatarut  c^'s  first  view  wan  the  right  one  I 
Londini  in   nde    Diva   Fsnlo   asora  *  Epitt.  148,  Opera,  iii  126.    This 

enamtioneni    CtElesUa    HieMrchiB,  letter,  by  an  evident  ansohroniam, 

meditats    profationa  mnltiiin  asse-  ia  dated  in  the  Leyden  edition  1S18; 

TBTEvit   hoc  opaa  etiM  Dionjaii   A-  bat  a  very  earaarj  examination  of  itt 

nopagits,  vehementer  deatomachans  eontenta  will  shew  Ihkt  it  la  a  replj 

in  eonmi  impndentiam,  qni  diaaen-  to  Bnlloek'i  lattar  of  Aug.  IS,  1610. 

tiient.    At  idem  prinaqoftm  op«riB  Ibid,  m  I9T> 


512 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


atCuu 
btidg.. 


CTiAP.v.   mciitators\     Cuthbert  Tunstall,  just  created  Master  of  the 
-  ^*J  _'    Rolls,  was  an  avowed  patron  of  the  undertakiDg.     The  fact 
indeed  that  the  dedication  of  the  work  had  been  accepted  by 
cSutEde-^®^  X,  might  alone  seem  sufficient  to  disarm  the  prejudices 
of  the  most  bigoted.     But  the  suspicions  of  the  theologians 
were  not  thus  to  be  lulled  to  sleep ;  and  in  Erasmus's  reply 
to  the  foregoing  letter  from  Bullock,  dated  Aug.  31,  we  find 
that  he  had  already  become  informed  of  the  manifestation  at 
Qranter  de-  Cambridge  of  a  very  different  spirit  from  that  which  Bullock 
had  reported.    In  the  Novum  Instrumentum  the  opponents  of 
Greek  had  recognised,  as  they  believed,  the  opportunity  for 
which  they  had  long  been  watching;  and  having  now  more 
definite  ground  whereon  to  take  their  stand,  they  were  en- 
deavouring by  mere  force  of  numerical  superiority  to  over- 
whelm the  party  of  reform. 

It  would  however  be  unjust  not  to  admit,  that  the  oppo- 
nents of  the  work  had  more  definite  grounds  for  their  hos- 
tility than  a  mere  general  aversion  to  the  special  culture  with 
which  that  work  was  identified,  and  that  their  opposition  was 
not,  as  Erasmus  himself  alleged,  commenced  and  carried  on 
in  utter  ignorance  of  the  contents  of  the  volume.  Merits 
and  defects  like  those  to  which  we  have  already  adverted, 
lay,  it  is  true,  somewhat  beyond  the  range  of  their  criticism ; 
but  there  was  in  the  commentary  another  feature,  which 
8M«Miiefti-  touched  them  far  more  closely, — and  this  was  the  frequent 
eomBMntery*  application,  which  the  sarcastic  scholar  had  'taken  occasion 
instnmeh-  to  make  (often  with  considerable  irrelevance  and  generally 
without  necessity)  of  particular  texts  to  the  prevailing  abuses 
of  the  times.  For  example,  he  had  progressed  no  further 
than  the  third  chapter  of  St.  Matthew,  before  he  contrived 
to  find  occasion  for  dragging  in  a  slur  upon  the  whole 
•uattMked.  pricstly  order*;  in  commenting  on  Matt.  xv.  5,  he  censures 


TbeaecnlAT 

clemr,  tbe 

moniaMMl 

mendkuita 

•odtlM 

•ehoolmen 


1  'Winioniensis  episcopns,  yir  at 
BoiB  pnidentissimas,  in  celeberrimo 
eoBtn  magnatom,  qnum  de  te  ac  tiiis 
laonbrationibuB  inddisset  seimo,  tes- 
tattis  est  omnibaB  approbantibus,  ver- 
aionem  tnam  NoyI  Testamenti,  Tice 
esse  sibi  oommentarionun  deoem, 
tantum  afferre  luois.*  Optra^  in  1650. 


'  It  is  when  speaking  of  the  MSS. 
of  the  Gospels  to  whid^  he  had  had 
access  at  the  College  of  St.  Donatian 
at  Bruges.  'Habebat  ea  bibliotheca,' 
he  goes  on  to  say,  *complares  alios 
libros  antiquitatis  venerandfe,  qui 
neglectu  quorundam  periemnt,  ut 
nunc  femu-  tunl  sacerdotum   morea 


THE  NpVUM  INSTBDHENTUH.  513 

the  monks  and  friars  for  the  artifices  wherehy  they  prevailed  *?*'•*■ 
on  the  wealthy  to  bequeath  their  estates  to  religious  houses  —  v 
rather  than  to  their  rightful  heirs ;  in  a  note  on  MatL  xxiiL  2, 
he  indulges  in  a  tirade  ^aiust  the  bishops;  Mark  vL  9 
affords  an  opportuaity  for  attacking  the  MeDdicaQt8,-~^Z!hri8ti 
he  says,  never  belonged  to  that  order ;  when  he  comes  to  the 
mention  of  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  in  Acts  xviL  34,  ha 
does  uot  omit  to  tell,  with  evident  relish  and  in  his  very  beat 
Latin,  the  story  of  Grocyn's  humiliating  discovery' ;  while  in 
a  note  on  Timothy  L  6,  he  attacks  the  disputations  of  the 
echooU,  and  supports  his  criticisms  by  a  long  list  of  qiuBationes, 
designed  as  specimens  of  the  prevailing  extravagance  and 
puerility  of  the  dialecticians.  Whatever,  accordingly,  may 
be  our  opinion  of  the  policy  that  imperilled  the  success  of 
a  work  of  such  mi^itude,  by  converting  it  into  a  fortress 
from  whence  to  shoot  singularly  galling  darts  against  the 
enemy,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  by  criticisms  like 
the  foregoing  that  the  active  hostility  of  the  conservative 
party  at  Cambridge  was  mainly  provoked,  and  that  they 
were  induced  to  have  recourse  to  acts  of  retaliation  like  that 
referred  to  in  the  following  letter  from  Erasmus*, — a  letter 
that  affords  perhaps  the  most  valuable  piece  of  contemporary 
evidence  with  respect  to  the  state  of  the  university  that  ro* 
mains  to  us  of  this  period. 

The  letter  is  dated  from  Fisher's  palace  at  Bochester ;  buh^i 
and  Erasmus  commences  by  saying,  in  response  to  Bullock's  J^^i"*' 
expressed  wish  for  his  return,  that  he  would  be  only  too  glad 
to  resume  his  old  Cambridge  life  and  to  find  himself  i^ain 

majfU  ineiimbrrt  patinit  quampaginit,  dimidimn  eonteeisMt,  nbi  guritim  ki- 
ef poliortm  habtrt  euram  nunimorum  tentiiu  MpUset,  ingeuas  coram  sndi- 
quan  volaiainuK.'  (Qaoted  by  Jortin,  torio  tufna  est,  eilii  lerso  oaloalo  non 
ti  206.)  Tideri  id  opat  ease  DlonvBii  Ar«o- 
1  'Aiits  eomploiefl  aimoi,  at  mem-  pogitiB.'  Ibid,  n  211.  In  uie  present 
ini,  TIT  incompanbiliE  Willelmna  day,  it  has  seemed  fit  to  the  mo- 
Orocinaa,  nt  theologas  sommuB,  it«  dem  representatiree  of  Enumoa'a 
in  dqIIb  dieciplina  nan  eiqniirite  antagoDigts,  to  tnaintiiiTi  that  Qto- 
doetoa  et  eiercitatno,  auapicatnma  ctd'b  Brat  liev  was  the  right  one  t 
Londini  in  nde  DIto  Paolo  sacra  ■  EpUt.  148,  Opera,  in  136.  Tfal« 
enaTTationem  CtEleatia  Hiertrchis,  letter,  by  an  evideiit  anaohroniim, 
meditata  pisratiooe  multom  asse-  ia  dated  in  the  Lejden  edition  1513 : 
TUkTit  hoc  opns  eue  Dionysii  A-  bat  a  very  cnnory  examinatioit  of  Ha 
leopagitB,  vehementer  deatomachana  eontenta  will  ahew  (bat  it  U  a  nply 
in  eonim  impndentiam,  qni  diiaen-  to  Bnlloek's  latter  of  Aog.  IS,  1610. 
UrenL    At  iaem  prioaqoam  opnia  Ibid,  m  I9T> 

33 


614  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CHAP.T.   among  so  delightful  a  circle  of  frieDds,  but  at  present  he 
>^  mf  is  looking  forward ^o  wintering  at  Louvain*     He  is  delighted 
to  hear  that  his  Novum  Instrumentum  finds  favoiu*  with  those 
whose  good  opinion  is  most  to  be  desired ;  *  but/  he  goes  on 
to  say,  *  I  also  hear,  on  good  authority,  that  there  is  one  most 
theological  college  {collegium  OeoyarfiKforarov)  among   you, 
ruled  over  by  a  set  of  perfect  Areopagites,  who  have  by 
formal  decree  forbidden  that  the  volume  be.  introduced  within 
the  college  walls,  either  by  horse  or  by  boat,  by  cart  or  by 
porter.     Is  this,'  he  exclaims,  '  doctissime  Boville,  more  to  be 
•laughed  at  or  lamented  ?    XJnfortimate  men,  how  their  sym- 
pathies are  vitiated !     Hostile  and  angry  against  themselves, 
HeattMki    grudging  at  their  own  profit!     Of  what  race  can  they  be, 
JjJJ^-      who  are  by  nature  so  savage,  that  kindness,  which  soothes 
even  wild  beasts,  only  irritates  them ;  who  are  so  implacable 
that  no  apologies  can  soften  them  ?    Who,  what  is  yet  more 
to  their  discredit,  condemn  and  mangle  a  book  that  they 
have  never  read,  and  could  not  understand  if  they  had.   Who 
know  nothing  more  than  what  they  may  have  heard  over 
the^  cups  or  in  public  gossip,  that  a  new  work  has  come  out 
with  which  it  is  designed  to  hoodwink  the  theologians ;  and 
straightway  attack  with  the  fiercest  abuse  both  the  author, 
who  by  his  protracted  labours  has  aimed  at  rendering  service 
to  aU  students,  and  the  book,  from  whence  they  might  them- 
selves reap  no  small  advantage  \'     After  pointing  out  what 
excellent  precedents  for  his  performance  were  to  be  found  in 
the  productions  of  different  scholars  at  various  times,  he 
Jw^*^jWn»  turns  to  the  new  translations  of  Aristotle  as  his  most  per- 
J2^iJ">«  tinent  illustration.     'What   detriment,'   he  asks,   *did  the 
vbS^iw-  writings  of  Aristotle   suffer,   when   Ai'gyropulos,  Leonardo- 
totto.  Aretino,  and  Theodorus  Gaza  brought  forth  their  new  ver- 


^  *  Quod  genns  hoc  hominnm.asqne  thos,  ant  in  conoiliAbnlis  fori,  pro* 

adeo  moTOsam,  nt  officiis  irritentnr,  disse  noYnxn  opus,  quod  omnibns  the- 

qnibiiB  mansueBcont  et  fersd  beUoie ;  ologis,  sen  oomicibas,  oculos  tentet 

tarn    implaoabile,   nt  eos  neo    tarn  coxifigere :  ao  mox  meiis  conyioiiB  m« 

multsB  apologise  lenire  poBsint  ?  immo  seotantor   et   anctorem    qui    tantig 

(quod  est  impudentias),  isti  damnant  Tigiliis  gtudiis  omnium  prodesae  ata- 

ao  laeerant  librum,  quem  ne  legerint  duerit,  et  libmm,  unde  potorant  pro- 

quidem,  alioqui  nee  intelleoturi  si  fioere.*    m  126, 
legant.    Tantnm  audienmt  inter  <^- 


THE  NOVUM  INSTRUlIEIfTrif. 


515 


sions  t  Surely  the  traDsktioDB  of  these  scholars  are  not  to  be 
suppressed  and  destroyed,  simply  in  order  that  the  old  inter- 
preters of  the  Aristotelian  philosophy  may  be  regarded  as 
omniscient  V  He  then  falls  back,  reasonably  enough,  on  the 
argument  ad  verecundiam :  his  work  had  gained  the  warmest 
approval  of  Warham ;  Capito,  professor  at  Basel,  and  Berue, 
at  Paris,  two  of  the  most  eminent  theologians  of  the  day, 
had  been  equally  emphatic  in  their  praise  ;  ao  had  Gregoiy 
Beischius,  who  was  listened  to  as  an  oracle  in  Gennany ;  so 
hod  Jacob  Wimphelinjir.  '  But  to  say  nothing  of  others,'  he 
continues,  'you  yourself  well  know  what  a  distinguished  man 
the  bishop  of  Rochester,  your  chancellor,  is,  as  r^anls  both 
character  and  attainments.  And  are  not  these  obscure  men 
ashamed  to  hurl  reproacbes  against  what  one  of  such  dis- 
tinguished worth  both  sanctions  and  reads  T  Finally,'  he 
adds, '  if  with  one  man  learning  has  most  weight, — I  can  claim 
the  approval  of  the  most  learned  ;  if  with  another,  virtue, — I 
have  that  of  the  most  virtuous ;  if  with  a  third,  authority, — 
I  have  the  support,  not  only  of  bishops  and  archbishops, 
but  of  the  supreme  pontiff  himself.' 

'  But  perhaps,'  he  goes  on  to  say,  '  they  fear  lest,  if  the 
young  students  are  attracted  to  these  studies,  the  schools 
will  become  deserted.  Why  do  they  not  rather  reflect  on 
this  fact  It  is  scarcely  thirty  years  ago,  when  all  that  was 
taught  in  the  university  of  Cambridge,  was  Alexander',  the 
Ijttle  Logicals*  (as  they  call  them),  and  those  old  exercises 
out  of  Aristotle,  and  qu<estionea  taken  from  Duns  Scotua  As 
time  went  on,  polite  learning  was  introduced ;  to  this  was 

>  Lewig  {Li/r  of  Filler,  i  37)  ex- 

SUina  thu.BBroferriiieto  'Aleiauder 
e  Hales ',  called  doctor  irrefra^bilia, 
EipOBitio  in  libios  MelaphrBicae  Acia- 
totelia.'  Jones  and  Wright  IOuhiu' 
Coll.,  p.  13)  aa;,  'the  middle-age 
poem  of  Walter  de  Castellia.'  Nei- 
ther of  these,  I  think,  is  right,  and 
Hi  Demaoa  who,  in  hla  Life  of  La  (i- 
mer  (p.  19),  anggeala  Alexander  of 
Aphrodisias,  ia  etiU  further  from  the 
mMk.  It  nag  more  probably  the 'Alex- 
ander, a  gander  of  Menandei's  pole, ' 
nferred  to  bj  Bkelton  in  hii  '  Bpeke 
FUTot,'  (ed.  DjM,  n.  S-Q,  and  S47,) 
>n  laxt-book  at  Cambndg«. 


UMwMb 


Alfranifrdt  nila  Dti  was  the  author 
of  the  DocirinaU  iWrorum,  for  some 
centnriea  the  moat  common  text-book 
on  gnmntar.  It  waa  a  compilation 
from  PriB«ian,  and  in  leonine  veiM 
(see  Warton.  Iliit.  of  Eng.  Potlru,  tl 
S47,  n.).  Compare  also  the  follow, 
ing, — 'Qni  pistei  oommentarioa  in 
AUiandnim  grammudVuin  et  Bm- 
nelli  poeta  fabnlaa  et  Boridani  Tnl> 
garinm  dialeeticonun  Bophiamata... 
nihil  nnqoam  legiBaent,  eptBloIaa 
meaa  lucem  in  tenebris  putaTernnt.' 
£neaa  Sjlrioa,  £puloIc,  p.  906, 
■  8«e  anpn,  p.  StO,  n.  i. 


516  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CHAP.  ▼.  added  a  knowledge  of  mathematics ;  a  new,  or  at  least  a 
paotil  regenerated,  Aristotle  sprang  up ;  then  came  an  acquaintance 
with  Greek,  and  with  a  host  of  new  authors  whose  very 
names  had  before  been  unknown,  even  to  their  profoundest 
doctors.  And  how,  I  would  ask,  has  this  affected  your  uni- 
versity ?  Why,  it  has  flourished  to  such  a  degree  that  it  can 
now  compete  with  the  chief  universities  of  the  age^  and  can 
boast  of  men  in  comparison  with  whom  theologians  of  the  old 
school  seem  only  the  ghosts  of  theologians.  The  seniors  of 
the  university,  if  candid  men,  do  not  deny  this ;  they  con- 
gratulate others  on  their  good  fortune,  and  lament  their  own 
loss.  But  perhaps  these  friends  of  ours  are  dissatisfied  be- 
cause, since  all  this  has  come  to  pass,  the  Gospels  and  the 
Epistles  find  more  numerous  and  more  attentive  students; 
and,  grudging  that  even  this  amount  of  time  shoidd  be  sub- 
tracted from  studies  to  which,  forsooth,  all  the  student's 
entire  time  ought  to  be  devoted,  would  prefer  that  his  whole 
life  should  be  wasted  in  the  frivolous  subtleties  of  qucestiones  t 
HebopMUiBut  I  shall,  on  this  account,  certainly  little  regret  my 
kftdmra'to   midnight  toil.     It  is  notorious  that  hitherto  there  have  been 

•tudy  the  ^ . 

^^*j^^  theologians  who  have  altogether  neglected  the  Scriptures ;  and 

Mi!w1«M°*'  ^^^^  *^»  ^^*'  ^^^  *^®  purpose  of  studying  the  Sentences,  nor 

jw»««««*-  •  indeed  with  a  view  to  any  other  single  thing  save  only  the 

dilemmas  of  qiUBstiones.    Is  it  not  well,  that  such  as  these 

should  be  summoned  back  to  the  fountain-head?    I  long, 

my  friend,  to  see  the  toil  I  underwent,  with  a  view  to  the 

general  good, — toil  of  no  ordinary  kind, — ^fruitful  of  benefit 

to  all..Jt  is  my   hope,  that  what    now   meets  with  the 

approval  of  the  best  among  you,  may,  ere  long,  meet  with 

that  of  the  larger  number.     Novelty  which  has  often  won 

favour  for    others,  has,   in    my  case,   evoked  dislike.      A 

Beitomw)*.  Corresponding  diversity  of  fate  awaits  us,  I   fancy,  in  the 

juSiS?"     future.    Time,  while  it  deprives  them  of  the  popular  regard, 

may  perhaps  bestow  it  on  me.    This  do  I  confidently  predict ; 

whatever  may  be  the  merit  of  my  literary  labours,  they  will 

be  judged  with  greater  impartiality  by  posterity  V 

1  <  Ante  annos  fenxie  triginta,  nihil     proter  Alexandmm,  Parra  Logjoalia^ 
tradebatnr  in  sohola  CantabrigienBi,      nt  yoean^  et  Vetera  ilia  Aristotelia 


GBEEK  AT  CAMBRIDGE. 


617 


Erasmus's   prediction    was    abuDdantly   fulfilled ;    and,  chap.  t. 
vithin  a  few  years  from  the  date  of  the  foregoiog  letter,  he    -  v  -* 
saw  the  publication  of  his  Nomitn  InttTvmentum  attended  taGuM 
by  effects  of  both  a  character  and  a  degree  far  outrunning 
bis  calculations,  and  even  bis  wishes,  when  laboring  over 
those  pages  in  his  study  at  Queens'  College.     At  present 
however  it  is  sufficient   to  note   the  satisfactory  evidence 
above  aSbrded   of  the   pr<^res8    of  the  new   learning  at 
Qambndge;   more  trustworthy  testimony  can  scarcely  be 
required  than  that  thus  incidentally  given,  in  a  confidential 
letter,  written  by  an  emeritus  professor  to  a  resident  fellow. 

The  movement  in  favour  of  the  study  of  Greek  and  the  JSJjKi. 
opposition  it  excited,  continued,  it  would  seem,  to  be  the  SSTtJi^i 
chief  subject  of  interest  at  Cambridge  for  some  years  after  o 
Erasmus  thus  wrote.  In  the  year  1518,  Bryan,  his  former 
pupil,  ventured  upon  a  startling  innovation  on  the  traditional 
method  of  instruction.  On  succeeding  to  his  regency,  as 
master  of  arts,  he  not  only  put  aside  the  old  translations  of 
■  Aristotle,  but  had  recourse  to  his  knowledge  of  Greek  in  his 
exposition  of  the  new  versions.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  * 
add  that  in  adopting  this  mode  of  treatment,  he  found  little  a 
time  for  the  discussion  of  the  prevalent  nominalistic  disputes,  n 


le  qBBBUoQM.  Pro- 
CTMsa  temporia  AcceBsemiit  boos 
Utiem ;  accessit  matlieBeoB  eognitio ; 
aoeeudt  qotub,  Aat  eerte  novBtas, 
AjriBtotelea;  kcceaait  Qmoanun  lit- 
tcrftram  peritii;  aeceBBemntaactores 
tun  mnltif  quomni  olim  ne  uomiiiA 
qaidem  tenebuitiir.  nee  •  Baniiiiati- 
bnt  illia  larehiB.  Qoteeo,  quid  hiaee 
ei  reboB  accidit  Bcademin  veatra  T 
iMiape  sic  efflomit,  at  oum  primis 
hDJos  Bscnli  scholia  certare  posiit; 
et  tales  habet  Tiroa  ad  qnoB  veterea 
illi  eoUati  nmbrs  tlieoli^onim  irid*- 
ftntnr.  non  tbeologL  Noa  inficiantnr 
id  majore*,  ai  qui  Eimt  iageaio  can- 
dido.  Aliis  Bnam  felieitatem  grata- 
lantnr,  Bnam  eomploiotit  infelicita- 
tem.  An  hoe  iatoB  male  babet,  quod 
poathao  et  plorea  legenl  ETangelicaa 
Apoitolicanqne  litteras.  et  alteotiaa; 
et  Tel  hoc  tempona  hia  atndiii  deei- 
di  dolent,  qoibua  onuie  tampna  opor- 
tatwt  Impartiii;  malmtqne  luUTti- 


aam  Btatem  in  queBtioniim  triTolia 
argdtiia  conteri !  Atqoi  hoe  smib 
nomine  non  admodnm  psnitet  ma 
meamm  vigiiianim.  Compertnm  eat 
haotenna  qaoadam  taia«e  theolopoa, 
qui  adeo  nnnqnain  legerant  divinaa 
Utteraa,  nt  nee  ipioa  Sententianun 
libroa  erolTeient,  neque  qniaqtiam 
omnino  attingerent  prcter  qiuratio- 
nnin  gmihos.  An  non  eipedit  ejoi- 
modi  ad  ipwa  revocari  (antes  t  Ego, 
mi  BoTille,  Isborea  qooa  eerte  non 
medioerea  omnibua  javandie  soaoepi, 

oapiam  omniboa  eaae  fragileroB 

et  apero  {atomm,  nt  qnod  nnne 
plaoet  optimiB,  moi  pleoeat  pluri- 
mis.  AUia  gratiam  eonciliavit  nori- 
taa,  at  hoio  opeii  noTitaa  invidiam 
pepeiit.  Proinde  diTenom  opinot 
acoideL  Dlia  ntas  faTorem  adimit, 
mihi  tortassia  apponet.  Hind  certe 
pnesagio   de  meia    Incabrationibnl, 


Optra,ai  ItO. 


.518  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CRAP.  ▼.  Xhe  young  regent  incurred,  of  course,  a  large  amount  of 

^^v  -"  hostile  criticism,  but  he  probably  felt  more  than  compensated 

by   the    cordial    praise    and    increased    regard   of    his    old 

instructor*. 

MriMMi  In  the   same  vear.  the  foundation  of  the  Rede  lecture- 

ifc»  w«i^^     ships  gave   additional  sanction   to  the   new   learning.     Sir 

A^  uii      Robert  Rede,  who,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  was  lord  chief 

justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  had  formerly  been  a  fellow  of 

King's  Hall ;  and  in  his  will,  he  btijueathed  to  the  university 

certain  levenue^,  payable  by  the  abbey  at  Waltham,  of  the 

annual  value  of  £12.     This  sum  he  dinrored  to  l<  divided 

among    three    lectuivrs,   ap{^>inted    by    the    university,   in 

phiI«>»ophy.  logic,  and  rhHonc\ 

«t«K«fd»         Iq  the  mean  time.  Fishers  zeal  in  behalf  of  the  stndr 

SrSK^**  of  Greek  appear?  not  onlv  to  have  remaine^i  tiikjkh&Soi.  but  to 

*K«c  V  Ik*  iijive  been  cc-csiderably  enhanoeu  ly  Lis  sei-se  c«5  The  grr-wing 

impc^rtance  of  a  knowledge  of  the  lar.g-iiage.  as  Le  w;&t«:}ied 


^  **     the  contn>versT  that   was   acita:i=j;  bc<>i   tie   :::i:reraties 


in  conneiion  with  the  y^T^n  /'»i.<fnii«*^%^h.f*.  TLn  zreax 
evert  in  I::cra:ur>?  Lad  in-ieec  ar:«:ia^  r.-:«  a  few  to  m 
percv  wi:.r.  c:  :be  vaIht  cc  the  s^^aiy :  azii  C:«jr4.  while 
K"ar:kil:r^  Lis   :wi,   ir:::riZr^r.  oecliTcd  liLu   ZiZu   *o   knov 

t.irv^  £     W^Aj.     ,.      Zk-     —.•.•.»_•,        lu     4*-rc      vrtkT     It  av»^ 

rv-:unei.  f:r  a  5L:n  ::zir,  -.:  Ez:g-lir?i.     H*  wjbs  evfr 
ti:c.     BjcL  kii;^  izii  ::Lri:zjkl  ijoi^ic  :■:  Lik-r^  br-ii  cd  to 
wtc*:   :tfy:oi  Lis  w.cix  ttaS^  iiiL  a 


riUiifiiL  TiLiibA*    lis   'assr-  Mun£  Ijqv-IZZOAL  TPilkMUr 

*■'■'"    Tixuiiiss    3.    jcif-i::^    ilil   tz.  j/iinii  ^im   imnrniii'twqf  iOi£ 

*  ■  •     - 

Sizzu  2iAt:2f  ^M-'TTB^  iTrssLT   u  Zz'ttf'-        ^lasi  viK^    {OL'a^    tan 

su.  £rxuin»s3xu  Hi.  jxuwixLmnL  rm.-  yettL     n*^    flferx  tz 

< jmxnbn  ^tv  grmrifc-  ryiir>«  jnzriiaiAL  Mm.-    7.  <«tN 
nt  sBBif  sam  K  Vmpnhfla      Jit 


HIS  DESIRE  TO   LEASN  OSEEK. 


anchor,  his  ooly  refuge  from  b^gary'.     He  does  not  appear  . 

to  have  visited  Cambridge;  but  writing  from  London  at 

the  close  of  the  year  to  Berus,  he  again  bears  testimony  to  Hbtntt- 

the  remarkable  and  decisive  change  that  had  come  over  the  ^^CJL 

spirit  of  the   university,  and  encourages  his  correspondent 

by  the  assurance  that  he  will,  ere  long,  witness  a  like  change 

at  Paris'. 

It  was  during  his  stay  at  Rochester  on  this  occaaion,  •««■■• 
that  his  patron  gave  convincing  proof  of  his  sense  of  the  ^^J****  <* 
value  of  Greek,  by  announcing  bis  wish,  though  then  fifty- 
two  years  of  age,  to  receive  instruction  in  the  language ; 
and  there  is  still  extant  an  amusing  correspondence  between 
Erasmus,  More,  and   Latimer,  on   the  subject.     It  appears 
that  the  former  two  were  endeavouring  to  prevail  on  Latimer 
to  become  Fisher's  Greek  master.     The  triumvirate  however  BBturM*- 
all  betray  an  uncomfortable  foreboding  that  the  undertaking,  wmOt. 
as    likely   to    end    in  failure,   would    probably   prove    less 
agreeable   than   might    be    desired.      They   seem   to   have    . 
thought  that  the  good  bishop  himself  only  half  apprehended 
the  difficulties  of  the  enterprise, — especially  to  one  of  hia 
advanced  years ; 

■Eiperttu  iiaem  qoun  gnTia  ute  lalxn',' 
was  the  sentiment  that  doubtless  often  rose  to  their  lips^ 
but  regard  and  reverence  checked  its  utterance.     Uoreover, 
was  there   not   the   encouraging  precedent   of  Cato,  to   be 
pleaded  in  justification*  1     The  pressure  put  upon  Latimer 
was  not  slight,  but  he  backed  out  of  the  engagement  by  laomn^- 
declaring  that  he  bad  not  opened  either  a  Greek  or  Latin  t>kb«  tS^ 
classic   for  the   last   eight  years,  and   he  advised   that   an  *>naor. 
instructor  should   be  sought  in   Italy*.     It  appears  indeed 

>  Jortin,  I  110.  Til  nUftm  interim  paginun,  Tel  OnB- 
■  ■  VidebiB  eaa  ineptias  magna  ei  eam  tgI  LatiQuii  attigerim,  qnod  vel 
parte  eiplodi.  Cantabrigia  loatata:  me  tacente  has  littene  tibi  tadle  de- 
nse eebola  detestatur  frigidaB  illaa  olamiiiuit,  quid  deboi,  aat  eliam  quid 
argntiaa,  qute  magis  ad  lizam  fadant  potni  tsI  Moro  lO^nti,  Tel  tibi  |k>b- 
qaam  ad  pietatem.^  tolaDti   promittere,    qoaodo   etiam 

*  Eiaami  Optra,  iii  1673,  1674.  Tehementer  pudet,  j^fi)  yip  efymt  ri- 

*  '  Bed  earn  octo  ant  noTem  aanoi  XiiMt  dnir,  Tel  ad  te  scribeM.  liomi. 
in  aliia  stodiii  ita  nm  Tenatiu,  ot  nem,  nt  uibil  aliDd  diAtiiii  illiiwHi 


520 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


OHnbridf* 
BlMinwant 


oTOrMk. 


CHAP.  V.  more  than  doubtful  whether  Fisher  ever  acquired  the  know- 
ledge he  so  much  coveted*. 

Shortly  after  this,  Erasmus  left  England  for  LouvaiD. 
In  the  following  year  Ammonius  was  carried  off  by  the 
sweating  sickness;  and  in  the  year  after  that,  Colet  also 
was  taken  from  the  world.  In  them  Erasmus  lost  his  two 
dearest  friends,  and  he  never  again  visited  the  English 
shores. 

In  the  mean  time,  the  university  was,  like  its  chancellor, 
lacking  a  teacher  of  Greek ;  and  it  was  especially  desirable 
that  when  the  whole  question  of  this  study  was,  as  it  were, 
on  its  trial,  the  chief  representative  of  such  learning  at^ 
Cambridge  should,  like  Erasmus,  be  one  whose  eminence 
could  not  be  gainsaid.  Bryan  and  Bullock,  though  young 
men  of  parts,  do  not  appear  to  have  acquired  a  decisive 
reputation  as  Grecians;  and  the  friends  of  progress  now 
began  to  look  somewhat  anxiously  round  for  a  successor  to 
the  great  scholar  who  had  deserted  them  some  three  years 
before.  The  battle  was  still  undecided.  No  chair  of  Greek 
had,  as  yet,  been  established  in  the  university ;  while  of  the 
Tioientop-  uuabated  hostility  and  unscrupulousness  of  the  opposite 
^Jj^«*  party,  Oxford,  just  at  this  time,  had  given  to  the  world  a 
notable  illustration. 

As  we  have  before  had  occasion  to  observe,  the  tendencies 
of  the  sister  university  were  more  exclusively  theological 
than  those  of  Cambridge,  and  the  result  was  naturally  a 
correspondingly  more  energetic  resistance  to  a  study,  which, 
as  it  was  now  clearly  understood,  was  likely,  if  it  gained  a 
permanent  footing,  completely  to  revolutionise  the  traditional 


gimmn  ? Qaapropter  ni  vis  at  pro- 

cedat  episcopns,  et  ad  aliqnam  in  his 
rebus  frugem  peryeniat,  fac  peritom 
aliquem  harum  renun  ex  Italia  ac- 
cersat,  qui  et  manere  tautiftper  cum 
eo  Yelit,  doneo  se  tarn  firmum  ao 
Talidum  Bcuserit,  ut  uon  repere  bo- 
lum,  Bed  et  erigere  sese  ac  stare 
atque  etiam  ingredi  possit.  Nam  hoc 
paoto  melius,  mea  senteutia,  futursB 
ejus  eloqnentiffi  oousules,  quam  si 
balbntientem  adhuo  et  pene  Yagien<* 


tem,  Teluti  in  ennis  relinqnas.'  E- 
rasmi  Opera,  lu  294-5.  Erasmus 
and  More,  it  mav  be  added  by  way  of 
explanation,  had  wanted  T»atimer  to 
undertake  the  ofiSce  of  tutor  for  a 
month,  just  as  an  experiment. 

^  The  sole  eyidenoe  in  fayonr  of 
the  affirmative  adduced  by  Lewis 
(I  61), — the  presence  of  a  Greek  quo* 
tation  on  the  title- page  of  the  bishop's 
treatise  against  Luther, — esn  hsrdly 
be  considered  Bstisfactoiy. 


OBEEK  AT  OXFOKD.  521 

theology  of  the  schools.     It  was  ezEtctl;  at  thU  time,  more-  ^^^p-  ^- 
over,  that  a  hold  declaratioD  of  policy,  on  the  part  of  one    ■ — , — ■ 
of  the  chief  supportera  of  Greek  at  Oxford,  had  roused  the 
apprehcnaioQB   of  their  antagonists  to  an  unwonted  pitch. 
In  the  year  1516,  bishop  Fox  bad  founded  the  college   of  pnandstioa 
Corpus  ChristL     Though  at  the  time  still  master  of  Pem-  cbmibi  oot 
broke,  his  Oxford  sympathies  predominated,  or  he  perhaps  f'^"'*- 
tbought,  that  with  so  powerful  a  patron  a^  Fisher,  Cambridge 
had  little  need  of  his  aid.     In  the  following  year,  he  drew 
up  the   statutes  for  the  new  foundation,  which,  while  con- 
ceived in  the  same  spirit  as  those  already  given  by  Fisher 
at.  Cambridge, — ^by  whom  indeed   they  were   subsequently 
adopted   in  many  of  their  details,  in  his  revision  of  the 
statutes  of  St.  John's  College,  in  the  year  1524, — were  also 
found  to  embody  a  far  more  bold  and  emphatic  declaration 
in  favour  of  the  new  learning.     The  editor  and  truielator  of 
bishop  Fox's  statutes  has  indeed  not  hesitated  to  maintain,  ^J^ 
that  Fox  was  the  true  leader  of  reform  at  Oxford  at  this 
period,  and  that  Wolsey  was  little  more  than  '  an  ambitious 
and  inconstant  improver  upon  his  hints'.'     It  is  certain  that 
few  Oxonians,  at  that  day,  could  bave  heard  with  indifference 
that  at  Fox's  new  college, — ^beddes  a  lecturer  on  the  Latin 
classics'  and   another   on  Greek*, — there   was  also  to  be  a 


>  Tht  Foundation  Statutei  of  Bi- 
ihap  Fox  for  Corput  Chriiii  College 
in  the  Uttivenitu  of  Oxford,  j.n. 
1617.  Tranilalei  initt  EnglUli,  with 
a  Life  of  the  Founder.  By  R.  M. 
Ward,  Etq.,  M.A.,  late  FeUom  of 
Trinity  College,  etc.  IMS,  p.  ill 

*  Tbe  first  lecturer,  who  ia  to  be 
*  the  sower  and  planter  of  the  lAtin 
tongue,'  the  statute  direoU  '  to  num- 
fully  root  oat  barbarity  from  our 
garden,  and  cast  it  foitn,  ihoold  it 
at  an?  time  germinate  theTsin.'  H« 
wM  required  to  read  'Cicero's  Epi- 
BtloB,  Orations,  oi  Oflices,  Sallnat, 
Valerias  Haiimna,  or  Saetoniiu 
Tranquillus;  next, — Pliny,  Cicero  ds 
Arte,  De  Orators,  the  InBtitatio  Ora- 
toria  of  Qaintilian ;  neit, — Tirgil, 
Ovid,  Laoan,  jQTenal,  Terence,  or 
Plaatns. '  He  wai  alao  to  rekd  *  pii- 
Tately  in  tome  pUee  ot  oar  college, 
to  be  appointed  by  the  precident,  to 


all  of  the  honiehold  who  wish  to 
Ii«ar  him,  either  the  elegsnoieB  ot 
Laurentios  Vallends,  or  the  Attio 
Lncubrations  of  Anliia  OellioE,  or  the 
Hiaoellaniea  of  Politian.'  Ibid.  a.  33. 
'  '  But  the  aeoond  herbalist  of  our 
apiary  ia  to  be,  and  to  be  called,  the 
Bieadei  o(  the  Qreciata  and  of  the 
Qrsek    language:    whom    we    have 

Cjd  in  our  bee-garden  eipreaalj 
oBS  the  holy  oanona  have  esta- 
blisbed  aod  commanded,  most  loit- 
ably  foi  good  letters  and  ChriBtian 
literature  especially,  that  such  an 
one  should  never  be  wanting  in  the 
nniversity  of  Oxford '  [the  referanoe 
is  evidently,  to  the  original  decree  in 
the  Clementines  of  1311,  see  supra, 

few  other  most  famona  places  ol 
learning He  is  to  read  on  Mon- 
days, Wednesday!,  and  Friday*, 
■ome  part  ol  the  grammar  ol  Theo- 


522 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


tun. 


CHAP.  V.  third  lecturer, — whose  special  task  it  was  to  be,  not  only  to 

Pabt  II.  . 

^— v-*^  familiarise  the  minds  of  the  students  with  those  very  Greek 
not oiSya^  fathers  whom  so  many  were  violently  denouncing,  but  also 
tbeutin^    to  discoura^re  the  study  of  those  mediaeval  theologians  who 

claadca,aiid  .  .  . 

jgogjj^    then   occupied   so   considerable   a  space  in  all  the   college 
Mam  in     libraries,  and  whose  authority  was  regarded  as  only  inferior 
b^^Miy^  to  that  of  St.  Augustine   himself.     With  that  fondness  for 
SlduS'**    metaphor  which  characterises  the  language  of  many  of  our 
ttjCT^Midto  early  college  statutes,  Fox  spoke  of  his  college  as  a  garden, 
"'»«**"»^      of  the  students  as  bees,  and  of  his  lecturers  as  gardeners. 
'Lastly,'  he  accordingly  goes  on  to  say,  'there  shall  be  a 
third  gardener,  whom   it  behoves  the   other  gardeners   to 
obey,  wait  on,  and  serve,  who  shall  be  called   and  be  the 
Reader  in  Sacred  Divinity, — a  study  which  we  have  ever 
holden  of  such  importance,  as  to  have  constructed  this  our 
apiary  for  its  sake,  either  wholly  or  most  chiefly;  and  we 
pray,  and  in  virtue  of  our  authority  command,  all  the  bees 
to  strive  and   endeavour  with   all  zeal  and  earnestness,  to 
engage  in  it  according  to  the  statutes.     This  our  last  and 
divine  gardener  is,  on  every  common  or  half-holiday  through- 
out the  year,  beginning  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
publicly  to  teach  and  profoundly  to  interpret,  in  the  hall  of 
our  college  during  an  entire  hour,  some  portion  of  Holy  Writ, 
to  the  end  that  wonder-working  jewels  which  lie  remote  from 
view  may  come  forth  to  light... But  in  alternate  years,  that 
is,  every  other  year,  he  is  to  read  some  part  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  some  part  of  the  New,  which  the  president 
and  major  part  of  the  seniors  may  appoint;  and  he  must 
always  in  his  interpretation,  as  far  as  he  can,  imitate  the 


doms,  or  some  other  approved  Greek 
grammarian,  together  with  some  part 
of  the  speeches  of  Isocrates,  Lncian^ 
or  Philostratas ;  bat  on  Tuesdays, 
Thursdays,  and  Saturdays,  he  is  to 
read  Aristophanes,  Theocritas,  Eu- 
ripides, Sophocles,  Pindar,  or  He- 
siod,  or  some  other  of  the  most  an- 
cient Greek  poets,  together  with 
some  portion  of  Demostl^enes,  Tha- 
oydides,  Aristotle,  Theophrastus,  or 
Plutarch;  but  on  holidays.  Homer, 
the  Epigrams,  or  some  passage  from 


the  divine  Plato  or  some  Greek  theo- 
logian. Also,  thrice  eveiy  week,  and 
four  times  only,  at  his  own  option, 
^during  the  excepted  periods  of  the 
vacation,  he  shaU  read  privately  in 
some  place  of  onr  college,  to  be  as- 
signed for  the  purpose  by  the  presi- 
dent, some  portion  of  Greek  gram- 
mar or  rhetoric,  and  also  of  some 
Greek  author  rich  in  various  matter, 
to  idl  of  the  household  of  onr  col- 
lege who  wish  to  hear  him.'  Sto* 
tutes,  by  Ward. 


OBEEE  AT  OXFOBD.  523 

holy  and  ancient  doctors,  both  Latin  and  Greek,  and  eapectally  obap.  t. 
Jerome,  Attstin,  Ambroee,  Origen,  Hilary,  Chrysostom,  Da-  ■— y< 
mascenus,  and  that  aort, — not  Liranua,  not  Hugh  of  Vienne, 
and  the  rest,  who,  as  in  time  so  in  teaming,  are  far  below 
them ;   except  where  the  commentaries  of  the  former  doctort 
fail': 

The  theologiaoB  of  Oxford  had  scarcely  recovered  from  S'KSSI'i 
the  shock  which  tfau  institution  of  bishop  Fox's  '  gardeners,'  SS^I"^*^ 
and  the  formal  declaration  of  a  crusade  against  Nicholas  de 
Lyra  and  his  school,  must  necessarily  have  occasioned,  when 
they  were  startled  by  another  and  equally  bold  manifesta- 
tion,— this  time  from  without.  In  the  beginning  of  the 
year  1519,  appeared  the  second  edition  of  Erasmus's  Novuni 
Itatmmentum.  So  far  as  the  title  was  concerned,  they  were 
probably  not  displeased  to  find  that  it  had  been  altered  back 
to  the  more  orthodox  designation  of  Novum  Testamentum; 
.but,  oa  further  inspection,  it  was  discovered  that  this  was 
but  a  delusive  sign  of  the  author's  real  intentions,  and  that 
the  volume  was  in  reality  the  vehicle  of  a  more  serious  inno- 
vation than  any  that  had  yet  been  ventured  on.  The  Latin 
text  of  the  Novum  Instramentum  was  that  of  the  Yulgate ; 
that  of  the  Novum  Testamentum  was  a  substantially  new 
translation  by  Erasmus  himself,  for  which  the  venerable 
Vulgate  had  been  discarded !  While,  to  fill  up  the  measure  Hadfawdt 
of  his  offence,  he  had  prefixed  to  the  volume  a  discourse  tuttiSaS 
entitled  Ratio  Verce  Tkeologice,  wherein,  in  opposition  to  the 
whole  spirit  of  medieeval  theology,  he  insisted  yet  more  em- 
phatically than  ever  on  the  necessity  of  applying  to  the 
study  of  the  Scriptures  that  historical  method  which  had 
so  long  been  neglected  in  the  schools'. 

The  new  learning,  it  was  now  evident,  was  about,  to  use  *^£^ 
Erasmus's  own  expression,  'to  storm  an  entrance,'  if  admis-  o»™- 
sion  could  be  obtained  on  no  other  terms;  and  the  theolo- 
gians of  Oxford  were  called  upon  to  decide  whether  they 
would  impose  so  stem  a  necessity  on  its  supporters.     Un- 

1  Ibid.  pointa  of  intarMt,  im  Mr  SMbohm'i 

■  For  the  dianctMistio  m«ritB  of      wlniiTible  eritioiam  id  tha  fotutomUi 
thia  edition,  u  wdl  M  for  other      ehftptor  of  hii  0;tfer4  Btforwun. 


524  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CHAP.  T.  fortunately,  their  decision  was,  in  the  first  instance,  not  in 
favour  of  the  wiser  course.  The  Mendicants  were  numerous 
in  the  university;  their  influence  was  still  considerable; 
their  hatred  of  Greek  intense.  And  it  was  not  accordingly 
until  the  students  had  signalised  themselves  by  an  act  of 
egregious  folly,  such  as  is  scarcely  to  be  paralleled  in  the 
history  of  either  university,  that  Oxford  conceded  to  the 
study  of  Greek  an  unmolested  admission  to  the  student's 
chamber  and  a  tranquil  tenure  of  the  professorial  chair. 
.^  The  men  whose  character  and  reputation  had  upheld  the 
^mrai-  ^^^^y  ^^  former  years,  were  no  longer  resident.  Grocyn, 
^^^  now  a  palsied  old  man,  was  living  on  his  preferment   as 

warden  of  the  collegiate  church  at  Maidstone.  Linacre,  as 
court  physician,  resided  chiefly  in  London.  Pace  was  im- 
mersed in  political  life.  Latimer  had  subsided  into  the 
exemplary  and  unambitious  parish  priest  More,  the  young- 
est of  those  who,  twenty  years  before,  had  composed  the« 
academic  circle  that  welcomed  and  charmed  Erasmus,  had  long 
ago  removed  to  London;  his  interest  however  in  the  progress 
of  his  university  was  unabated ;  and  it  is  to  his  pen  that 
we  are  indebted  for  the  details  of  the  tactics  whereby  the 
defenders  of  the  'good  old  learning'  at  Oxford  now  endea- 
voured to  make  head  against  heresy  and  Greek. 
gJJ*^J^  It  would  appear  that  the  younger  students  of  the  univer- 

***********  sity,  who  shared  the  conservative  prejudices  of  their  seniors, 
were  becoming  alarmed  at  the  steady  progress  of  their 
adversaries,  and  resolved  on  the  employment  of  simpler 
weapons  and  more  summary  arguments.  Invective  had 
been  found  unavailing,  and  recourse  was  now  had  to  arms 
against  which  the  profoundest  learning  and  the  acutest  logic 
were  equally  powerless.  These  youthful  partisans  formed 
themselves  into  one  noble  army,  rejoicing  in  the  name  of 
2;jjM^  'Trojans*.'  One  of  their  leaders,  to  whom  years  had  not 
^■^  brought  discretion,  dubbed  himself  Priam;  others  assumed 

the  names  of  Hector  and  Paris ;  while  all  gave  ample  evi* 


1  —  « in  Trojanos  istos  aptissime      sarcastic  obserratiom  in  hig  letter, 
qnadrare  lidetar  retus  illod  adagiam,      JorUn,  u  663. 
sero  tapiunt  Phryget,*  was  >lore*fl 


;   AT  OXFOBD. 


625 


dence  of  their  heroic  descent,  by  a  eeriee  of  unprovoked 
insults  to  every  inoffensive  student  who  had  exhibited  a 
weakness  for  Greek.  While  the  seniors  vilified  the  study 
from  the  pulpit,  the  Juniors  mobbed  its  adherents  in  the 
streets.  The  unfortunate  Grecians  were  in  sore  stnuts; 
Fox's 'bees'  dared  scarcely  venture  from  their  hive.  They 
were  pointed  at  with  the  finger  of  scorn,  pursued  with  shouts 
of  laughter,  or  attacked  with  vollies  of  abuse.  To  crown  all, 
one  preacher, — a  fool  even  among  the  foolish, — delivered 
irom  the  pulpit  a  set  harangue,  in  which  he  denounced,  not 
only  Greek,  but  all  liberal  learning,  and  declared  that  logic 
and  sophistical  theology  were  the  only  commendable  studies*. 
'  I  cannot  but  wonder,  when  I  thRik  of  it,'  says  poor  An- 
thony Wood, — at  his  wits'  end  to  devise  some  excuse  for 
what  could  neither  be  denied  nor  palliated*. 

More  was  at  Huntingdon,  in  attendance  on  the  king, 
when  he  heard  of  that  sermon.  He  was  watching  with  no 
little  interest  the  progress  of  events  at  the  university,  and 
had  already  been  informed  of  the  conduct  of  Uie  'Trojans'; 
but  this  additional  proof  of  their  bigotry  and  stupidity  was 
more  than  even  his  gentle  nature  could  endure,  and  roused 
him  to  earnest  though  dignified  remonstrance.  He  lost  no 
time  in  addressing  to  the  authorities  at  Oxford  a  formal 
letter,  written  March  29,  lol9,  wherein,  after  a  contnse  recital 
of  the  above  facts  as  they  had  reached  him,  he  proceeded  to 
implore  them,  on  grounds  of  the  most  obvious  prudence,  to 
put  a  stop  to  so  senseless  a  crusade.  '  Ypu  already  see,'  be 
writes, — at  the  conclusion  of  a  cogent  statement  with 
respect  to  the  claims  and  merits  of  Greek, — '  that  there  are 
many  (and  their  example  will  be  followed  by  others],  who 
have  begun  to  contribute  considerable  funds  in  order  to  pro- 


uUtaWH 


I  Jortin,  n  669-4,  Wood-Onteb, 
n  16-17. 

■  U.  Laorent,  who  in  hia  raggM- 
tiTB  work  takes  occttsion  U>  teU  thia 
■toiy,  obserTeB:^'Ces  guerrea  iiona 
paraiflsent  aajonrd'hiii  djgnea  de  cells 
des  greaooillea  ohanMe  par  Ho- 
mkrei  an  quiniihme  eitala,  on  ne 
I'Mtendait   pai    ainii:    o'tUit    m 


r^sliU  la  lutte  da  cathalioisine  oontre 
la  oiriliBatioii  modenie.  La  pn- 
mi^  facnlU  de  thtelogie  de  la 
chritienM,  la  SoitMime  osait  dire 
derant  le  parlsment,  qiu  e'm  itoil 
fail  de  la  rtUgion  li  on  ptrmtttait 
Vetude  du  grte  et  dt  I'/tHreu.'  Hit- 
loirv  du  Droit  da  Qtm,  Tama  Tm, 
Id  Stfiirmt,  p.  m. 


526 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


CHAP.  V.  mote  the  pursuit  of  studies  of  every  kind  in  your  university, 
^"   '    and  particularly  that  of  Greek.     But  it  will  be  surprising 


thtdlipo- 
■ittoiiihewii 


indeed,  if  their  friendly  sentiments  are  not  chilled,  when 
bjtbeox-    ^^^y  learn  that  their  excellent  designs  have  become  the 
gfSUSrt   object  of  unbounded  ridicule.     Especially,   when   at  Cam- 
bftSS^""*^  bridge,  which  you  were  always  wont  to  outshine,  even  those 
who  do  not  learn  Greek  are  so  far  actuated  by  a  common 
zeal  for  their  university,  that,  to  their  credit  be  it  told,  they 
contribute  to  the  salary  of  the  Greek  professor*.'     How  far 
these   temperate    and   unanswerable   remonstrances    might 
have  availed  unaided,  we  can  only  conjecture;  but  fortu- 
nately both  More  and  Pace,  from  their  presence  at  courts 
were  able  to  represent  the  matter,  in  its  true  light,  to  king 
Henry  himselC     And  one  morning  all  Oxford  was  startled 
A  rmi  letter  by  the  arrival  of  a  royal  letter,   commanding,   under  the 

to  toe  uiuTer-  , 

S^Gmdui  severest  penalties,  that  all  students  desiring  to  apply  them- 
fhMtartiwr  ggjy^g  f^  Greek  studies,  should  be  permitted  to  do  so  with- 
out molestation.  This  was  in  the  year  1519 ;  and  in  the 
following  year,  Wolsey, — into  whose  hands  the  university  had 
7m\foandr  already  surrendered  itself,  tied  and  bound,  for  a  complete 
revisal  of  its  statutes  according  to  his  supreme  will  and 
pleasure, — founded  a  professorship  of  Greek.  Then,  even  to 
the  dullest  intellect,  the  whole  question  of  this  new  lore 
assumed  another  aspect  The  Trojans  suffered  sorely  from 
numerous  defections,  and  ultimately  disbanded.  Priam, 
Hector,  and  Paris  retired  into  private  life.  It  began  to  be 
understood  that  Greek  was  the  road  to  favour  at  court  and 

■ 

to  preferment,  and  consequently  probably,  after  all,  a  laudi^ 
ble  and  respectable  branch  of  learning.  'And  thus,*  says 
Erasmus, — who  narrates  the  sequel  with  no  little  exultation, 
— rabalis  impositum  est  8ilentiv/m\ 


Wolenr,  In 
the  foHowfav 


Greek  at 
Oiftwd. 


^  'Pneterea  mnltos  jam  coBpisse 
Tidetis,  qnorum  exempla  seqnentnr 
alii,  multam  boni  vestro  conferre 
gymnaBio,  qao  et  onmigenam  litera- 
taram  promoveant  et  modo  nomina- 
tim  Gneoam.  Qaorum  nunc  fervi- 
dus  in  Yosaffeotas  miram  ni  frigescat, 
si  tarn  pimn  propositnm  snmmo  la- 
dibrio  isthio  naberi  sentiant.    Pra- 


iertim  quum  Cantdbrigiee,  eui  va$ 
pralucere  iemper  eontuevUtU,  UU 
quoque  qui  non  dUeunt  Qraee,  tarn 
eommuni  su€b  schola  itudio  ducti,  in 
itipendium  ejtu  qiti  (UHm  Chwea  pra» 
legit  mritim  perquam  honeite  eofitri- 
buunt,^  Jortm,  u  666. 
'  Opera,  ni  408. 


BICHARD  CBOKE. 


627 


The  honorable  and  unimpeachable  testimony  above 
given  in  favour  of  Cambridge  at  this  same  period,  sufficiently 
exonerates  us  &om  the  necessity  of  exposing  the  tissue  of 
misrepresentation  and  misstatement  in  which  Anthony  Wood 
endeavours  to  veil  the  real  facts,  and  even  to  make  his  own 
university  appear  the  less  hostile  to  Greek  of  the  two*.  It 
will  be  more  to  our  purpose,  if  we  direct  our  attention  to  the 
appearance  at  Cambridge  of  this  new  professor  of  Greek, 
who,  wearing  the  mantle  of  Erasmus,  was  the  fortunate 
recipient  of  so  much  larger  a  measure  of  encouragement  and 
support 

Among  the  youi^  students  whom  Eton  had  sent  up  to 
King's  College,  early  in  the  century;  was  one  lUchaid  Croke,  | 
a  youth  of  good  family  and  promising  talents.  He  proceeded 
to  his  bachelor's  degree  in  the  year  15(M>-10;  and  then, 
having  conceived  a  strong  desire  to  gain  a  knowledge  of 
Greek,  repaired  to  Oxford,  where  he  became  the  pupil  of 
Grocyn.  It  would  seem  that  before  he  left  Cambridge,  he 
had  already  made  the  acquaintance  of  Erasmus ;  for  we  find 
the  latter  subsequently  giving  proof  of  a  strong  interest'  in 
his  welfare,  and  on  one  occasion  even  endeavouring  to 
obtain  for  the  young  scholar  pecuniary  assistance  from  Colet*. 
From  Oxford  Croke  went  on  to  Paris ;  and  having  com-  b 
pleted  there  bis  course  of  study  as  an  '  artist,'  and  acquired  a  "• 
considerable  reputation,  he  next  proceeded  to  Germany  in 
the  capacity  of  a  teacher.  He  taught  at  Cologne,  Louvain, 
Leipsic',  and  Dresden,  with  remarkable  success.  Camera> 
rius,  who  was  one  of  bia  clasfl  at  Leipsic,  was  wont  to  tell  in 
after  life,  how  he  had  suddenly  found  himself  famous  simply 
from   having  been  the  pupil   of  so  renowned  a  teacher*. 

p«rdi«d  illam  poase,  et  quid  momenti 
kd  oumem  docMna  emditioii«m 
atqne  cnltiim  hnjiii  eogititio  kllatim 
•Ma  TideratnT,  noatri  hominM  a«se 
inteUigeiearbitruenttir.  Noaqnidem 
Mrte  ita  statnebaniDa.  fauio  ease  TUm 
Tirtatia  atqae  sapieatis,  et  iter  di- 
Teotnm  cnm  pietatia  et  roligionis, 
tmn  hnnuutitatig  et  Ikodia  in  hao 
Tit»  et  ia  terri*.'  Ja«ch.  Camenrii, 
NoTTatio  dt  Hetio  Sobanc  Ht$»o  (ed. 


'  Wood-Qntcli,  n  16-17. 

'  Opera,  tnl3i. 

>  ■  Crocng  rcgnat  id  aeademiA  Up- 
densi,  pablidtaa  Orecaa  dooena  litte- 
ras.'  Lttler  froni  Ertunuu  to  LJnaere 
(I.D.  1516), /fitU  III  13«. 

*  'In  qna  parte'  [Erfurt]  'ego, 
nqiuun  admodnm  adoleaoena,  ta- 


men  ferebar  in  oonlis,  quia  andiTeram 
BtCMdom  Croeom  Brituuinin,  qui 
primal  pntabatnr  it*  do«tuiM  ar»- 
Mtm  lin^nam  in  Oernunia  n(  pUn*     KnjMig,  Waana,  IMS),  p.  B, 


528  BISHOP  FISHER. 

OHAP.  T.  Emser,  writing  to  Erasmus,  informs  him,  that  the  young 

^  ■  V  -'^  Englishman's  professorial  career,  during  two  years,  at  Dies- 

.den,   had  won   for  him  the  highest  regard.     It  was  from 

Dresden  that,  after  a  seven  years*  absence,  Richard  Croke 

H«ratarni  to  returned  to  his  own  university;  he  there  proceeded  to  his 

•wi  pro^di  master  of  arts  degree,  and   at  about  the   same   time   was 

appointed  instructor  in  Greek  to  king  Henry.     In  the  year 


on   1518  he  commenced  a  course  of  lectures  on  the  languaee  at 
jn^mftyin  Cambridge  .     These  lectures  however,  like  those  of  Erasmus 
and  John  Bryan,  were  given  without  the  direct  sanction  of 
uu^teap-    the  authorities;  and  it  was  not  until  the  year  1519,  that 
wSSkTCidw.  Croke  received  his  formal  appointment  as  Greek  reader  to 
the  university.     It  was  then  that,  about  the  month  of  Jtdy 
in  the  same  year,  he  inaugurated  his  entrance  upon  the 
duties  of  his  office,  by  an  oration  equally  noteworthy  as  an 
illustration  of  the  ability  and  individual  characteristics  of 
the  orator,  and  of  the  learning  and  (we  may  perhaps  add)  of 
the  ignorance  of  his  age. 
Hteanteee-  Apart  from  the  numerous  indications  that  the  opponents 

HmhM^  of  Greek  were  fighting  a  losing  battle,  it  is  evident  that 
SSfy  ^  there  was  much  in  the  new  professor's  antecedents  that  was 
calculated  to  thaw  the  icy  hostility  of  the  dullest  conserva- 
tive. He  had  not,  like  Erasmus,  to  confront  the  antipa- 
thies of  insular  prejudice.  It  was  no  satirical,  poverty- 
stricken,  little  Dutchman,  ignorant  and  disdainful  of  their 
vernacular,  that  now  pleaded  the  cause  of  the  Grecian  muse 
with  the  Cambridge  men;  but  one  of  their  own  nubiber, 
whom  many  must  have  well  remembered  in  his  undergra- 
duate days,  and  have  occasionally  heard  of  in  his  subsequent 
career.  A  youth  of  ancient  descent,  educated  at  their  most 
feunous  public  school  and  at  one  of  their  most  distinguished 
colleges,  he  had  gone  forth  from  their  midst  into  the  world ; 
and  wherever  he  had  gone  he  had  added  to  the  fame  of  his 
university.  While  Erasmus  had  been  teaching  Cambridge, 
Croke  had  been  teaching  Germany.  And  they  might 
even  find  satisfaction  in  noting  that  while  the  former  had 
failed  in  England,  the  continental  career  of  the  latter  had 

*  Cooper,  Athen<g,  1 17S. 


cbokb's  mAuanaiL  oration.  »29 

been  one  of  brilliant  success.     From  that  career  this  young  chap.  v. 
fellow  of  King's  had  now  returned  to  take  up  his  abode  — v — 
among  them.     Instead  of  the  timid,  anxious  valetudinarian, 
vergiDg  upon   fifty,  they  now  saw  before  them  a  man  of 
scarcely  thirty, — full  of  hope  and  vigour,  and  flushed  with 
well-earned  success.     In  after  life,  an  act  of  base  ingratitude 
towards  their  great  patron  and  protector  lost  for  him  much 
of  the  esteem  of  all  honorable  men ;  but  as  yet  nothing  had 
arisen  to  cast  a  shadow  on  the  fair  fame  of  Richard  Croke. 
He  appeared  as  that  patron's  delegate,  to  urge  them  on  to 
new  patlis  of  intellectual  effort.     And,  as  thus  accredited,  S^^ 
and  laurel-crowned  from  the  chief  seats  of  continental  learn-  ^,mb!m 
iog,  the  young  orator  sought  their  attention,  and  proceeded  n^  d*- 
with  an  effective   eloquence  and   a  choice  Latinity, — tbatuui 
bespoke  however  the  influence  of  Quintllian  rather  than  of 
Cicero', — to  urge  upon  them  the  claims  of  that  learning  of 
which  he  was  their  chosen  representative,  it  is  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  he  saw  around  him  a  far  more  sympathising 
and  numerous  audience  than  it  had  been  Erasmus's  fortune 
to  find  some  eight  years  before. 

The  following  abstract  of  his  oration  will  be  found  by 
those  to  whom  the  original  may  not  he  accessible*,  to  pre- 
sent not  a  few  points  well  worthy  of  note  as  illustrative  of 
the  learning  and  rhetoric  of  the  period: — 

It  is  with  a  somewhat  elaborate  occupatw  henevolentia  thftt 
the  orator  commences :  he  would  not,  he  declares,  have  ventured 
to  address  so  formidable  an  audience,  had  he  not  well  known  that 
it  was  composed  of  those  who  looked  ratber  at  the  matter  of  a 
speech  than  its  diction.     There  were  those  in  the  university  on 
whom  his  task  might  have  much  more  fitly  devolved ;  but  he 
reminds  them,  that  thej  have  often  liatened  not  onlj  with  de- 
ference but  with  pleasure,  whea  the  delegates  of  princes  have 
iipoken  before  them  in  a  barbaroos   and   even  ludicrous   stjle,  £  y^j^i^ 
nmply  out  of  feelings  of  deference  for  thoee  whom  the  speakers  J^i[!£i 
represented.     On   the  same  grounds  he  too  claims  a  like  con-  iMMtiirf 
sideratioD  ; — for  he  represents  their  chancellor,  one  unsnrpasBed  mm; 

>  Croke  hod  perhapi  beea  led  to  *  For  the  penmal  ol  this  ver;  rare 

tana  linB  prelerenee  throngb  Lin-  Lttie  Tolome  I  am  indebted  (w  for 

more'i  iiiSueiic«i    EntBiOQi,  in  hil  manj  Bimil&r    kdvuitagcB)- to   the 

CictTomaniu,  telle  uh  that  the  lattoi  ohoioe  uid  extetuave  library  ol  Pruf. 

'  priiu  habnliBet  e»e  Quinotiliano  J.  E.  B.  Ha;or. 

3i 


fiSO  BISHOP   FISHER. 

CHAP.  V.  iu  watchful  care  for  their  interests,  and  to  whom  they  owe  thoie 
pabt  II.    ^^Q  distinguished  ornaments  of  the  university, — Chnst^B  CoU^ 
and  St  Johu's.     It  would  be  nothing  else  than  signal  ingratitade, 
were  they  to  withhold  a  ready  hearing  from  the  representatiTe  of 
one  to  whom  they  already  owed  so  much  ! 
Fidier  has  What  then  is  the  message  of  my  lord  of  Rochester  9     Why, 

on  unTthfT  ^^  exhorts  them  to  apply  themselves  with  all  diligence  to  the 
M^tlJii^    study  of  Greek  literature, — that  literature  in  praise  of  which  lo 
of  omIP*    many  able  men  have  recently  sent  forth  dissertationa.     The  ex- 
■todka.        hortation  of  one  who  had  never  urged  them  to  aught  but  what 
was  most  profitable,  might  alone  suffice ;  but  it  has  been  specially 
enjoined  upon  the  speaker  to  explain  in  detail  the  advantages  of 
Greek  literature. 
Tg» "todyof        The  broad  ground  on  which,  first  of  all,  he  rests  the  claims  of 
dticndcd,  M  such  learning,  is  the  preeminence  of  the  race  whom  it  represents. 
aSncDSjiu-  ^he  Greeks  surpassed  all  who  came  after  them,  in  wisdom  and  in 
pwiur  race,    invention,  in  theoretical  sagacity  and  in  practical  ability.     What 
city  or  what  republic  could  compare  with  Lacedfemon,  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice,  in  religion,  in  morality  f  what  city,  with 
Athens,  in  genius  and  learning  1  what,  with  either,  in  dignity  and 
greatness  of  soul  ?     Cicero,  it  was  true,  had  ventured  to  asseri 
that  these  last-named  features  first  appeared  at  Rome ;  and  had 
cited  as  examples,  the  Camilli,  the  Decii,  the  Scipios,  the  Oatos. 
But  let  them  compare  these  heroes  with  Codrus,  ThemistodeSi 
Leonidas,  Pericles,  Aristides,  Xeuocrates,  and  will  it  not  rather 
seem  that  moral  greatness  was  a  legacy  from  Greece  to  Romel 
Let  those  who  praised   the   piety,  sanctity,  and  other  Spartan 
oompuiMm   virtues  of  Numa,  consider  how  much  more  conspicuously  the  same 
ciuTur!uil    qualities  shone  forth  in  Lycurgus  :  the  former  raised  to  kingly 
Nnnia.         power  on  account  of  his  character  for  justice,  the  latter  preferring 
justice  even  to  a  throne, — the  one  ennobled  by  a  crown  which  he 
would  have  fain  declined,  the  other  by  his  voluntary  resignation 
of  the  sceptre  which  he  already  swayed, — the  former  so  distin- 
guished  by  his  virtues  that  he  was  deemed  worthy  of  the  supreme 
power,  the  latter  so  distinguished  by  his  contempt  for  power,  that 
he  seemed  above  the  sceptre  itself !   Numa  again  had  but  restrained 
the  heroic  ardour  of  his  peojile,  Lycurgus  had  augmented  it;  for 
the  latter  expelled  from  Lacedsemon  not  bridleo,  swords,  and  spears, 
but  banquetings,  costly  attire,  and  the  '  cursed  lust  of  gold.*    And 
herein  alone  it  might  be  seen  how  far  Greece  excelled  not  only 
other  nations  but  Rome  herself,  in  that  she  had  driven  from  her 
midst  not  simply  vice  but  its  parent  cause.     Admitting,  again, 
the  truth  of  Livy's  assertion, — that  in  no  republic  had  luxury  and 
profligacy  made  their  way  more  slowly  than  at  Rome, — it  must 
also  be  added  that  nowhere  did  they  take  root  more  deeply.     If 
indeed  of  Grecian  origin,  they  so  grew  in  Italy,  as  to  owe  far  more 
to  their  mme  than  to  their  parent.     Lycurgus  had  expelled  them 
from  Sparta  when  that  state  was  already  weakened  hy  their  pre- 


choke's  INAUOnBAL  OBATION.  531 

valence,  a  feat  that  at  Bome  aurpas8t»d  the  pover  of  any  ruler  chap,  r, 
even  in  the  stage  of  their  early  growth.  .^*"  I*-. 

He  then  proceeds  to  apply  the  coDclorion  whidi  these  Bome-Tyi—f-^- 
what  labored  antithcMS  were  designed  to  establish.     These  'H"*- jj^'TytJ 
trioiu  Greeks  had  digui&ed  not  merely  their  country  and  their  ^/'"'g!;^ 
race  but  also  their  native  tongue.     It  is  remarkable  that  it  ia  on  uS«Cta^ 
this  ground  alone, — the  superior  moral  excellence  of  the  Roman  ton^nin? 
people, — that  he  asserta  the  cliums  of  I^tin  over  French  or  Celtic.  p-*«rttf. 
It  is  by  tb«  superiority  of  the  race,  be  says,  tbat  their  language 
becomes  diffused.    Persia  and  India  first  received  the  Greek  tongue 
wbea  they  experienced  the  weight  of  Alexander's  arms ;  and  the 
Latin  language  was  learned  by  the  sobjugated  nations,  only  when 
they  had  submitted  to  the  sway  and  received  the  institutions  of 
Rome.    MariuB  had  despised  the  study  of  Gre«k,  because  he  looked 
upon  it  as  disgraceful  and  ridiculons  to  beetow  toil  upon  a  litera- 
ture th«  masters  of  which  were  slaves.     A  lofly  impulse  urges 
the  mind  of  man  to  that  which  is  associated  with  the  supreme. 
Greece  had  conferred  on  mankind  by  far  the  most  precious  b(>DnB, — 
the  weaver's  art,  the  architect's ;  to  plough,  to  sow ;  all,  in  fine, 
tbat  has  raised  man  from  the  savage  to  a  civilised  state,  he  owes 
to  Greece.    In  ntmma  quicquid  kabemui  in  vita  eommodi,  id  brfwn  Ckn  tatow- 
Oracorum  bmefieio  AoSemtu.     A  people  thus  devoted  to  the  arts  ^rn^-Tnifi" 
and  refinements  of  life  were  not  likely  to  be  neglectful  of  the  study  {j^^jjjs 
of  language.     The  testimony  of  antiquity  ia  nnanimous  with  re-  r»f- 
spect  to  the  care  with  which  they  elaborated  and  polished  their 
native  tongue.     What  Cambridge  man.  was  th««  who  knew  not 
the  Horatian  verse, — 

e  rotnndo 

Had  not  Cicero,  again,  affirmed  that  if  Jupiter  were  to  deign  to  nyHwin 
speak  in  mortal  tongue,  he  would  nse  the  Greek  which  Plato  J^J^"^  ^ 
wrote  1     Let  them  note  too  how  writers  of  all  nations  had  pre-  g^g™fa' 
ferred  Greek  to  their  native   language :    Phavorinus  the   Gaul,  jbiirmm 
Porphyry  the  Phoenician,  Jamblichus  the  Syrian,  Fhiloponus  the  '°^"*' 
Egyptian,   Anunonius  the   Phrygian,    Simplicins   the    Thradan, 
Fhilo  the  Jew,  and  Mnsonius  bom  at  Volsinii  near  to  Rome, 
Trism^pstus,  Maaaeua,  and  Orpheus;   the  historians,— Josephus 
the  Jew,  .fGlian  the  Roman,  Arnan,  and  Albinus, — Albinus  whom 
Cato  could  never  pardon  for  his  assertion  that  it  was  evident  that 
the  Latin  tongue  when  brought  into  rivalry  with  the  Greek,  must 
disappear  and  die  out.     He  then  quotes,  fiom  the  Nodea  AUiea  j»yritr  <t 
of  GelliuB,  a  passage  wherein  the  writer  points  out  how  inferior, 
on  careful  comparison,  the  I^tin  comedies  are  found  to  be  to  their 
Greek  originals, — Ccecilins  to  Menander.    How  harshly  again  I^tin 
grates  on  the  ear  when  compared  to  Gre^  !    How  vastiy  superior 
in  power  of  expression  is  tiie  Attic  dialect  I     What  I^tin  writer 
could  find  a  single  word  that  served  as  an  equivalent  to  ««Xtf^tUa, 
reXvTfayiuKTvni,  ^fiturvviutpn  t     How  impa^fectly  did  any  amoont 

34—2 


532 


BISHOP  FISHEE. 


the  Konian 


FftTonnhe 
had  hiiuseir 
experiunccd. 


niAP.  ▼.  of  periphniACs  enable  tlie  Romans  to  express  what  the  Greelcs 
Past II.  ofUm  conveyed  in  a  Hingle  word!  How  absurdly  moreover  did 
they  blunder,  who,  ignorant  of  tlie  large  infusion  of  Greek  in  the 
ancient  Latin,  actually  PU]>|)OBed  that  the  vocabulary  of  «  langmge 
was  a  matter  at  the  arbitrary  discretion  of  individaalsy  and  de- 
spisoil  the  aids  afforded  by  the  Greek*. 
^^  To  turn  to  another  aspect  of  the  case.     How  often  had  even 

Uaftngehj   those  who  wore  the  Roman  purj>le  clad  themselves  in  the  elo- 
quence of  tliis   mighty  tongue !     Julius  Ciesar,  Augustus  Ger- 
nianieuSy  Tiberius,  Claudius,  Nero,  Vespasian,  Severus,  Theodosiaii. 
FftToura        To  come  nearer  to  their  own  time,  how  had  Leo,  the  supreme 
R^u^and  I>ontiflr,  nnd  the  emperor  Maximilian^  shewn  their  regard  for  those 
E™«»"^      devoted  to  the  new  learning,  by  inter]X)sing  to  rescue  the  inno- 
cence of  Reuchlin  and  Erasmus  '  from  those  double-dyed  younger 
brethren  of  the  giants!*'     He  would  name  Ux)  George,  duke  of 
Saxony,  but  that  lie  felt  it  was  beyond  his  ix)wer  to  render  due 
praise  to  one  who  htid  recommended   him    to    Henry   viii   and 
defrayed  the  expenses  of  his  labours  with  {)riucely  munificenoe. 
Then  again  there  was  the  bishop  of  Mayence',  one  of  the  wealthiest 
ecclesiastics  in  Gennany,  whether  as  regarded  his  mental  endow- 
ments or  worldly  fortune,  who  had  given  him  no  less  than  six^ 
nobles  for  an  inscription  of  Theodorus  iv.     To  say  nothing,  again, 
of  his  grace  of  Canterbury,  '  my  noble  and  chief  Maecenas,*  or  my 
lord  C-ardiual,  'my  lord  bisbop  of  Rochester  is  a  host  in  him- 
self.* 
Extreme  an-         Look  acniin  at  the  antiquity  of  the  Greek  tongue.     AllowiDff 
Greek  Ian-     that,  ill  this  respect,  the  first  place  must  be  c  .needed  to  Hebrew, 
'"■*•'  the  lingua  Attica  is  certainly  entitled  to  a  second.     Other  cities 

boasteil  of  their  founders;  but  Athens  had  no  founder,  for  her  sons 
were  avrox^orcs.     All  the  reverence  that  waits  on  antiquity  is 
fairlv  her's. 
ruiitTofa  He  pa.«i.sea  on  to  shew  the  utility  of  the  study  ;  and  here  he  is 

Q^JJj[*5j*Ji^^  almost  wciiried  by  the  mere  contemplation  of  the  field, — ipsa  auB* 
J*«J*««o[J*«  ceptoi  provincue  cogitatwne  pene  defadger.     To  commence  with  the 
iptadrivium.  trixmim  and  quadrivuiTHy  and  first  of  all  with  grammar, — ^which 
many,  *  inflated  with  a  vain  pretence  of  knowledge,'  cavil  at^  as 


^  'Neque  Biisiinuit  conncius  sibi 
dissimuloTi  id  gratiHsimnR  Lncreiius 
qui  igitur  multiB  Be  (licit  Griiecis  usum, 
qaod  Latine  e&  dici  uon  posscnt.  0 
quam  parnm  istud  putant,  qui  igno- 
rant veteri  sormoni  Latino  plun'ma 
(Treeca  fuisKe  immixta,  quique  arbi- 
traria  omnia  vocabula  sic  esHe  voliint, 
nt  quoTismodo  a  se  ficta  autborita- 
tcm  habitura  fidant,  supiuo  quodam 
Crra)ci  fontis  contemptu,  ex  quo  si 
nou  veuiant  detorta,  nemo,  nisi  cum 
risn,  novationcm  admittat!* 

'  *  Cujns  innocentia  ab  dibapbis 
istis  (ligaiitum  fraterculiR  toticK  af- 


flicta,  tandem  succubniBset,  nisi  fessis 
doctissimi  et  optimi  hominis  rebos 
Banctitas  Leonis  et  Maximiliani  pietas 
BuccurrisBent.*  The  interference  of 
Leo  X  between  Benchlin  and  his 
aiitagonlBts,  a  virtual  triumph  for  the 
reform  party,  had  taken  place'  in 
the  year  1516.  See  Geiger,  Johann 
Jivuchlin,  pp.  290—321. 

^  Lutber's  primate,  and  one  of  the 
Beven  Electors  of  Germany;  but  a 
faitbleBH  and  unscrupulons  politician. 
See  Brewer,  Letters  and  Papen.  m 

Xlll  — XVll. 


,*■ 


cboke's  INAUGDBAL  obatiok.  533 

trividl  and  sterile, — he  offers  to  point  out  a  few  fkcta  from  which  chap.  t. 
tliey  will  perceive  that  it  is  of  higher  excellence  than  alt  other    ^*"  ^ 
branches  of  knowledge.     What  does  the  name  of  'grammarian'  ^^^^^ 
imply!     He  quotes  the  passage  in  SnetonhiH ',  to  shew  that  the  "■«  Md«iit 
gritmmarian  with  the  Greeks  was  the  liUertitut  of  the  Romans, —  "'  '■""'""'■ 
that  ia,  the  ma.n   who,  either  orally  or  by  hix  pen,  professed  to 
treat  on  any  subject  with  discrimination,  critical  knowledge,  and 
competent  learning.      Properly  however  those  who  expounded  the 
poets  wore  designated  as  grammalici;  and  what  a  range  of  acquire- 
ments Bucb  a  function  would  involve,  might  be  seen  from  Lucre- 
tius, Varro,  and  Empedocles.     He  reminds  them  how  Anreliua 
OpiliuB  voluntarily  abandoned  philosophy  and  rhetoric  for  gram- 
mar, and  how  Cicero,  fresh  from  the  prtetorsbip,  was  found  at  the 
■chool  of  Gnipho ;  how  liberally,  at  Rome,  the  grammar  schools 
were  encouraged   and  the   professors   remunerated.     Again,  the  Omik 
very  Latin  alpliabet  was  borrowed  from  the  Greek ;  itii  k  wan  the  ffiST* 
representation  of  the  Greek  Kawa, ;  the  aspirate  (A)  so  often  found 
in  I^tin  words,  denoted  a  Greek  origin ;  tiie  reduplication  in  such 
words  as  popoaci,   tottmdi,   titontordi,   was   nothing  elue   than  the 
wofiOKafuvoy  of  the  Greek  verb ;  many  constructions  in  Cicero  are 
to  be  explained  by  a  reference  to  the  Greek  idiom.      If  we  turn 
to  etymology,  the  debt  of  Latin  to  Greek  is  found  to  he  yet  greater : 
Priscian,  the   most   learnej   of  the   Latins,  was  chiefly  a  compiler 
from  Apolluniua  and   Herodian.      With  re^pect  to   rhetoric,  it  is 
needless  to    point    out,   how  the   use    of   metaphor,   the  frequent 
seotentiousness  of  the  proverb,  and  the  eiact  force  of  words,  re- 
ceive their  best  illustration  from  a  knowledge  of  Greek.     As  for  AdaSnMfc^ 
mathematics,  it  vjiu  notorioiu  that  no  vuUltenuUieian  could  detect  ^^^ta 
the  grave  error  that  had  /ound  its  way  into  Euctid't  definition  Q/"J™^L_ 
a  itraight  line,  until  the  collation  of  a  Greek  codex  cxpoged  the  otTnnSt 
btuTuIer'.     Boethiiis  too  compiled  lib  Arithmetic  from  the  Greek. 
Even  music  is  indebted  for  its  nomenclature  to  Greece  ;  while  as 
fur  medicine,  the  names  of  Hippocrates,  Galen,  and  Dioscoridea, 
are  sufficient. 

The  utility  of  Greek  in  connexion  with  the  irtm'unt  and  vuu^at 
quadriaium  having  been  thus  vindicated,  he  passes  on  to  theolt^.  ^'!^i?5** 
He  begs  in  the  first  place  that  they  will  not  consider  him  to  be, 
like  many  men  of  his  school  (plerique  mem  farinm  homines), — a 
foe  to  theological  learning.  He  loves  Mayronius,  he  admires 
Erigena,  he  eiiteems  Aquinas,  and  the  subtlety  of  Duns  Scotus  ^'u'lbr 
he  actually  embraces;  he  only  desiderates  that  culture  which"'"'' 
imparts  brilliancy  to  all  the  rest.  Let  them  only  add  to  the  study 
of  these  authors  the  cultivation  of  Greek  and  Latia  literature, 
and  learn  to  speak  ia  such  fiuhion  that  their  diction  may  recall 

'     See  Bnprs,  p.  7,  d.  3.  vinun  a  prodigioeo  Lcdooti  iaterpretis 

)  '  Ue  nuthematica  istud  dixiMO  enore  Enelidem  potoiue  eiplicare, — 

■uffidat,  priiuqaam    bonortun  dill-  lin««m  e«ae  longitadiDem  sine  Isti- 

gentia  Attica  littem  a  teaabrisetWDt  tudJne,  eojos    eitrema   duo  oEieat 

vindicaUD,  nemiuem  einx  piofeMioiliB  puuota.' 


534 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


niAP.  V. 

Past  IT. 

TbtiiMor 
wonbDot 
•ititmry. 


Erilt  result- 
ing from  ex- 
CMsire  atten- 
tion to  logical 
(UipatM. 

TbeBIUe 
neglected. 


He  imploree 
them  not  to 
beont- 

■titopedVj 
tbtUzoolani. 


the  city  and  tlie  youth  of  Rome !  But,  tome  one  migbt  mt, 
the  schoolmen  spoke  Latin.  Latin  1  aye,  but  who  of  the  oratora 
or  poets  ever  spoke  as  they  did?  No  doubt  those  on  whom 
polite  learning  had  never  smiled,  saw  no  harm  in  a  man  using  the 
phraseology  that  pleased  him  best.  But  what  a  gross  abaurdi^ 
was  this!  They  laughed  at  the  man  who  mingled  Scotch  or 
French  with  his  native  speech,  while  wishing  themselvee  to 
be  at  liberty  to  import  into  Latin  any  barbarism  they  migbt 
think  fit  For  his  own  part,  he  had  no  wish  to  see  the  dispntatioiia 
in  the  schools  abolished,  but  he  did  not  like  to  see  men  growing 
old  in  them  :  for  subtleties  like  these  were  harmful,  not  to  thoee 
who  studied  them  only  for  a  time,  but  to  those  who  were  con- 
tinually engaged  in  them.  When  the  mind  was  thus  exclusivefy 
concentrated  on  extremely  minute  distinctions  its  powers  were  u>asted 
and  impaired  y  and  the  student  was  diverted  from  more  usejul  Isaminf^ 
— -from  the  Pauline  EpistleSy  Jrovn  the  EvangelistSy  from  the  whoU 
Bible:  and  these  had  a  paramount  claim  on  the  tJieologian^  whom 
true  function  it  was,  so  to  guide  the  minds  of  men  as  to  draw  them 
away  from  the  tlUngs  of  earth  and  fix  them  on  those  above.  The 
example  of  many  of  the  fathers,  like  that  of  the  great  men  at 
Rome,  is  next  held  up  as  a  further  incitement  to  classical  studies  ; 
and  a  few  additional  considerations,  derived  from  the  importance 
of  Greek  to  those  engaged  in  historical  researches,  condude  the 
argument  drawn  from  the  abstract  merits  of  the  literature. 

An  appeal  to  the  8j)irit  of  emulation  holds  a  prominent  place 
in  his  peroration.  '  The  Oxford  men,  whom  up  to  the  present  time 
ye  have  outstripped  in  every  department  of  knowledge,  are  betaking 
themselves  to  Greek  in  good  earnest.  They  watch  by  night, 
suffer  heat  and  cold,  and  leave  no  stone  unturned,  to  make  this 
knowledge  all  their  own.  And  if  that  should  come  to  pass,  there 
will  be  an  end  of  your  renown.  They  will  erect  a  trophy  from 
the  spoils  they  have  taken  from  you,  which  they  will  never  suffer 
to  be  removed^  They  number  among  their  leaders  the  cardinals 
of  Canterbury  and  Winchester,  and  in  fact  all  the  English  bishope, 
Rochester  and  Ely  alone  excepted.  The  austere  and  holy  Orocyn 
is  on  their  side,  the  vast  learning  and  critical  acumen  of  Linaore, 
the  eloquence  of  Tunstal,  whose  legal  knowledge  is  equalled  by  his 


*  'OxoDienses,  quot  ante  hoc  in 
omni  tcientiarum  -genere  vicUtis,  ad 
litteras  Grsecas  perfagere,  vigilant, 
jejunant,  sadant  et  algent ;  nihil  non 
facinnt  at  eas  occupent.  Quod  si 
oontingat,  aotnm  est  de  fama  vestra. 
Erigent  enim  de  vobis  troplueam 
nunqnam  snccnbitari.'  Croke*8 
meaning  appears  to  be  that  if  Ox- 
ford once  sncceeds  in  gaining  the 
reputation  of  being  the  school  for 
Qreek,  students  ^nll  get  into  the 
habit  of  going  there  to  learn  the  lan- 


gaage;  just  as  mathemaiioisnsy  in 
the  present  day,  generally  prefer  Cam- 
bridge. Compare  with  the  words  in 
italics,  More*8  observation,  addressed 
to  the  Oxonians,  already  quoted: 
Cantahrigia,  cui  vot  prmhicere  eemper 
consuevUtU.  Perhaps  we  may  reoon- 
cile  these  diametricidly  opposed  state- 
ments, made  in  the  game  year,  hj  in- 
ferring that  neither  university  had 
much  real  reason  for  priding  itself 
on  superiority  to  the  other. 


choke's   lHl.UOUalL  OBATION. 


5S5 


skill  is  either  toxtga^  the  threefold  lingaJstic  learning  of  Stoker- 
ley',  Uie  pure  and  polialied  elegance  of  More,  the  erudition  and 
geuiuB  of  Pace,  oomniended  by  EJrasmua  himself,  nnsurpasaed  as  a 
judge  of  learning, — Erasmus  I  once^  would  he  were  still,  your  owb 
Greek  profeaaor  1  I  have  succeeded  to  hia  plaoeL  Qood  heavens  ! 
how  inferior  to  him  in  learning  and  in  fame*!  And  yat,  leat  I 
should  be  looked  upon  aa  of  no  account  whatever,  permit  me  to 
state  that  even  I,  all  unworthy  tliough  I  be,  have  been  recognised 
by  the  leading  men,  doctors  in  theology,  law,  and  medicine, 
beeidea  masters  of  arta  beyood  oouutiog,  as  their  acknowledged 
teacher)  and  what  ia  mor^  hare,  in  mtwt  honorable  fashion, 
been  escorted  by  Uiem  from  the  sohools  to  church,  and  from 
church  to  the  schools.  Nay,  still  further,  I  solemnly  assure  you, 
gentlemen  of  Cambridge,  that  the  Oxoniaaa  themselves  have 
solicited  me  with  the  offer  of  a  handsome  salary  besides  my  main- 
tenance. But  feelings  of  respectful  loyalty  towards  this  university  i 
— and  especially  towards  that  moat  noble  society  of  scholars,  King's  | 
College,  to  which  I  owe  my  first  acquirements  in  the  art  of! 
eloquence, — have  enjoiued  that  I  should  Grat  offer  my  services  to 
jou.  Should  those  ssrvicea  find  favour  in  your  eyes,  I  shall 
esteem  myself  amply  rewarded;  and  I  shall  conclude  that  such  is 
the  case,  if  I  see  yon  applyiag  yourselves  to  the  studies  which 
I  advise.  To  imitato  what  we  admire,-~Buch  is  the  rule  of  life. 
And,  in  order  that  you  may  clearly  perceive  how  much  I  have 
your  interests  at  heart,  I  shall  make  it  especially  my  object,  so  to  | 
adapt  myself  to  each  individual  case,  as  to  run  with  those  who 
run,  and  stretch  out  a  helping  hand  to  those  who  stumbl&  I  shall 
adapt  myself  to  the  standard  of  each  learner,  and  proceed  only 
when  he  is  able  to  keep  me  company.  And  if,  perchance,  there 
should  be  some  to  whom  this  learning  may  appear  to  be  beset  with 
toil,  let  them  remember  the  adage,  that  the  honorable  it  difficult. 
It  is  nature's  law,  that  great  undertakings  should  rarely  be  speedy 
in  their  accomplishment,  and  that,  as  Fabias  observes',  the  nobler  , 
raoes  in  the  aniinal  world  should  be  longest  in  the  womb.  Let 
themredect  too  that  nothing  worth  having  in  life  is  to  be  had  with- 
out considerable  labour.  Wherefore,  gentlemen  of  Cambridge, 
yon  must  keep  your  vigils,  and  breathe  the  sraoke  of  the  lamp, — 
practices  which  though  painful  at  first  became  easier  by  habit. 
*  EraaniDE  had  beard  ol  Croka's 
(ppointmeDt,  and  wrote  to  eoDgrata- 
Ute  Vijni  thereon,  in  the  best  possible 
spirit: — '  Gratnlor  tibi,  mi  Crooe, 
protMBionem  istuD  tun  eplendidam, 
HOD  njiniu  honorififlun  tibi  quam 
tragilerua  aoademin  Cintabri^eoBi, 
onJDB  oommodiB  eqniilem  pro  veteria 
hospitii  ooniastodme  peenliari  qno- 
dam  Btndio  fsTeo.*  Lettrr  to  Croke 
(April,  IG18),  Opera,  m  16TS. 


'  Tb«  name  is  printed  StopUiui, 
and  Wood  (Jnnab,  i  17)  hsi  trans- 
lated it  SB  Stoplej,  irithont  appa- 
rent! j  bBving  &n  idea  who  was  meant. 
There  can,  however,  be  no  doubt  that 
Croke  intended  StoktiUy,  principal 
ol  Magdalen  Hall,  and  alterwardB 
bighop  of  London.  Compare  the  en- 
comium of  EraemoB,  '  Joannea  Stok- 
leioB,  pneter  acholaBticam  hane  theo- 
logiam,  in  qna  nemini  cedit,  triuM 
aia»  JinfttoriMt  band  vnlgaritar 
peritoa,'    Optra,  ui  403. 


534 


BISHOP   FISHKR. 


niAP.  V. 
Paet  it. 

TheoMof 
wordanot 
•rUtrsry. 


Evils  result- 
ing fh>in  ex- 
cesilve  attcn* 
tion  to  logical 

TbeDible 
neglected. 


He  implores 
them  not  to 
beout- 
■triraedbjr 
thttnonliiiis. 


the  city  and  the  youth  of  Rome !  But,  some  one  migbt  tmr, 
the  schoolmen  Hpoke  Latin.  Latin  1  aye,  but  who  of  the  oraton 
or  poets  ever  spoke  as  they  did?  No  doubt  those  on  whom 
polite  learning  had  never  smiled,  saw  no  harm  in  a  man  uaing  the 
phraseology  that  pleased  him  best.  But  what  a  gross  absurdity 
was  this!  They  laughed  at  the  man  who  mingled  Scotch  or 
French  with  his  native  speech,  while  wishing  themselves  to 
be  at  liberty  to  import  into  Latin  any  barbarism  they  might 
think  fit  For  his  own  part,  he  had  no  wish  to  see  the  dispatationa 
in  the  schools  abolished,  but  he  did  not  like  to  see  men  growing 
old  in  them  :  for  subtleties  like  these  were  harmful,  not  to  those 
who  studied  them  only  for  a  time,  but  to  those  who  were  oon- 
tinually  engaged  in  them.  Wheti  the  mind  vxis  thus  exduHvefy 
concentrated  on  extremely  minute  distinctions  its  powers  were  toasted 
a4id  impaired,  and  the  student  was  diverted  from  more  usefrd  learning^ 
—from  the  Pauline  Epistles,  from  the  EvangelistSj  fiini  the  whoU 
Bible:  and  tJi^e  liad  a  paramount  claim  on  the  theologian,  wkoss 
truefrinction  it  teas,  so  to  guide  the  minds  of  men  as  to  draw  tketn 
away  from  the  things  of  earth  and  fix  them  on  those  above.  The 
example  of  many  of  the  fathers,  like  that  of  the  great  men  at 
Rome,  is  next  held  up  as  a  farther  incitement  to  classical  studies ; 
and  a  few  additional  considerations,  derived  from  the  importance 
of  Greek  to  those  engaged  in  historical  researches,  conclude  the 
argument  drawn  from  the  abstract  merits  of  the  literature. 

An  appeal  to  the  spirit  of  emulation  holds  a  prominent  place 
in  his  peroration.  '  The  Oxford  men,  whom  up  to  the  present  time 
ye  have  outstripped  in  every  department  of  knowledge,  are  betaking 
themselves  to  Greek  in  good  earnest.  They  watch  by  nighty 
suffer  heat  and  cold,  and  leave  no  stone  unturned,  to  make  this 
knowledge  all  their  own.  And  if  that  should  come  to  pass,  there 
will  be  an  end  of  your  renown.  They  will  erect  a  trophy  from 
the  spoils  they  have  taken  from  you,  which  they  will  never  saffer 
to  be  removed^  They  number  among  their  leaders  the  cardinals 
of  Canterbury  and  Winchester,  and  in  fact  all  the  English  bishops, 
RochcHter  and  Ely  alone  excepted.  The  austere  and  holy  Grocyn 
is  on  their  side,  the  vast  learning  and  critical  acumen  of  Linacrc, 
the  eloquence  of  Tunstal,  whose  legal  knowledge  is  equalled  by  his 


^  ^Ozonienses,  qiios  ante  hae  in 
omni  scientiarum  yenere  t>fCMh>,  ad 
litteras  Grsecas  perfiigcre,  vigilant, 
jejonant,  sudant  et  algent ;  nihil  non 
faoinnt  at  eas  occnpent.  Quod  si 
oontingat,  actum  est  de  fama  Testra. 
Erigent  enim  de  vobis  trophasum 
nunquam  succubituri.'  Croke's 
meaning  appears  to  be  that  if  Ox- 
ford once  succeeds  in  gaining  the 
reputation  of  being  the  school  for 
Oreek,  students  will  get  into  the 
habit  of  going  there  to  learn  the  lan- 


guage; just  as  mathematiciaiifl,  in 
the  present  day,  generally  prefer  Cam- 
bridge. Compare  with  the  words  in 
italics,  More*s  observation,  addressed 
to  the  Oxonians,  already  quoted: 
Cant<ibrigia,  cut  vot  praUteere  sew^per 
contuevi$ti8.  Perhaps  we  may  reoon- 
cile  these  diametriciUly  opposed  state- 
ments, made  in  the  same  year,  by  in- 
ferring that  neither  university  had 
much  real  reason  for  priding  itiell 
on  superiority  to  the  other. 


choke's  INA.UOUalL  OfiATION.  585 

skill  in  either  toDgne,  the  threefold  linguistic  learning  of  Stoks*-  ca».r.  T. 
ley ',  the  pure  and  polished  elegance  uT  More,  the  erudition  and   T^^  j'-^. 
genius  of  Pace,  commended  by  £!raamuB  himBelf,  onsurpaaeed  as  « 
judge  of  learning, — Erasmus  I  once,  vould  be  were  still,  your  own 
Greek  profeaaor  1     I  have  succeeded  to  his  place.     Good  heaveui  ! 
how  inferior  to  him  in  learning  and  in  iame'l     And  yet,  lart  I 
should  be  looked  upon  aa  of  no  account  whatever,  permit  me  to 
state  that  eveu  I,  all  unworthy  though  I  be,  have  been  recognised 
by  the  leading  men,  doctors    in  theology)   law,  and  medicine, 
besides  masters  of  arts  beyond  oountiDg,  aa  their  acknowledged 
teacher;    and  what  is   more,  have,  in   most  honorable    fasbioD, 
been  escorted   by  them  from   the  schoola  to  church,  and  from 
church  to  the  schools.     Nay,  still  further,  I  solemnly  assure  you, 
gentlemen  of    Cambridge,  that    the    Oxonians  ^emselres   have 
solicited  me  with  the  offer  of  a  handsome  salary  besides  my  main- 
tenance.    But  feelings  of  respectful  loyalty  towards  this  university  Oifci^  w^ 
— and  especially  towards  that  most  noble  eociety  of  scholars.  King's  tSJ^Jl^Ti. 
College,  to   which    I    owe  my  first  acquirements  in  the   art  (>f  |^*^^|^'|^ 
eloqnence, — have  enjoined  that  I  should  first  offer  my  services  to  ra^ti. 
yon.      Should  those  services  find  favour   in  your  eyes,   I    shall 
esteem  myself  smply  rewarded;  and  I  shall  conclude  that  such  is 
the  case,  if  I  see  you  applying  yourselves  to  the  studies  which 
I  adviset     To  imitate  what  we  admire, — such  ia  the  rule  of  life. 
And,  in  order  that  you  may  clearly  perceive  how  much  I  have  h*  nm^m 
your  iotarests  at  heart,  I  shall  make  it  especially  my  object,  so  to  ^iSJi'i!^ 
adapt  myself  to  each  individual  case,  as  to  mn  with  those  who  "j"* 
run,  and  stretch  out  a  helping  hand  to  those  who  stumble.     I  shall 
adapt  myself  to  the  standard  of  each  learner,  and  proceed  only 
when  he  is  able  to  keep  me  company.     And  if,  perchance,  there 
should  be  some  to  whom  this  learning  may  appear  to  be  beset  with 
toil,  let  them  remember  the  adage,  that  the  honorable  it  difficult. 
It  is  nature's  law,  that  great  undertakings  should  rarely  be  speedy  amd  a^ 
in  their  accomplishment,  and  that,  as  Fsbius  observes*,  the  nobler 
races  in  the  animal  world  should  be  longest  in  the  womb.     Let 
them  reflect  too  that  nothing  worth  having  in  life  is  to  be  had  with- 
out considerable  labour.     Wherefore,  gentlemen  of  Cambridge, 
yon  must  keep  your  vigils,  and  breathe  the  smoke  of  the  lamp, — 
practices  which  though  painful  at  first  become  easier  by  habit. 
'  The  name  is  printed  StopUiui,  *  Enumns  had  beard  of  Croke's 

■nd  Wood  (.iRnab,  i  17)  has  trana-  ^^poiiitmaiit,  and  wrote  to  oougiata- 
lated  it  as  Stopley,  withoat  appa-  late  bim  thareon,  in  the  beet  poteibla 
rentl^hsTing  an  idea  who  iras  meant.  spirit: — 'Qratnlor  tibi,  mi  Crooe, 
There  can.  haweyer,  be  no  doubt  that  profeMionein  istata  tarn  iplendidam, 
Croke  intended  SlokeiUy,  principal  non  minus  honorifioam  tibi  qnam 
of  Magdalen  Hail,  sad  altenrardi  frngiferam  aoademie  Cantabrifpenii, 
bishop  of  London.  Oompore  the  en-  enjns  sommodis  ei^nidem  pro  Teteiis 
eomium  of  Eraemni,  '  Joannes  Btok-  boipitii  oonmetndme  peeoliari  qao- 
leina.prsterscholasticam  hano  theo-  dam  etndio  taveo.'  LetUr  to  Crvkt 
logiam,  in  qua  nemini  eedit,  trium  (KptiX,  ISIS),  Optra,  m  1679. 
ttiam  Hnfuantm  hand  rolgahtat  <  Qnintilian.  i  iii  4. 
peiitos.'    Oftra,  nt  403. 


536  BISHOP  FISHEB. 

aiAP.  V.    Nerve  yourselves,  therefore,  to  courses  such  as  these,  and  ere  long 
Paet  II.    you  will  exult  in  the  realination  of  the  words  of  Aristotle,  that  the 
'"■^^'""^   muses  love  to  dwell  iu  minds  emulous  of  toil.     But  if  some,  after 
the   nmnner  of  snmtterors,  Hhould  shirk  the  inevitable  amomit  of 
effort, — or  some  a<(aiu  (which  I  hardly  look  for),  of  the  theological 
or  phi]o8<>])hiciil   facultif's,  I  mean  those  crotchety  fellows,  who 
tMick  to  make  themselvcH  ]>asH  for  authorities  by  heaping  contempt 
ou  every  oue  else,  should  dart  back  when    they  have   scarcely 
crossed  the  threshold, — it  does  not  follow  that  you  are,  one  and 
Greek  not  of  all,   to  become  desfxmdent  of  this  learning.     Let   each   of  you 
dijficuJtSr^  reflect  that  the  miud  of  man  has  enabled  him  to  traverse  the  seas, 
to  know  the  movements  and  to  count  the  number  of  the  stars, 
to  measure  the  whole  globe.     It  cannot  be,  then,  that  a  knowledge 
of  Greek  is  inaccessible  or  even  difficult  to  a  race  so  potent  to 
accomplish  the  ends  it  has  in  view.     Do  you  suppose  that  Cato 
would  have  been  willing  to  devote  himself  to  this  study  when 
advanced  in  years,  had  it  presented,  in  his  eyes,  much  of  diffi- 
culty?... A  certain  order  however  is  necessary  in  all  things.     The 
wedded  vine  gra.sps  first  of  all  the  lower  branches  of  the   tree^ 
and  finally  towers  above  the  topmost;  and  you.  Sir,  who   now 
discourse  so  glibly  in  the  schools,  once  blubbered  over  your  book, 
and  hesitated  over  the  shapes  of  the  letters.     Therefore,  gentle- 
men of  Cambridge,  bring  your  whole  minds  to  bear  upon  this 
study,  here  concentrate  your  efforts.     The  variety  of  your  studies 
need  prove   no  impediment ;   for  they  who  plead   tliat  excuse, 
forget  that  it  is  more  laborious,  by  far,  to  toil  over  one  thing 
No  ham  in   long  together,  than  over  a  variety  of  subjects.     But  the  mind, 
JtudiML  ^     forsooth,  cannot  safely  be  employed  in  many  pursuits  at  once, — 
why  not  then  advise  the  husbandman  not  to  cultivate,  in    the 
same    season,    ploughed    lands,    vineyards,   olive-grounds,    and 
orchards  1     Why  not  dissuade  the  minstrel  from  taxing,  at  once, 
his  memory,  his  voice-,  and  his  muscles  1     But,  in  ti*uth,  there  is 
no  reason  whatever  why  you  should  not  come  to  me,  when  deaf 
with  listening  to  other  teachers,  and  give  at  least  a  share  of  your 
attention  to  Greek.     Variety  will  pleasantly  beguile  you  of  your 
weai*iness ;  for  who  among  you  can  have  the  audacity  to  plead 
the  want  of  leisui*e )     We  should  lack  no  time  for  learning,  were 
we  only  to  give  to  study  the  hours  we  waste  in  sleep,  in  sports,  in 
play,  in  idle  talk.     Deduct  from  each  of  these  but  the  veriest 
trifie,  and  you  will  have  ample  opportunity  for  acquiring  Greek. 
A  lut  appeal  But  if  there  be  any  who,  after  listening  to  my  discourse,  blush  not 
per  piidft'^  to  confess  themselves  blockheads  and  unteachable,  let  them  be  off 
to  the  desert  and  there  herd  with  wild  beasts  1    With  beasts,  did 
I  sayl     They  will   be  unworthy  to  associate  even  with  these. 
For   only   the   otlier   day,  there  was   an  elephant   exhibited   In 
Germany  who  could  trace,  with  his  trunk  and  foot  upon  the  sand, 
not  only  Greek  letters  but  whole  Greek  sentences.    Whoever  then 
is  so  dense  as  to  be  unable  to  imbibe  a  modicum  of  Greek  culture, 
let  him  know,  that  though  more  a  man,  he  b  in  no  way  more 


choke's  IITi.nai7BAL  ORATIOIH.  63? 

bnmane',  aa  regards  hia  educated  lenities,  titan  the  dullest  bmte.  '?^^',/' 
Tott  see,  gentlemen  of  Cambridge,  there's  no  excuse  for  yoa, —  .^-^^.v, 
the  capacity,  the  leisure,  the  preceptor,  are  all  at  yonr  command. 
Yield  not  then  to  the  promptings  of  indoleacfi,  but  rather  snatch 
the  opportunity  for  acquirement.  Otherwise,  believe  me,  it  will 
aeem  either  that  I  have  pleaded  with  yon  in  vain  to-day,  or  that 
you  have  been  unmindful  of  the  saying  of  Cato,  FronU  eapUlata 
po»t  hac  occaeio  calva. 

Stripped   of  its  Latin   garb,  the   foregoing   oration   will 
appear   occasionally  wanting  in  the   gravity  that   becomes 
the  academic  chair ;  but  those  familiar   with   the   licence 
often  indulged  in  on   like   occasions,  up  to   a  much   later 
period,   will  make   due   allowance  for  the   fashion   of  the, 
time.     The  age  of  Grote  and   Alommsen  may  smile  at  f^^^^^ 
Berious   attempt  to  compare  the  merits  of  Numa  and  Ly-  onSSIr 
curgus,  or  at  the  assemblage  of  names,  mythical  and  historical, 
adduced  to  prove  the  estimation  in  which  the  Greek  tongue 
was  held  in  ancient  times.     Many  of  the  audience,  doubtless, 
stared  and  gasped,  as  the  orator  planted  hb  standard  at 
the  line  which,  he  declared,  was  the  only  true  boundary  of 
the  grammarian's  province  in  the  realm  of  the  Muses.    Many 
a  learned  sententiarius,  we  may  be  well   assured,  listened 
with   ill-disguiBed  vexation  at  the  claims  set  up  in  behalf 
of  strictly  biblical  studies.     But  it  was  not  easy  to  call  in 
question   the  general   reasonableness  of  the  orator's  ail- 
ments ;  and,  at  a  time  when  the  study  of  Greek  is  again 
on  its   defence,  as  an   element  in   the  ordinary  course   of 
study  at  our  universities,  it  might  not  be  uninteresting  to 
compare  the  claims  put  forward  three  centuries  and  a  half 
ago  for  its  admission,  with  those  which  at  the  present  day 
are  urged  on  behalf  of  its  retention.     A  comparison  however.i^intfM 
more  within  the  scope  of  the  present  pages  may  be  found,  if  gSj^Siw 
we  proceed  to  contrast  Croke's  oration  with  the  far  better  !{yEM*°* 
known  address,  entitled  De  Studiis  Carrigsndu,  delivered  by  ''"*'*'^ 
young  Philip  Melanchthon,  before  the  university  of  Witten- 
berg, in  the  preceding  year*.     Nor  will  the  comparison  be 

'  Croka  intends  apparently  a  play  anndnm    qnidem    natnram    editam 

npoD  the  vord  hunuiniu, — '  Qnisqnis  magii  hnmAiiim  qium  impaifeotirai- 

igitDi  adeo  hebea  es,  nt  nihil  Oraov  ma  quaqne  animalia.' 

Twn  Utterarom  imbibers  qneaf,  bcim  ■  It  may  perhaps  appear  searoaly 

te  magii  hominom  Mat,  sed  ne  m-  lair  to  eompare  tfa«  wmpositiMi  of  a 


536  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CHAP.  V.    Nerve  yourselves,  therefore,  to  courses  such  as  these,  and  ere  long 
Paet  II.    you  will  exult  in  the  realisation  of  the  words  of  Aristotle,  that  the 
'""^^'""^   muses  love  to  dwell  in  minds  emulous  of  toil.     But  if  some,  after 
the  manner  of  smatterers,  should  shirk  the  inevitable  amount  of 
effort, — or  some  again  (which  I  hardly  look  for),  of  the  theological 
or  philosophical   faculties,  I  mean  those  crotchety  fellowsy  who 
seek  to  make  themselves  }>asH  for  authorities  by  heaping  contempt 
on  every  one  else,  should  dai*t  buck  when    they  have   ecarcely 
crossed  the  threshold, — it  does  not  follow  that  you  are,  one  and 
GNeknotof  all,   to  become  despondent  of  this  learning.     Let   each   of  you 
dSScuJS^'"  reflect  that  the  mind  of  man  has  enabled  him  to  traverse  the  aeaa, 
to  know  the  movements  and  to  count  the  number  of  the  stars, 
to  measure  the  whole  globe.     It  cannot  be,  then,  that  a  knowledge 
of  Greek  is  inaccessible  or  even  difficult  to  a  race  so  potent  to 
accomplish  the  ends  it  has  in  view.     Do  you  suppose  that  Cato 
would  have  been  willing  to  devote  himself  to  this  study  when 
advanced  in  years,  had  it  presented,  in  his  eyes,  much  of  diffi- 
culty 1...  A  certain  order  however  is  necessary  in  all  things.     The 
wedded  vine  grasps  first  of  all  the  lower  branches  of  the   tree, 
and  finally  towers  above  the  topmost;  and  you.  Sir,  who   now 
discourse  so  glibly  in  the  schools,  once  blubbered  over  your  book, 
and  hesitated  over  the  shapes  of  the  letters.     Therefore,  gentle- 
men of  Cambridge,  bring  your  whole  minds  to  bear  upon  this 
study,  here  concentrate  your  efforts.     The  variety  of  your  studies 
need  prove  no  impediment ;   for  they  who  plead  that  ezcase, 
forget  that  it  is  more  laborious,  by  far,  to  toil  over  one  thing 
No  hanx  in   long  together,  than  over  a  variety  of  subjects.     But  the  mind, 
gtadiM.^  ^     forsooth,  cannot  safely  be  employed  in  many  pursuits  at  once, — 
why  not  then  advise  the  husbandman  not  to  cultivate,  in   the 
same    season,    ploughed    lands,    vineyards,    olive-grounds,    and 
orchards  f     Why  not  dissuade  the  minstrel  from  taxing,  at  once, 
his  memory,  his  voice,  and  his  muscles  1     But,  in  truth,  there  is 
no  reason  whatever  why  you  should  not  come  to  me,  when  deaf 
with  listening  to  other  teachers,  and  give  at  least  a  share  of  your 
attention  to  Greek.     Variety  will  pleasantly  beguile  you  of  your 
weariness ;  for  who  among  you  can  have  the  audacity  to  plead 
the  want  of  leisure  1     We  should  lack  no  time  for  learning,  were 
we  only  to  give  to  study  the  hours  we  waste  in  sleep,  in  sports,  in 
play,  in  idle  talk.     Deduct  from  each  of  these  but  the  veriest 
trifle,  and  you  will  have  ample  opportunity  for  acquiring  Greek. 
AiutappMi  But  if  there  be  any  who,  after  listening  to  my  discourse,  blush  not 
perpiidA.'^  to  confess  themselves  blockheads  and  unteachable,  let  them  be  oflT 
to  the  desert  and  there  herd  with  wild  beasts  1    With  beasts,  did 
I  sayl     They  will   be  imworthy  to  associate  even  with  these. 
For  only  the   other  day,  there  was  an  elephant   exhibited   in 
Germany  who  could  trace,  with  his  trunk  and  foot  upon  the  sand, 
not  only  Greek  letters  but  whole  Greek  sentences.    Whoever  then 
is  so  dense  as  to  be  unable  to  imbibe  a  modicum  of  Greek  culture, 
let  him  know,  that  though  more  a  man,  he  b  in  no  way  more 


Cooke's  second  oeatiom.  539 

apposite  illustration, — its  far  greater  command  of  an  elegant  ^*"' 
lenity, — ^its  dexterous  resort  to  the  recognised  weapons  of  '"  v     ' 
the  rhetorician, — and  even  its   broad  humour, — must,  we 
cannot  but  think,  have  been  the  better  calculated  to  win  the 
nifirages  of  an  enthuuastic  and  for  the  most  part  youthful 
audience. 

Within   a    short    time   after  Croke    delivered    another  cn>k^^»^ 
oration, — hut  one  inferior  in  interest  to  the  first,  and  chiefly 
designed  to  confirm  hia  scholars  in  their  allegiance  to  Greek, 
in  opposition  to  the  efforts  that  were  being  made  to  induce 
them  to  forsake  the  study.     It  contains  however  one  note- 
worthy passage,  wherein   he   speaks   of  Oxford   as  eolonia  o 
a  Canlabrigia  deducta,  and  again  exhorts  the  university  not « 
to  allow  itself  to  be  outstripped  by  those  who  were  once  its 
disciples.     It  was  this  passage  that  more  particularly  excited 
the  ire  of  Anthony  Wood,  and  induced  him  to  rake  up,  by  J^J^ 
way    of   retaliation,    the    venomous    suggestion    of  Bryan  ''"*■ 
Twyne,  that  the  '  Trojan '  party  at  Oxford  were  the  real 
Cambridge   colony ; — an  assertion   that   cert^nly  finds   no 
countenance  from  anything  in  More's  letter,  and  that  may 
be  looked  upon  as  entirely  gratuitous. 

That  Oroke's  exertions  found  a  fur  measure  of  accept- 1?^^ 
ance  with  the  university  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact,  that  ^''^gff 
when  in  1522  the  office  of  Public  Orator  was  first  founded, 
Croke  was  elected  for  life;  while  it  was  at  the  same  timeaak*«it 
provided,  that  when  he  had  ceased  to  fill  the  office  it  should 
be  tenable  for  seven  years  only.   A&  a  mark  of  special  honour 
it  was  decreed,  that  the  orator  should  have  precedence  of  all 
other  masters  of  arts,  and  should  walk  in  processions  and     r 
have  his  seat  at  public  acts,  separate  from  the  rest*.     The 
•alary  however  was  only  forty  shillings  annually;  'a  place,' 
(to  use  Fuller's  comment),  'of  more  honour  than  profit.' 

With  regard  to  the  amount  of  success  that  eventually 
attended  Oroke's  efforts  to  awaken  among  the  Cambridge 
fltudentA  an  interest  in  Greek  literature,  and  to  stimulate 
them  to  an  active  prosecution  of  the  study,  no  more  decisive 
testimony  need  be  sought  than  is  supplied  by  Uie  hostile 

■  CoopBT,  AtmmU,  I  >05. 


540 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


CHAP.  V. 
Paet  II. 

John 

likelton, 

kliOO. 


HitiiUlrlaa 
▼eneaon  the 
aUflDtlon 
now  Kiven  to 
Greek  at 
Gunbridge. 


pen  of  the  poet  Skelton.  In  a  satire  composed  about  the 
year  1521  or  1522,  the  writer  represents,  though  with  evident 
poetical  exaggeration,  tliis  new  growth  of  leamiug  as  over- 
shadowing and  blighting  all  the  rest.  The  poet,  who  at  this 
time  was  probably  more  than  sixty  years  of  age,  w^as  one 
who  had  won  his  earlier  distinctions  in  the  old  paths ;  he 
had  proceeded  to  his  degree  of  master  of  arts  so  far  back 
as  1484,  and  had  subsequently  been  laureated  not  only  at 
Cambridge  but  also  at  Oxford  and  Louvain.  Few  who  have 
read  his  compositions  with  attention  will  deny  that  he  pos- 
sessed true  genius.  Erasmus,  indeed,  styles  him  unum  Bri- 
tannicarum  litterarum  lumen  et  decus ;  but  this  was  written 
during  his  first  visit  to  England,  when  his  criticisms  con- 
tained little  but  indiscriminate  eulogy  of  all  about  him,  and 
in  this  instance,  as  he  was  unable  to  read  a  line  of  English, 
could  only  have  been  the  reflex  of  the  estimate  of  others, — 
an  estimate  almost  as  exaggerated  as  Pope's  epithet  of 
'beastly  Skelton'  is  unjust.  The  animosity  with  which 
Skelton  attacked  Lilly,  the  grammarian,  might  alone  lead 
us  to  infer  that  the  poet  sympathised  but  little  with  the  new 
learning ;  and  the  following  lines, — his  indignant  protest  at 
the  attention  now  given  to  Greek  at  Cambridge, — are  evi- 
dently the  expression  of  genuine  alarm  and  dislike  such  as 
were  shared  by  many  at  both  universities  at  the  time. 

'In  Aeademia  Parrot  dare  no  probleme  kepe; 

For  Grace  fan  bo  ocoupyeth  the  chayre, 
That  Latinum  fari  may  fall  to  rest  and  slepe, 
And  syllogisari  was  drowned  at  Storbrydge  fayre^: 
Trynyals  and  qnadrynyals  so  sore  now  they  appayre. 
That  Parrot  the  popagay  hath  pytye  to  beholde 
How  the  rest  of  good  lemyng  is  roufled  ap  and  trold. 

*Albertns*  de  modo  iignificandi, 

And  DonatuB  be  drynen  out  of  scole; 
Frisian's  hed  broken  now  handy  dandy^ 


^  For  a  complete  collection  of  facts 
respecting  this  ancient  fair,  the  ex- 
istence of  which  is  to  be  traced  back 
as  far  as  the  thirteenth  ceutnry,  see 
Life  ofAmbrote  Bonwicket  ed.  Mayor, 
pp.  152—66.  It  was,  in  Skelton's 
time,  and  long  afterwards,  mnch  re- 
sorted to  by  the  undergraduates,  and 


generally  completely  iniezra^ted  for 
the  time  the  studies  of  the  muverBitj. 
*  Not,  according  to  Wiurtoo,  the 
great  schoolman,  bat  *  the  author  of 
the  Margarita  Poetiea^  a  ooUeotion 
of  Floret  from  the  classie  and  otticr 
writers,  printed  at  Nuremberg,  147S, 
fol.*  Hist.  ofEng.  Poetry,  n  847- 


WOLSET.  641 

And  Inter  dtdaieolot  u  rekened  for  k  fok ;  GHAF.  T. 

Alexajiiler,  ■  gander  of  Ueoander'g  pole  *,  Fu*  IL 
With  De  ContttUi',  is  oaat  out  o£  the  gate,  ' 

And  Da  Racionala*  due  not  ebew  bis  pate'.' 

In  the  year  following  upon  that  in  which  Croke  delivered 
his  two  orations  the  university  was  honored  by  a  visit  from 
cardinal  Wolaey.    Hitherto  Cambridge  had  endeavoured  with  -nioua 
but  little  success  to  ingratiate  herself  with  the  omnipotent  »■"!?' 
minister.     In  the  year  1514,  Fisher,  on  his  appointment  as 
one  of  the  royal  delegates  to  the  Lateran  council,  had  deemed 
it  necessary  to  resign  the  chancelbrship, — ^to  which  he  had 
been  regularly  re-elected  for  ten  successive  years, — and  at 
his  suggestion  Wolsey  had  been  solicited  to  accept  the  office,  hii  nUHon 
We  shall  scarcely  be  justified  in  inferring  from  this  (act,  that  "*'» 
Fisher  himself  did  not  attribute  the  heavy  loss  that  St.  John's 
College  had  sustained  to  the  cardinal's  influence*;  but  he 
doubtless  felt  that  the  power  of  the  royal  favorite  had  reached 
a  point  at  which  it  became  almost  indispensable  that  the 
university  should  conciliate  his  good  will,  and,  with  liia  usual 
spirit  of  self-abnegation,  waived  his  personal  feelings  out  of 
regard  for  the  general  welfare.     Wolsey  did  not  accept  theHad«iiiM 
proffered  honour.     In  a  letter,  wherein  the  pride  that  apes  ioi»hipL, 
humility  is  conspicuous  in  almost  every  sentence,  he  declared 
that  his  numerous  and  important  engagements  rendered  it 
impossible  for  him  to  accede  to  the  wishes  of  the  university ; 
at  the  same  time,  he  intimated  that  he  should  be  glad  to 
mark  his  sense  of  the  honour  done  him,  by  serving  them  to 


t  i.e.  (aooording  to  Vjce)  'Mean- 
d«T'B  pole,'  the  Btreun  or  pool  of  the 
tftmouB  river:  (or  Alexander  see 
nipra,  p.  S15,  n.  1.  The  poet  seemi 
to  have  confounded  the  Meander 
with  the  Cayater.     Bee  Iliad,  u  460. 

•  The  Concilia  or  C»iion  liw. 

'  5p«*eParrol,Bkelton-Dyoe,ii8-9. 

*  In  the  revised  editions  of  the 
■tstntes  of  Bt  John's  College  [giTen 
bj  Fisher  in  the  years  1634  and 
1&30),  WoUej'i  name  is  included  in 
the  list  ol  beaefactori  for  whom  the 

Crayen  ol  the  college  are  to  be  rega- 
irlf  offered  np.  This  ia  probably 
attributable  to  the  laet,  that  be  used 


Ua  infloeneg  to  obtun  for  the  ool- 
lege  the  estates  of  the  nimneriet  o[ 
Higtiam  BDil  Bromebatl.  as  a  partial 
compenaation  tor  the  loss  ot  the 
estatea  bequeathed  by  the  f oundera ; 
k  loss,  as  we  have  seen,  laid  at  bis 
door.  The  (orgivitig  spirit  shewn  by 
tiie  college  was  eeitainly  politic;  bnt 
it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  list  of 
'  benefaetoiH '  also  incltided  the  name 
of  James  Stanley,  bishop  of  Ely, 
e^jtu  coneettionc  domut  vtiui  el  at. 
trila  in  collegium,  quale  nunc  Ml, 
eximium  iane,  coamutata  ett.  (I)  Ba- 
ker-Mayoi,  p.  B8.  Earln  StatMet  of 
8t  Jolm'i  (ed.  Mayor),  pp.  93,  Bltt. 
Cf.  snpra,  pp.  4M-7. 


542  BISHOP   FI8UER. 

CHAP.  T.  the  best  of  his  power'.  Accordingly,  as  Fisher,  in  the  sequel, 
^  -v  »>  did  not  go  to  Rome,  and  Wolsey  declined  the  office,  the 
SfoTuSr^'  university  thought  it  could  do  no  better  than  re-elect  the 
former  to  the  chancellorship  for  life;  and  thus,  for  nearly 
thirty  years,  John  Fisher  continued  to  represent  the  chief 
authority  in  the  community  which  he  so  ably  and  faithfully 
served, 
woto^viaits  The  visit  of  the  great  cardinal  to  Cambridge  was  pro- 
mo, bably  gladly  hailed  as  a  sign  of  his  favour,  and  every  effort 
was  made  to  shew  him  an  amount  of  respect  in  no  way  in- 
ferior to  that  which  ordinarily  greeted  royalty  itself.  The 
streets  were  cleansed';  the  pavement  was  repaired;  swans 
and  huge  pike  were  brought  in  to  grace  the  feast;  and  a 
temporary  platform  was  erected  at  the  place  of  his  formal 
reception  ^  Imperial  ambassadors  and  sundry  bishops  fol- 
lowed in  his  train.  In  the  preceding  year  he  had  received 
the  appointment  of  sole  legate ;  and  his  power  and  wealth, 
and  it  must  be  added  his  arrogance  and  ostentation,  were 
now  nearing  their  culminating  point.  We  have  no  details 
of  the  circumstances  of  his  entry  into  the  town,  but  it  may 
be  presumed  it  was  marked  by  his  customary  display ;  and 
Roy,  who  afterwards  described  him  as  he  was  wont  to  ap- 
pear in  processions, 

*More  lyke  a  god  celestiaU 
Then  eny  oreatare  mortall 

With  worldly  pompe  incredible,' 

^  *  Stndebo  igitar  non  solam  gra-  of  rank  was  expected,  epeeial  eara 

tias  qnas  possum  maximas  vestris  was  taken  to  cleanse  the  streets;  and 

homanitatibos  agere;  sedetiam  dabo  as  they  were  osnally  dirty  and  nn- 

operam,  nt  qnam  ssepissime  (si  qui-  scavenged  as  those  of  an  oriental 

bus  in  rebus  possim),  non  tarn  Tobis  city,  the  common  receptacle  for  the 

pro  meo  Tirili  gratificari,  quam  de  filth  and  debris  of  the  town,  it  is  not 

omnibus  et  singulis  Testr»  uniTersi-  surprising  that  the  occasional  stirring 

tatis,  ubi  locus  et  tempns  erunt,  bene  of  this  accumulated  litter  should  be- 

mereri.*      See    Fiddes,    ColUctiontf  get  a  plague.'    Life  of  Latimer,  p. 

xxviii  and  xxix,  p.  50.  18.    It  is  certain  that,  in  this  in- 

s  Mr  Demans  obserres,    in  con-  stance,  the  prevalence  of  the  epi- 

nexion  with  Wolsey's   visit, — *Not  demic  prevented  for  a  time  the  re- 

uncommonly  the  reception  of  such  assembling  of  the  students  in  the 

visitors  was  followed  by  a  plague,  so  foUowing  year.    See  Cooper,  AfmaU^ 

severe  as  to  compel  the  discontinu-  i  804. 

anoe  of  the  ordinary  university  work;  *  Cooper,  Atmals^  i  808.    The  le- 

and  the  explanation  of  this  pheno-  ception,  judging  from  the  eloee  of 

menon  throws  a  curious  li^t  (or  BuUock's  oration  (see  infra,  p.  647), 

shade  ?)  upon  the  domestic  manners  was  at  Great  St  Mary*8. 
of  our  ancestors.     When  any  visitor 


may  not  improbably  have   been  a  spectator  on  the  oo-  cbap.t. 
oasion.  •—■>■—• 

But  in  the  academic  throng  that  went  forth  to  meet  the  vkbuiimmt 
cardinal,  the  chancellor  was  not  to  be  seen;  and  the  facttt^ 
could  hardly  hare  excited  much  surprise  in  the  uDiversity ; 
lor  it  was  probably  well  known  that,  within  the  last  two 
years,  the  relations  of  Fisher  to  Wolsey  had  assumed  a  cha-  iuiitiiiM<( 
racter  which  most  have  made  it  equally  difficult  for  the  womv- 
former  to  give  utterance  to  the  cufltomary  phrases  of  con- 
gratulation and  flattery,  and  for  the  latter  to  receive  them 
through  that  channel  as  the  expressions  of  even  ordinarily 
genuine  sentiments  of  regard.     In  the  year  1518,  Warbam, 
whose  efforts  towards  counteracting  the  widespread  corrup- 
tion of  the  clergy  were  strenuous  and  sincere,  had  summoned 
a  coancil  of  the  auffragatis  of  bis  diocese  for  the  purpose  of 
discussing  fiiturc  plans  of  reform.     But  though  Wolsey  him- 
•elf  had  only  four  years  before  received,  at  Warham's  con- 
■ecrating  hands,  hie  admission  to  the  see  of  Lincoln,  the 
cardinal  and  the  legate  a  latere  could  not  endnre  that  any 
mich  council  should  have  been  summoned  without  his  sanc- 
tion, and  he  accordingly  compelled  the  arohbishop  to  recall 
his  mandates'.     In  onler  however  to  meet  the  views  that 
fonnd  forcible  expression  in  influential  quarters,  he  subse- 
quently convened  another  council  for  the  purpose  proposed 
by  Warham ;  and  Fisher,  who  looked  upon  the  matter  as 
one  of  paramount  importance,  had  even  deferred  his  journey 
to  Rome  in  order  to  be  present.    When  therefore  the  council  J!*3|^** 
at  last  met,  and  it  was  evident  that  nothing  practical  was  !£^^iba 
designed, — but,  to  quote  the  language  of  Lewis, '  the  meeting f^wor  im 
was  rather  to  notify  to  the  world  the  extravagant  pomp  and  Slnr. 

■  Lewis,  Life  of  FuIut,  i  68. 
Wobcj'a  iKogiuge  to  Wuhun  is 
worthy  ot  note; — 'My  lorde,  albeit  _    . 

mdi  and  many  othtr  thinga,  Mb*  I  am,  that  his  gnM  « 

qweially  expmaed  id  your  aaid  mo-  I  Bfanlde  be  M  lytls  e«tam«d,  that  J» 

nieyoiu,  be  U>  be  retonDod  generally  iholde  enterpryae  ths  laid  retoim*. 

thnnigb  the  chorehe  of  England,  m  tjon  to  the  eipien  dero^cyon  of 

well  in  my  prorinee  ai  in  jonre,  and  the  nid  dignitae  ol  the  ■««  apoBt4>- 

that  hdng  legate  a  later;  to  ma  chiefly  like,  and  otherwiee  than  the  law  wdl 

it  appeiteyneth  to  ne  the  lefonna-  nifiM  yoo,    wlthont  B^ae   adnie, 

tjao  of  the  preinyniB,  thongh  by-  eomwit,  sad  knoiriadfe.'    WiUoni^ 

derto  no  in  tiine  eoming.  I  hare  ne  Cmtcilia,  m  MO. 


544  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CHAP.  T.  authority  of  the  lord  legate,  than  for  any  great  good  to  the 
'^^"'  Church,  in  reforming  the  abuses  and  irregularities  of  the 
clergy/ — his  disappointment  was  intense,  and,  rising  from 
his  seat,  he  gave  free  though  dignified  expression  to  feelings 
which  were  shared  by  not  a  few  of  those  around.  In  language 
that  admitted  of  but  one  construction,  he  proceeded  to  in- 
veigh against  tlie  growing  luxury,  pride,  covetousness,  and 
worldliness  of  the  superior  clergy.  '  How  were  they/  he  de^ 
manded, '  to  warn  theii*  flocks  to  shun  the  pomps  and  vanities 
of  the  world,  while  they  themselves  minded  nothing  more! 
What  had  bishops  to  do  with  princes*  courts  ?  If  really  de- 
sirous of  reform  on  the  part  of  their  humbler  brethren,  they 
must  first  themselves,  in  their  own  persons,  set  an  example 
of  holy  living  and  true  devotion  to  their  calling  \'  The  high, 
the  spotless,  character  of  the  speaker  gave  irresistible  force 
to  his  appeal.  Cambridge  had  never,  perhaps,  better  cause 
for  priding  herself  on  her  chancellor,  than  on  that  day ;  and 
many  then  present  must  have  afterwards  recalled  the  scene 
Fbheraiid  as  ouo  of  the  most  memorable  in  their  lives.  The  attention 
tn«*~*  of  the  most  careless  observer  could  scarcely  fail  to  have  been 
arrested  by  the  striking  contrast  between  the  characters  of 
the  great  cardinal  and  the  good  bishop.  Both  high  in  the 
favour  of  the  monarch  to  whose  wrath  they  were  ultimately 
alike  to  fall  victims,  but  having  won  it  by  strangely  dissimilar 
careers!  The  one  so  'unsatisfied  in  getting,'  that  he  was 
already  the  wealthiest  ecclesiastic  in  the  realm ;  the  other  so 
unambitious  of  preferment,  that  it  came  to  him  unexpected 
and  unsolicited.  The  one  with  his  visage  so  disfigured  by 
a  vicious  life*,  that  Holbein  could  paint  him  only  in  profile ; 
the  other  with  a  face  so  emaciated  by  habits  of  long  asce- 
ticism, that  the  same  pencil  has  preserved  to  us  the  features 
of  a  mummy*.  The  one  seeking  to  overawe  the  assembly, 
by  the  same  energy  of  will  and  arrogance  of  demeanour  that 

*  Lewis,  pp.  69-70.  sioned  in  a  great  measure  by  the 

*  Skelton-Dyoe,  u  62;    Boy  (ed.      strict    abstinonoe    and   penance   to 
Arb^),  p.  58.  which  he  had  long  aooastomed  him- 

'  *-.-hi8  face,  hands,  and  aU  hiB      self,  even  from  his  youth.*    Lewis, 
body  were  bo  bare  of  flesh  as  is  al-      ii  215. 
most  incredible;  which  was   occa- 


had  discoDcerted  even  the  majeety  of  France ;  the  other  chap.  t. 
pleading  the  cause  of  virtue  and  religion,  with  the  calm  dig-  ***""•■ 
nity  and  graceful  elocution  that  had  so  often  charmed  the 
ears  of  royalty  I  '  After  the  delivery  of  this  Bpeecb,'  says  one 
of  Fisher's  biographers, '  the  cardinal's  state  seemed  not  to 
become  him  so  well';'  and  we  can  well  understand  how  it 
was  that  Fisher  was  not  now  among  those  who  hastened  to 
greet,  with  slavish  adulation,  the  half-welcome  half-dreaded 
guest  on  his  arrival  at  Cambridge.  TJpoa  Bullock,  at  that 
time  fellow  of  Queens'  College,  it  devolved  to  deliver  the 
congratulatory  address. 

Though  the  acte  whereby  Wolsey  most  startled  not  only  woiMmn 
the  university  but  all  England,  were  still  in  the  future,  hie  MOubridr. 
character  must,  by  this  time,  have  been  tolerably  well  uuder- 
stood;  his  haughty  nature  and  insatiable  greed  of  flatteiy 
were  notorious ;  and  bis  state  policy  and  administrative 
merits  could  not  fail  to  be  a  constant  topic  of  discussion  at 
both  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  That  his  sympathies  were 
chiefly  with  his  own  university  is  undeniable, — it  was  but 
natural  that  it  should  be  so ;  and  that  learned  body  exulted 
not  a  little  at  the  prospect  of  all  the  benefits  which  his  favour 
might  confer ;  while  to  its  annalist,  the  name  of  Wolsey 
appears  surrounded  by  a  halo  of  virtues  that  language  must 
bH  adequately  to  describe.  From  mere  policy  however, 
Wolsey  was  not  altogether  disregardful  of  the  sister  univer- 
sity, and  his  household  already  included  not  a  few  Cambridge 
men.  His  subsequent  biographer,  Cavendish,  had  been  edu- 
cated at  the  university,  and  was  now  his  gentleman  usher. 
Burbank,  the  friend  and  correspondent  of  Erasmus,  was 
hia  secretaiy,  and  a  follower  on  this  occasion  in  his  train. 
In  that  train  was  also  to  be  found  Richard  Sampson,  another 
friend  of  Erasmus  referred  to  in  a  preceding  page,  who  was 
one  of  the  cardinal's  chaplains.  Out  of  compliment  to  their 
patron,  both  Burbank  and  Sampson  were  now  admitted  to 
the  degree  of  debitor  of  canon  law  *.  Shorten  was  subsequently 
made  dean  of  his  private  chapel ;   he  had  perhaps  already 

>  Bftilf  (quoted  by  Lewii,  1  71).  otBacldngham,  amwuTiiigUieMme 

■  O(Kipn,i(biM,i41,110.  Fiodei      hononr  on  Qa*  oee—inn.  Hid  Im 

mantionaalioDr^rlaT,  uehdcaoon      oonndtnible  ttran  on  Uw  omniill. 


544  BISHOP  FISHER. 

CHAP.  T.  authority  of  the  lord  legate,  than  for  any  great  good  to  the 
'^^""'  Church,  in  reforming  the  abuses  and  irregularities  of  the 
clergy/ — his  disappointment  was  intense,  and,  rising  from 
his  seat,  he  gave  free  though  dignified  expression  to  feelings 
which  were  shared  by  not  a  few  of  those  around.  In  language 
that  admitted  of  but  one  construction,  he  proceeded  to  in- 
veigh against  the  growing  luxury,  pride,  covetousness,  and 
worldliness  of  the  superior  clergy.  '  How  were  they,'  he  de- 
manded, '  to  warn  their  flocks  to  shun  the  pomps  and  vanities 
of  the  world,  while  they  themselves  minded  nothing  more? 
What  had  bishops  to  do  with  princes'  courts  ?  If  really  de- 
sirous of  reform  on  the  part  of  their  humbler  brethren,  they 
must  first  themselves,  in  their  own  persons,  set  an  example 
of  holy  living  and  true  devotion  to  their  calling*.'  The  high, 
the  spotless,  character  of  the  speaker  gave  irresistible  force 
to  his  appeal  Cambridge  had  never,  perhaps,  better  cause 
for  priding  herself  on  her  chancellor,  than  on  that  day ;  and 
many  then  present  must  have  afterwards  recalled  the  scene 
Fbheraiid  as  ouo  of  the  most  memorable  in  their  lives.  The  attention 
t»»*~*  of  the  most  careless  observer  could  scarcely  fail  to  have  been 
arrested  by  the  striking  contrast  between  the  characters  of 
the  great  cardinal  and  the  good  bishop.  Both  high  in  the 
favour  of  the  monarch  to  whose  wrath  they  were  ultimately 
alike  to  fall  victims,  but  having  won  it  by  strangely  dissimilar 
careers!  The  one  so  'unsatisfied  in  getting,'  that  he  was 
already  the  wealthiest  ecclesiastic  in  the  realm ;  the  other  so 
unambitious  of  preferment,  that  it  came  to  him  unexpected 
and  unsolicited.  The  one  with  his  visage  so  disfigured  by 
a  vicious  life',  that  Holbein  could  paint  him  only  in  profile ; 
the  other  with  a  face  so  emaciated  by  habits  of  long  asce- 
ticism, that  the  same  pencil  has  preserved  to  us  the  features 
of  a  mummy*.  The  one  seeking  to  overawe  the  assembly, 
by  the  same  energy  of  will  and  arrogance  of  demeanour  that 

'  Le'wis,  pp.  69-70.  eioned  in  a  great  measme  by  the 

'  SkeltonDyce,  ii  62;    Boy  (ed.  strict    abstinence    and   penance   to 

Arber),  p.  58.  which  he  had  long  accostomed  him- 

'  *-.-hiB  face,  hands,  and  aU  hiB  self,  even  from  his  youth.'    Lewis, 

body  were  so  bare  of  flesh  as  is  al-  ii  215. 

most  incredible;  which  was   occa- 


WOLSEY.  545 

had  disconcerted  even  the  majeBty  of  France;  the  other  chaf.t. 
pleading  the  cause  of  virtue  and  religion,  with  the  calm  dig-  ^" "'. 
nity  and  graceful  elocution  that  had  so  oflen  charmed  the 
ears  of  royalty !  '  After  the  delivery  of  this  speech,'  says  one 
of  Fisher's  biographers, '  the  cardiDal's  state  seemed  not  to 
beconae  him  so  well';'  and  we  can  well  understand  how  it 
was  that  Fisher  was  not  now  among  those  who  hastened  to 
greet,  with  slavish  adulation,  the  half-welcome  half-dreaded 
guest  on  his  arrival  at  Camhridge.  Upon  Bullock,  at  that 
time  fellow  of  Queens'  College,  it  devolved  to  deliver  the 
congratulatory  address. 

Though  the  acts  whereby  Wolsey  most  startled  not  only  w 
the  university  but  all  England,  were  still  in  the  future,  his  ■< 
character  must,  by  this  time,  have  been  tolerably  well  under- 
stood ;  his  haughty  nature  and  insatiable  greed  of  flattery 
were  notorious ;  and  his  state  policy  and  administrative 
merits  could  not  fail  to  be  a  constant  topic  of  discussion  at 
both  Oxford  and  Cambridga  That  his  sympathies  were 
chiefly  with  his  own  university  is  undeniable, — it  was  but 
natural  that  it  shoold  be  so ;  and  that  learned  body  exulted 
not  a  little  at  the  prospect  of  all  the  benefits  which  his  favour 
might  confer;  while  to  its  annalist,  the  name  of  Wolsey 
appears  surrounded  by  a  halo  of  virtues  that  language  must 
bH  adequately  to  describe.  From  mere  policy  however, 
Wolsey  was  not  altogether  disregardful  of  the  sister  univer- 
sity,  and  his  household  already  included  not  a  few  Cambridge 
men.  His  subsequent  bit^rapher,  Cavendish,  had  been  edu- 
cated at  the  university,  and  was  now  his  gentleman  usher. 
Burbouk,  the  &iend  and  correspondent  of  Erasmus,  was 
his  secretary,  and  a  follower  on  this  occasion  in  his  train. 
In  that  trtun  was  also  to  be  found  Richard  Sampson,  another 
friend  of  Erasmus  referred  to  in  a  preceding  pt^e,  who  was 
one  of  the  cardinal's  chaplains.  Out  of  compliment  to  their 
patron,  both  Burbank  and  Sampson  were  now  admitted  to 
the  degree  of  doctor  of  canon  law*.  Shorton  was  subsequently 
made  dean  of  his  private  chapel ;   he  had  perhaps  already 

>  Bail; (^dottd by  Lewia,  i  Tl).  ofBnddngbiiin.aHteceinneUieMiiie 

>  Coopm,  Athena, I il,ll9.  Fiddei      htmonr  on  thi*  oeouiMi,  and  Im 
mmtions  ^aoDr  Taylor,  arebdeKOii      oonndenble   Btreis  on  tha  oianpii- 


546  BISHOP  FISHER. 

C3HAP.  V.  attracted  the  cardinal's  notice ;  for,  within  four  years  after, 
^*«y-«^   we  find  Wolsey  availing  himself  of  his  assistance  in  connexion 

with  his  magnificent  foundation  at  Oxford. 
B<jiods^^^         Whatever  may  be  our  opinion  of  the  merits  of  Bullodi's 
Jjjjjjjj****  oration  in  other  respects,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  it 
was  well  calculated  to  win  the  favour  that  it  was  designed 
to  conciliate.     Scarcely  from  the  obsequious  senates  of  Ti- 
berius and  Domitian  did  the  incense  of  flattery  riise  in  denser 
volume  or  in  coarser  fumes.     In  Wolsey  the  orator  recognises 
not  only  the  youth  who  at  Oxford  outshone  all  competi- 
nrMtncM  of  tors, — ^the  man  in  whom  all  the  virtues,  probitas,  innocerUia, 

hia  fbUtery.  #  ^  »  » 

pudor,  integrUas,  religio,  were  blended, — ^the  masterly  n^o- 
tiator  whose  ability  attracted  the  discerning  eye  of  Henry 
vii, — the  counsellor  whose  excellences  had  earned  such 
loving  favour  from  the  reigning  monarch, — ^the  ecclesiastic 
whose  services  to  the  Church  had  been  so  highly  honored 
by  the  supreme  pontiff, — but  he  salutes  him  as  the  uni- 
woiwy  the   vcrsal  bcncfactor  of  his  race.    Wolsey  it  is,  who  shields  the 

guftrdiMi  of 

tbepoor.  humblc  from  the  powerful,  the  needy  from  the  rich,  who 
rescues  the  innocent  and  simple  from  the  meshes  woven 
by  the  crafty  and  unscrupulous ;  he  it  is,  who  rebuilds  the 
villages  sinking  into  ruins  through  the  avarice  of  wicked 
men,  who  gives  back  to  the  husbandmen  the  fertile  acres 
converted  by  mercenary  owners  into  sheep-walka  Nor  is 
his  power  confined  to  Britain;  it  has  extended  its  benign 
influence  over  the  whole  of  Christendom.  *If,'  says  the 
orator,  'we  ransack  the  past  annals  of  the  Church,  the 
lives  of  pontiffs,  in  whom  the  virtues  of  cardinals  so  often 
again  meet  our  view,  we  shall  find  that  neither  all  the 
cardinals  in  any  one  age,  nor  any  one  cardinal  in  all  the 
ages,  achieved  within  so  short  a  time  such  signal  services 
KjtoHedi^  to  Europe.  This  Italy  herself  admits,  prone  though  she 
*toii«.  be  to  praise  only  her  own  sons,  and  ready  to  yield  to  other 

nations  anything  rather  than  renown;  this  Germany  con* 
fesses,  where  the  common  voice  proclaims, thee  worthy  of 
the  pontiff's  chair;  this  France  acknowledges,. whose  most 

ment  thiiB  paid  to  Wolsey,  these  doo-      ezeroises  pre-re^piired  to  that  degree.' 
tors  heing  admitted  *  freely  and  fally,*      Life  of  WoUey,  p.  186. 
'  as  if  they  had  perfonned  the  usual 


WOLSET.  547 

Christian  king  of  late  declared,  that  he  would  prefer  thee  chat.t. 
for  his  counsellor   to  half   hia  realm;   the  BohemianjB,  the   ^^iL 
Poles,  "the  natioos  of  the  ialea,"  in   fine  the  whole  globe HkwoM' 
resounds  thy  fame, — eUdem  sane  finibtis  quibua  orttts  et  oc- 
casus,  tut  nominis  claritudo  terminatvr. 

'  Felix  telliis,'  exclaims  the  orator  in  conclusion,  '  quae  te  bi 
in  lucem  edidit;  fehciores  principes,  quibus  accesBiBti;  feli- 
cissima  respublica,  qnre  talem  moderatorem  sortita  est  Et 
nos  Cantabrigiani  Don  postremam  sed  vel  primam  felidtatis 
partem  videmur  adepti,  non  solum  quod  huic  nostrse  acade- 
mia3  tarn  impense  faves,  adeo  ut  nomiullos  ejus  alomnos  huic 
tue  nobilissima;  adscripseris  famili%,  heneficiisque  non  medi- 
ocrihus  cumulareris ;  sed  quod  nos  tua  pnesentia  longe  sua- 
vissima  ornare  dignatus  es,  quod  hunc  tuum  vultum  multo 
gratiosissimum  liceat  intueri,  banc  tuam  celsitudinem  am- 
plecti;  haud  facile  fuerit  explicare  quanto  tripudio,  quam 
hilari  Tultu,  quam  ingenti  leetitia,  salientjbus  pnecoidiis,  tui 
adventus  nuntios  excepimus.  Facilius  fuerit  cuipiam  Eesti- 
mare  quam  nobis  exprimere.  Ipse  vidisti  quam  exporrectis- 
frontibus,  quam  hlando  ac  sereno  vultti,  quam  incredihili 
omnium  applausu,  certissimis  non  ficti  pectoris  testimoniis, 
ezceptus  es.  Hi  parietes,  hs  columnse,  hsec  subeellia,  hoc 
Bacram,  hi  omnes  denique  scholastici  videntur  mihi  non 
modo  gestire  sed  et  serio  gloriari  sese  nobilitatoe  tali  hospite. 
Utinam  haec  nostra  preecordia,  has  animi  latebras,  h(M  affectus, 
istis  tuia  vivacissimis  oculis  introspicere  posses;  turn  dare 
deprehenderes,  quam  sinceriter,  nullo  asciticio  colore,  nullis 
phaleris,  nullo  fuco,  hsec  dioerentur.  Ut  enim  opibus,  tedium 
magoificentia,  supellectilis  gloria,  ab  aliis  superemur,  nemini 
concesserimus,  hoc  precati  ut  te  propitium  huic  academiie,  ut 
omnibus  solitus  es,  exhibeas  patronum,  Deua  optimus  maxi- 
mus  te  in  usus  publicoe  quam  diutissime  conservet  inco- 
lamem ','  ' 

The  love  of  flattery  must  have  been  inordinate  indeed  in  wahr't 
Wolsey,  if  knguage  like  this, — language  which  may  well  be  anmnUM. 
permitted  to  remain  veiled  in  the  ornate  I^atinity  of  the 
original,— left  him  still  dissatisfied.    He  went  back  from 

>  Elddw,  C^eetimi,  U-6. 

85—2 


54S 


BISHOP   FISHER. 


StaflTord, 
duke  of 


Skelton. 


CTiAP.  V.  Cambridge,  having  made  splendid  but  indefinite  promises. 
pa»t  il  j^  ^j^^  following  year,  the  imiversity  learned  that  one  of  its 
former  scholars  and  distinguished  benefactors*, — the  courtly, 
munificent,  chivalrous  Stafibrd, — had  perished  on  the  scaffold, 

BucSdngiuun.  the  victim  as  it  was  commonly  believed  of  the  resentment  of 
this  paragon  of  virtue.  *  The  butcher's  dog,*  said  Charles  V, 
*  has  killed  the  fairest  buck  in  England'.*  A  few  years  more, 
and  it  saw  one  of  its  most  brilliant  geniuses,  the  poet 
Skelton,  flying  for  shelter  to  the  sanctuaiy  at  Westminster, 
there  to  end  his  days,  a  fugitive  from  the  wrath  of  this 
eminent  protector  of  the  weak  against  the  powerful.  While 
at  nearly  the  same  time,  it  was  told  at  Oxford  how  one  of 
the  most  accomplished  and  blameless  of  her  sons,  the  amiable 
Richard  Pace,—  -whose  virtues  almost  merited  the  praise  that 
Bullock  had  heaped  on  Wolsey, — had  become  the  object  of 
equally  fierce  persecution  at  the  same  hands;  until,  in  poverty 
and  insanity,  he  exhibited  a  pitiable  warning  to  all  who  should 
venture  to  cross  the  path  of  one  so  powerful  and  so  merci- 
•  less'.  But  to  the  great  majority,  proofs  such  as  these  of  the 
cardinal's  might  and  energy  of  hate  seemed  only  to  prove 


F»c«. 


^  Stafford  was  generally  looked 
npon  as  the  founder  of  Buckingham 
(afterwards  Magdalene)  College ,  where 
his  portrait  is  still  preserved.  Cooper 
notices  however  that  the  college  was 
certainly  called  Buckingham  College 
before  the  duke's  time.  In  the  Uni- 
yersity  Calendar  the  foundation  of 
Magdalene  College  is  incorrectly  as- 
signed to  the  year  1519;  but  the 
foundation  of  Boron  Audley  belongs 
to  the  year  1542  (see  Cooper,  Annals, 
I  404),  and  consequently  no  account 
of  the  coUege  is  given  in  the  present 
volume. 

•  Fuller-Prickett    &    Wright,    p. 
198.    This  WAS  certainly  the  general 
belief  at  the  time:  of.  Boy's  com- 
ment, 
*  Also  a  ryght  noble  prince  of  fame 

Heniy,  the  Ducke  of  Buckingham, 
He  caused  to  die,  alas,  alas.* 

(ed.  Arber),  p.  60. 
Prof.  Brewer  (Preface  to  Letters  and 
Papers^  iii  cxvi)  has  represented  this 
view  of  the  duke*s  fate  as  taking  its 
rise  solely  out  of  the  misrepresenta- 


tions of  Polydore  Vergil;  *from 
whom,*  he  says,  'the  calumny  was 
derived  and  rests  on  no  other  antbor- 
ity.*  He  also  denounces  Vergil^s  nar- 
rative, which  he  shews  to  be  incor- 
rect in  detail,  as  *  a  tissue  of  misre- 
presentation, exaggeration^  and  false- 
hood, devised  by  this  partial  histo- 
rian to  gratify  his  hostility  to  Uie 
cardinal'  (p.  ccxl.)  But,  without  lay- 
ing any  stress  on  the  saying  attri- 
buted to  Charles  y,  it  is  certain  that 
Boy's  satire  was  published  about 
1528 ;  while  the  first  edition  of  Ver- 
gil's Historia  Anglica,  in  which  liis 
account  of  Wolsey  is  to  be  found, 
was  not  published  until  1534. 

'  Riohardns  Pac«us  qui  regis  sol 
nomine  legatus  ad  nos  venit,  vir  est 
insigni  utriusque  litteraturs  peritia 
prffiditus,  apud  regiam  majestatem 
multis  nominibus  gratissimuB,  fide 
sincerissima,  moribus  plusquam  ni* 
veis,  totus  ad  gratiam  et  amioitiam 
natus.'  (Erasmi  Opera,  m  441.) 
Pace  lived  however  to  survive  hia 
persecutor,  and  to  regain,  to  some 


WOLSKY.  549 

the  necessity  of  conciliating  bis  favour  at  almost  any  price ;  chap.t. 
and   at   Cambridge  it  appeared  of  supreme  importance  to   ^^JL 
shew  that  the  university  was  in  no  way  inferior  to  her  rival 
in   solicitude   for   bis  good   will   and    in   deference   to  bis 
authority.     Oxford  however  had  recently  set  an  example  of  ■nwimhw- 
slavisb   and   abject  submission  which   it   was   not   easy  toj^s^^ 
outvie.  Id  the  year  1518,  that  venerable  body  bad,  to  quote  taSSJSii. 
the  language  of  Wood,  '  made  a  solemn  and  ample  decree,  in  ^SSi'*'* 
a  great  convocation,  not  only  of  giving  up  their  statutes  into 
the   cardinal's  hands   to   be   reformed,   corrected,   changed, 
renewed,  and  the  like,  but  also  their  liberties,  indulgences, 
privileges,  nay  the  whole  university  (the  colleges  excepted), 
to  be  by  bim  disposed  and  framed  into  good  order'.'     It 
might  appear  impossible  that  such  a  demonstration  of  abject 
servility,  as  the  surrender  of  the  hiws  and  privileges  of  an 
ancient  and  famous  coiporate  body  into  the  hands  of  one 
man,  could  be  surpassed  by  the  sister  university.   Cambridge, 
it  might  have  been  supposed,  could  but  add  to  a  like  act  of 
sycophancy   the  reproach   of  servile    imitation.     According 
however  to  Fiddes,  the  terms  in  which  a  similar  measure,  Ti-tKunpu 
that  passed  the  assembly  of  regents  and  uon-regents  in  the  UHwdRr^ 
year  1524,  and  received  the  common  seal,  was  expressed,  t'''''*^''^ 
appear  yet  'stronger,  more  specific  and  diversified.'  'To  shew  !«*■■• 
further,'  he  adds,  'how  much  they  desired  to  augment  the  [jjj {jjj^*^ 
cardinal's  authority,  and  to  render  it,  if  such  a  supposition  l^^,™*™^ 
might  be  made,  yet  more  despotic,  they  complain  as  if  they 
wanted  words  to  denote  the  powers  wherewith  they  moved 
he  might  be  invested,  and  the  absolute  conveyance  of  their 
rights  and  privileges  aa  an  incorporable  body  to  bim... .They 
desire  their  statutes  may  be  modelled  by  his  judgement,  as  by 
a  true  and  Eettled  standard.    They  consider  him  as  one  sent 
by  a  special  divine  providence  from  heaven  for  the  public 
benefit  of  mankind,  and  particularly  to  the  end  they  might 
be  favoured  with  his  patronage  and  protection.     They  salute 


Mriaat,  both  hU  mental  powers  Kod  aaji,   'Viileo  noD  dormire  nnmen, 

fonner  emolDtneats.    Erasmas  writ-  qaod  et  iimoceiitet  emit  et  feioees 

iDg  to  oongratulate  him  on  his  roco-  deiicit.'    Jortin,  i  147. 
voi;,  jnat  after  the  eaidiuol'g  toll,  '  Wood-Qutcb,  ii  16. 


550 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


CHAP.  V.  him  by  a  title  which  even  appears  superior  to  that  of 
Itl^  "  majesty"  from  the  other  university,  but  the  proper  force  of 
which  cannot,  I  believe,  be  expressed  by  auy  word  of  the 
language  wherein  I  write.  Though  an  extract  of  several 
other  passages  might  be  made  from  this  submission,  which 
discover  the  profound  deference  and  esteem  which  that 
university  then  entertained  of  the  cardinal,  yet... I  shall  only 
observe  that  the  powers  here  vested  in  him,  were  not  limited 
to  any  determinate  time,  or  such  whereby  himself,  when  he 
had  once  executed  them,  should  be  concluded,  but  they  are 
granted  for  a  term  of  life,  and  under  such  express  conditions, 
that  he  might  exercise  them  as  often,  in  what  manner,  and 
according  to  what  different  sanctions  he  might  think  most 
expedient*.' 
TheaboreA  It  must  be  admitted  that  the  correctness  of  Fiddes's 
•^fl^Sthe  representations  cannot  be  denied.  An  examination  indeed 
both  nni.  Qf  ^Y^Q  original  document*  rather  tends  to  enhance  the  im- 
pression conveyed  in  his  description.  When  we  find  his 
'  most  pious  benignity'  implored  '  not  to  spurn  or  desert  such 
humble  clients/  or  to  turn  a  favoring  regard  upon  '  his  most 
humble  and  obsequious  slaves','  we  feel  that  the  phraseology 
of  flattery  must  have  been  well-nigh  exhausted.  Our  deduction 
from  the  facts  must  however  differ  somewhat  from  that  of 
the  Tory  historian.  This  unmeasured  self-abasement  of  two 
ancient  and  learned  bodies,  while  forming  a  humiliating 
passage  in  their  history,  can  surely  tend  but  litUe  to  enhance 
our  estimate  of  the  cardinal  himself.  The  sense  of  honour, 
the  moral  nature,  must  have  been  hopelessly  blunted,  in  one 
who  could  imagine  his  own  dignity  enhanced  by  such  degra- 
dation in  such  a  quarter ;  and  we  gladly  turn  away  from  an 


both  ani 
Tenltics. 


1  Life  of  Wolsey,  p.  185. 

■  Cooper,  Annals,  i  307-9.  *  Nob 
et  nnusqaisqae  nostrum  atque  adeo 
gymnasinm  hoc  oniversam, leges,  sive 
soriptas  sive  non  Bcriptas,8tatataordi- 
natlones  etconsaetadinesqaascunque 
(priyilegiis  et  statutis  particuiarium 
oollegiomm  semper  salvis),  eidem 
amplissimo  Patri  submittimas  dedi- 
mosque  homillime,  talem  in  nos 
legesqne  nostras,  statuta,  ordinationes 
seu  oonsaetadines,  breviter  ordina- 


tiones omnes  et  singolas  qnoonnqae 

nomine  Tocitentor talem  in  nos 

et  in  hffic  omnia  pnefato  reyerendis- 
simo  concedimas  potestatem,  nt  pro 
libero  animi  soi  arbitrio  (quod  non 
potest  non  esse  gravissimom),  jam 
constitnta  abroget,  deroget,  obroget, 
mntet,  reformet,  interpretetor,  sap- 
pleat,  adjuyet,  oorroboret,  et  omnem 
in  partem  verset  et  traotet'    Ibid, 

*  *Agnoscatque  obseqaentissimos 
aervnlos.* 


PAnn. 


episode  creditable   to   none,  thankful  that  the  fact  of  the  ' 
measure   having  remained  altogether  inoperative,  absolves  ■ 
us  from  the  necessity  of  further  discussing  its  scope  and 
character. 

It  only  remains  to  be  noted,  that,  at  nearly  the  BameYwiTii)! 
time  that   the  foregoing  supplication   was  agreed  upon,  *^^" 
letter  was  also  forwarded  to  the  cardinal  informing  him  that  O"— -"- 
the  university,  from  feelings  of  gratitude  for  the  many  favours 
he  had  bestowed  upon  them,  proposed  'to  appoint  yearly 
obsequies  for  him,  to  be  celebrated  by  all  graduates,  with  the 
greatest  solemnity.'     In  what  these  favours  consisted  does 
not  appear.     Cambridge  possesses  no  foundations,  schoUtr- 
ships,  or  exhibitions,  that  perpetuate  the  name  of  Wolsey. 
It  is  probable  therefore,  that  reference  is  intended  rather  to 
the  promotion  of  iudividual  members  of  the  university  to 
appointments  in  his  household  or  other  posts  of  honour  and 
emolument,  like  those  mentioned  by  Bullock  in  bis  perora- 
tion, than  to  any  permanent  benefits  conferred  on  the  cor- 
porate body.     The  presence   of   queen   Catherine    at   the  Kmi  wiaa 
univermty  in  the  same  year  as  Wolsoy's  visit,  and  that  ofttupi. 
king  Henry  himself,  two  years  later,  may  perhaps  be  looked 
upon  as  indications  that  the  favour  of  the  cardinal  bad  not 
been  sought  in  vain.    But  he  could  scarcely  have  loved  the 
university  where  Fbher  was  the  man  most  potent  and  most 
esteemed.  His  genuine  regard  for  learning,  one  of  the  bright 
phases  of  his  character,  found  its  fullest  expression  elsewhere; 
and  it  soon  became  known  at  Cambridge,  that  he  was  erecting 
at  Oxford  a  new  and  splendid  collie,  on  a  scale  of  unprece-  Fomataaa 
dented  magnificence.     By  the  royal  licence,  he  received  per-  £4^*^- 
mission  to  endow  it  with  a  yearly  revenue  of  £2000', — nearly 
three  times  the   amount  of  the  income  of  the  wealthiest 
college  at  the  sister  university.     The  endowment  however 


•  See  Brewer,  Lftttr*  and  Paptn,  Corpiu  ChruU,  £133.  6.  8 ;  Lineoln, 

IT  670.   The  foUowiug  eontribntioii*,  100;  Oryol,  £100;  Oniversitj,  £«; 

toried  npoD  different  coUeges  at  Oi-  Exeter,  £10;   Bayly  £iO:   Queen's, 

ford  uid  Cambridge  lor  the  royal  loan  £40.  Cikbriixib.— King's,  £333.6.8; 

in  1623.  are  probably  a  fair  indei  King's  Hall,    £333.  6.  8;   Qneeiu', 

to  their  reUtive  reBoaroes:— Oiroim.  £300 ;  Benet.  £66.  IB.  4 ;  St  John's, 

— Uagdalen,  £330;  Kew,  £836;  Al  £100;  ChrUl's  £100.   Hid.  lU  lOW. 


Bowie,  £300;    Martyn,  £133.  6.  S; 


552 


BISHOP  FISHER. 


Hcholan 
flrom  Ouor 


dfttiOIL 


diAP.v.  was  not  drawn  from  his  own  plethora  of  wealth,  but  re- 
presented,— an  ominous  sign  for  the  monks, — ^the  revenues 
of  sundry  suppressed  monasteries*.  K  any  jealousy  were  felt 
at  Cambridge,  it  was  probably  to  some  extent  allayed,  when 
the  intelligence  arrived  that  the  cardinal  was  desirous  of 
placing  on  his  new  foundation  some  of  the  most  promising 
young  scholars  of  their  own  university,  in  order  that  the 
infant  society  might  from  the  first  be  distinguished  by  the 
M^|X!»d  presence  of  men  of  ascertained  ability,  and  be  known  as  a 
**°  ^"°  school  of  the  new  learning.  How  this  part  of  his  scheme 
was  viewed  at  Oxford  does  not  appear ;  but  it  was  difficult 
to  call  in  question,  in  connexion  with  the  organisation  of  a 
college,  the  judgement  of  one  who  had  just  been  nominated 
sole  legislator  of  both  universities.  In  many  respects,  again, 
Wolsey,  who  reflected  the  transitional  tendencies  of  his  time, 
was  able  by  his  reputation  to  disarm  the  apprehensions  of 
the  conservatives  ;  and  even  those  who  regarded  with  distrust 
his  partiality  for  Greek,  were  reassured  when  they  recalled 
that  his  admiration  for  Aquinas  had  gained  for  him  the 
epithet  of  Thomi8ticus\  And  here  before  we  turn  to  note 
the  previous  history  and  subsequent  fate  of  those  who  com- 
posed the  little  Cambridge  colony  at  Cardinal  College,  it  will 
be  necessary  to  enter  fully  into  the  circumstances  under, 
which  our  own  university  was  now  about  to  pass  through  a 
new  experience,  which, — brief,  tragical,  and  blood-stained 
though  it  be, — is  yet  one  of  the  brightest  chapters  in  her 
records,  the  commencement  of  that  important  part  which 
she  was  ere  long  to  play  in  the  political  and  theological 
contests  of  England  in  the  sixteenth  century. 


^  Cardinal  College  itself  was  found- 
ed on  the  site  of  the  suppressed  mo- 
nastery of  St.  Frideswide  (Bumet- 
Pocock,  I  65).  This  was  a  bold  step 
at  that  day.  Even  Jeremy  Collier 
seems  half  saspicions  that  an  apology 
is  needed.  '  If,*  he  says,  *  we  consi- 
der the  new  application,  there  wiU 
be  no  reason  to  charge  the  cardinal 
with  sacrilege.  For  he  did  not  alien- 
ate the  revenues  from  religious  ser- 
vice, but  only  made  a  change  in  the 
disposaL      Now   everybody   knows, 


these  societies  (i.e.  colleges)  are  ex- 
pressly dedicated  to  Qod  Almighty.' 
CoUier-Lathbuiy,  v  20-21.  See  also 
Lewis's  observations  in  his  Life  of 
Fishery  1 166-9.  He  there  xefers  to 
a  theory  that  the  suppression  of  the 
nunneries  at  Higham  and  Broniiall, 
in  connexion  with  Si  John's  College 
(see  Baker-Mayor,  pp.  88,  89),  was 
'a  leading  case*  to  the  caroinal's 
measure. 
•  Fiddes,  p.  252. 


CHAPTER  VL 

CAUBRIDOE    AT    THE    BEFORUATIOIf. 

With  the  third  decade  of  the  sixteenth  century,  we  enter  chap-  tt- 
upoD  a  period  when  the  contentions  of  opposing  theories  of  TBiRura- 
pbilosophy  in  tbe  schools,  and  the  warfare  between  the  sup- 
porters of  the  old  learning  and  the  new,  were  for  a  time  to 
be  lost  sight  of  in  the  all-absorbing  interest  of  a  religious 
struggle,  more  extended  in  its  action  and  more  momentous 
in  its  results  than  any  that  mediceval  Europe  had  known. 

It  is  significant  of  the  complex  character  of  the  questions  anmnt 
which  the  Reformation  opened  up,  and  of  the  variety  ofipj^M 
tbe  interests  it  affected,  that  even  at  the  present  day  there 
jn^vaib  the  greatest  diversity  of  opinion  with  respect  to  its 
real  origin  and  essential  character.     By  some  writers  it  is  a  cobub- 
regarded  as  the  inevitable  and  natural  result  of  that  increased  j^J^^^ 
intellectual  freedom,  which,  commencing  with  the   earlier 
schoolmen  and  deriving    new  vigour  from  the  habits  of 
thought  encouraged   by   the   Humanists,  culminated   in   a 
general  repudiation  of  the  mental  bondage  that  had  attended 
the  long  reign  of  medieval  theologians*.     Others  maintain, 
that  it  consisted  rather  in  a  general  rejection  of  both  the 
dogmas  and  the  speculation  of  the  preceding  ten  centuries, 
and  was  a  simple  reversion  to  the  tenets  of  primitive  Chriati-  Antanio 
anity*.     A  third  school  are  disposed  to  consider  it,  so  far  at  ^^^*m- 
least  as  the  movement  in  England  is  involved,  as  chiefly  the 
outcome  of  political  feeling,  and  having  in  its  commence-  Ap^^ 
ment  but  little  reference  to  the  riuestion  of  doctrinal  deve- 

I  Leek;,  Hiil.  of  Bationaliim,   i  *  D'Aubioif,  Ri$l.  of  the  Rtforma- 

S8G>.    Uilmmn,  Hitt.  of  Latin  ChrU-       tion  (tnuul.  b;  White),  1 16-17.  Hnnt, 
Oanitt  a*  ISO,  366.  Btliaimu  TkMtglU  i»  EnglaiiJ,  i  S. 


554 


THE  REFORMATION. 


CHAP.VL  lopement\     That  it  rose  out  of  a  deep-rooted  antagonism 
aZvoT^   between  the   Latin  and  Teutonic  races",  that  it  was  the 


AnMwttkMi  assertion  of  the  principle  of  individual  freedom  and  indivi- 
dom.  dual  responsibility',  that  it  was  a  revulsion  from  the  wide- 

A  noon  from  Spread  and  utter  corruption  of  the  age,  are  views  which  the 
tioooftiM  student  of  the  period  finds  himself  called  upon  to  weigh 
against  assertions  to  the  effect  that  it  grew  out  of  nothing 
more  dignified  than  a  petty  squabble  between  the  Augustinian 
and  Dominican  orders^  that  the  age  by  which  it  was  followed 
was  not  one  whit  less  corrupt  than  that  by  which  it  was  pre- 
ceded^  or  that  it  is  to  be  attributed  to  a  fatal  error  on  the 
part  of  the  Reformers,  who  confounded  the  essential  and 
accidental  phases  of  Catholicism, — the  abuses  of  the  times 
and  the  fashions  of  scholasticism,  with  the  fundamental  con- 
ceptions of  the  one  universal  and  indivisible  Church*. 


Afrian' 
•qoabbiei 


A  ndieon- 
oeptkm. 


^  Dean  Hook,  Life  of  ArckbUhop 
Parker,  p.  87. 

*  DoUinger  has  not  failed  to  note 
the  use  to  which  Lather  skilfully 
converted  the  national  antipathy  in 
his  inyectiTes  against  '  die  Wahlen,' 
as  he  was  wont  to  style  the  Italians. 
Kirche  und  Kircheriy  p.  11.  See  La- 
ther's Tuchreden,  Walch  xxii  2365. 

*  A  view  recently  reiterated  by 
Prof.  Bryce,  Holy  Roman  Empire^ 
p.  826*.  See  Hallam*s  sensible  obser- 
vations on  this  theory,  Lit  of  Eu- 
rope, 1^  882.  '  Historisch  ist  nichts 
unrichtiger,  als  die  Behauptnng,  die 
Beformation  sei  eine  Bewegong  fiir 
Gewissensfreiheit  gewesen.  Gerade 
das  G«gentheil  ist  wahr.  Fiir  sioh 
selbst  freilich  haben  Lutheraner  und 
Calvinisten,  ebenso  wie  alle  Men-* 
schen  zu  alien  Zeiten,  Gewissens- 
freiheit begehrt,  aber  Andem  sie 
zu  gewahren,  fiel  ihnen,  wo  sie  die 
Starkeren  waren,  nicht  ein.'  DoUin- 
ger, Kirche  und  Kirchen,  p.  68. 

*  *  Personne  n*ignore  que  ce  zdle 
de  r^forme  tant  vant6,  et  sous  le 
pr^tezte  duquel  on  a  bouleversd  TE- 
glise  et  TEtat  dans  une  grande  partie 
de  I'Europe,  a  eu  pour  principe  une 
miserable  jalousie  entre  moines  men- 
dians  au  sujet  de  la  pr^ction  des 
indulgences.  L^n  x  fit  publier  en 
1517  une  croisade  contre  les  Turcs, 
et  il  y  attachait  des  indulgences,  dont 


H  faut  avouer  que  le  but  n*^tait  pas 
bien  canonique  ni  exempt  d'int6rM. 
La  commission  de  prdcher  les  indul- 
gences en  Saxe  se  donnait  common^ 
ment  aux  Augustins.  EUe  fat  doli- 
ng aux  Jacobins.  Yoilk  la  bootm 
du  mal,  et  T^tincelle  ch^tive  qai  a 
oaus^  un  si  furieux  embrasemflnt. 
Luther,  qui  ^tait  Augustia,  youlut 
venger  son  ordre  que  Ton  privait 
d'une  commission  fructueuse.'  Cre- 
vier,  y  134-5.  This  was  the  view  on 
which  Voltaire  insisted : — *  Un  petit 
int^rdt  des  moines,  qui  s'enviaient 
la  vente  des  indulgences,  alluma  la 
revolution.  Si  tout  le  Nord  se  s^para 
de  Rome,  c*est  qu'on  vendait  trop 
cher  la  d^livrance  da  purgatoire  k 
des  &mes  dont  les  corps  avaient  alors 
tr^s-peu  d^argent.'  Quoted  by  Lau- 
rent, La  Riforme,  p.  431. 

^  *  Neither  authentic  documents, 
nor  the  literature  and  character  of 
the  times,  nor,  if  national  ethies  are 
essentiaUy  connected  with  national 
art,  its  artistic  tendencies,  warrant 
us  in  believing  that  the  era  preoed- 
ing  the  Beformation  was  more  cor- 
rupt than  that  which  succeeded  it.* 
Brewer,  Introd.  to  Letters  and  Pa* 
pen.  III  ccccxvi 

<  Moehler,  Symbolik,  p.  25.  Ddl- 
linger,  Kirche  und  Kirchen,  pp.  85— 
80. 


THE  REF0R3UTIQN. 


555 


An  ioTestigation  of  the  merits  of  these  different  theo* 
rieB,  or  rather  of  the  comparative  amount  of  truth  that 
each  embodies,  would  obviously  be  a  task  beyond  our  pro- 
vince ;  it  will  suffice  to  note  the  illustration  afforded  by  our 
special  subject  of  the  real  nature  of  the  movement  in  our 
own  coimtry.  Kor  can  it  be  said  that  the  light  thus  to  be 
gained  is  dim  or  uncertain,  or  that  at  this  great  crisis  our 
Cambridge  history  still  lies  remote  from  the  main  current  of 
events ;  for  it  is  no  ezi^eratioQ  to  assert  that  the  origin ; 
of  the  Reformation  in  Eogland  is  to  be  found  in  the  labours 
of  the  lady  Margaret  professor  of  divinity  at  Cambridge  &om 
the  years  1511  to  1514',  while  its  first  extension  is  to  be 
traced  to  the  activity  of  that  little  band  of  Cambridge  stu- 
dents who  were  roused  by  those  labours  to  study,  enquiry, 
and  reflexion. 

We  have  already  cited  facts  and  quoted  competent  autho- 
rity to  shew  that  the  Reformation  was  not  a  continuation  of 
the  reform  commenced  by  Wyclif  •.  Though  the  term  Lol- 
lardism  still  served,  at  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  to  denote  forbidden  doctrines,  political  or  religious, 
the  movement  itself  had  been  effectually  repressed.  It  has 
indeed  been  long  customary  with  writers  of  a  certun  school, 
to  speak  of  Wyclif  as  '  the  morning  star  of  the  Reformation ;' 
and  to  such  an  epithet  there  can  be  no  objection,  if,  at  the 
same  time,  we  are  not  required  to  acquiesce  in  the  old  fal- 
lacy of  post  hoc,  propter  hoc,  and  are  at  liberty  to  hold  that 
Wyclif  was  no  more  the  author  of  the  Reformation,  than  the 
morning  star  is  the  cause  of  day.  It  was  the  New  Testa- 
ment of  Erasmus, — bought,  studied,  and  openly  discussed  by 
countless  students,  at  a  time  when  Wyclifs  Bible  was  only 


1  ■  It  wu  not  Latb«t  or  Zitinglitu 
tlwt  oontribatcd  to  muoh  to  the  Ba- 
loRiiatioii.  M  EiannnB,  especiallj 
•moDg  Qi  in  England.  For  Eraraum 
vai  tbe  mui  who  KHAkened  men's 
nndentandingB,  and  brought  them 
bom  the  frioTB'  dixinity  to  a  relish 
of  genenl  leftming.  He  bj  his  vrit 
langhed  doim  the  imperiona  igno- 
nnoe  of  tho  monks  and  mada  (hem 
tho  teom  of  Christendom:  and  by 
hu  Icuning  be  brought  moat  of  the 


Latin  fathers  to  light  and  pnblishet) 
them  with  excellent  editions  and  nse- 
ful  notes,  by  vhich  means  men  of 
pMis  set  themselves  to  consider  the 
ancient  Church  from  the  wiitiDgs  of 
the  fathers  themselTes,  and  not  from 
the  canonists  and  schoolmen.' 


lingfleet  (qnoted  by  Knight,  p.  riil. 
"iee  to  the  same  effect  Bnmet-Pococs, 
66-7. 


&ee  to  the  same  effect  Bnmet-F 
1-7. 
Bee  snprB,  pp.  974 -S. 


556  TH£  R£FOBMATION. 

CRAP.  Ti.  obtainable  at  ten  times  the  price,  and  rendered  the  reader  in 
whose  hands  it  was  discovered  liable  to  the  penalty  of  death, 
— that  relit  the  extinct  flame ;  and  the  simple  confession  of 
BUnay'f  Bilncj,  in  his  letter  to  Tunstal,  supplies  us  with  the  true 
connecting  link  :  *  but  at  the  last/  he  says,  '  I  hearde  speake 
of  Jesus,  even  then  when  the  New  Testament  was  first  set 
forth  by  Erasmus.  Which  when  I  understood  to  be  elo- 
quently done  by  him,  beiAg  allured  rather  for  the  Latine 
than  for  the  word  of  God  (for  at  that  time  I  knew  not  what 
it  meant),  I  bought  it,  even  by  the  providence  of  God,  as  I 
doe  now  wel  understand  and  perceive  ^' 

Those  who  may  have  occasion  to  consult  the  work  to 
which  our  own  obligations  have  been  so  numerous, — Cooper's 
AnnkU  of  Cambridge, — will  find  that  there  is  but  one  year 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  year  1517,  under  which  the 
indefatigable  compiler  could  find  nothing  that  he  deemed 
deserving  of  record.     And  yet,  in  this  same  year,  the  whole 
university  was  startled  by  an  event  as  notable  and  significant 
ProcUmi-     as  any  in  its  history.      In  the   preceding  year,  as  is  well 
bJ^K??     known,  Leo  X  had  sent  forth  over  Europe  his  luckless  pro- 
A.B.  i6i«.      clamation  of  indulgences.     The  eflfects  of  the  suicidal  policy 
of  preceding  popes,  which  led  them  to  seek  the  aggrandise- 
ment of  their  own  families  in  the  alienation  of  the  fairest 
possessions  of  the  Church,  had  been  for  some  time  more  and 
more  sensibly  felt  by  each  successive  pontiflF,  and  were  excep- 
tionally intensified  by  the  lavish  expenditure  of  Leo.     His 
proclamation  was  a  last  expedient  towards  replenishing  an 
exhausted  treasury.      Each    copy  of  the  proclamation  was 
accompanied  by  a  tariff  of  the  payments  necessary  for  the 
expiation  of  every  kind  of  crime ;  and  though  by  many  of 
the  Humanists  the  proceeding  was  treated  with  open  ridi- 
cule, the  great  majority  of  the  devout  only  saw  therein  a 
heaven-sent  opportunity  for  securing  their  religious  welfare. 
A  copy  of     Copies  were  of  coui*se  forwarded  to  all  the  universities;  and 
ciamatioii     ou  the  arrival  of  a  certain  number  at  Cambridge,  it  devolved 

afRxed  by  .    . 

^e^'^to  the  on  Fisher,  as  chancellor,  to  give  them  due  publicity.     The 
ichooS."       goofS.  bishop  received  them,  apparently  nothing  doubting,  and 

»  Foxe-Cattley,  iv  635. 


PETER  DE  VALESCE. 


557 


ordered  that,  among  other  places,  a  copy  should  be  affixed  to  <^j 
the  gate  of  the  common  schools.  The  same  nigbt,  a  young 
Mormaa  student,  of  the  name  of  Peter  de  Valence,  wrote  over  ae 
the  proclamation,  Beatus  vtr  cujus  est  nomen  Domini  apes  ejus, 
«t  non  reapexit  in  vanitates  et  ineaniaa  faleas  ISTAS.  When 
with  the  morning  the  words  were  discovered,  the  excitement 
was  intense.  Fisher  summoned  an  assembly,  and,  after  ex- 
pliuning  and  defending  the  purpose  and  nature  of  indul- 
gences, named  a  day,  on  or  before  which  the  sacrilegious 
writer  was  required  to  reveal  himself  and  to  confess  his 
crime  and  avow  his  penitence,  under  pain  of  excommunica- 
tion. On  the  appointed  day  Peter  de  Valence  did  not  appear, 
and  Fisher  with  manifestations  of  the  deepest  grief  pro- 
nounced the  dretid  sentence'.  It  is  asserted  by  one  ofm 
Fisher's  bit^raphers,  a  writer  entitled  to  little  credit,  that 
eventually  De  Valence  did  come  forward,  made  open  confes- 
uon  of  hb  act,  and  received  formal  absolution*.  The  state- 
ment however  is  not  supported  by  any  other  authority,  nor 
is  the  question  of  its  accuracy  material  to  our  present  pur- 
pose. But  our  thoughts  are  irresistibly  recalled  by  the  story 
to  that  far  bolder  deed  done  in  the  same  year  at  Wittenbeig, 
— when,  on  the  eve  of  All  Saints'  day,  one  of  stouter  heart 
than  the  young  Norman,  pressing  his  way  at  full  noon 
through  the  throng  of  pilgrims  to  the  doors  of  the  parish 
church,  there  suspended  his  famous  ninety-five  theses  against 
the  doctrine  of  indulgences'. 

The  whole  aspect  of  affairs  seemed  to  change  when  the  pi 
sturdy  figure  of  Martin  Luther  strode  into  the  foreground.  •» 
Up  to  that  time,  it  is  undeniable  that  there  had  been  much 
to  warrant  the  hopes  of  those  who  Jooked  forward  to  a  mode- 
rate and  gradual  reform  within  the  Church,  by  means  of  the 


>  Lewis,  Life  of  Fuher,  i  63-6. 

*  Bftily,  Lift  of  Fitlier,  pp.  26-7. 
*A  book  whicii  wbeii  lately  in  mana- 
Mript,  I  then  more  prized  for  the  ra- 
ri^,  thui  since  it  is  cotr  printed  I 
trust  lor  the  Terity  tlierj  it.'  Fuller. 
priokett  &  Wright,  p.  196. 

*  There  Beem  to  be  no  dsta  for 
daterminiDg  whether  Lather's  or  De 
Tklenw's  wu  the  prior  Ht;  batiunei- 


ther  esse  is  there  anj  reftson  lor  infer- 
ring that  the  one  suggested  the  other- 
There  bad  long  before  been  obserr- 
sble  in  the  nuiversitiea  a  growing 
distmst  of  this  snperstition.  BoUi 
Jacob  TOD  Juterbrock  at  Erfurt,  and 
John  Wessel,  Ma  disciple,  at  Mainti 
and  Worms,  attacked  the  dootrine  in 
more  than  one  treatise.  See  Domer, 
Hilt,  of  ProtnlaM  Theolcfj/,  P-  7S. 


560  THE  REFORIUTION. 

CHAP.  VI.  Among  the  scliolais  of  Trinity  Hall  who  came  up  to  the 
university  soon  after  Erasmus  was  gone,  was  a   native  of 

ThomM       Norfolk,  one  Thomas  Bilney ;  who  to  the  reputation  of  an 

b.  {Sic).  indefatigable  student  united  two  less  enviable  claims  to  dis- 
tinction. The  one,  that  of  being  of  very  diminutive  stature, 
— which  causeil  him  to  be  generally  known  as  *  little  Bilney*/ 
— the   second,   that  of  being  possessed  by  an  aversion  to 

iiueecratrk  music  that  amouutod  to  a  monomania.     It  is  a  story  told  by 

chancter.  ,  j  ^ 

Foxe,  that  the  chamber  immediately  under  Bilney's  was 
occupied  by  Thirleby,  afterwards  bishop  of  Ely,  who,  at  this 
time  at  least,  was  as  devoted  to  music  as  Bilney  was  averse ; 
and  whenever  Thirleby  commenced  a  tune,  sprightly  or 
solemn,  on  his  recorder,  Bilney,  as  though  assailed  by  some 
evil  spirit,  forthwith  betook  himself  to  prayer.  Even  at 
church  the  strains  of  the  Te  Deum  and  Benedtctus  only 
moved  him  to  lamentation ;  and  he  was  wont  to  avow  to  his 
pupils  that  he  could  only  look  upon  such  modes  of  worship 
as  a  mockery  of  God*.  By  the  worldly-minded  young  civi- 
lians and  canonists  of  Trinity  Hall,  it  was  probably  only 
looked  upon  as  a  sign  that  Bilney 's  craze  had  taken  a  new 
direction,  when  it  became  known  that  he  was  manifesting  a 
morbid  anxiety  about  his  spiritual  welfare, — that  he  fasted 
often,  went  on  lengthened  pilgrimages,  and  expended  all  that 
his  scanty  resources  permitted  in  the  purchase  of  indul- 
gences. The  whole  need  not  a  physician ;  and  to  his  fellow 
students,  the  poor  enthusiast  could  scarcely  have  been  a  less 
perplexing  enigma  than  Luther  to  the  friars  at  Wittenberg. 
In  an  oft-quoted  passage  he  has  recorded  in  touching  language, 
how  completely  the  only  remedies  then  known  in  the  confes- 
sional for  the  conscience-stricken  and  penitent  failed  to  give 
in>  Aocount  him  peace.  '  There  are  those  physicians,'  he  says  in  his  letter  to 
taai  eJ.  Tunstal,  'upon  whom  that  woman  which  was  twelve  years  vexed 
had  consumed  all  that  she  had,  and  felt  no  help,  but  was 
still  woi*se  and  worse,  until  such  time  as  at  the  last  she  came 
unto  Christ,  and  after  she  had  once  touched  the  hem  of  his 

1  In  this  respect  Bilney  resembled  he  presents  in  many  respects  a  sin- 

his  celebrated  contemporary  and  fel-  golar  likeness.    See  Beza  leonet. 

low-worker,   Faber  or  Lefevre,  the  •  Foxe-Cattley,  iv  621. 
reformer  of  Paris,  to  whom  indeed 


A.D.  1516.  559 

of  a  community  of  men  of  letters,  who  while,  on  the  one  hand,  S2i^ 
they  extended  the  pale  of  orthodox  belief,  might,  on  the  other, 
render  incalculable  service  to  the  difTusion  of  the  religious 
spirit.  Learning  and  the  art«,  protected  and  countenanced 
by  the  supreme  Head  of  the  Church,  would  in  turn  become 
the  most  succeseful  propagandists,  and  would  exhibit  to  the 
nations  of  Christendom  the  sublime  mysteries  of  an  historic 
faith  in  intimate  alliance  with  all  that  was  best  and  most 
humanising  in  the  domain  of  knowledge.  Such  at  least  was 
undoubtedly  the  future  of  which  men  like  Erasmus,  Melan- 
chthon,  Reuchlin,  Sadolet,  More,  Colet,  Fisher,  and  many 
others  were  dreaming ;  when  athwart  this  pleasing  creation  of 
their  fancy  there  rushed  the  thundercloud  and  the  whirl- 
wind ;  and  when  after  the  darkness  light  again  returned,  it 
was  seen  that  the  old  familiar  landmarks  had  disappeared,  and 
like  mariners  navigating  iu  strange  waters,  the  scholar  and 
the  theologian  sounded  in  vain  with  the  old  plummet  lines, 
and  were  compelled  to  read  the  heavens  anew. 

Turning  now  to  trace  the  progress  at  Cambridge  of  that 
movement  of  which  Peter  de  Valence's  act  was  perhaps  the 
first  overt  indication,  we  perceive  that  the  protest  of  the 
young  Norman  really  marks  the  commencement  of  a  new 
chapter  in  our  university  history.  Hitherto  it  would  seem  to 
have  been  the  pride  of  Cambridge  that  novel  doctrines  found 
little  encouragement  within  her  walls.  A  formal  theology, 
drawn  almost  exclusively  from  medifeval  sources,  was  all  that 
was  taught  by  her  professors  or  studied  by  her  scholars.  To 
Oxford  she  resigned  alike  the  allurements  of  unauthorised 
speculation  and  the  reproach  of  Lollardism.  It  was  Lydgate's 
boast  that 

'b;  reootde  all  eUrka  Bejne  tha  Bune 

Of  heretde  Cambridge  bare  asrei  blame'.' 

But  within  ten  years  after  Erasmus  left  the  university, 
Cambridge  was  attracting  the  attention  of  all  England  as  the 
centre  of  a  new  and  formidable  revolt  from  the  traditions  of 
the  diviqity  schools, 

'  See  Appendix  (A). 


560  THE  REFORMATION. 

CHAP.  VL  Among  the  scholars  of  Trinity  Hall  who  came  up  to  the 
university  soon  after  Erasmus  was  gone,  was  a  native  of 
TbomM  Norfolk,  one  Thomas  Bilney ;  who  to  the  reputation  of  an 
ft.i6oo'(r).  indefatigable  student  united  two  less  enviable  claims  to  dis- 
tinction. The  one,  that  of  being  of  very  diminutive  stature, 
— which  caused  him  to  be  generally  known  as  '  little  Bilney*,' 
— the  second,  that  of  being  possessed  by  an  aversion  to 
HbMcnitrie  music  that  amounted  to  a  monomania.  It  is  a  story  told  by 
Foxe,  that  the  chamber  immediately  under  Bilney 's  was 
occupied  by  Thirleby,  aftei-wards  bishop  of  Ely,  who,  at  this 
time  at  least,  was  as  devoted  to  music  as  Bilney  was  averse ; 
and  whenever  Thirleby  commenced  a  tune,  sprightly  or 
solemn,  on  his  recorder,  Bilney,  as  though  assailed  by  some 
evil  spirit,  forthwith  betook  himself  to  prayer.  Even  at 
church  the  strains  of  the  Te  Deum  and  Benedictus  only 
moved  him  to  lamentation ;  and  he  was  wont  to  avow  to  his 
pupils  that  he  could  only  look  upon  such  modes  of  worsliip 
as  a  mockery  of  God*.  By  the  worldly-minded  young  civi- 
lians and  canonists  of  Trinity  Hall,  it  was  probably  only 
looked  upon  as  a  sign  that  Bilney 's  craze  had  taken  a  new 
direction,  when  it  became  known  that  he  was  manifesting  a 
morbid  anxiety  about  his  spiritual  welfare, — that  he  fasted 
often,  went  on  lengthened  pilgrimages,  and  expended  all  that 
his  scanty  resources  permitted  in  the  purchase  of  indul- 
gences. The  whole  need  not  a  physician ;  and  to  his  fellow 
students,  the  poor  enthusiast  could  scarcely  have  been  a  less 
perplexing  enigma  than  Luther  to  the  friars  at  Wittenberg. 
In  an  oft-quoted  passage  he  has  recorded  in  touching  language, 
how  completely  the  only  remedies  then  known  in  the  confes- 
sional for  the  conscience-stricken  and  penitent  failed  to  give 
Hit  ftocount  him  peace.  '  There  are  those  physicians,'  he  says  in  his  letter  to 
tttaiwr^"  Tunstal,  'upon  whom  that  woman  which  was  twelve  years  vexed 
had  consumed  all  that  she  had,  and  felt  no  help,  but  was 
still  woi*se  and  worse,  until  such  time  as  at  the  last  she  came 
unto  Christ,  and  after  she  had  once  touched  the  hem  of  his 

^  In  this  respect  Bilney  resembled  he  presents  in  many  respects  a  ain- 

his  celebrated  contemporary  and  fel-  golar  likeness.    See  Bez»  Ieone$, 
low-worker,   Faber  or  Lefevre,  the  ■  Foxe-Cattley,  iv  621. 

reformer  of  Paris,  to  whom  indeed 


THOKAS  BILNE7.  561 

^rment  through  faith,  she  was  so  healed  that  presently  she  chap.  ti. 
felt  the  same  in  her  body.  Oh  mighty  power  of  the  Most 
Highest!  which  I  also,  miserable  sinner,  have  often  tasted 
and  felt.  Who  before  that  I  could  come  unto  Christ,  had 
even  likewise  spent  all  that  I  had  upon  those  ignorant  phy- 
sicians, that  is  to  say,  unlearned  hearers  of  confession,  so 
that  there  was  but  small  force  of  strength  left  in  me,  which 
of  nature  was  but  weak,  small  store  of  money,  and  very  little 
knowledge  or  understanding ;  for  they  appointed  me  fastings, 
watching,  buying  of  pardons,  and  masses :  in  all  which  things, 
as  I  now  understand,  they  sought  ratlier  their  own  gain,  than 
the  salvation  of  my  sick  and  perishing  aoulK' 

There  is  perhaps  no  passac^e  in  the  records  of  the  Re- Th«eoBtnwi 

*  °  .  Inititutodbj 

formation  in  England,  that  has  been  more  frequently  cited  ^"Jjy 
than  this,  by  those  whose  aim  has  been  to  demonstrate  the  JJJ'^JJ^ 
existence  of  an  essential  difference  between  the  spirit  of  the  b^^p^StMtaai 
mediaeval  and  Romish  Church,  and  the  spirit  of  Protestant-  ""^^^^ 
ism, — between  the  value  of  outward  observances  and  a 
mechanical  performance  of  works,  and  that  of  an  inwardly 
active  and  living  faith.  But  it  may  at  least  be  questioned 
whether  this  contrast  has  not  been  pressed  somewhat  beyond 
its  legitimate  application.  That  the  clergy  throughout 
Europe,  for  more  than  a  century  before  the  Reformation, 
were  as  a  body  corrupt,  worldly,  and  degenerate,  few,  even 
among  Catholic  writers,  will  be  ready  to  deny ;  and  as  was 
the  manner  of  their  life,  such  was  the  spirit  of  their  teaching. 
But  that  this  corruption  and  degeneracy  were  a  necessary 
consequence  of  mediaeval  doctrine  is  far  from  being  equally 
certain ;  nor  can  we  unhesitatingly  admit,  that  if  Bilney,  at 
this  stage  of  his  religious  experiences,  had  been  brought 
into  contact  with  a  spirit  like  that  of  Anselm,  Bonaventura, 
Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  Thomas  a  Kempis,  or  Qerson,  he  would 
not  have  found  in  considerable  measure  the  consolation  that 
he  sought.  But  men  like  these  were  not  to  be  found  among 
the  priestly  confessors  at  Cambridge  in  Bilney's  day,  and  he 
accordingly  was  fain  to  seek  for  mental  assurance  and  repose 
elsewhere.     It  was  at  this  juncture  that,  as  we  have  already 

*  Brititk  Reformeri,  i  267. 

36 


562  THE  REFORMATION. 

CHAP.  VI.  seen,  attracted  rather  by  his  tastes  as  a  scholar  than  by  the 

BUiMjrMMU  hope  of  ligliting  upon  new  truth,  he  began  to  study  the 

Mameotof  Novum  Testamentum  of  Erasmus.     It  was  the  turning-point 

Chang*  In  hit  in  his  Spiritual  life.     He  became  a  ptrenuous  opposer  of  the 

▼*«*^  superstitions  he  had  before  so  assiduously  practised;   and, 

though  he  retained  to  the  last  his  belief  in  purgatory  and  in 

transubstantiation,  was  soon  known  as  a  student  and  admirer 

of   the   earlier  writings   of    Luther.     Notwithstanding   his 

eccentricities,  his  honest  earnest  spirit  and  high  attainments 

won  for  him  the  hearing  of  the  more  thoughtful  among  his 

associates:  while  his  goodness  of  heart  commanded  their 

HiidMncter  Sympathy.    '  I  havo  known  hitherto  few  such/  wrote  Latimer 

M  drawn  by      ^      ^        ^f  .... 

^****»>^-  to  Sir  Edward  Baynton,  in  reviewing  his  career,  *so  prompt 
and  so  ready  to  do  every  man  good  after  his  power,  both 
friend  and  foe:  noisome  wittingly  to  no  man,  and  towards 
his  enemy  so  charitable,  so  seeking  to  reconcile  them  as  he 
did,  I  have  known  yet  not  many,  and  to  be  short,  in  sum,  a 
very  simple  good  soul,  nothing  fit  or  meet  for  this  ^Tetched 
world*.'  By  Foxe  he  is  styled  'the  first  framer  of  the 
univei*sitie  in  the  knowledge  of  Christ;'  and  he  is  un- 
doubtedly to  be  looked  upon  as,  for  some  years,  the  leading 
spirit  of  the  Cambridge  Reformers. 

™jgjj^        In  his  own  college  Bilney*s  converts  were  not  numerous ; 

"^  nor  should  we  look  to  find  a  keen  interest  in  theological 

questions  in  a  society  professedly  devoted  to  legal  studies. 
It  is  also  probable  that  any  open  declaration  of  novel 
opinions  would  there  have  soon  been  met  by  repressive 
measures,  for  among  the  more  influential  members  of  the 
college  at  this  time,  was  Stephen  Gardiner, — already  dis- 
tinguished by  his  attainments  not  only  in  the  canon  and 
civil  law  but  also  in  the  new  learning, — ^who  in  1525  suc- 
ceeded to  the  mastership*.  We  meet  however  with  a  few 
names  that  indicate  the  working  of  Bilney's  influence.  Among 

]J2JJJ^  these  was  Thomas  Arthur,  who  in  1520  migrated  to  St  John's, 
having  been  elected  a  fellow  of  that  society  on  the  nomina- 
tion of  the  bishop  of  Ely',  and  who  about  the  same  time  was 

»  Latimer-Come,  ii  330.  «  Cooper,  Atluna,  1 189. 

?  IHd.  I  46. 


BOBEBT  BABKE8. 


565 


vere  distiDgiiiBbed  by  a  more  unselfish  activity.    At  Oxford  chip,  ti 
they  had  almost  engrossed  the  tuition  of  grammiu-*,  and  at     "  ' " 
one  time  were  noted  for  giving  their  instruction  gratuitously*. 
The  houses  of  their  order  in  Germany  had  listened  to  many 
a  discussion  on  grave  questions  of  Church  reform,  long  before 
either   Lntber  or   Metancbthon   made  their  appeal  to  the 
judgement  and   conscience   of  the  nation.     At  Cambridge 
their  cliurch,  as  not  included  within  the  episcopal  Jurisdiction, 
gave  audience  on  more  than  one  occasion  to  the  voice  of  the 
reformer,  when  all  the  other  pulpits  were  closed  against  him ; 
while  tradition  attributes  to  a  former  prior  of  the  same  house, 
one  John  Tonnys,  the  credit  of  having  aspired  to  a  know-  Johm 
ledge  of  Greek,  at  a  time  when  the  study  had  found  scarcely  auK" 
a   angle  advocate   in   the  university*.     In  the  year  1614 
fiames,  then  only  a  lad,  had  been  admitted  a  member  of  this 
community ;  and,  as  he  gave  evidence  of  considerable  pro- 
mise,  wa.<t   soon  after  sent  to  study  at  Louvain,  where  he  bdm* 
remained  for  some  years *,    The  theological  reputation  of  that  ••  umnim. 
university  at  this  period,  led  not  a  few  Englishmen  to  give 
it  the  preference  to  Paris ;  and  during  Barnes'  residence  it 
acquired  additional  lustre  by  the  foundation  of  the  famous 
collegium  trilingve.     The  founder  of  the  collie,  Jerome  Unam 
Busleidcn,  a  descendant  of  a  noble  family  in  the  province  of 
Luxembourg,  was  distinguished  as  a  patron  of  letters  and 
well  known  to  most  of  the  eminent  scholars  of  his  aga     His 
reputation  among  them  not  a  little  resembles  that  of  our 
Kichard  of  Bury,   and  Erasmus  describes  him   as  omnium 
librorum  emacissimua'.     It  need  scarcely  be  added  that,  with 

tastes  like  these,  he  was  an  ardent  sympathiser  with  the  r anim 

Humanists  in  their  contests  at  the  universities.     Dying  in^uMte. 
the  year  1517,  he  left  provision  in  his  will  for  the  foundation  Gl.** 


■  A)lHt«j,  Iiitrod.  to  Uimimenla 
Aeademica,  p.  liiii. 

■  'Et  quia  magiitri  MbaUmm 
ftpnd  fratres  Ao^etioeDBei,  in  dis- 
palktionibnH  ibidem  habitis,  line 
mercede  graves  austineut  laborea, 
magiatn  autcm  grammatics  txae  la- 
boribnn  ad  ddub  univendtatia  aalaria 
peroipiiiDt,  ideo  Btatoimiis  et  ordina- 
nuB,  quod  ip*»  Bonuna  d«t«  nugii- 


bii  gcammalioc  oonverlatuT  ad  iuiub 
magistroniiB  BchoUmm  apnd  [ntrM 
AngmtiiienBeB.'    Ibid.  p.  S6S. 
>  Cooper,  Alhma,  i  14. 

•  Ibid.  1  74. 

*  Nive,  liimoirt  Hutorigiu  et  Lit- 
Uraire  mr  le  ColUgt  da  Trvit-La*. 
gutt  A  r  UnietniU  it  Lovvain  (1856), 
p.  40. 


566 


THE  REFORIUTION. 


iMlnwBr  of 
▼all 


CHAP.  VI.  of  a  well-endowed  college,  which,  while  similar  in  its  design 
to  the  foundation  of  bishop  Fox  at  Oxford,  represented  a  yet 
bolder  effort  in  favour  of  the  new  learning,  being  exclusively 
dedicateil  to  the  study  of  the  three  learned  languages, — 
Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew.  The  measure  was  singularly 
opportune;  for  the  party  whom  it  was  designed  to  aid, 
though  now  inspirited  by  the  presence  of  Erasmus  in  their 
midst,  was  still  but  a  small  minority ;  and  Barnes,  during  bis 
sojourn  at  Louvain,  must  have  witnessed  not  only  the  rise  of 
the  new  college,  but  also  many  demonstrations,  on  the  part  of 
the  theologians,  of  jealousy  and  alarm,  almost  as  senseless 
and  undignified  as  those  of  which  Oxford  was  at  the  same 
time  the  scene  \  He  remained  long  enough  however  to  see 
the  star  of  the  Humanists  manifestly  on  the  ascendant ;  and 
returned  to  Cambridge  an  avowed  champion  of  the  cause 
and  with  largely  augmented  stores  of  learning.  With  him 
came  also  one  William  Faynell,  who  had  been  his  pupil  at 
Louvain,  and  who  now  cooperate  with  him  as  a  teacher  at 
Cambridge".  Under  their  united  efforts  the  house  of  the 
Augustinian  friars  acquired  a  considerable  reputation ;  and 
many  a  young  student  now  listened  within  its  waUs,  for  the 
first  time  and  with  wondering  delight^  to  the  pure  Latinity 
and  graceful  sentiment  of  Terence,  Flautus,  and  Cicero.  It 
is  evident  however  that  a  follower  of  Erasmus  could  scarcely 
rest  content  within  these  limits  of  innovation ;  the  lectures 
on  the  classics  were  soon  followed  by  lectures  on  the  Scrip* 
tures ;  and  Barnes,  in  the  language  of  Foxe,  '  putting  aside 
Duns  and  Dorbel*,* — this  is  to  say  the  schoolmen  and   the 


lunMto 

OuBbrklve 

wtthP^rntlL 


UiileeCiiret 
ontlieLAtin 


lee- 
tarMonthe 
Epirtlesor 
StPftuL 


1  '  Qnand  le  noayean  ooll^ge  venait 
d^dtre  oaTert  pr^  du  march^  aux 
PoiBSons,  des  ^tudiants  de  la  faculty 
des  arts,  excite  pcut-etre  par  Tun  oa 
Tautre  de  leor  maitres  oa  bien  par  leur 
m^pris  natiirel  pourles  belles-lettres, 
prenaient  plaisir  k  crier  partont: — 
Noi  non  loquimur  Latinum  de  foro 
Pitcinm  8ed  loquimur  Latinnm  ma- 
trU  HOttrte  fucultatU.*  Ibid.  p.  G2. 
Andrea,  Fasti  Academici  ttudii  gene- 
ralis  Lwanitiuis,  p.  277. 

'  Cooper,  AUtena,  i  78. 

*  Nicholas  de  Orbelii*  or  Dorhellus 
(d.  l-iSo),  was  one  ol  iho  best  of  the 


mnltitndinoiis  commentators  on  Pe- 
trns  Hispanns.  Prantl  (Gesch.  d, 
Logikf  IT  175)  q^eaks  of  him  as  'ein 
viel  golesener  und  haafig  benntzter 
Antor,  welcher  (abgesehen  von  seiner 
Erlautcrung  des  Sententiarius  and 
der  aristotcliscben  Pbysik)  zu  Petrus 
Hispouas  eincn  omschreibenden  and 
zugleich  im  Einzeln  reichlich  be- 
lebrendcn  Commentar  verfasste.* 
Dorbellas  says  in  his  preface,  *  Juxta 
doctoris  subtilis  Scoti  mentem  aliqua 
logicalia  pro  juyenibos  super  snm- 
mnlas  Petri  Hispani  breviter  cno- 
dabo.*    In  one  ol  his  prefaces  we 


QBOBOE  STAFFORD. 


567. 


Bjzantiae  Ic^c, — aezt  begaa  to  conunent  on  the  Faulme  chap.  ti. 
Epistles.  ' 

It  is  evident  from  the  testimony  of  contempuraries,  that 
Barnes'  lectures  were  eagerly  listened  to   and  commanded 
respect  by  their  real  merit' ;  but  whatever  might  have  been 
the  views  of  the  academic  authorities,  the  lecturer  was  beyond 
their  control     There  is  however  good  reason  for  believing 
that  hia  efforts  formed  a  precedent  for  a  similar  and  yet 
more  successful  innovation,   shortly  afterwards  commenced 
by  Geoige  StaSbrd  within  the  university  itself.     This  emi-  <i«n* 
nent  Cambridge  Reformer  was  a  fellow  of  Pembroke  and  dis-  ^^*>- 
tinguished  by  his  attainments  in  the  three  learned  languages* ; 
and   on   becoming   bachelor  of  divinity  was  appointed  an 
'ordinary'  lecturer  in  theology.     In  this  capacity,  as  a  recog- 
nised instructor  of  the  university,  he  had  the  boldness  alto-  Hcitetws 
gether  to  discard  the  Sentences  for  the  Scriptures', — a  measure  S™  tn««ii 
that  could  scarcely  have  faibd  to  evoke  considerable  criti-  '■"•■ 
cism;  but  the  unrivalled  reputation  and  popularity  of  the 
lecturer  seem  to  have  shielded  him  &om  interference,  and 
for  four  years,  from  about  15S4  to  1529,  he  continued  to 
expound  to  enthusiastic  audiences  the  Gospels  and  Epistles. 
Among  his  hearers  was  a  Norfolk  lad,  the  celebrated  Thomas 
Becon,  who  in  after  years,  and  perhaps  with  something  of  the  Baamt 
exaggeration  that  often   accompanies  the   reminiscences  <^fS?Z2!S!^ 
youth,  recorded  his  impressions  of  his  instructor's  eloquence. 
His  sense  of  the  services  rendered  by  his  teacher  to  the  cause 
of  Scriptural  truth,  was  such  that  he  even  ventures  to  hazard 


m«et,  for  the  first  Ume,  vith  the  of  t- 
qooted  memorial  TeiEea  od  the  snb- 
jectB  embraced  in  the  triviuM  and 

'Gram'  loqnitnr,  'Dia'  veiadooet, 
'Ithet'  verba  oolorat, 

'Moa'  canit,  'Ar'  numerat,  'Qe' 
ponderat,  'Aat'  colit  astra. 

'  'Surely  he  [Barnes]  ia  alone  in 
handling  a  piece  of  Scripture,  and  in 
Batting  forth  of  Chiiat  he  hath  no 
fellow.'  Latinur  to  CroniBeil,  Lati- 
mer-Corrie,  ii  389. 

*  '  A  man  of  very  perfect  life,  and 
approredl;  learned  in  the  Hebrew, 
tinek,  and  iMktin  tongiiw.'    Beeon, 


Jam!  afJog  (ed.  Ayre},  436. 

■  That  is  to  say,  eiaetly  tike  Ln- 
ther  at  Wittenberg,  Statlotd  ohooe  to 
be  a  doctor  biblieiu  rather  than  a  doe- 
tor  (ndmltariiu.  This  itep,  whieh 
D'Anbign^  and  others  have  spoken  of 
as  a  preTiotuIy  nnheard-of  innova- 
tion, «a4  of  oonnie  strietly  within 
the  diseretion  permitted  by  the  ata- 
tutoB,  thongh  the  Scriptures  had  been 
for  a  long  period  almoet  totally  neg> 
lected  by  uie  lectnrera  appointed  ii 


566 


THE  REFORMATION. 


CHAP.  VI.  of  a  well-endowed  college,  which,  while  similar  in  its  design 
^"""^^^^  to  the  foundation  of  bishop  Fox  at  Oxford,  represented  a  yet 
bolder  efiFort  in  favour  of  the  new  learning,  being  exclusively 
dedicated  to  the  study  of  the  three  learned  languages, — 
Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew.  The  measure  was  singularly 
opportune;  for  the  party  whom  it  was  designed  to  aid, 
jtaimujot  though  now  inspirited  by  the  presence  of  Erasmus  in  their 
▼»ut«.  midst,  was  still  but  a  small  minority ;  and  Barnes,  during  his 
sojourn  at  Louvain,  must  have  witnessed  not  only  the  rise  of 
the  new  college,  but  also  many  demonstrations,  on  the  part  of 
the  theologians,  of  jealousy  and  alarm,  almost  as  senseless 
and  undignified  as  those  of  which  Oxford  was  at  the  same 
time  the  8cene\  He  remained  long  enough  however  to  see 
the  star  of  the  Humanists  manifestly  on  the  ascendant ;  and 
returned  to  Cambridge  an  avowed  champion  of  the  cause 
and  with  largely  augmented  stores  of  learning.  With  him 
came  abo  one  William  Faynell,  who  had  been  his  pupil  at 
Louvain,  and  who  now  cooperated  with  him  as  a  teacher  at 
Cambridge*.  Under  their  united  efforts  the  house  of  the 
uii  i«etara  Augustiuiau  friars  acquired  a  considerable  reputation ;  and 
many  a  young  student  now  listened  within  its  walls,  for  the 
first  time  and  with  wondering  delight^  to  the  pure  Latinity 
and  graceful  sentiment  of  Terence,  Plautus,  and  Cicero.  It 
IB  evident  however  that  a  follower  of  Erasmus  could  scarcely 
rest  content  within  these  limits  of  innovation ;  the  lectures 
on  the  classics  were  soon  followed  by  lectures  on  the  Scrip- 

tares onth«  *^^^ »  *°^  Bamcs,  in  the  language  of  Foxe,  'putting  aside 
Duns  and  Dorbel*,* — this  is  to  say  the  schoolmen  and   the 


lunitto 

Ounbrklge 

wtthPlsjueU. 


EpItUetof 
St  Paul. 


^  '  Qnand  le  nonyean  ooll^ge  venait 
d'dtre  ouTert  prds  da  marob^  aux 
PoissoDB,  des  ^tudiants  de  la  faculty 
des  arts,  excite  peat-C>tre  par  Tun  oa 
Tantre  de  leor  maltres  ou  bien  par  leur 
m^prifl  naturel  pourles  belleH-lettres, 
prenaient  pbusir  k  crier  pariont: — 
No8  non  loquimur  Latinum  de  foro 
Piscium  sed  loquimur  Latinum  ma- 
iris  nostra  facultatis.''  Ihid.  p.  62. 
An(b*ea,  Fasti  Academici  studii  gene- 
ralis  Lovaniemis,  p.  277. 

*  Cooper,  ADutna,  i  78. 

»  Nicholas  de  Orhellin  or  DorheUm 
(d.  14(>0},  was  one  of  the  best  of  the 


mnltitndinoiis  commentators  on  Pe- 
trns  Hispanns.  Prantl  {Gesch.  d, 
Loffikf  IV  175)  q^eaks  of  him  as  'ein 
viel  golcsener  und  haofig  benatzter 
Antor,  welcher  (abgeseben  von  seiner 
Erlaatemng  des  Sententiarins  and 
der  aristoteliscben  Pbysik)  za  Petrus 
HiHpouus  eincn  omsohreibenden  und 
zugleich  im  Einzeln  reichlich  be- 
Ichrenden  Commentar  verfasste.* 
Dorbellas  says  in  his  preface,  *  Juxta 
doctoris  subtilis  Sooti  mentem  aliqaa 
logicalia  pro  javenibas  super  snm- 
miilofl  Petri  Hispani  breviter  eno- 
dabo.*    In  one  of  his  prefaces  we 


LUTHER'S  WORKS.  569 

listen  to  aFgnments  which  he  found  it  hard  to  refute,  and  crap.tl 
was  added  to  the  mimber  of  Bilaey's  converts.  Under  the  "■~v~' 
comhincd  efforts  and  influence  of  these  three, — Eilney, 
Barnes,  and  Stafford, — the  work  of  reform  went  on  apace; 
while  at  the  same  time  the  introdnction  of  new  contributions 
to  the  literature  of  the  cause  began  to  give  to  the  movement 
at  Cambridge  a  more  definite  aim  and  a  distincter  outline. 

In  the  year  1520  appeared  those  three  famous  treatises  Annm 
by  Luther',  wherein  by  general  consent  is  to  be  recognised  "jjL_ 
tbe  commencement  and  foundation  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
Reformers*.     From  their  first  appearance  it  was  seen  that 
the  religious  world  was  now  called  upon  to  choose  not  merely 


'  These «ere (1)  The  An  den  cknit- 

liehfn  AiL'l  dtuUcher  SaCion  (Kn  ad- 
dreaa  to  the  nobles  of  Uermsoj  on 
the  Christian  condition);  (2)  The  De 
Captivitate  Babylanica;  (3)  The  Von 
da  Freihtit  eina  Chrutenmeruchfn. 
In  the  fint  of  these  Luther  attacks 
the  RomiBh  distiaetion  between  the 
rights  of  the  Liity  and  of  the  elerg; 
in  the  Chnrch;  developing,  in  con- 
tndietiDction,  the  idea  of  the  iode- 
pendent  Chnetian  Btale  on  t}ie  basis 
ot  4  nniTeraal  Christian  priesthood. 
Be  also  disputes  the  claim  of  the 
pope  tD  be  the  sole  interpreter  of 
beriptore,  and  denies  his  ezelusire 
right  to  convene  decumenicul  coun- 
dls.  He  ncit  procoeda  to  indicate 
|«ppo!iition9  of  relonu  to  be  discuBsed 
at  a  geDeial  free  council;  and,  in 
partienjar,  demands  a  nfermat'on  of 
the  tchoU  ayfttm  o/  eduealimt,  from 
tlu  grammar  ichoul  to  tht  uaiiertily, 
and  tht  ditplaetmrnl  of  Ike  Sent f  Bert 
for  the  Bible.  He  also  adiiafs  the 
rejection  of  sU  Aristolle'e  writings 
tlijrt  relate  to  moral  or  natural  philo- 
FOphy,  Init  is  willing  tbat  the  Orga- 
noD,  the  Khetori",  and  the  Pot-tiea 
fhonld  contiQue  to  be  studied.  The 
whole  host  of  commentatuni  are  how- 
ever to  be  abolished.  The  studies 
he  most  strooglj  recommends  are 
Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew,  mathe- 
matics, and  historj',  ol  which  laat  he 
Mys,  '  weiche  ich  befehle  vervtandi- 
gen,  and  sicb  selbst  wobi  geben 
wtlride,  so  man  mit  Ernst  naeh  einer 
Belomialion  trachlete;  und  furwahr 
Tiel  daran  gelegen  iit'    Waleh,  i 


370^0.  The  De  Caflivitatt  Babg- 
loniea  was  a  fierce  attack  on  the 
special  dogmas  of  Bomaiiismi  in- 
Ete;id  of  seven  sacraments  Luther 
admitted  onl;  three, — baptiaip,  the 
Lord's  Supper,  and  repentuioe.  A 
lengthened  analysis  of  this  is  given 
in  Lewis,  Lift  of  FUher.  c.  ii.  The 
third  treatise  is  comparatively  be* 
from  the  polemical  element,  and  li 
devoted  to  an  exposition  of  the  work- 
ing of  faith  and  love  as  living  prin- 
ciples in  the  tme  behever.  Ad  able 
criticism  et  each  work  it  given  bj 
liorner,  Jf  1(1.  of  Pnileitant  Thtology 
(Clark's  series),  197-113. 

*  '  It  is  the  Kef ormation  proclaimed 
Iq  these  writings  and  no  other,  which 
the  (ierman  nation  has  accepted.' 
Domer,  Ibid.  'In  diesen  Schriften 
thut  sicb  zwischen  der  nenen  Lehra 
and  der  alien  Rircheein  AbgrandBilt, 
dcr  nicht  melir  Obeibrilckt  verdett 
konnte.  Verweifungdergansenkirch- 
lichen  L'eberhafemng  ond  jeder 
kirchlichen  Autoriliit,  Aufstellung 
anes  Dogma  liber  das  Verhaltniaa 
des  Menschoi  ^n  Gott,  von  welchem 
der  Urbeber  selbst  bekannte,  diw«  es 
Beit  den  Zeiten  der  Apostel  bis  aal 
ihn  der  ganzen  Kirche  onbekannt 
geblieben  sei,  diese  Dinge  tratcn 
noverhtillt  hervor.  Die  Fordening 
lantete  uicht  mehr  wie  bis  dahin: 
d-ut  die  Kirche  tith  reformirftt  tolU 
an  Haupt  und  Gliedem,  londrm  auf- 
lUstn  toitt  lit  rich,  and  dot  Gtrieht 
der  StlbilienUinmg  an  $irh  rotltie- 
hen.'  Dbllingec,  Kirtht  mid  Kirehen, 
p.  «7. 


570 


THE  EEFOBMATION. 


CHAP.  VI.  between  conservatism  and  reform,  but  between  conservatism 

and  revolution,  and  that  a  new  path,  altogether  independent 

of  that  of  the  Humanists,  had  been  struck  out,  leading — ^few 

Thete  could  vcuturc  to  sav  whither.     At  Paris,  these  writings  were 

banded  orer  handed  over  for  examination  to  the  doctors  of  the  Sorboune, — 

to  the  ^    ' 

£y^JJ22S.  *^^  Crevier  represents  all  Europe  as  waiting  for  the  decision 
of  that  learned  body*.  But  in  England  the  decision  that  was 
most  anxiously  awaited  was  undoubtedly  that  of  the  London 
Conference.  The  rapidity  with  which  the  new  doctrines  were 
spreading  in  this  country,  soon  became  a  fact  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  disguise,  and  fiilly  justified  the  confidence  with 
which  the  Lutherans  in  Germany  anticipated  the  responsive 
echo  on  the  English  shores.  *  We  will  send  them  to  England/ 
said  the  (German  printers,  when  the  nuncio  Aleander  notified 
that  Luther's  works  were  prohibited  throughout  the  empire ; 

Rapid  ipraMi  and  to  England  the  volumes  were  sent.  The  commercial 
intercourse  between  the  eastern  counties  and  the  continent 
rendered  their  introduction  a  matter  of  comparative  ease; 
and  Cambridge,  drawing  as  she  did  a  large  proportion  of  her 
students  from  those  districts,  was  necessarily  one  of  the 
earliest  centres  that  became  familiarised  with  the  Lutheran 
doctrines'.  Nix,  furious  at  the  spread  of  heresy  in  hia 
diocese,  called  loudly  for  repressive  measurea  Wolsey  how* 
ever,  who  saw  how  impolitic  would  be  a  system  of  violent 
repression  amid  such  unmistakeable  proofs  of  the  tendency  of 
popular  feeling,  shewed  little  eagerness  to  play  the  part  of  a 
persecutor,  and  pleaded  that  his  powers  from  Rome  did  not 
authorise  him  to  order  the  burning  of  Lutheran  books'.  But 
on  the  tenth  of  December,  1520,  Luther  still  further  roused 
the  fury  of  his  antagonists,  by  publicly  burning  the  papal 
bull,  along  with  sundry  volumes  of  the  canon  law,  at  Witten- 
berg.    It  was  then  that  Wolsey  convened  a  conference  in 


lAithenuD 
doctiinei  in 
tbeeMtom 
oountiet  and 
atOun- 
Mdga. 


Woltej 

adTeneto 

•xtrane 


Luther 
bumstha 
papal  ball 
at  Wittan- 
ber^. 


^  Luther's  writiDgs  were  condemn- 
ed by  the  Sorbonne  to  be  burnt, 
AprU  21,  1521. 

'  The  rapid  spread  of  Luther's 
writings  in  Europe  is  remarkable. 
The  writer  of  the  able  article  on  the 
licformer  in  Herzog's  Real-EncyklO' 
padie  (vizi  578)  states  that  even  in 


1519  they  had  penetrated  into  France, 
England,  and  Italy;  and  Erasmna 
writing  so  early  as  May  15,  1520,  to 
(Ecolampadius,  states  Uiat  they  had 
narrowly  escaped  being  bnmed  in 
England.  Brewer,  Letien  amd  P«- 
pers^  III  284. 
s  Ibid,  lu  455. 


LUTHGB  S  WORKS. 


671 


London,  to  sit,  as  the  Sorbonne  had  long  been  sitting,  in  < 
judgement  on  the  obnoxious  volumes.     In  these  proceedings  « 
some  of  the  most  influential  men  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  « 
took  part,  and  about  three  weeks  after  the  Sorbonne  had  {{ 
given  its  decision,  the  conference  arrived  at  a  similarly  ad- ' 
verse  conclusion'.     The   Luthei'an   treatises   were   publicly  l 
burnt,  on  the  twelfth  of  Uay,  in  the  churchyard  at  Paul's  i 
Cross* ;  and  Fisber,  in  a  sermon  delivered  on  the  occasion  in  m 
the  presence  of  Wolsey  and  numerous  other  magnates,  not " 
only  denounced  the  condemned  volumes   as  heretical  and '"' 
pernicious,  but  in  his  excess  of  religious  zeal  and  indignation, 
declared  that  Luther,  in  burning  the  pope's  bull,  had  clearly 
shewn  that  he  would  have  burnt  the  pope  too  had  he  been 
able.     The  saying  was  not  forgotten ;  and  a  few  years  after, 
when  Tyndale's  New  Testament  vas  treated  in  like  fashion, 
the  translator  caustically  observed,  that  the  bishops  in  burn- 
ing Christ's  word  had  of  course  shewn  that  they  wouJd  will- 
ingly have  also  burnt  its  Divine  Author*. 

Within  two  days  after  Fisher's  sermon,  Wolsey  issued  w 
his  mandates  to  all  the  bishops  in  England,  '  to  take  order  » 
that  any  books,  written  or  printed,  of  Martin  lAither's  errors  {;; 
and  heresies,  should  be  brought  in  to  the  Insbop  of  each 
respective  diocese ;  and  that  every  sudi  bishop  receiving  such 
books  and  vnritings  should  send  them  up  to  him*.'  And  be-  ij 
fore  the  Easter  term  was  over  similar  confiagrations  were  *^ 
instituted  at  both  universities, — that  at  Cambridge  being  ** 
held  under  the  joint  auspices  of  Wolsey,  Fisher,  and  Bullock*. 

'  'WIiereapoD  after  ooninltAtion 
hod,  thej '  [the  anthoritiea  &t  Oxford] 
'appointed  Thomas  BrinkneU,  about 


thla  time  of  Limwln  College,  John 
Kjrntoii,  a  Minorite,  John  Boper, 
lute);  of  Magdalen  College,  and 
Jiihn  de  Coloribua,  doctors  of  di- 
Tinity,  who  meeting  at  tliat  plaoa 
divers  learned  men  and  bishops  in 
a  Bolema  ooaTOcation  in  the  cardi- 
nal's bouse,  and  finding  hie  doctrine 
to  be  for  the  most  part  repognaat 
to  the  present  nsed  in  England, 
■olemnly  condemned  it :  a  testimony 
of  which  woe  afterwards  sent  to  Oi- 
ford  and  fastened  on  the  dial  in  St. 
jAtxj'a  ahnrehyard  bj  HisfaoluEnt. 


■er,  the  maker  and  oontrivsr  thereof, 
and  bis  books  also  burnt  both  hera 
and  at  Cambridge.' Wood'Qatoh,!!  19. 

■  Bmrer,  Ltttm  and  Paptn,  lit 
48G. 

»  LewU,  Lift  of  Fuher,  II  31 ;  D«- 
mani,  Life  of  Tt/wlaU,  p.  160. 

*  Strype,  MenoriaU,  i  5&-6. 

*  Wood  (see  snpra,  note  1)  is 
right  in  placmg  these  confl^rationa 
in  1631.  Cooper  (Armalt.  i  S03-4), 
who  took  hie  eitraota  ol  the  proctors' 
occonnts  from  Baker  and  lias  rcga- 


took  plaoe  in  1530-li  and  B.  Faiitar 


670 


THE  BEFORMATION. 


CHAP.  VI.  between  coDservatism  and  reform,  but  between  conservatism 
and  revolution,  and  that  a  new  path,  altogether  independent 
of  that  of  the  Humanists,  had  been  struck  out,  leading — ^few 
could  venture  to  say  whither.     At  Paris,  these  writings  were 


TbcM 
writliiin 

handed  orer  handed  ovcr  for  examination  to  the  doctors  of  the  Sorbonne, — 

to  the 
Borbonne 
for  examl- 
luUkHi. 


and  Crevier  represents  all  Europe  as  waiting  for  the  decision 
of  that  learned  body*.  But  in  England  the  decision  that  was 
most  anxiously  awaited  was  undoubtedly  that  of  the  London 
Conference.  The  rapidity  with  which  the  new  doctrines  were 
spreading  in  this  country,  soon  became  a  fact  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  disguise,  and  fiilly  justified  the  confidence  with 
which  the  Lutherans  in  Germany  anticipated  the  responsive 
echo  on  the  English  shores.  *  We  will  send  them  to  England/ 
said  the  German  printers,  when  the  nuncio  Aleander  notified 
that  Luther's  works  were  prohibited  throughout  the  empire ; 
Rapid  ipraMi  and  to  England  the  volumes  were  sent.  The  commercial 
intercourse  between  the  eastern  counties  and  the  continent 
rendered  their  introduction  a  matter  of  comparative  ease; 
and  Cambridge,  drawing  as  she  did  a  large  proportion  of  her 
students  from  those  districts,  was  necessarily  one  of  the 
earliest  centres  that  became  familiarised  with  the  Lutheran 
doctrines'.  Nix,  furious  at  the  spread  of  heresy  in  his 
diocese,  called  loudly  for  repressive  measurea  Wolsey  how- 
ever, who  saw  how  impolitic  would  be  a  system  of  violent 
repression  amid  such  unmistakeable  proofs  of  the  tendency  of 
popular  feeling,  shewed  little  eagerness  to  play  the  part  of  a 
persecutor,  and  pleaded  that  his  powers  from  Rome  did  not 
authorise  him  to  order  the  burning  of  Lutheran  books'.  But 
on  the  tenth  of  December,  1520,  Luther  still  further  roused 
the  fury  of  his  antagonists,  by  publicly  burning  the  papal 
bull,  along  with  sundry  volumes  of  the  canon  law,  at  Witten- 
berg.    It  was  then  that  Wolsey  convened  a  conference  in 


Lutheran 
doGtrineitn 
theeaatom 
oountiet  and 
at  Cam- 
Mdga. 


WolMjr 

adTeneto 

•xtrane 


Lothar 
burnstha 
papal  hull 
atWittoi- 
ber^. 


^  Luther's  writings  were  condemn- 
ed by  the  Sorbonne  to  be  burnt, 
April  21,  1521. 

'  The  rapid  spread  of  Luther's 
writings  in  Europe  is  remarkable. 
The  writer  of  the  able  article  on  the 
Bcformer  in  Herzog's  Real-Rncyklo- 
pddie  (vui  578)  states  that  even  in 


1519  they  had  penetrated  into  France, 
England  and  Italy;  and  Erasmus 
writing  so  early  as  May  15,  1520,  to 
(Ecolampadius,  states  that  they  had 
narrowly  escaped  being  burned  in 
England.  Brewer,  Letten  and  Po" 
persy  III  284. 
>  Ibid,  III  455. 


THE  WHITE  B0B3E.  '573 

became  notorious  in  the  university,  and  those  who  frequented  (^^p-  ▼(■ 
them  were  reported  to  be  mainly  occupied  with  Luther's 
writings,  the  inn  hecanie  known   as  '  Germany,'  while  its  tiwIbii 
frequenters  were  called  the  'Germaos.*    With  these  increased  |™*"«  , 
facilities  the  little   company  increased  rapidly  in  numhers. 
Their  gatherings  were  held  nominally  under  the  presidency  buim 
of  Banies,  whose  poaitioQ  enabled  him  to  defy  the  academic  IfE,5JSJ'** 
censures,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Bilney's  HlmiTiii-^™! 
tive  form  was  the  really  central  figure.     Around  him  were  ponul 
gathered  not  a  few  already  distinguished  in  the  university  hcibm, 
and  destined  to  wider  fame.     From  Gonville  Hall  came  not  ^^ 
only  Shaxton,  but  also  Croine  the  president  of  that  society,  S^^;  .^ 
and  John  Skip,  who  subsequently  succeeded,  like  Shaxton,  to  SSd'S?" 
the  office  of  master, — a  warm  friend,  in  after  life,  of  the°*"'°*^ 
Keformers,  and  at  one  time  chaplain  to  Anne  Bolcyn.    Under- 
graduates and  bachelors  stole  in,  in  the  company  of  masters 
of  arts.     Among  them   John    Rogers   (the   protomartyr  of 
queen  Mary's  reign)  from  Pembroke,  with  John  Tbixtill  of 
the  same  college, — the  latter  already  university  preacher,  and 
one  whose  ipse  dixit  was  regarded  as  a  final  authority  in  the 
divinity  schools.     Queens'  College — perhaps,  as  Strype  sug- 
gests, not  disinclined  to  cherish  the  traditions  of  the  great 
scholar  who  had  once  there  found  a  home, — sent  Forman  its 
president  and  with  him  Bilney's  ill-fated  convert,  John  Lam- 
bert ;  and  not  tmprobahly  Heynes,  also  afterwards  president 
of  the  college  and  one  of  the  compilers  of  the  first  English 
liturgy.     John  Mallory  came  in  from  Christ's;  John  Frith 
from  King's ;  Tavemer,  a  lad  just  entered  at  Corpus,  and 
Matthew   Parker,  just   admitted   to  bis  bachelor's  degree, 
came  perhaps  under  the  escort  of  William  Warner,   'up' 
from  his  Norfolk  living.     Such  were  the  men  who,  together 
with  those  already  mentioned  as  Bilney's  followers,  and  many 
more  whose  names  have  passed  away,  made  up  the  earlier 
gatherings  in  'Germany.' 

In  the  old-fashioned  inn,  as  at  the  meetings  of  tbe  primi-  cbudwti 
tive  Christians,  were  heard  again,— freed  from  tbe  sophistries  e-^it*. 
and  misconstructions  of  medieval   theology, — tbe  glowing 
utterances  of  the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles.     There  also, 


Kingiienrr  ^^^  Celebrated  polemic,  Contra  Martinum  Lutherum  Hceresi* 
SSSljlSnmt  archon ;  and  in  1523  appeared  Fisher  s  Asssrtionis  LiUfierancB 


•nalGMii 
bfflds*. 


572  THE  REFORMATION. 

cHAP.vi.  Then,  in  the  following  year,  king  Henry  himself  compiled 

Ing  llrarr 
AViiher 

^****''  ConfiUatio.  Yet  still,  in  spite  of  pope,  king,  chancellor,  and 
lawgiver,  the  religious  movement  at  Cambridge  continued  to 
gather  strength,  and  to  tlie  systematic  study  of  the  Scriptures 
there  was  now  atlded  that  of  tlie  Lutheran  doctrines. 

It  was  not  possible  however  to  treat  the  edicts  of  Rome, 
enforced  as  they  were  by  the  action  of  the  authorities  in 
England,  with  an  indiflference  like  that  which  had  confronted 
the  denouncers  of  Erasmus's  New  Testament,  and  a  policy  of 

MMtinp  of  caution  and  secrecy  had  now  become  indispensable.  It  was 
accordingly  resolved  to  appoint  a  place  of  meeting  where  dis- 
cussions might  be  held  in  comparative  freedom  from  the 
espionage  of  the  college.  On  the  present  site  of  the  Bull 
Inn  or  closely  adjacent  to  it,  there  stood  in  those  days  the 

nie« White  White  Horse  Inn,  at  that  time  the  property  of  Catherine 
Hall'.  A  lane,  known  as  Mill  Street,  passed  then  as  now  to 
the  rear  of  the  buildings  that  fronted  the  main  street,  and 
afforded  to  the  students  from  the  colleges  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  town,  the  means  of  entering  the  inn  with  less  risk 
of  observation".  The  White  Horse  was  accordingly  chosen 
as  the  place  of  rendezvous ;  and  as  the  meetings  before  long 

{Hist,  of  Cambridge^  p.  197),  actually  vice   Cancollarii  pro   muncre   qnod 

Btates  that  it  was  in  1520.     But  the  declittabellariodoniiDiCardiiiali8,4«.' 

following    outries    by  tlie    proctors  'Item  eidem  pro consimilimunere  da- 

{Grace  Book,  B  411,  416),  coming  as  to  tabollario  Reginc,  4<.*  'Itemeidem 

tbey  do  at  the  conclusion  of  the  en-  pro  potuetaliisexpensis  circa  comftut. 

tries    for    the    Easter   terra,    1521,  tionfm  librorum  Martini  Lutherif  2s, ^ 
clearly  shew    that   the   procoodings  '  *The  sign  of  the  White  Horse 

were  consequent  upon  the  decision  remains,  but  it  appears  doubtful  if 

of  the  conference  held  in  London : —  the  old  White  Horse  mentioned  by 

Expensa  Senioris   Froctoris :   *  Item  Str^-pe  in  his  Annals,  has  not  given 

solutum    Petro    bedello    misso    do-  way  to  the  Bull  Inn:  especially  as  all 

miuo  Cardiuali  ct  Caucellario  cum  that  ground  does  belong  to  Catherine 

Uteris   pro   opcribus   Luthcri,   20«.*  Hall,  and  there  is  no  record  of  the 

Expenxa  Junioris  Proctoris:   *Itcm  college  having  parted  with  the  ^Vhite 

Bolvi  doctori  Bullocke  pro  cxpcnsis  Horse,   which   was  once  their  pro> 

Londini    circa    examinationem  Lu-  perty.'     Smith,  Cambridge  Portfolio, 

then   ad  mandatum  domini  Cardi-  p.  364.     Mr  Smith  conjectures,  from 

nails,  53«.  4d.'     *  Item  doctori  Um-  an  indenture  referred  to  in  the  re- 

frey   pro    ejus    expensis    in    consi-  piwter  of  Catherine  Hall,  that  the 

mili  negotio,  53«.  4d.*    'Item   doc-  White  Horse  stood  ' on  the  site  now 

toribus  Watson  et  Ridey  pro  eorum  occupied  by  Mr  Jones's  house  and 

expensis  in  eodem  negotio,  £5. 6s.  Sd.'  the  present  King's  Lane.*    Ihid.  531. 
'Item  doctori  Nycolas  gerenti  locum  ^  Strype,  MemoriaU,  I  568*9. 


THE  WHITE  HORSK  '573 

became  notorious  in  the  university,  and  those  who  frequented  chap,  tl 
them  were  reported  to  be  mainly  occupied  with  Luther's 
writings,  the  inn  became  known   as  'Germany,'  while  its  The  inn 


frequenters  were  called  the  '  Germans.'    With  these  increased  fgownaa  ^ 
facilities  the  little   company  increased  rapidly  in  numbers. 
Their  gatherings  were  held  nominally  under  the  presidency  Buom 
of  Barnes,  whose  position  enabled  him  to  defy  the  academic  sUSJ^**"** 
censures,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  Bilney's  diminu-  RyJ^ogw^ 
tive  form  was  the  really  central  figure.     Around  him  were  rmwa, 
gathered  not  a  few  already  distinguished  in  the  university  Hernet, 
and  destined  to  wider  fame.     From  Gonville  Hall  came  not  jp****. 

TarenMT, 

only  Shaxton,  but  also  Crome  the  president  of  that  society,  yf^;  ^^^ 
and  John  Skip,  who  subsequently  succeeded,  like  Shaxton,  to  SSd^SST* 
the  ofl&ce  of  master, — a  warm  friend,  in  after  life,  of  the  "••"*^ 
Reformers,  and  at  one  time  chaplain  to  Anne  Boleyn.  Under- 
graduates and  bachelors  stole  in,  in  the  company  of  masters 
of  arts.  Among  them  John  Rogers  (the  protomartyr  of 
queen  Mary's  reign)  from  Pembroke,  with  John  Thixtill  of 
the  same  college, — the  latter  already  university  preacher,  and 
one  whose  ipse  dixit  was  regarded  as  a  final  authority  in  the 
divinity  schools.  Queens'  College — perhaps,  as  Strype  sug- 
gests, not  disinclined  to  cherish  the  traditions  of  the  great 
scholar  who  had  once  there  found  a  home, — sent  Forman  its 
president  and  with  him  Bilney's  ill-fated  convert,  John  Lam- 
bert ;  and  not  improbably  Heynes,  also  afterwards  president 
of  the  college  and  one  of  the  compilers  of  the  first  English 
liturgy.  John  Mallory  came  in  from  Christ's;  John  Frith 
from  King's;  Tavemer,  a  lad  just  entered  at  Corpus,  and 
Matthew  Parker,  just  admitted  to  his  bachelor's  degree, 
came  perhaps  under  the  escort  of  William  Warner,  *up* 
from  his  Norfolk  living.  Such  were  the  men  who,  together 
with  those  already  mentioned  as  Bilney's  followers,  and  many 
more  whose  names  have  passed  away,  made  up  the  earlier 
gatherings  in*  Germany.' 

In  the  old-fashioned  inn,  as  at  the  meetings  of  the  primi-  chuMitroC 
tive  Christians,  were  heard  again, — freed  from  the  sophistries 
and  misconstructions  of  mediaeval  theology, — the  glowing 
utterances  of  the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles.    There  also. 


574  THE  REFORMATION. 

CHAP.  TL  for  the  first  time,  the  noble  thoughts  of  Luther  sank  deeply 
into  many  a  heart;  while  his  doctrines,  if  not  invariably 
accepted  \  were  tested  by  honest  and  devout  enquiry  and  by 
the  sole  standard  of  Scriptural  truth.  To  men  who  had 
known  many  a  weary  vigil  over  the  fanciful  and  arid  subtle- 
ties of  Aquinas  or  Nicholas  de  Lyra,  this  grand  but  simple 
teaching  came  home  with  power.  Turning  from  a  too  ab- 
sorbing study  of  tessellated  pavement,  elaborate  ornament, 
and  cunning  tracery,  their  eyes  drank  in,  for  the  first  time, 
the  sublime  proportions  of  the  whole.  The  wranglings  of  the 
theologians  and  the  clamour  of  the  schools  died  away  and 
were  forgotten  in  the  rapture  of  a  more  perfect  knowledge. 
*  So  oft,'  said  one  of  the  youngest  of  the  number,  as  in  after 
years  he  looked  back  upon  those  gatherings,  'so  oft  as  I  was 
in  the  company  of  these  brethren,  methought  I  was  quietly 
placed  in  the  new  glorious  Jerusalem*.' 

It  was  a  favorite  mode  of  expressing  contempt  among 
those  who  disliked  the  movement  at  the  time,  and  one  which 
has  been  adopted  by  some  modern  writers,  to  speak  of  those 
who  thus  met,  and  of  the  Cambridge  Reformers  generally,  as 

TiMCtaf     'young  men;'  but  the  ages  of  Barnes,  Coverdale,  Arthur, 


RflfomMn    Crome,  Latimer,  and  Tyndale,  are  sufficient  to  shew  that  the 
reproach  thus  implied  of  rashness  and  immaturity  of  judge- 


ment was  far  from  being  altogether  applicable.    And  on  the 

other  hand  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  it  is  not  often  among 

men  in  middle  life,  in  whom  the  enthusiasm  of  youth  has 

subsided,  whose  opinions  are  fully  formed,  and  round  whom 

social  ties  have  multiplied,  that  designs  like  those  of  these 

Ofciim-       Cambridge  students  are  conceived  and  carried  out     That 

DiMd  In  ttieir  thosc  dcsigus  wcro  not  adopted  until  after  long  and  earnest 

ggyj^   counsel  and  thought  will  scarcely  be  denied ;  and  if  in  the 

SSSr^       ^^^  ordeal  some  lacked  the  martyr's  heroism,  it  is  also  to  be 

remembered,  that  as  yet  the  sentiments  which  most  powerfully 

sustained  the  resolution  of  subsequent  Reformers  were  partly 

wanting,  and  that  religious  conviction  was  not  as  yet  rein- 

• 

1  Barnes  ^see  infra,  p.  580)  appears,  case  with    others,  as  for   instance 

at  least  while  at  Cambridge,  not  to  Matthew  Parker  and  Shazton. 
give  his  assent  to  Luther's  doctrinal  '  Becon-Ayre,  u  426. 

theology,  and  this  was  certainly  the 


BABNES'  SEKUDS.-  btJ 

following  Sunday.  UofortuQately  the  vice-chancellor  for  that  chaf.  n 
year,  Natares,  master  of  Clare,  was  avowedly  hostile  to  the 
Reformers ;  Foxe  indeed  does  not  hesitate  to  style  him, '  a 
rank  enemy  of  Christ'  He  responded  accordingly  to  Barnes' 
proposition  by  inhibiting  bim  from  preaching  altogether,  and 
summoning  him  to  answer  the  allegations  contained  in  the 
foregoing  articles.  The  matter  was  heard  in  the  common 
schools;  and  according  to  Barnes'  own  account,  the  doors 
were  closed  against  all  comers,  and  he  was  left  to  contend 
single-handed  with  Natarea,  Ridley  (the  uncle  of  the  Re- 
former), Wataon,  the  master  of  Christ's,  a  Dr.  Preston,  and 
a  doctor  of  law,  whose  name,  at  the  time  that  he  composed 
his  narrative,  he  had  forgotten'.  The  articles  having  been 
read  over,  the  prior  gave  in  a  general  denial  of  the  respective 
allegations;  he  admitted  having  used  some  of  the  phrases 
or  expressions  that  they  contained,  hut  even  these,  he  said, 
had  been  most  unfairly  garbled,  '  Would  he  submit  himself?'  . 
was  the  peremptory  demand  of  the  vice-chancellor ;  to  which 
he  replied,  that  if  he  had  said  aught  contrary  to  the  Word 
of  God,  or  to  the  exposition  of  St.  Augustine,  St  Jerome,  or 
of '  the  four  holy  doctors,'  he  would  be  content  to  recall  it. 
'  Or  to  the  laws  of  the  Church,'  added  Ridley  and  Preston ; 
but  to  this  he  demurred,  on  the  plea  that  as  be  was  not  a 
doctor  of  law  he  knew  not  what  was  included  in  that  phrase. 
At  this  stage  of  the  proceedings  there  came  a  loud  tbun-TtnimcHd- 
dering  at  the  doors.  It  had  become  known  throughout  the  J^JjJ^* 
university  that  Barnes  was  undergoing  the  ordeal  of  an  JlS"u» 
examination,  and  that  his  judges  and  accusers  were  denying  ■■■■'™^ 
him  a  public  hearing;  and  the  students,  now  hurrying  en 
masse  to  the  common  schools,  demanded  admittance.  The 
bedell  endeavoured  to  pacify  them,  but  in  vain.  Then  Na- 
tares himself  appeared  at  tbo  entrance;  but,  though  'he 
gave  them  good  and  f^r  words,'  his  remonstrances  were 
equally  unsuccessful  '  They  said  it  appertained  to  learning, 
and  they  were  the  body  of  the  university ;'  and  finally  the 
hearing  of  the  matter  was  adjourned. 

ftpp07iit«d  mmonge  them  to  bethe  pra- 
■anterolthawai^elM.'  ZIM.  iSIfl. 
»7 


576  THE  REFORMATION. 

CHAP.  VL  caused  him  to  reflect  before  he  indulged  in  acrimony  and 
satire.  But  controversial  feeling  A\as  then  running  high  in 
the  university  ;  and  among  his  audience  the  prior  recognised 
some  who  were  not  only  hostile  to  the  cause  with  which  he 
had  identified  his  name,  but  also  bitter  personal  enemies.  As 
he  proceeded  in  his  discourse,  his  temper  rose ;  he  launched 
into  a  series  of  bitter  invectives  against  the  whole  of  the 
priestly  order ;  he  attacked  the  bishops  with  peculiar  seve- 
rity ;  nor  did  he  bring  his  sermon  to  a  conclusion  before  he 
had  indulged  in  sarcastic  and  singularly  impolitic  allusions 
to  the  '  pillars  and  poleaxes'  of  Wolsey  himself  \ 
j^^  We  can  hardly  doubt  that  these  censures  and  allusions 

^^«%^  constituted  the  real  gravamen  of  his  offence ;  but  the  pas- 
«•>•»«**»'•    sages  noted  by  his  hostile  hearers  served  to  furnish  a  list  of 
no  less  than  five-and-twenty  articles  against  him.     Among 
these   he  was   accused   of   denouncing  the   usual   enjoined 
observance  of  holy  days  and  of  denying  that  such  days  were 
of  a  more  sacred  character  than  others, — of  aflBrming  that 
men  dared  not  preach  the  'very  Gospel,'  for  fear  of  being 
decried  as  heretics, — of  objecting  to  the  magnitude  of  the 
episcopal  dioceses,  and  generally  attacking  the  pride,  pomp, 
and  avarice  of  the  clergy, — the  baculus  pastoralis,  the  orator 
was  reported  to  have  said,  '  was  more  like  to  knocke  swine 
and  wolves  in  the  heed  with,  than  to  take  shepe ;'  '  Wilt  thou 
know  what  their  benediction  is  worth  ? — ^they  had  rather  give 
ten  benedictions  than  one  halfpenny"/ 
»Mjjta  Early  in  the  ensuing  week  Barnes  learned  that  articles 

J^J^  of  information  had  been  lodged  against  him  with  the  vice- 
5j£3iiS  chancellor,  and  at  once  proposed  that  he  should  be  allowed 
•diooit.^  to  explain  and  justify  himself  in  the  same  pulpit  on  the 

CatUey,  y  415) ;   another  of  those  In  their  hondes  steade  of  a  maoe. 

incantions  statements  of  the  Martyr-  Then  foloweth  my  lorde  on  hia 
ologist  that  so  often  land  us  in  doubt  mole 

and  difficulty.   Compare  Barnes*  own  Trapped  with  golde  under  her 
statement,  infra  p.  580.  cule 

*  See  Cavendish,  Life  of  Wolsey  In  every  poynt  most  curiously, 
fed.  Singer),  p.  44 ;  and  compare  Boy,  On  eache  syde  a  poUaxe  is  borne 
liede  me  etc.  (ed.  Arber)  p.  565.  Which  in  none  wother  use  is 

•  After  theym  folowe  two  laye  men  wome, 

seculiu-,  Pretendynge  some  hid  mistery.* 

And  eache  of  theym  holdyuge  a 

pillar  «  Coojier,  Annals,  i  313-5. 


L. 


Barnes'  tbui.  -  579 

Gardiner  were  two),  and  other  doctors.  So  far  as  may  be  chap,  vl 
ioferred,  Fisher  inclined  to  a  favorable  view  of  the  matter ;  "  '  '" 
and  when  the  first  article,  chai^ng  Barnes  with  contempt 
for  the  observance  of  holy  days,  was  read  over,  he  declared 
that  he  for  one '  would  not  condemn  it  as  heresy  for  a  hundred 
pounds ;'  '  but,'  he  added,  turning  to  the  prior,  '  it  was  a  fool- 
iah  thing  to  preach  this  before  all  the  butchers  of  Cambridge.' 
On  the  other  hand.  Clerk,  bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells',  who 
had  recently  been  promoted  to  that  see  in  acknowledgement 
of  his  services  against  the  Lutheran  party,  was  evidently  little 
disponed  to  mercy,  and  pressed  more  than  one  point  with 
vindictive  unfairness  against  the  accused.  The  proceedings, 
extending  over  three  days,  followed  the  course  almost  in- 
variably pursued  when  the  accused  was  a  cleigyman.  There 
was  a  great  parade  of  patristic  and  scholastic  divinity;  a 
continual  fencing  in  dialectics  between  the  bishops  and  the 
prior ;  the  usual  recourse  to  threats,  subterfuges,  entreaties ; 
and  at  Ust,  the  sole  alternative  before  him  being  death  at 
the  stake,  Barnes  consented  to  read  aioud  before  the  assem- 
bled spectators  the  roll  of  his  recantation.  The  story  cannot 
be  better  concluded  than  in  his  own  words : —  ' 

'Then  was  all  the  people  that  stode  ther,  called  to  here  mt on ^ 
me.     For  in  the  other  thre  dayes,  was  there  no  man  suffered  aadnMb 
to  here  one  worde  that  I  spake.     So  after  theyr  commande- 
ment  that  was  gyven  me,  I  red  it,  addyng  nothyng  to  it,  nor 
saying  no  word,  that  might  make  for  myn  excuse,  supposyng 
that  I  shuld  have  founde  the  byshops  the  better, 

'After  this  I  was  commaunded  to  subscribe  it,  and  to 
make  a  crosse  on  it.  Than  was  I  commaunded  to  goe 
knel  downe  before  the  byshop  of  Bathe,  and  to  require  abso- 
lucion  of  bym,  but  he  wolde  not  assoyle  me,  except  I  wold 
first  swere,  that  I  wolde  fuliyll  the  penaunce  that  he  shuld 
enjoyn  to  me.  So  did  I  swere,  not  yet  suspectynge,  but 
these  men  had  had  some  crom  of  charite  within  them.  But 
whan  I  had  swome,  than  enjc^ed  he  me,  that  I  shuld  re- 
toume  that  nighte  agayne  to  prisone.     And  the  nexte  day, 

1  Ha  hmd  been  sdnoKted  at  Cambridge,  tiunigli  at  wliat  oollega  doM  not 


578  THE  BEFORMATIOK. 

CRAP.  VI.  Within  a  few  days  ufler,  Barnes  was  summoned  to  the 
RTiTii^  lodge  at  Clare  College,  and  sulyected  to  a  further  cross- 
tSfMieor   examination  by  the  same  authorities;  and  again  a  similar 

CUure,  sod  ,  o     t 

Ac  proceed-  demonstration  on  the  part  of  the  university  put  a  stop  to 

Jgjj^**^   the  proceedings     An  interval  of  about  a  month  followed, 

during  which  no  further  overt  measures  were  resorted  to; 

but  during  that  time  Watson  and  Preston  prepared  a  form 

of  revocation  to  which  they  called  upon  Barnes  to  affix  his 

signature;  but  as  the  document  implied  the  correctness  of 

HenAmstothe  articles  originally  preferred  against  him,  he  declined  to 

cAtiMk        do  this  until  he  had  first  consulted  with  eight  of  his  friends^ 

among  whom  were  Bilney  and  Stafford,  and  the  result  of  his 

conference  was  a  formal  refusal 

In  the  meantime   his    enemies  had   not  been  idle  in 

London  ;  and  when  Wolsey  heard  how  his  *  pillars  and  pole^ 

axes'  had  been  singled  out  for  scorn,  his  tolerance  was  at  an 

woiwyn*    end.     A  Dr.  Capon  and  a  serjeant-at-arms  named  Gibson 

were  forthwith  despatched  to  the  university  with  instructions 


to  make  strict  search  for  Lutheran  books  and  to  bring  the 
for  LiitiMimn  P^^^  ^^  Loudou.     On  their  arrival  they  were  enabled,  by 
information  treacherously  supplied,  to  go  straight  to  the  dif- 
ferent hiding  places  where  the  poor  '  Germans'  had  concealed 
their  treasures.     They  were  however  forestalled  by  Forman, 
the  president  of  Queens',  who  gave  private  warning  to  his 
p€urty ;  and  when  the  inquisitors  entered  the  different  college 
rooms,  and  took  up  planks  and  examined  walls,  the  objects 
of  their  search  had  already  been  removed.     Barnes,  who  had 
^ugr.  either  received  no  warning  or  scorned  to  fly,  was  arrested  in 
cw^7«dto  the  schools  and  brought  to  London ;  and  soon  found  himself 
face  to  face  with  Wolsey  in  the  gallery  at  Westminster. 
At  first  his  natural  intrepidity  and  confidence  in  the  justice 
of  his  cause  sustained  him.     Even  in  that  dread  presence 
before   which  the  boldest  were  wont  to  quail,  he  still  de- 
fended his  theory  of  bishoprics,  and  dared  to  say  that  he 
thought  it  would  be  more  to  Qod's  honour  if  the  cardinal's 
Jjtejdbefore  *  pillars  and  poleaxes'  were  'coined  and  given  in  alms.'    But 
^hjjrurtiops  the  interview  with  Wolsey  was  succeeded  by  the  public  ordeal 
™^-      in  the  chapter-house,  before  six  bishops  (of  whom  Fisher  and 


HUOH  LATDIEB.  581 

Eve  sermon,  Latimet  was  probably  over  forty  years  of  age,  chap,  tl 
and  bis  adhesion  to  the  new  doctrines  had  not  been  given  in 
until  long  after  the  time  wheo  euch  a  st«p  could  justly  be 
represented  as  that  of  a  rash  and  enthusiastic  youth.     A 
fellow  of  Clare  College,  he  was  distinguished  in  the  earlier  nii  iuIt 
part  of  his  career  by  everything  that  could  inspire  the  confi-  <*»««>"- 
dence  and  esteem  of  the  grave  seniors  of  the  conservative 
party.     He  was  Btiidious,  ascetic,  devout,  and  of  irreproach- 
able life ;  and  without  being  altt^ether  unversed  in  the  new 
learning,  he  nevertheless  shewed  a  far  greater  liking  for  the 
old ;  he  looked  upon  Greek  with  suspicion,  nor  does  he  ap- 
pear indeed  ever  to  have  made  any  real  attainments  in  the 
language;  he  inveighed  with  warmth  against  Stafibrd's  inno- 
vations, and  even  went  so  far,  on  one  occasion,  as  to  enter  the 
schools  and  harangue  the  assembled  students  on  the  foUy  of 
forsaking  the  study  of  the  doctors  for  that  of  the  Scriptures ; 
while  at  the  time  that  the  rising  genius  of  Uelanchthon  at 
Wittenbei^  first  began  to  challenge  the  admiration  of  the 
learned  throughout  Europe,  he  availed  himself  of  the  oppor-  mmn-H 
tunity  afforded  when  keeping  his  'act'  for   the  degree  ofcwn. 
bachelor  of  divinity,  in  1524,  to  declaim  with  all  his  power 
against  the  principles  advocated  by  the  young  German  Re- 
former'.    There   were   not   many  among  the  party  whose 
cause  he  bad  espoused  who  combined  high  character  with 
marked  ability,  and  the  authorities  lost  no  opportunity  of 
shewing  tlieir  appreciation  of  his  merit.     He  was  invested  hh poMoa 
with  the  honorable  office  of  crossbearer  to  the  university,  in  -""m. 
the  public  processions;  he  was  elected  one  of  the  twelve 
preachers   annually  appointed   as   directed   by  the  bull  of 
Alexander  vi ;  nor  are  other  indications  wanting  to  prove 
that  he  was  regarded  as  a  fit  person  to  represent  the  univer- 
sity in  nogociations  of  an  important  and  confidential  nature*. 
Among  those  who  listened  to  Latimer's  harangue  against 
Melancbtbon  was  'little  Bilney.'     He  perceived   that  theH^«- 
orator  was  '  zealous  without  knowledge,'  and  determined,  ifBUMi- 
possible,  to  open  his  eyes  to  the  truth.    The  plan  he  adopted 


580  THE '  BEFORMATIOX. 

CHAP.  VL  which  was  fastyngame  Sonday,  I  shuld  do  open  penaunce' 
at  Failles. 

'And  that  the  worlde  shulde  thynke  that  I  wa«  a  mer- 
veylous  haynous  heretykc,  the  cardynal  came  the  nexte  daye, 
with  all  the  pompe  and  pryde  that  he  could  make,  to  Paule:» 
Church,  and  all  to  brynge  me  poor  8oule  out  of  conseite.  And 
moreover  were  ther  commaunded  to  come  all  the  byshoppes 
that  were  at  London.  And  all  the  abbotcs  dwellynge  in  Lon- 
don, that  dydde  were  myters,  in  so  muche  that  the  pryour  of 
saintc  Mary's  Spittal,  and  another  monke,  whyche  I  thinke 
was  of  Towre  Hylle,  were  ther  also  in  theyr  myters.  And  to 
set  the  matter  more  forthe,  and  that  the  worlde  shulde  per- 
fytly  knowe  and  perceive,  that  the  spiritual  fathers  had 
determined  my  matter  substancially,  the  byshop  of  Rochester 
must  preache  ther  that  same  daye,  and  all  his  sermon  was 
agaynst  Lutherians,  as  tJioughe  they  had  convicted  mefiyr  one: 
the  whjche  of  truth,  and  afore  God,  was  as  farre  frotn  those 
thinges  as  any  inan  coulde  be,  savynge  that  I  was  no  tyraunt 
nor  no  ptrsecutour  of  Gods  worde.  And  al  this  gorgyous 
fas3mg  with  myters  and  cros-staves,  abbotes,  and  pryours 
were  doohe,  but  to  blynde  the  people,  and  to  outface  me. 
God  amende  all  thyng  that  is  amisse*.' 

In  the  sequel  Barnes  was  sentenced  to  imprisonment  in 
the  house  of  his  order  at  Northampton.  From  thence,  after 
nearly  three  years'  confinement,  he  eflFected  his  escape  and 
fled  to  Germany.  Here  he  made  the  acquaintance  of 
many  of  the  leaders  of  the  Lutheran  party.  It  is  evident 
however,  that,  though  his  career  was  terminated  at  the  stake, 
he  only  partially  embraced  the  doctrines  of  Protestantism ; 
and  from  the  time  of  his  recantation  his  history  can  no 
longer  be  associated  with  that  of  the  Cambridge  Reformers. 

But  before  Barnes  was  lost  to  the  cause,  there  had  been 

added  to  the  reform  party  another  convert,  who,  if  inferior  to 

the  prior  in  learning,  was  at  least  his  equal  in  courage  and 

oratorical  power,  and  certainly  endowed  with  more  discretion 

Hi^^       and  practical   sagacity.     This  man  was  the  famous  Hugh 

AiSl^**'     Latimer,    At  the  time  that  Barnes  preached  his  Christmas 

*  The  SupplicationofdocUnir Barnes, eic.,{qnoiedhjCoo^T,Annal$,rS^). 


HUDH  lATDCEB.'  581 

Etc  sermon,  Latimer  was  probably  over  forty  years  of  age,  chap,  vl 
and  bis  adbesion  to  tbe  new  doctrines  had  not  beea  given  in 
until  long  after  tbe  time  when  each  a  st«p  could  justly  be 
represented  as  that  of  a  rash  and  enthusiastic  youth.     A 
fellow  of  Clare  College,  he  was  distinguished  in  the  earlier  hi>«w^ 
part  of  his  career  by  everything  that  could  inspire  the  confi-  <*»™»«- 
dence  and  esteem  of  the  grave  seniors  of  the  conservative 
party.     He  was  studious,  ascetic,  devout,  and  of  irre^oach- 
able  life ;  and  without  being  altogether  unversed  in  tbe  nev 
learning,  he  nevertheless  shewed  a  far  greater  liking  for  the 
old  ;  he  looked  upon  Greek  with  suspicion,  nor  does  he  ap- 
pear indeed  ever  to  have  made  any  real  attainments  in  the 
language ;  he  inveighed  with  warmth  against  Stafford's  inno- 
vations, and  even  went  so  far,  on  one  occasion,  as  to  enter  the 
schools  and  harangue  the  assembled  students  on  the  folly  of 
forsaking  the  study  of  the  doctors  for  that  of  the  Scriptures ; 
while  at  the  time  that  the  rising  genius  of  Melanchthon  at 
Wittenberg  first  began  to  challenge  the  admiration  of  the 
learned  throughout  Europe,  he  availed  himself  of  the  oppor-  Htithcb 
tunity  afforded  wheu  keeping  his  'act'  for  the  degree  ofSub^ 
bachelor  of  divinity,  in  1524,  to  declaim  with  all  hia  power 
against  the  principles  advocated  by  the  young  German  Re- 
former'.    There  were   not   many   among  the  party  whose 
cause  be  had  espoused  who  combined  high  character  with 
marked  ability,  and  the  authorities  lost  no  opportunity  of 
shewing  their  appreciation  of  his  merit     He  was  invested  mi  piaiiiBB 
with  the  honorable  office  of  crossbearer  to  the  university,  in  ""•</. 
the  public  processions ;  he  was  elected  one  of  the  twelve 
preachers  annually  appointed   as   directed   by  the   bull  of 
Alexander  vi ;  nor  are  other  indications  wanting  to  prove 
that  he  was  regarded  as  a  lit  person  to  represent  the  univer- 
sity in  negociations  of  an  important  and  confidential  nature*. 
Among  those  who  listened  to  Latimer's  harangue  against 
Melanchthon  was  'little  Bilney,'     He   perceived    that   tbe  g* ^"M- 
orator  was  '  zealous  without  knowledge,'  and  determined,  ifBunir- 
possible,  to  open  his  eyes  to  the  truth.     The  plan  he  adopted 


^82 


THE  REFORMATIOK. 


CHAP.  TL  in  order  to  accomplish  bis  purpose,  was  judiciously  con- 
^  ceived ;  he  sought  out  Latimer,  not  as  an  antagonist  in  the 
schools,  but  in  the  privacy  of  his  college  chamber;  not  as 
one  who  by  virtue  of  superior  wisdom  assumed  the  office  of  a 
spiritual  instnictor,  but  as  a  penitent  who  sought  his  counsel 
and  direction.  He  asked  Latimer  to  hear  his  confession,  and 
Latimer  acceded  to  his  request ;  and  in  his  own  words,  spoken 
long  afterwards,  *  learned  more  than  before  in  many  years  V 
In  short,  the  confessor  became  the  convert  of  him  to  whom 
he  listened ;  and  it  was  soon  known  throughout  the  uniTer- 
sity,  that  the  saintly  crossbearer,  the  denouncer  of  Luther  and 
Melanchthon,  had  himself  gone  over  to  the  'Germana'  In 
Latimer's  own  quaint  language,  *  he  began  to  smell  the  Word 
of  God,  and  forsook  the  school-doctors  and  such  fooleries^' 
The  date  of  his  conversion  is  assigned  by  his  latest  biographer 
to  the  earlier  part  of  the  year  1 524,  and  from  that  time  he 

HebeeomM  bccamc  the  intimate  friend  and  associate  of  Bilney,  in  whose 

Blln«]r  ■  in-  '' 

company  he  was  now  generally  to  be  found ;  one  particular 
walk  where  they  were  frequently  to  be  seen,  engaged  in  ear- 
nest converse,  was  known  among  their  satirists  as  the  '  Here- 
tics' Hill.'  Together  they  visited  an<l  comforted  the  sick ; 
preached  in  the  lazar-cots  or  fever  hospitals;  their  charity 
extending  even  to  the  helpless  prisoners  confined  in  the 
tolbooth  and  the  castle. 

The  influence  of  Latimer's  example, — unimpaired  as  it 
was  by  eccentricities  like  Bilney's  or  indiscretion  like  that  of 
Barnes, — soon  began  to  be  perceptible. in  the  university;  his 
converts  were  important  and  numerous;  and  frequent  re- 
ports at  last  aroused  the  attention  of  the  bishop  of  the  diocese. 


timate 


Blbctoof 
LaUmer'i  ex* 


1  <  We  cannot  donbt  what  the  tenor 
of  BUney*s  confession  would  be.  La- 
timer had  just  been  denouncing  the 
study  of  the  Holy  Scripture  as  dan- 
gerous to  the  soul,  and  had  recom- 
mended his  hearers  to  seek  for  peace 
and  spiritual  life  in  implicit  obe- 
dience to  the  teaching  of  the  Church 
and  the  prescriptions  of  her  ministers. 
In  reply  to  all  this,  Bilney  would 
repeat  the  touching  story  of  his  own 
spiritual  conflict, — how  he  had  gone 
about  seeking  to  find  health   and 


comfort  to  his  sick  and  langnisbing 
soul;  how  he  had  applied  to  those 
physicians  that  Latimer  so  much 
commended,  and  had  diligently  used 
all  their  remedies  but  had  found  no- 
benefit;  how  he  had  fasted  and  done 
penance;... how  at  last  he  had  read 
that  Book  which  Latimer  had  con- 
demned as  fatal  to  the  soul,  and  all 
at  once  he  had  felt  himself  healed 
as  by  the  hand  of  the  Divine  Phy- 
sician.' DemauB,  lAft  of  Latimer^ 
pp.  36-7. 


HX70H  LiTWEK.  SSS 

West,  who  at  this  time  filled  the  see  of  Ely,  wu  now  nearly  cHAP.vt 
sixty  years  of  &ge.     His  univeisity   education  had   been  Niduiu 
received  at  King's  College,  of  which  he  was-  for  some  time  (j^Hi 
fellow ;  and  his  later  life  had  been  largely  devoted  to  political 
affairs  and  the  discharge  of  important  embassies.    As  a  pre- 
late he  was   distinguished  for  his  ostentation,  and  for  a 
splendid  style  of  living,  inferior  only  to  that  of  Wolsey  him- 
self.    One  morning  when  Latimer  as  the  appointed  preacher 
for  the  day  was  about  to  commence  a  sermon  at  St  Mary's 
Church,  the  audience  were  startled  by  the  sudden  and  un- 
anticipated appearance  of  the  bishop.     The  manceuvre,  *""'  —  -■ 'i 

such  it  undoubtedly  was,  failed  to  discoocert  Latimer,  but  it  ™|™^ 
roused  bis  spirit.  Gravely  observiug  that  the  advent  of  so 
august  an  auditor  called  for  a  change  of  subject,  he  selected 
another  text,  and  proceeded  to  discourse  from  Hebrews  ix, 
11', — a  pass^e  which  enabled  him  to  take  for  his  theme  the 
one  subject  which  at  that  time  most  employed  the  tongues 
and  pens  alike  of  the  friends,  the  foes,  and  the  satirists  of 
the  Church, — the  shortcomings  of  the  superior  clergy,  and 
the  contrast  that  their  lives  presented  to  the  teaching  and 
practice  of  their  great  Exemplar.  West  listened  with  atten- 
tion, disguised  his  chagrin,  and,  when  the  sermon  was  over, 
sent  for  Latimer,  and  thanked  him  for  the  admirable  manner 
in  which  he  had  expounded  the  duties  of  the  episcopal  office- 
There  was  but  one  favour  that  he  had  yet  to  beg  of  him. 
'What  is  your  lordship's  pleasure  that  1  should  do  for  you)' 
said  the  Reformer.  '  Marry  1 '  said  West,  '  that  yon  will  g*a?T?* 
preach  me,  in  this  place,  one  sermon gainst  Martin  Luther  E^ 
and  his  doctrine.'  '  My  lord,'  replied  Latimer,  '  I  am  not '"''"" 
acquainted  with  the  doctrine  of  Luther,  nor  are  we  permitted 
here  to  read  his  works,  and  therefore  it  were  but  a  vain  thing 
for  me  to  refute  his  doctrine,  not  understanding  what  he  hath 
written,  nor  what  opinion  he  boldeth.  Sure  I  am  that  I 
have  preached  before  you  this  day  no  man's  doctrine,  but 
only  the  doctrine  of  God  out  of  the  Scriptures.  And  if 
Luther  do  none  otherwise  than  I  have  done,  there  needeth 
no  confutation  of  his  doctrine.  Otherwise,  when  I  under- 
>  >Bnt  Cbriit  bdng  eom«  an  high  print  of  good  thing*  to  eom*.' 


684  THE  REFORMATION. 

CHAP.  VI.  stand  that  he  doth  teach  against  the  Scripture,  I  will  be 
ready  with  all  my  heart  to  confound  his  doctrine  as  much 
as  lieth  in  me\' 

The  dexterity  with  which  Latimer  at  once  eluded  the 
request  and  returned  the  thrust,  upset  the  bishop's  compo- 
sure ;  bishop  Nix's  phrase,  the  phrase  of  the  time,  rose  irre- 
pressibly  to  his  lips  : — *  Well,  well,  Mr.  Latimer,'  said  he,  '  I 
perceive  that  you  somewhat  smell  of  the  pan:  you  will  repent 
this  gear  one  day.'     It  was  accordingly  not  long  before  the 

Went  inhibiu  bishop's  voico  was   uplifted   against  Latimer  at   Barnwell 

JjSitlincT  from 

prMcUnc     Abbey;   and  he  finally  inhibited  him  from  preaching  any 

where  in  the  diocese  or  in  any  of  the  pulpits  of  the  university. 

lAtiimr       It  was  then  that  Baraes  invited  Latimer  to  preach  in  the 

{j^JJJJJJji^  church  of  the  Augustinian  friars,  where  the  episcopal  veto 


the  Augusti 
nlAn 


LUgUSt 

Man. 


could  not  reach  him ;  and  it  was  thus  that,  as  before  nar- 
rated, on  Christmas  Eve,    1525,  Barnes   happened   to   be 
preaching  at  St.  Edward's  Church,  his  own  pulpit  being  filled 
LoiiiiMrif     by  Latimer.     Eventually  Latimer  too  was  summoned  before 
before  woi-  Wolsey  in  London.     But  his  language  had  throughout  been 
don.  far  more  discreet  than  that  of   Barnes,  and   he  was  also, 

what  was  much   more   in    his  favour,   guiltless  of  having 
uttered  aught  that  touched  the  cardinal  himself.     He  found 
accordingly  a  fair  and  even  a  courteous  hearing.     Wolsey's 
brow  relaxed  when  he  found  that  the  accused  was  well  read 
in  Duns  Scotus  ;  he  cross-examined  him  at  some  length  with 
reference  to  his  whole  treatment  at  the  bishop's  hands ;  and 
at  last  said,  *  If  the  bishop  of  Ely  cannot  abide  such  doctrine 
woiteyu.     as  you  have  here  repeated,  you  shall  have  my  licence,  and 
^nZtu        shall  preach  it  unto  his  beard,  let  him  say  what  he  wilL' 
And  from    this   ordeal    Latimer   returned   unscathed   and 
triumphant  to  Cambridge". 
sirThomw         Towards  the  close  of  the  year  1525,  the  high  stewardship 
hiXitow-     was  offered  to  and  accepted  by  Sir  Thomas  More,  who  con- 
tinued to  hold  the  oflBce  for  several  years  *;  and  with  Fisher 

1  Latimer-Corrie,  pp.  xxviii,  xxix.  *Wmgfield,  'a  sad  and  ancient  Knight* 

•  Demaos,  Life  of  Latimer,  pp.  (see  Cooper,  Athena,  i  32),  had  set 

55-58.  his  heart  npon    snooeeding  to  the 

'  More  was  to  have  been  elected  in  honour,  and  More,  at  the  request  of 

the  preceding  year,  but  Sir  Bichard  king  Henry,  retired  from  the  candi- 


ZUBOFE  m  1524. 


585 


for  chancellor,  and  tlte  statutes  of  the  univerraty  at  the  dis-  chap.tc 
cretion  of  Wolsey,  the  friends  of  the   new  learning  could        ' 
now    have   felt    little   misgiving   respecting   the   ultimate 
issue  of  the  contest  in  which  they  had  so  long  been  engaged. 
But  throughout  Europe  the  battles  of  the  Humanists  were 
for  a  time  lost  sight  of  in  the   graver  struggle  that  bad 
supervened.     The  writings  of  Luther  absorbed  almost  the  Ai^Mac 
whole  attention  of  educated  Europe,  and  created  a  demand  g« "t^ 
unparalleled  in  the  previous  experience  of  the  publishing  SSamJ*' 
world.     From   a   letter  written    by   Erasmus  to  Vivea  in 
December,  1524-,  we  find    that   the    latter   had  applied   to 
Frobenius,  to  know  whether  he  would  undertake  the  print- 
ing of  a  new  edition  of  his  works.     The  illustrious  Iberian 
■was  then  at  the  height  of  his  reputation ;  but  the  printer 
sent  word  that  it  was  useless  at  that  time  to  print  anything 
but  what  bore  upon  the  Lutheran  controvery.    It  is  said 
that  there  were  nearly  two  thousand  pamphlets  circulating 
against  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation  alone.     It  was  aotaatiaH- 
season  of  deep  disquiet,  fierce  excitement,  and  gioomy  fore-  uhumi- 
bodings;    and    the   universal   anxiety   and    agitation    told 
sensibly  on  men  of  earnest  and  reflecting  minds.     Melan- 
chthon,  writing  to  Erasmus  from  Germany,  complains  that 
he  is  a  prey  to  constant  sleeplessness ;  Pace  makes  a  pre- 
cisely similar  complaint ;  Fisher,  seriously  ill  at  Rochester 
and  doubtful  of  the  sequel,  writes  to  Erasmus,  urging  him 
to  expedite  the  publication  of  his  De  Saiione  Condonandi, 
intimating   however  that  he   scarcely  expects  that  it  will 
lind  him  still  alive' ;  Erasmus  himself,  in  whose  character 

datare.  Wingfleld  vm  •eeordmgl]' 
elected:  but  hia  deMb,  at  Toledo  in 
July  oi  the  following  year,  left  the 
office  tgain  vacant,  and  Mora  was 
elected  hia  BQCCesBor.  From  the  fol- 
lowing extract  from  a  letter  writtett 
bv  Latimer  to  J)r  GreeD,  who  wm 
master  of  Catbetine  Hall  and  lioe- 
ebancellor  in  1623,  it  appean  that  a 
Balsty  waa  at  that  time  attached  to 
the  office: — '.,,non  qaod  tantiUo  ta- 
litrio  sit  opus  tarn  honorifico  viro' 
[Wingfleld!  <  et  remm  ommom  affla- 
'  entia  tarn  uuigniter  loeupletato,  wd 
pro  liberal!  (oi  animi  geneiodtate 


qoam  maiime  eupit  onm  Utteratis 
Tiiia  et  masarnm  oultoribus  familia- 
ritatem  coDtraheTe....Et  hae  rei  tam 

serio  agitur,  et  tam  grato  atqne  adeo 
tam  ardenti  petitor  animo,  nt  qnam 
nihil  prster  fidem  autea  venemndo 
Moro  dutam  cansari  sapererat  nobis 
eioretni  jam  Moms,  aed  regia  id 
quidem  (at  fertur)  intercesBioue,  ut 
Wynfyldo  cedat,  liceatqae  nobis  citra 
omnem  ignomini*  notam  Wynfyldi 
Totie  otwflcnndare.'  Latimei-Caniai 
II  iffl. 
t  L«wia,  Life  of  FUher,  «.  xni. 


586 


T&E  BEFORMATIOK. 


CHAP.  VI  the  superstition  of  his  age  and  his  superiority  to  it  were 
oddly  blended,  declares  that  omens  so  dire  and  so  frequent 
as  those  he  saw  around  him,  cannot  but  be  looked  upon  as 
heralding  the  final  consummation  of  earthly  destinies*; 
while  amid  the  deepeniug  tumult  and  alarm  there  rises  up 
the  rugged  refrain  chanted  at  Strassburg  by  Roy  and 
BarloWy 

— 'Alas,  alas! 
The  world  is  worse  than  ever  it  was, 
Never  so  depe  in  miserable  decaye, 
Bat  it  cannot  thus  endure  alwaje.' 

aomMM.^^  With  these  convulsions  in  the  political  and  religious  world 
nature  seemed  herself  to  sympathise ;  and  for  nearly  two 
years  the  greater  part  of  Europe  was  visited  by  fearful 
storms  and  disastrous  inundationa  The  predictions  of  the 
almanac-makers  intensified  th^  prevailing  dread.  The  year 
1524  it  had  been  foretold  would  be  marked  by  wondrous 
conjunctions  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  by  events  of  awful 
moment  to  all  living  beings ;  and  the  author  of  a  lugubrious 
production,  entitled  Epistola  Cantabrigiensis,  took  occasion 
to  descant  on  the  universal  corruption  and  depravity  of  the 
age,  and  chanted  once  more  the  forebodings  of  an  Augustine 
and  a  Gregory  concerning  the  approaching  end  of  all  things*. 


Predktioiia 
of  the 
ttlnuuMC- 


^  'Velum  templi  scissnm  est,  effe- 
nxntur  omnia,  etiam  quie  saoerdoti 
dixeris  in  saoramentalissima  confes- 
sione.  Caveat  sibi  quisque;  Domi- 
nusvenit'  Letter  to  John  Catarixu^ 
(A.D.  1524)  Opera,  iii  841. 

'  After  detailing  the  signs  of  the  cor- 
ruption of  the  age,  especially  of  the 
clergy,  the  writer  goes  on  to  say, 
*  Unde  neo  mirum  si  nobis  plurimum 
irascitur,  in  oujus  auribus  peccato- 
rum  nostromm  horrida  vox  qaotidie 
olamat,  eumqne  ad  nltionem  pro- 
Tocat:  irascuntnr  quippe  et  astra 
ipsa  nobisque  propinquum  minantur 
interitum.  Dudum  sane  in  qoibas- 
dam  ophemeridibus,  sen  diariis,  quod 
Tocant'  (here  Brown  stoutly  anno- 
tates in  the  margin,  no$  Cantabrigien' 
set  non  solemus^  ut  plurimum^  multum 
almanaeographU  tribuere ;  quodcun^ 
que  hie  bonus  vir  e  Monteregio  college- 


rit)j  'cujusdam  Joannis  cU  Monte« 
regio  iusignissimi  astrologi  de  anno 
salutiferas  incamationis  quingenteS' 
\:no  vicesimo  quarto  supra  miUesimum 
memini  me  ita  legisse,  **  Hoc  anno  neo 
solis  nee  Innie  eclipsim  conspioabi- 
mur;  sed  praesenti  anno  syderum 
hftbitndines  miratn  dignissimie  acci- 
dent ;  in  mense  enim  Februario 
Tiginti  conjunctiones  cum  minime 
medioores,  tum  magnae  accident^ 
quarum  sedecim  signum  aqueum 
poBsidebunt,  quia  universo  fere  orbi, 
climatibuB,  regnis,  provinoiis,  stati- 
bus,  dignitatibus,  brutis,  beUuis 
maximis  cunctisque  terrie  nasoenti- 
bus  indubitatam  mntationeni,  Taria- 
tionem,  ac  alterationem  significabnnt, 
talem  profecto  qualem  a  plnribui 
secnlis  ab  historiographis  aut  nata 
majoribu8Tixpercepimu8,&c.*'  Neque 
is  solum  insueta  prodigia  minatur 


WILLUM  TYNDALE.  587 

Such  were  the  characteristics  of  the  times,  when  in  chap.  t& 
England  a  new  element  of  controversy,  lighting  fresh  bon* 
fires  and  evoking  renewed  denunciations,  still  further  intensi- 
fied the  all-prevailing  excitement.     The  day  had  come  when 
the  scholar  and  the  priest  were  no  longer  to  be  the  sole 
students  and  interpreters  of  Scripture,  and  their  dogmas  and 
doctrine  were  to  be  brought  home  to  an  ultimate  test  by 
those  whom  they  had  neglected  to  teach  and  whose  judgement 
they  had  despised.     If  the  priest  was  incompetent  or  too 
indolent  to  instruct  the  laity  in  the  Scriptures,  might  not 
the  laity  claim  the  right  to  study  the  Scriptures  for  them- 
selves ?     Such  in  reality  was  the  simple  question  to  which  AwjMwiet 
the  appearance  of  William  Tyndale's  New  Testament  gave  SJJJ'^JJJJ^. 
rise, — a  question  answered  even  by  men  of  noted  liberality  "^*' 
and  moderation  of  sentiment,  like  Fisher,  More,  and  Tunstal, 
with  so  emphatic  and  passionate  a  negative.     Nor  will  their 
vehemence  appear  less  surprising  if  we  recall,  that  exactly 
ten   years  before  Tyndale's  New  Testament  was  seen  in 
England,   the   idea  which   he   had   carried   out   had   been 
suggested  and  enlarged  upon  in  a  volume  to  which  these 
eminent  men  had  given  an  unreserved  sanction  and  encou- 
ragement,— ^the  Novum  Inatrumentum  of  Erasmus.    '  I  totally  w»  tnaom- 
dissent,'  said  the  lady  Margaret  professor,  in  his  admirable  wi»t  btmh 
Parojclesis  prefixed   to   the   y^ork,   '  I  totally  dissent   from  JJJJJi^JJ. 
those  who  are  unwilling  that  the   sacred  Scriptures,  trans- ■•"••■^ 
lated  into   the  vulgar  tongue,  should  be  read  by  the  un- 
learned, as  if  Christ  had  taught  such  subtle  doctrines  that 
they  can  with   difficulty    be   understood  by    a    very    few 
theologians,  or  as  if  the  strength  of  the  Christian  religion 
lay  in  men's  ignorance  of  it.     The   mysteries  of  kings  it 
were    perhaps   better    to    conceal,    but   Christ   wishes   his 
mysteries  to  be  published  as  widely  as  possible.    I  could 
wish  even  all  women  to  read  the  Gospels  and  the  Epistles 

mortalibns;    andiTi  jam   nnper   ez  immatationem,  nt  tIx  homines  dia 

gravissimomm  yiroram  relatn  esse  posse  BubaiatereyeriRimiliteroredant.' 

modemos    aliqnos    in    ea    soientia  Epiitola    Cantahngiemit    eujuMdam 

probatissimos  qui    tantam   tamqne  Anonymi  de  misero  EeeUiUB  $tatu^ 

mirandam  ex  celestiom  oorpomm  in.  Oratios  Foiciculm  Return  Exnetet^ 

flozione  angnraninr  Xawn  evcntiizam  darum^  Appendix  hy  Brown,  toL  n. 


S8S  THE  REFORMATION. 

CHAP.VL  of  St.  Paul.     And  I  wish  that  they  were  translated  in  all 

'  ~  "  ~^  languages  of  all  people,  that  they  might  be  read  and  known, 

not  merely  by  the  Scotch  and  the  Irish,  but  even  by  the 

Turks  and  the  Saracens.     I  wish  that  the  husbandman  may 

sing  parts  of  them  at  his  plough,  that  the  weaver  may  chant 

them  when  engaged  at  his  shuttle,  that  the  traveller  may 

with  their  narratives  beguile  the  weariness  of  the  way*.'     It 

cannot  be  doubted  that  these  words  were  noted  and  pondered 

alike  by  Fisher,  More,  and  Tunstal ;  there  is  accordingly  but 

one  explanation  of  the  change  which  had  come  over  their 

RaMODor     views  when,  in  1526,  they  loudly  condemned  what,  in  lolG, 

iiitiiwfak^  tt  they  had  implicitly  commended ;  and  that  explanation  must 

wud»±       be,  the   alarm   that   Luther's   attitude   and   doctrines   had 

awakened   throughout    Christendom  among  all   those  who 

yet  clung  to  the  theory    of  a  one  supreme   visible   Head 

land  of  a  one   universal  and  undivided  Church.    In  exact 

correspondence   with    this   change   of    sentiment,   we    find 

Emmot      Erasmus  himself,  at  the  earnest  entreaty  of  Tunstal,  entering 

uberoArbi-  the  Hsts  agaiust  Luther,  and  maintainincr  in  opposition  to  the 

Lather.       doctriuo   of  predestination   so   inexorably   asserted  by  the 

Reformer,  that  counter  theory  which,  while  plainly  supported 

by  the  teaching  of  the  Greek  fathers,  was  far  from  being 

altogether  uncountenanced  by  the  great  lights  of  the  western 

communion.   It  is  not  impossible  indeed  that,  as  he  witnessed 

the  progress  of  events,  Erasmus  might  have  even  wished  to 

recall  some  of  the  sentiments  to  which  he  had  given  ex- 

Hii  enemieg  pression  in  his  Paraclesis.    His  enemies  were  now  never  tired 

wmMthj    of  pointing  out,  not  altogether  without  reason  but  with  much 

Kefomution.  unfaimcss,   the    undeniable    connexion   between    the    new 

doctrines  and  the  new  learning.     In  the  opinion  of  not  a  few 

he  had  sown  the  wind  and  was  reaping  the  whirlwind ;  or,  in 

the  homelier  metaphor  of  the  day,  '  he  had  laid  the  egg  and 

Luther  had  hatched  it.'     It  was  in  vain  that  the  alarmed 

scholar  protested  and  disclaimed, — declaring  that  he  had  laid 

only  a  harmless  hen's  egg,  while  that  which  Luther  had 

hatched  was  of  an  altogether  diflferent  bird*, — the  monks  and 

^  Opera,  iv  104-U  clusit.    Mimm  yero  diotnm  Mioori- 

'  *£go  peperi  oviun,  Luthems  ex-     tarom  istomm    magi^aque  et  boiia 


WILLIAM  TYNDALE.  689 

friars  only  reiterated  their  assertions  yet.  more  loudly,  and  at  chap.ti 
Louvaia,   it  would   appear,  he  was  at  one  time  even  re-  """"• 
ported  to  be  the  author  of  the  De  Captivitate  Babf/lomca. 

But  whatever  might  have  been  Erasmus's  later  senti- 
ments, the  noble  sentences  above  quoted  had  been  given  to 
the  world  past  recall ;  they  had  been  read  by  Bilney  at  Cam- 
bridge, and  it  is  in  every  way  probable  that  tbey  had  been 
pointed  out  by  Bilney  to  the  notice  of  William  Tyndale,     It 
has  been  supposed  by  some  writers  that  Tyndale  was  one  of  ,^k.„ 
Erasmus's  pupils  at  the  university ;  but  this  supposition  rests  JJtMtrt 
on  very  insufficient  evidence,  and  other  facts  would  rather  in- 
cline us  to  believe  that  Tyndale  did  not  go  to  Cambridge 
until  after  Erasmus  had  left*.     It  is  certain  that  nothing  in 
the  tatter's  correspondence,  or  in  the  manner  in  which  Tyn- 
dale afterwards  spoke  of  him,  in  any  way  implies  the  exist- 
ence of  intimate  or  even  of  friendly  relations  between  the 
two'.     We  only  know  that  for  a  certain  period, — from  about  pniiabiTa 
1514!  to  1521, — Tyndale  was  resident  in  the  university;  and^k>twi 
it  may  safely  be  inferred  that  he  was  among  the  number  of  "»»■ 
those  who  li&tened  to  Croke's  inaugural  oration  and  subse- 
quently profited  by  his  teaching.     He  had  originally  been 
a  student  at  Magdalen  Hall,  Oxford,  where  he  had  already 
performed  the  office  of  lecturer,  when  he  decided  on  remov- 
ing to  the  sbter  university.    His  reasons  ior  this  step  are  not 


pnlte  dignnm.  Ego  posoi  ovnm  gtl- 
linscenm,  Lutherua  eiclnait  pallniit 
loDge  diBBimillimnni. '  Oj>f  ra,  Iii  840. 

1  Canon  Wealcotl,  /flit,  of  tlie 
English  Iliblt,  p.  31;  Demsna,  Life 
of  William  lyadale,  p.  39 ;  Mr  De- 
mauB  himself  aeugUB  the  period  of 
Tjadale'a  resideace  &t  Cambridge  to 
between  the  years  16U  and  1621; 
aud  Erasmus,  as  yie  have  altead; 
aeeu,  left  at  tlie  cloB  of  1513. 

*  Tlie  Bole  reference  to  T^ndkle  in 
the  Epittelce  of  Eraemus  with  which 
I  am  acquainted,  is  the  following 
poaaage  in  a  letter  from  More,  writ- 
ten about  1533;— 'Bei  videtm  ad- 
TeTBDB  liiereticos  aoriur  qtiam  epiecopi 
ipei.  TpidaliiB,  hiereticiiB  noatrM, 
qui  et  nasiiaam  et  abique  eunlat, 
Bcripsit  hno  naper  Melanohthonem 
esee  apnd  regain  QaSiK;  semetcollo- 


cntnm  com  iUo,  qui  ilium  vidisset 
eiceptnm  Paiisiis  comitatn  cl  eqno- 
ram.  Addebat  se  timere  Tjmdiiliu 
nisi  Gallia  per  illom  recipeiet  ver- 
bom  Dei,  conErmaretnc  in  fide  Ea- 
charistica  contre  Vicleficam  aectam. 
QuBQi  Bollicite  isti  tractant  hoe  ne- 
gotiam,  tanqnam  illis  delegasset  Deos 
inatitaendum  et  mdimentis  fidei  im- 
baeodum  orbem!'  Opera,  iii  1S56. 
There  is  certainly  nothing  in  this 
language,  nor  in  the  wa;  in  which 
Tyndale  speaks  of  EroBlnaB  (see 
snpra,  p.  188,  n.  3).  that  would  lead 
(u  to  inter  that  the  Beformer  was  Ml 
old  pnpil  of  the  great  scholar.  As 
for  his  statement  that  he  wait«d  on 
Tnnstal  because  Erasmus  hod  praised 
the  bishop's  monifloenc*  so  highly, 
it  is  erident  'that  these  enoomiuma 
nay  hare  reached  him  by  beaiaay. 


590 


THE  REFORMATION. 


CHAP.  Yh  recorded,  and  the  language  of  Foxe  is  hopelessly  vague. 
*  Spying  his  time/  says  that  writer,  '  he  removed  from  thence 
to  the  university  of  Cambridge/  It  is  however  at  least  a 
reasonable  hypothesis,  that  he  quitted  Oxford  from  the  same 
'  motives  that  probably  weighed  with  Erasmus  when  he  gave 

the  preference  to  Cambridge, — in  order  to  escape  the  perse- 
cutions of  the  '  Trojan '  party*.  In  after  years  we  find  him 
referring  to  persecution  of  this  kind  in  terms  that  could  only 
apply  to  Oxford,  and  which  are  evidently  the  vivid  recollec- 

Rifiwiiiiiis-  tions  of  a  painful  personal  experience.     *  Remember  ye  not,' 

eances  of  Ox-  .  .  *f  ' 

font  he  says  in  his  famous  'Answer'  to  Sir  Thomas  More,  written 

in  1530  (and  More,  we  may  well  believe,  must  have  remem- 
bered very  well  indeed),  *  how  within  this  thirty  years  and 
far  less,  and  yet  dureth  to  this  day,  the  old  barking  curs, 
Duns'  disciples  and  like  draff  called  Scotists,  the  children  of 
darkness,  raged  in  every  pulpit  against  Greek,  Latin,  and 
Hebrew  ?  And  what  sorrow  the  schoolmasters,  that  taught 
the  true  Latin  tongue,  had  with  them;  some  beating  the 
pulpit  with  their  fists  for  madness,  and  roaring  out  with  open 
and  foaming  mouth,  that  if  there  were  but  one  Terence  or 
Virgil  in  the  world,  and  that  same  in  their  sleeves,  and  a  fire 
before  them,  ihsy  would  bum  them  therein,  though  it  should 
cost  them  their  lives;  affirming  that  all  good  learning  de- 
cayed and  was  utterly  lost,  since  men  g?ive  them  unto  the 
Latin  tongue*/ 

At  Cambridge,  according  to  Foxe,  Tyndale  'further 
ripened  in  knowledge  of  God's  Word.'  Though  his  writings 
contain  no  reference  to  the  fact,  it  is  not  improbable  that  he 
witnessed  the  burning  of  Luther's  writings  in  the  university 
in  1521.    But  in  the  same  year,  imder  the  constraint  of 


'  See  supra,  pp.  487,  624-6. 

■  Workst  III  76.  I)*Aubign6  as- 
Bnres  us  that  Oxford  *  where  Erasmus 
had  BO  many  friends'  (at  this  time  he 
had  scarcely  one  there  left)  was  *  the 
eity  in  which  his  New  Testament  met 
with  the  warmest  welcome.*  Hitt. 
of  the  Reformation  (transl.  by  White), 
T  220.  Some  notion  of  the  correct- 
ness of  this  writer's  account  of  the 


Reformation  in  England  may  be 
formed,  when  we  state  that,  in  one 
short  chapter,  he  represents  Bilnej 
as  a  fellow  of  Trinity  College  thirty 
years  before  its  foundation, — Tyndale 
as  lecturing  at  Oxford  on  Erasmus's 
New  Testament  years  before  the  first 
edition  appeared, —and  as  eonyerting 
Frith  at  Cambridge  three  years  after 
the  former  had  left  the  oniTeni^. 


CUTHBEBT  TUNSTAL.  591 

poverty,  for  he  appears  to  have  belonged  to  no  collie  and  to  cbap.vj. 
have  held  no  fellowship,  he  went  down  to  his  native  county  h*i<s*« 
of  Gloucester,  to  be  tutor  ia  the  family  of  Sir  John  Walsh.  ^iSE* 
We  hear  of  hint  there  as  bringing  forward  for  discuBsioo, 
among  the  neighbouring  clergy  who  assembled  at  Sir  John's  mjigjg 
hospitable  board,  the  questions  he  had  learned  to  handle  at  ^•^ 
Cambridge,  and  ae  winaing  easy  victories  over  well-beneficed 
divines  whose  learning  was  of  another  century,  and  incurring 
of  course  their  dislike  and  suspicion.     It  was  there  that  he 
conceived  and  perhaps  commenced  his  great  design  of  trans- 
lating the  NewTestament  into  the  English  vernacular'.  From 
thence,  after  about  two  years'  residence,  we  trace  I^m  to 
London ;  where  in  citizen  Humphrey  Monmouth  he  found  so 
generous  a  friend,  and  where  from  his  fellow  university  man, 
Cuthbert  Tunstal,  be  experienced  such  different  treatment. 
The  memorable  interview  between  these  two  eminent  Cam- 
bridge men  has  often  been  the  subject  of  comment,  and 
affords  perhaps  as  striking  an  illustration  b»  any  incident 
of  the  kind,  of  the  widely  different  spirit  and  aims  by  which 
at  this  critical  period  the  mere  Humanist  and  the  Reformer 
were  actuated. 

Cuthbert  Tunstal,   who   was  some  ten  years  Tyndale's  ^j^j^ 
senior,  had  originally  been  a  student  of  Balliol  College,  but  the  ^  J^ 
outbreak  of  the  plague  having  compelled  him  to  qoit  Oxford, 
he  had  migrated  to  King's  Hall, — at  that  time  one  of  the  most 
aristocratic  and  exclusive  of  the  Cambridge  foundations, — and 
had  subsequently  completed  his   student  career  at  Padua. 
On  his  return  to  England  his  talents  and  leafning  attracted 
the  attention  of  Warham,  who  made  bim  his  chancellor,  and 
from  that  time  his  rise  in  life  was  rapid  and  continuous*. 
For  that  kind  of  success  which  depends  on  personal  popula- 
rity and  social  advancement,  he  was,  no  doubt,  eminently 
quaUfied.    He  had  a  stately  presence*,  a  winning  courtesy  of 
manner,  and  consummate  tact.   His  virtues,  if  not  of  an  heroic  nbc^n?- 
order,  stood  often  in  favorable  contrast  to  the  passions  of    ' 

1  Bm  the  mtcTMtiDg  tkateli  ol  this  *  Cooper,  Athtua,  1 199. 

period  in  TyndKle'i  hiatoiy  in  Ur.  *  'A  nun  right  meet  BDd'eoiiTe- 

DemMU'iMoondolMpter.  nl«ii^  uVadaBMraiMWolM7,lo 


592 


THE  REFORMATION. 


PHAP.VL  that  tempestuous  age.  Naturally  averse  to  violence  aiKl" 
contention,  he  was  equitable,  humane  and  merciful ;  his  bit- 
terest enemies  could  not  deny  that  his  feet  were  never  swift 
to  shed  blood  ;  while  among  all  his  contemporaries  the  cha- 
racter of  none  stood  higher  for  prudence  and  moderation. 
But  all  these  advantages,  natural  and  acquired,  were  marred 

gj|itonii>o-  by  an  excess  of  caution  ill-suited  for  stirring  times ;  and  pre- 
cisely at  those  junctures  when  his  influence  might  have  been 
exerted  with  appreciable  benefit  to  the  state,  he  was  to  be 
seen  himself  drifting  with  the  current.  He  wrote  in  favour 
of  the  divorce,  and  then  sought  to  conciliate  its  opponents  by 
pleading  the  queen's  cause ;  he  preached  against  the  Act  of 
Supremacy,  and  subsequently  gave  it  his  unqualified  support; 
foremost  among  the  patrons  of  Erasmus's  Greek  Testament, 

BiswritiDgs.  he  gave  Tyndale's  translation  to  the  flames.  His  literary 
performances  were  characteristic  of  the  man, — of  that  safe 
and  respectable  kind  which,  while  earning  for  an  author  a 
certain  reputation,  neither  expose  him  to  envy  nor  involve 
him  in  controversy.  He  published  hymns  and  sermomc, 
a  small  volume  of  devotional  exercises,  a  synopsis  of  the 
Ethics  of  Aristotle, — of  whose  doctrine  of  the  Mean  he  was 
himself  so  eminent  an  example, — and  lastly,  though  not  least, 
an  admirable  Arithmetic.  By  this  last  work  indeed  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  Tunstal  rendered  a  genuine  service  to 
his  age.  The  science  of  numbers  was  then  still  in  its  infancy, 
and  in  an  age  familiar  with  the  knotty  questions  of  Duns 
Scotus,  a  teacher  like  Melanchthon  found  it  necessary,  in  order 
to  incite  his  scholars  to  the  study,  to  reassure  them,  on  the 
one  hand,  with  respect  to  its  diflSculty,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  to  allure  them  by  pointing  out  its  uses  with  reference 
to  astrology^  I    The  treatise  De  Arte  Suppaiandi  has  been 


entertain  ambassadors  and  other 
noble  strangers  at  that  notable  and 
honorable  city  of  London,  in  the 
absence  of  the  king's  most  noble 
grace.'    Hook*s  Lives ^  vi  218. 

^  For  this  amusing  oration  see 
Melanohthonis  Declamationes,  i  382- 
91.  After  pointing  out  some  of  the 
Qsep  of  arittunetio,  he  continae9  *yi-< 


dete  qnam  late  pateat  nsns  arithme- 
tices  in  ceconomia  et  in  Bepnblica. 
Aristoteles  scribit  Thraces  qaosdam 
esse  qui  nnmerando  non  possont  pro- 
gredi  ultra  quattuor;  qusso  te,  an 
talibus  putes  commendandam  esse 
gubemationem,  non  dioo  magni  mer- 
catus  ant  venamm  metallicamm  sed 
alicnjus  medioqris  CBConomisB?  Exisi- 


TUNSTAL  AND  TTKDALE.  593 

censured  by  DesclLales  for  iDsufficiencj  in  demosBtration ;  chap,  tl 
but,  to  quote  the  late  professor  De  Morgan's  comment, '  Tun-  Rk  in  Aru 
stal  is  a  very  Euclid  by  the  side  of  Ma  contemporaries.'  '  The 
wonder  is,'  observes  the  same  critic,  'that  after  his  book  bad 
been  reproduced  in  other  countries,  and  had  become  gene- 
rally known  throughout  Europe,  the  trifling  speculations  of 
the  Boethian  school  should  have  excited  any  further  atten- 
tion. For  plain  common  sense,  well  expressed,  and  learning 
most  visible  in  the  habits  it  bad  formed,  Tunstal's  book  has 
been  rarely  surpassed,  and  never  in  the  subject  of  which 
it  treats '.' 

On  Cuthbert  Tunstal  Tyndale  now  waited, — carrying  ^j>^ 
with  him  his  translation  of  Isocratee,  in  the  hope  that  the  tum^ 
bishop  might  not  be  unwilling  to  extend  to  him  a  helping 
hand.  It  was  his  object  to  obtain  from  Tunstal  aid  of  a  kind 
frequently  rendered  by  wealthy  ecclesiastics  to  men  of  letters 
in  those  days, — a  chaplaincy  in  his  household, — which  would 
have  secured  to  the  needy  scholar  the  requisite  leisure  for 
carrying  on  his  literary  labours.  His  hopes  were  high ;  for 
Erasmus  bad  lauded  the  bishop's  generosity  to  the  skies,  and. 


timemiune  m  talibni  posae  TBtkmea 
pKnlnlnm  modo  intrioaUs  erolvi  et 
eiplieuir  Neqnaqiuun.  Bed  hortun 
Tniacam  aiuulei  sunt  in  magniB 
rationiboB  et  obemiria  omaeB  qui  de- 
■tituti  BTint  hnjns  urtia  prKudio.' 
After  hsTing  Bunil&ilj  recommended 
the  fltndv  of  geotoeOj  to  their  at- 
tention, he  »ddB,  '  His  qoi  in  Htndiii 
Terwuitnr  et  perfectom  doctrinaia 
expetimt,  ilUm  aibi  ntilittiteni  pro- 
ponuiit,  qQOd  kd  doctrioUD  de  rebna 
aelegtibns  nnllni  aditni  patet  niii 
pel  uithmeticam  etgeometriam.    Et 

tuidem  tanta  vis  eat  uithmeticee  in 
oettina  de  rebui  cnlettiboe,  nt  me- 
dioeii  luitbmetioo  pene  otDnia  in 
doctrina  rerum  CBleitiain  emit  pei- 
Tis;  certe  magDom  partem  ejus  doe- 
tmue  line  nllo  negotio  asseqni  potest. 
Jam  Tide  qnam  eiigno  labore  qnan- 
tiun  pretiam  opern  poBdi  focere. 
Nihil  taciliua  est  qiuuD  bag  (at  to- 
o&nt)  «pecieR,  in  arte  numeranda 
discere.  His  mediocriter  eognitia, 
fropemodttm  tola  atlronomia  italim 
pereipi  tine  ull«  difficultatt  potat.... 


Hanim  o^  anblati  ii 


tnram,  eernere  spalia  tnetasqne  mftii- 
momm  corponun,  videre  ticUrum 
fataUt  eongreuut,  denique  eatuoi 
rrrum  ntaximanim  qaie  in  hoc  homi' 
nuH  rita  aceidunt,  animadvertere  po~ 

'  'The  book,'  adds  De  Moigan, 
'«M  a  tBreweLI  to  the  sdeiieeB  on 
the  aatfaor'a  appointment  to  the  see 
of  London.  It  was  published  (that 
ia,  the  oolophon  is  d^ed)  on  the  14th 
ol  October,  and  on  the  19th  the  oon- 
secration  took  plaoe.  The  book  ia 
deddedlj  the  most  claseieal  which 
ever  was  wrilten  on  the  subject  in 
Latin,  both  in  purity  of  Style  and 
goodness  of  matiec.  Theaatbor  had 
read  everything  on  the  subject  in 
•Tery  language  which  he  knew,  as  ha 
avers  in  his  dedicatory  letter  to  Bir 
Thomas  Hore,  and  he  spent  muoh 
time,  be  says,  ad  uni  exeiaplum,  in 
licking  what  he  found  into  shape.' 
Antkmetical  Boola,  p.  13. 

3» 


694  THE  REFOBMATIOK. 

CRAP.  TL  from  a  scholar  like  Tyndale,  a  request  for  a  chaplaincy  was 
but  a  modest  petition.  It  has  been  assumed  by  some  writers 
that  he  explained  to  Tunstal  the  precise  character  of  the 
undertaking  he  had  in  :iriew,  and  that  Tunstal  then  and  there 
turned  his  back  on  so  '  perilous '  an  '  emprise/  But  there 
is  nothing  in  Tyndale's  narrative  to  sanction  such  an  infer- 
ence, and  it  seems  therefore  more  reasonable  to  conclude  that, 
in  canon  Westcott's  words,  the  bishop  was  '  not  informed  oi 
his  ultimate  design  \'  It  is  far  from  improbable  however 
that  Tunstal  may  already  have  heard  something  about  his 
visitor  from  other  quarters,  as  a  man  of  'very  advanced 
.  opinions/  and  consequently  have  regarded  him  as  a  dangerous 
person  to  patronise.  Nor  can  we  altogether  avoid  the  sur- 
mise that,  in  the  applicant  before  him,  who,  according  to  his 
own  description  of  himself,  was  '  evil-favoured  in  this  world, 
and  without  grace  in  the  sight  of  men,  speechless  and  rude, 
dull  and  slow  withal" — ^the  courtly  ecclesiastic  instinctively 
recognised  an  uncongenial  spirit,  and  one  little  likely  to 
prove  a  complaisant  inferior  in  his  household.  It  is  certain 
that  he  met  Tyndale's  application  by  a  polite  but,  cold 
Tunttaide-  refusal.  The  latter,  in  his  long-lived  resentment,  described 
iMhim.  him,  many  years  after,  as  'a  still  Saturn,  that  so  seldom 
speaketh,  but  walketh  up  and  down  all  day  musing,  a  duck- 
ing hypocrite  made  to  dissemble.'...' His  house  was  full,'  the 
bishop  said,  *he  had  more  than  he  could  well  find'  (i.e.  pro- 
vide for) ;  and  he  advised  Tyndale  to  seek  in  London,  '  where/ 
he  said, '  I  could  not  lack  a  service.' 

2dS3r°*°  ^^  P^^'^  scholar  went  forth  from  Tunstal's  presence  dia- 
22*~n-  heartened  and  humiliated,  and  it  was  left  for  a  generous  lay- 
man to  afford  the  aid  which  the  cautious  bishop  had  with- 
held. The  reasons  that  dictated  the  decision  of  the  latter 
were,  we  may  be  sure,  of  a  kind  that  would  have  commended 
themselves  to  the  approval  of  not  a  few ;  but  nevertheless  as 
we  turn  to  compare  the  subsequent  achievements  of  these 
two  men,  it  is  difficult  altogether  to  avoid  the  conviction,  that 
though   prudence  and    'common   sense'   are   doubtless   in- 

1  HUU  of  the  Englith  Bible,  p.  417. 
*  DemauB,  Life  of  Tyndale,  p.  78. 


»           1 

^^^^^^H 

TUNBIAL  AND  TTlfDALB.  o95 

-  valuable  qualities,  there  are  undertakiogB  and  junctures  in  oiAr.  n, 
which  '  the  nicely  calculated  less  or  more '  fails  sadly  as  the 
guide  of  action.  Bishop  Tujistal  lived  to  a  good  old  age ; 
and  though  even  his  circumspect  policy  and  foresight  could 
not  secure  for  him  complete  immunity  from  the  rude  shocks 
of  the  times,  he  reaped  his  reward  iu  the  fewness  of  his 
personal  foes,  and  died  in  a  mild  and  honorable  imprison- 
ment. His  excellent  Arithmetic  went  through  several 
editions;  but  in  1552  there  appeared  the  greatly  superior 
work  of  Record  and  swept  it  to  oblivion.  William  Tyndale 
passed,  as  is  well  known,  the  remainder  of  his  life  in  weary 
exile,  and  died  a  martyr's  death.  But  be  accomplished  the 
work  on  which  he  had  set  his  heart,  and  it  has  won  for  him 
the  gratitude  of  countless  thousands  and  of  long  distant 
generations ;  even  at  the  present  day,  after  the  lapse  of  mora 
than  three  centuries,  the  divine  and  the  scholar  are  eloquent 
in  hia  praise ;  and  throughout  the  wide  globe,  wherever  and 
whenever  the  representatives  of  the  Engtish  race  are  gathered 
in  the  temples  of  Protestantism,  the  words  of  Scripture  thM 
fall  upon  their  ears  recall  the  priceless  service  to  his  countij' 
men  rendered  by  William  Tyodale. 

<Tlwt  low  DIM)  leeki  a  UU1«  tUng  to  do, 

Sees  it  and  doea  it: 
Tbis  high  num,  with  a  great  thing  to  punae^ 

Diei  er«  be  kaowB  it... 
That  baa  the  irorld  hcre-^sbonld  he  need  the  next, 

Let  the  world  mind  him  t 
This,  throws  himself  on  God,  and  nnpeiplext 

Seeking  shall  find  Him... 
LoK;  designs  most  cloae  in  like  eSeots : 

Loftilj  lying, 
LeaTO  him— still  loftier  than  the  world  snspeett^ 
Living  and  dying.' 

The  story  of  Tyndale'a  life,  from  the  time  that  he  left  Tjndiw-i 
Cambridge,  belongs  to  a  wider  current  than  that  of  uni-  j>*^  >"*• 
versity  history ;  and  his  journey  to  Hamburg,  his  subsequent 
intercourse  with  Luther  at  Wittenberg,  the  commencement 
of  the  printing  of  his  New  Testament  at  Cologne,  the  dis- 
covery of  his  proceedings  by  Cochl^us,  bis  flight  up  the 
Rhine  to  Worms,  and  finally  the  appearance  of  numerous 


596 


THE    RETOBMATION. 


Htoattein- 
■MntoMft 
■cholar  mis- 
npTMentod 


CHAP.  TL  copies  of  the  interdicted  ^¥ork  in  England  in  the  spring  of 
1526, — are  facts  that  have  within  the  last  few  years  been 
abundantly  illustrated  by  the  i)psearch  of  others.  There  is 
however  one  point  which  cannot  here  be  dismissed  entirely 
without  comment :  it  seems  certain  that  Tyndale  was  mainly 
indebted  to  Cambridge  for  whatever  Greek  scholarship  he 
possessed,  and  the  question  of  his  acquirements  in  this  respect 
is  consequently  one  in  which  the  reputation  of  his  university 
is  to  some  extent  involved. 

It  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that  it  should  have  been 
reserved  for  the  research  of  the  last  few  years  to  vindicate 
the  labours  of  Tyndale, — whose  translation,  it  is  to  be  borne 
in  mind,  is  essentially  that  of  the  present  authorised  English 
version, — from  the  charge  of  being  a  servile  reproduction  of 
the  German  version  by  Luther  and  of  the  Vulgate.  The 
calumny,  for  such  it  may  fairly  be  termed,  seems  to  have 
taken  its  rise  with  the  assertion  of  More,  who  affirmed  that 
Tyndale's  New  Testament  was  merely  a  translation  of 
Luther^s  version  \  Misrepresentation  on  the  part  of  so 
prejudiced  a  judge  is  small  matter  for  surprise;  but  in  the 
following  ceutury  we  also  find  Fuller,  in  his  Church  HistoTy» 
implying  that  Tyndale,  in  his  translation  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, owing  to  his  ignorance  of  Hebrew,  was  almost  entirely 
dependent  on  the  Vulgate*.  While  within  the  present 
century,  even  so  competent  a  scholar  as  bishop  Marsh,  sitting 
in  the  chair  of  Erasmus,  gave  deliberate  countenance  to  the 

Mid,HaUMn.  samc  vicw* ;  and  still  more  recently  the  authority  of  Hallam 


FUUer, 


Herbert 


^  *Wliicbe  who  so  calleth  the  New 
Test/unent,  oalleth  it  by  a  wrong 
name,  exoepte  they  wyll  caU  it  Tyn* 
dal's  Testament  or  Luther*B  Testa- 
ment. For  BO  hadde  Tyndale  after 
Lather's  ooonsayl  corrapted  and 
changed  it  from  the  good  and  whole- 
some doctrine  of  Chnst  to  the  deve- 
lishe  heresyes  of  their  own,  that  it 
was  cleane  a  contrary  thing.'  A  Dia- 
logue concerning  Here$iei  and  Mat- 
ten  of  Religion,  English  Works  (ed. 
1557),  p.  228. 

*  'He  rendered  the  Old  Testament 
ont  of  the  Latin,  his  best  friends  not 
entitling  him  to  any  skill  at  aU  in 


the  Hebrew.'    Church  History,  m 
162. 

*  See  Walter's  Letter  to  Marsh, 
On  the  Independence  of  the  AtUho- 
rized  Vernon  of  the  BihU  (1S23). 
*  While  I  enjoyed  the  advantage  of 
attending  yoor  lectures,  a  punfnl 
impression  was  forced  upon  me; 
that  I  most,  for  the  fntnre,  cease  to 
view  the  anthorized  version  of  the 
Bible  in  a  higher  light  than  as  4 
secondary  translation.... It  was  the 
combined  effect  of  your  language  and 
manner  which  induced  me  to  believe^ 
that  Tyndal... instead  of  translating 
directly  from  the  original  Scriptoiea, 


WILLIAK  TTNDALB.  S97 

and  the  pages  of  an  eminent  living  writer  liave  not  simply  cbap.  ti, 
given  further  sanctioQ  to  these  conclusions,  but  have  involved  *~^ 
the  history  of  out  early  translations  of  the  Scriptures  in  a  com- 
plete tissue  of  misstatement  From  these  misapprehensions  bniawMa- 
the  masterly  and  lucid  treatise  of  canon  Weetcott  has  ^>7^^ 
triumphantly  vindicated  the  character  both  of  the  translator 
and  of  his  work' ;  and  the  annals  of  Cambridge  at  the 
Reformation  have  acquired  a  new  lustre,  since  the  heroic 
student,  who  so  long  labored  in  the  university,  has  been 
exhibited  in  his  true  light  aa  the  profound,  accomplished, 
and  conscientious  scholar,  whose  great  achievement  haa 
merited  and  received  the  following  high  eulogium,  '  Before  q^b 
Tyndale  began,'  says  canon  Westcott,  '  he  had  prepared  him-  nooarr. 
self  for  a  task  of  which  he  could  apprehend  the  full  diflSculty. 
He  had  rightly  measured  the  momentous  issues  of  a  vernacular 
version  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  determined  once  for  all 
the  principles  on  which  it  must  be  made.  His  later  efforts 
were  directed  simply  to  the  nearer  attainment  of  his  ideal. 
To  gain  this  end  he  availed  himself  of  the  best  help  that  lay 
within  his  reach,  but  he  used  it  as  a  master  and  not  as  a 
disciple.  la  this  work  alone  he  felt  that  .substantial  in- 
dependence wad  essential  to  success.  In  expo^tion  or  ex- 
hortation he  might  borrow  freely  the  langu^e  or  the  thought 
that  seemed  best  suited  to  his  purpose,  but  in  rendering  the 
sacred  text  he  remained  throughout  faithful  to  the  instincts 
of  a  scholar.  From,  prat  U>  last  hta  stifle  and  ifUerpretatioa 
are  his  ovm,  and  in  tha  origimality  of  Tyndale  is  included  in 
a  large  ineasure  the  originality  of  our  English  Femon.  For 
not  only  did  Tyndale  contribute  to  it  directly  the  substantial 
basis  of  half  of  the  Old  Testament  (in  all  probability)  and  of 
the  whole  of  the  New,  but  he  established  a  standard  of 
Biblical  translation  which  others  followed.  It  is  even  of  less 
moment  that  by  far   the  greater  part  of    his   translation 

did  but  compile  t,  Tenion  from  the  wu  Ignorant  of  Hebmr.   Bee  B*lcer< 

Iiatiii  Valg&te  and  the  Oermui  of  tUjor,  pp.  S6T-8. 

Lnther'B  Bible.'  pp.  1-2.  Thii  Uanh  >  Hut.  of  the  SnglUh  BibU,  e.  i 

diMlumed,    but  he   endesTored  In  knd  App.  nu ;  Haiilm  HUt.  of  Li- 

hii  repl;  to  ihew  that  Tyndftle  de-  temture, i* 886 ;  Fioade,£riit.a/£iv- 

pendM  a  good  deftl  on  Lathei  and  land,  e,  zii. 


i 


598  THE  REFORMATION. 

cnAP.TL  remains  intact  in  our  present  Bibles,  than  that  his  spirit 
"        animates  the  whole.     He  toiled  faithfully  himself,  and  where 
he  failed  he  left  to  those  who  should  come  after  the  secret  of 
success.     The  achievement  was  not  for  one  but  for  many ; 
but  he  fixed  the  type  according  to  which  the  later  labourers 
worked.     His  influence  decided   that  our  Bible  should  be 
popular  and  not  literary,  speaking  in  a  simple  dialect,  and 
that  so  by  its  simplicity  it  should  be  endowed  with  per- 
manence.    He  felt  by  a  happy  instinct  the  potential  aiBnity 
between   Hebrew  and   English    idioms,    and    enriched    our 
language  and  thought  foi^  ever  with  the  characteristics  of 
the  Semitic  mind\' 
^tdmia.        But  while  Tyndale's  independence  of  Luther  as  a  trans- 
Jjjgg^     later  may  be  regarded  as  beyond  question,  it  was  far  other- 
wise in    matter   of  doctrine;   for   in   this  respect^   as    his 
Prologues  clearly  shew,  he  completely  submitted  himself  to 
the  teaching  of  the  great  Reformer*.     And  hence,  although 
the  Cambridge  Reformers  undoubtedly  derived   their   first 
inspiration   from  Erasmus,  under  the   new   influence  their 
theology  soon  diverged  from  that  of  Rome  to  an  extent 
which  Erasmus^  had  never  anticipated,  and  on  some  points 
altogether  discouraged  that  latitude  of  belief  which  he  had 
sought  to  establish.    Both  the  Qerman  and  the  English 
Reformer    upheld  in  its    most  uncompromising   form  the 
TiMOun.     doctrine    of    predestination.     They    consequently    treated 
formencon-  Jeromo  and    the   Greek    fathers  with   but    little    respect. 
JjjjjjJ^     Luther  indeed    stigmatised   the   former  as   a   heretic,  and 
gjjjjjj     declared  that  he  'hated'  him  more  than  any  of  the  would- 
be  teachers  of  the  Church  •.    And  these  views,  though  not 
perhaps  adopted  by  all  the  early  Reformers^  were  certainly 
those  that  now  prevailed  at  both  universities. 

^  Hist,  of  the  English  BibU,  pp.      ein   Eetzer    gewesen loh   weiss 

210-1.  keinen  outer  den  Lehrem,  dem  ioh 

•  *  Whose  bokes  be  nothing  els  in  so  feind  bin  als  Hieronymo.*    Tiseh- 

effect,  bat  the  worst  heresies  picked  reden,  Wadoh,  xxii  2070. 

oat  of  Lnther*s  workes,  and  Lather*s  ^  The  testimony  of  George  Joye, 

worst  wordes  translated  by  Tyndall  feUow  of  Peterhonse,  seems  to  point 

,                    and  pat  forth  in  Tyndal's  own  name.'  to  contrary  tendencies.    In  his  nar« 

More,  English  Works,  p.  228.  rative  of    his  interview  with  Gas. 

'  *Hieronymas  soil  nicht  anter  die  ooigne,  Wols4^*s  treasorer,  he  says : 

Lehrer  der  Eirchen  mit  gerechnet  — *I  came  to  Mr.  Gascoing,  whyohe 

noch  gezehlet  werden,  denn  er  ist  I  peroeyaed  by  his  wordes  faaored 


TTIfDAlE'S  NEW  TKSTAXEHT.  599 

Among  tbe  first  to  sound  the  note  of  alarm,  as  the  report  chip,  tl 
of  Tyndale's  New  Testament  began  to  spread  abroad,  was  wiwriu., 
Edward  Lee,  at -that  time  king's  almoner  and  afterwards  y«£^ " 
archbishop  of  York.     A  fit  representative  of  the  bigotry  of 
Oxford,  he  had  already  distinguished  himself  by  a  dishonest 
and  despicable  attack  on  Erasmus's  Nomtm   Testamenium, 
and  bad  nearly  quarrelled  with  Fiaher  on  account  of  that 
prelate's   friendship   for   Erasmus   himaelf.     Having  heard 
while  on  the  continent  that  Tyndale's  work  was  on  its  way  Ut 
England,  Lee  forthwith  wrote  to  king  Henry  to  apprise  him 
of  the  fact.     'I  need  not,'  he  said,  'to  advertise  your  grace  Lie  total* 
what  infection  and  danger  may  eusue  hereby  if  it  be  not »» ant- 
withstauded.     This  is  the  new  way  to  fulfil  your  realm  with  Jj^^^Jt. 

Lutherans All  our  forefathers,  governors  of  the  Church  "™'' 

of  England,  have  with  all  diligence  forbid  and  eschewed 
publication  of  English  Bibles,  as  appeareth  in  constitutions 
provincial  of  the  Church  of  England*.'  Spalatin,  in  Germany, 
all  absorbed  as  his  thoughts  might  well  have  been  with  the 
jHOgress  of  events  in  his  own  country,  noted  down  in  his  diary 
under  'Sunday  after  St.  Laurence's  Day,  1526,'  that  the 
English,  in  '  spite  of  the  active  opposition  of  the  king,  were  Damdfor 
BO  eager  for  the  Gospel  as  to  affirm  that  they  would  buy  a  Eofiud. 
New  Testament  even  if  they  had  to  give  a  hundred  thousand 
pieces  of  money  for  it'.'  The  alarm  excited  by  the  publica^ 
tion  of  tbe  volume  was  not  diminished  on  an  examination 
of  its  pages.  The  circumstances  that  attended  its  appear- 
ance were  indeed  almost  an  exact  repetition  of  those  that 
marked  that  of  Erasmus's  Novum.  Inetrutnffntum ;  there  was 
the  abstract  hostility  to  the  undertaking  as  an  iimovation 
upon  the  current  theological  notions,  and  there  was  the  direct 
hostility  to  the  volume  itself  as  the  vehicle  of  much  that  was 
distasteful.  It  was  soon  recognised  that  another  formidable 
blow  bad  been  dealt  at  the  whole   system  of  mediieval 

me  not,  and  he  rebuked  me  beonM  >  Cooper,  Athem,  1 86 ;  Levis,  Lift 

I  Btodied  Arigene  [Origen]  whvche  of  Fiiher,  ii  7i01-2. 

was  BD  heretike,   mid  be;  ana  he  *  Fronde,  Hut,  of  England,  u  SI, 

Mide  that  I  belde  ench  opiiiioiia  as  note. 

did  BUney  and  Artme.'     Quoted  by  ■  Bchelhom,  Amonit.  LU.  IT  Ul 

Ifaitland,  Ettagi  on  tk«  lUformaticn,  (qa«t«d  by  Wertoott,  p.  43). 

p.  9. 


600 


THE  REFORMATION. 


CHAP.  VL  doctrinal  teaching.     The  Greek  words  which  in  the  Latin 
Anii-Ronish  of  ^^^  Vulgate  had  been  translated  as  eijuivalent  to  'churcb/ 
JSStaSlii  *  priest/  '  charity/  '  grace/  '  confession/  '  penance/  had  in  Tyn- 
dale's  version  been  rendered  by  the  words  'congregation/  'elder/ 
oragftfart  of « love/  'favour/  *  knowledge/  *  repentance.'    Ridley,  the  uncle 
of  the  Reformer,  writing  to  Warham's  chaplain,  complained 
bitterly  of  the  first  of  these  substitutions.     '  As  if,*  he  says, 
'  so  many  Turks  or  irrational  animals  were  not  a  congrega- 
tion, except  he  wishes  them  also  to  be  a  church/     '  Ye  shall 
not  need,'  he  adds,  '  to  accuse  this  translation.    It  is  accused 
and  damned  by  the  consent  of  the  prelates  and  learned  men*.* 
TiMToKmie  Wolsey  advised  Henry  to  condemn  the  volume  to  be  burnt, 
FMi'i  chMt.  and  the  royal  mandate  to  that  effect  was  forthwith  issued. 
Cuthbert  Tunstal,  who  presided  at  the  burning  at  Paul's 
Timj^aitwr- Cross,  declared  in  his   sermon   on   the  occasion,   that   the 
version  contained  two  thousand  errors';   while  More,  at  a 
somewhat  later  period  did  not  scruple  to  assert,  that  Tyndale's 
New  Testament  was  '  the  father  of  all  the  heresies  by  reason 
of  his  false  translating'.'     Such  was  the  reception  originally 
afforded  by  the  ecclesiastic  and  the  man  of  letters  to  the 


I 


1  Westcott,  Hist  of  the  EnglUh 
Bible,  p.  42,  n.  2.  So  also  More  in 
his  Dialogue  (bk.  iii  o.  8|,  *Now  dooe 
ihefte  names  in  oar  Englishe  toungne 
neither  expresse  the  thynges  that  be 
ment  by  them,  and  also  ther  ap- 
peareth  (the  circumstances  wel  con- 
sidered) that  he  had  a  mischievons 
minde  in  the  chaunge.'  English 
Works,  p.  229. 

'  Westcott,  p.  43.  Or,  according 
to  Boy,  a  yet  larger  number  : — 

'He  declared  there  in  his  furious- 
ncs 

That  he  fownde  erroures  more  and 
les 

Above  thre  thousande  in  the  trans- 
laoion.' 
Rede  me,  etc.  (ed.  Arber),  p.  46. 

More  in^iis  Dialogue  says,  ^  wrong 
and  falsely  translated  above  a  thou- 
sand textes  by  tale.'  English  Works, 
p.  228. 

*  *  Of  these  bookes  of  heresies  ther 
be  so  many  made  within  these  fewe 
yerea,  what  by  Luther  himself  and 
py  his  felowes,  and  afterwards  by  the 
new  Boctw  sprongen  out  of  his,  which 


like  the  children  of  Vippara  wonld 
now  gnaw  out  their  mother's  bely, 
that  the  bare  names  of  those  bookes 
wer  almost  inough  to  make  a  booke, 
and  of  every  sort  of  those  bookes  be 
some  brought  into  this  realme  and 
kepte  in  hucker  mucker,  by  some 
shrewde  maisters  that  kcpe  them  for 
no  good. — ^Besides  the  bokes  of  Latin, 
French,  and  Dutch  (in  which  there 
are  of  these  evill  sectes  an  innume- 
rable sorte),  there  are  made  in  the 
English  tongue,  first,  Tindale*s  Newe 
Testament,  father  of  them  al  by 
reason  of  hys  false  translating.  And 
after  that,  the  fyve  bookes  of 
Moyses,  translated  by  the  same  man, 
we  nede  not  doubte  in  what  maner, 
when  we  Imow  by  what  man  and  for 
what  purpose.*  Confutation  of  Tyn» 
dale,  English  Works  (1532),  p.  341. 
*For  he  had  corrupted  and  purposely 
chaunged  in  many  places  the  text, 
with  such  wordes  as  he  might  make 
it  seme  to  the  unlearned  people,  that 
the  Scripture  aflirmed  their  heresies 
itselfe.'    Ibid,  p.  310. 


THE  CAHBRnXlB  'COLONY*  XT  OXFOBD.  601 

volume  which  must  be  looked  upon  as  essentially  the  same  chap.  n. 
with  that  over  which  the  foremost  bihlical  scholars  of  our 
country  are  at  the  present  time  engaged  in  prolonged  study 
and  frequent  consultation,  and  while  aiming  at  the  removal  of 
whatever  is  obsolete  in  expression  or  inaccurate  in  scholarship, 
are  none  the  less  actuated  by  reverent  regard  for  what  is  at 
once  the  noblest  monument  of  the  English  language  and  the 
edifice  round  which  the  most  cherished  associations  and  the 
deepest  feelings  of  the  nation  have  for  three  centuries  entwined. 

In  the  mean  time  the  erection  of  Wolsey's  college  at  nmmei 
Oxford  had  been  rapidly  prc^ressing.     As  the  scheme  of  a  if- 
single  foundation  it  was  on  a  scale  of  unprecedented  magni-  J 
ficence,  and  when  in   the  year  1527   the   university  took 
occasion  to  address  a  formal  letter  of  thanks  to  the  cardinal 
for  his  numerous  favours,  they  did  not  iai\  to  select  the  new 
college  as  the  principal  theme  of  congratulation  and  dwelt  in 
exuberant  diction  on  the  'varied  splendour  and  marvellous 
symmetry '  of  the  architecture,  the '  sanctity  of  the  ordinances,' 
the  provisions  for  the  celebration  of  divine  service,  the  'beauty 
and  order '  that  pervaded  the  whole  design '.     It  was  certainly  v <««  thu 
no  insignificant  compliment  to  Cambridge  that  Wolsey  pud  ^;J!y^ 
in  inviting  some  of  her  most  promising  young  scholars  to  ^ 
transfer   themselves  as   teachers  and  lecturers  to  the  new 
foundation ;  nor  can  we  ask  for  more  unequivocal  testimony 
to  the  character  and  reputation  of  the  younger  members  of 
the  reform  party  than  the  fact  that  it  was  almost  exclusively 

■  Vilkins,  Concilia,  in  709.  'The  1S6.  And  UbUj,  there  wu  a  rerenne 
Midiiul'B  plan  in  this  benetaetioii  *ettled  for  Uie  enterteiiunent  of 
wms  large  and  DOble,  u  appean  by  a  Btrangera,  the  relief  of  the  poor,  and 
draught  of  the  etatntea  sent  to  the  the  keeping  of  horaee  for  ooUege 
tooietj'  under  his  hand  and  seaL  Bj  bniineBa.  As  to  the  building,  it  was 
this  Bchenie,  there  waa  a  dean  and  magnifloent  in  the  model,  oorioiu  in 
■nb-dean,  threeseore  oanonB  of  the  the  warkmanship,  and  rich  in  the 
fint  rank  and  forty  of  the  Moond,  roaterialB;  and  it  the  cardinal  had 
thirteen  chapUioa,  twelie  elerki,  lived  to  execute  the  deidgn,  tew. 
and  sixteen  choriBten ;  to  which  we  palaees  of  princes  would  haTe  ex- 
mast  add,  lecturers  or  professors  in  oeoded  it.  Neither  would  the  library 
divinity,  eanon  law,  civil  law,  physio,  have  been  short  ot  the  nobleneei  of 
^loeophy,  logic,  and  hnntanity.  the  stmctnre;  for  tbe  oardiaal  in- 
There  were  likewise  tour  oenion  of  tended  to  have  fumighed  it  with  the 
manners  and  examiners  of  the  proD-  learning  and  cariosities  of  the  Vati- 
oieney  of  the  students ;  there  were  ean,   and  to   have   transcribed   the 

also  three  treasurers,  tonr  stewards,  pope's  mannseripta  '--■■--' ■ 

and  twenty  inferior  Miranti, — in  all,  Couier-I^thbary,  i 


fc 


602  THE  REFOBMATION. 

CHAP.  vr.  upon  these  that  the  choice  fell.  It  is  of  course  quite  possible 
'  ^  '  that  Shorten,  who  then  filled  the  post  of  master  of  Pembroke 
College  and  to  whom  Wolsey  mainly  entrusted  the  matter*, 
was  well  aware  of  what  was  going  on  on  the  other  side  of 
Trumpington  Street  within  so  short  a  distance  of  his  own 
lodge, — and  he  may  even  have  often  noted  Rogers  and 
Thixtill  stealing  out  from  the  college  to  join  the  conferences 
of  the  malcontents.  But  he  may  also  not  improbably  have 
thought  that  for  a  number  of  young  men  whose  heads  were 
full  of  crude  notions,  and  who  were  still  in  the  first  ardour 
of  their  attachment  to  a  cause  they  had  but  just  embraced, 
there  could  be  nothing  better  than  removal  to  a  distant  and 
busy  scene  of  action,  where  their  minds  would  be  absorbed 
in  active  duties,  and  where,  with  the  responsibility  of  instruct- 
ing others  devolving  upon  them,  they  might  consider  more 
dispassionately  the  opinions  they  had  embraced.  Nor  is  it 
impossible  that  Wolsey,  whose  acknowledged  leniency  to- 
wards the  Reformers  had  not  yet  been  exchanged  for  a 
harsher  policy,  may  have  been  a  participant  in  this  view 
TiMaidtiiu  and  have  applauded  Shorton's  discretion*.  But  however 
^^^Mt  ^^^^  ™*y  hsLYe  been,  we  certainly  cannot  assent  to  the  repre- 
•npafliiout.  sentations  of  Antony  Wood',  who  would  have  us  believe  that 
learning  at  Oxford  at  this  time  was  in  so  prosperous  a  state  that 
the  aid  thus  afforded  by  Cambridge  to  the  sister  university 
was  altogether  superfluous.  The  men  who  had  most  promoted 
the  new  studies  some  twenty  or  fifteen  years  before,  had 
given  place  to  another  generation.  Linacre,  perhaps  the 
DMth  of      ablest  scholar  of  them  all,  died  in  the  same  year  that  the 

Tilnm*Tti_ 

octfo^usi.  Cambridge  students  were  transferred  to  Cardinal  College. 
His  will,  dated  October  12,  1524,  gave  ample  proof  that 
bis  attachment  to  the  cause  of  science  was  still  unabated^; 
and  it  is  certainly  not  to  be  attributed  to  any  defect  in  his 
design  or  in  his  liberality  that  the  founder  of  the  College  of 

^  Sttype  {Life  of  Cranmer,  p.  8)  some  of  the  migrators  to  Oxford  'had 

mentions  Dr.  Capon,  master  of  Jesus  a  shrewd  name/  i.  e.  for  heresy. 

College,  as  also  acting  on  Wolsey^s  >  Wood-Gntoh,  n  25. 

behalf  in  the  matter.  *  Brewer,  Letters  and  Papers,  iv 

'  Aooording  to  Dr.  London^s  state-  822 ;  Johnson,  Life  of  Linacre^  p. 

ment  to  Warham  (Froude,  u  46),  272. 


LBABNIHO  AT  OXFORD.  603 

Physicians  failed  to  identify  his  name  with  the  rise  at  both  chap,  yl 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  of  schools  of  medicine  that  might 
have  rivalled  the  fame  of  Salerno  and  of  Padua.  Unfortunately 
his  executors,  though  men  of  uoquestioned  integrity,  were 
already  over-occupied  with  other  important  duties ',  ajid  the 
founder's  scheme  remained  for  a  long  time  inoperative ; 
troublous  rimes  followed  and  the  universities  were  wantonly 
pillaged ;  and  ultimately  the  Linacre  foundations, — origin- 
ally designed  and  not  inadequately  endowed  as  the  nucleus 
of  an  efficient  school  of  aatund  science  at  both  universities, — ■ 
dwindled  to  two  unimpori^nt  lectureships,  each  at  the 
disposal  of  a  single  college,  and  offering  in  the  shape  ofrb. 
emolument  but  small  attraction  to  recognised  ability*.  tantUf. 


>  The  trastees  were  More,  Tanetal, 
Stokede;.  uid  Shelley.  It  waa  not 
until  the  third  ;ear  of  the  reign  of 
Eing  Edward  vi  that  Tnnatal,  the 
■amviag  tmstee,  assigned  two  of 
the  lectnreB  to  Merton  College,  Oi- 
ford,  and  one  to  St.  John's  College, 
Cambridge. 

*  The  management  of  Linacre's 
beqneat  baa  been  oriticised  hj  Dr. 
JohnBOD  in  his  life  of  the  tonnder, 
published  1B35,  in  the  foUowing 
tenni  .■ — '  Amongst  tbe  many  in- 
■tanoei  of  misapplication  and  abnse 
on  the  part  of  feoffees  of  tanie,  tha 
appropriation  of  which  has  been 
■pecifioallf  prescribed,  a  more  glaring 
one  Yaa  seldom  ooeoired  than  the 
following,  which  recent  enqairieB 
ba*e  been  tbe  means  of  expoBing  to 
tbe  world.  Tonstal... seems  onthia 
ooBaxion  either  to  have  sacrificed  tbe 
eonsiitence  of  his  character  to  pri- 
Tat«  friendship,  or  to  haje  been  di- 
Terted  from  his  dntj  b;  ai^nmenta 
against  wbicb  bis  old  age  and  im- 
bedlily  of  mind  rendered  him  a  Tery 
unequal  opponent.  It  is  evident 
bom  the  tenom'  of  tbe  letters  patent 
that  the  inheritance  of  the  anpU 
eilatei,  which  Linaere  had  assigned 
to  his  tmsleee,  was  intended  to  be 
Tested  in  the  unntnity  of  Oiford, 
for  the  performanoeof  the  obligations 
whidb  the  letters  specified.  Wood 
admits  that  the  trtutees  meditated 
■neb  a  disposal  of  them,  bat  that 
owing  to  the  great  deoa;  of  the  oni- 
tersitf  in  the  reign  of  Edward  vi, 


tbe  HurviTor  wa*  induced  to  settle 
them  in  Merton  College,  and  that  ha 
was  induced  to  this  disposition  of  tbe 
funds  by  Dr.  Bainhold,  tbe  warden, 
and  by  tbe  preference  which  that 
college  bad  long  enjoyed  over  others 
in  tbe  university,  as  a  foundation 
whence  inceptore  in  physic  generally 
proceeded.  By  an  agreement  be- 
tween these  parties,  dated  10th  of 
December  in  the  above  year,  a  su- 
perior and  interior  reader  were  ap- 
pointed, tbe  one  with  an  annoal 
Mlai;  ot  £12,  tbe  second  with  a 
salary  of  £6.  Tht  appointment  to 
theie  Jfcturti  had  beat  originally 
valei  in  tht  tnatrei,  bat  it  was 
agreed  that  it  should  be  transferred 
to  the  college.  ...The  same  inSnenoe 
which  prevented  the  intention  of  the 
founder  from  being  carried  into  effect 
at  Oiford.  prevailed  equally  at  Cam- 
bridge. The  remaining  lecture  was 
there  settled  in  St.  John's  College, 
in  whose  Btatntes  the  reader  is  el- 
presal;  mentioned,  and  the  dutiea 
of  bis  offic«  defined  at  large-  It  is 
provided  that  tbe  lectore  ^otild  be 

tublicly  delivered  in  the  schools,  an- 
iss  a  sufficient  reason  to  tbe  oon- 
trary  should  be  assigned  by  tha 
master  and  a  majority  of  tbe  eight 
■anion.  Tbe  lectnrer  was  to  explain 
the  treatises  of  Oalen  De  Sanitate 
Tuenda  and  De  Methodo  Medtndi,  as 
translated  by  Linacre.  or  those  ot 
tbe  same  author  Dt  Elemmtit  et 
BimpUeibut.  He  was  to  oontinne  in 
offioa  tbrM  yean  and  a  half;  but  hia 


601 


THE  REFORMATION. 


CHAP.  VL 

TImOmB' 
bridge  ftu- 
dratsat 
Cbrdiiial 
Oolkc«u 


SprMdoftlM 
momed 
doetrloMat 
Oxfoid. 


WiUaey*! 

tiMtnwnf  of 

Hbmyrnxog 

Rflronnenat 

OudiiMd 

Oolkc«u 


The  history  of  those  Cambridge  students  who  accepted 
Wolsey's  invitatioDS  forms  a  well-known  chapter  in  Foxe  and 
D'Aubign^,  and  has  been  retold,  with  all  his  wonted  felicity 
of  narrative,  by  Mr.  Froude.  The  principal  names  that 
have  been  preserved  to  us  are  those  of  John  Gierke*, 
Richard  Cox,  Michael  Drumm,  John  Frith,  Richard  Harman, 
Thomas  Lawney,  John  Salisbury,  and  Richard  Tavemer. 
Though  acting  with  greater  circumspection  and  secresy,  they 
appear  to  have  formed  at  Oxford  a  society  like  that  they  had 
left  holding  its  meetings  at  the  White  Horse  at  Cambridge  ; 
and  the  infection  of  Lutheran  opinions  soon  spread  rapidly 
to  other  colleges.  The  authorities  at  Oxford,  before  the 
lapse  of  two  years,  became  fully  apprised  of  their  proceed- 
ings, and  the  movement  was  clearly  traced  to  the  activity  of 
the  new  comers.  *  Would  God,*  exclaimed  Dr.  London,  the 
warden  of  New  College,  when  he  learned  that  these  pesti- 
lential doctrines  had  penetrated  even  the  exclusive  society 
over  which  he  presided,  '  would  Qod,  that  my  lord  his  grace 


salarr  was  to  moreaBe  at  the  end  of 
the  tnird  year;  the  foudfl  of  the  re- 
maining half  year  to  be  appropriated 
to  indemnify  the  college.  He  was  to 
be  at  least  a  master  of  arts  who  had 
studied  Aristotle  and  Galen,  and 
during  the  continuance  of  hit  office 
was  interdicted  from  the  practice  of 
medicine.  The  members  of  the  col- 
lege were  to  have  preference  before 
other  candidates,  bat  in  the  event  of 
a  deficien<nr  of  proper  persons  the 
master  and  seniors  had  a  power  of 
election  from  some  other  college. 
An  election  was  to  take  place  imme- 
diately upon  a  vacancy,  or  at  least 
twenty  weeks  previonsly  to  the  com- 
mencement of  the  lectures,  that  time 
might  be  afforded  to  the  reader  to 
prepare  himself  for  his  duty.  At  the 
expiration  of  his  term  a  reader  might 
be  re-elected.'  Johnson,  Life  of  Li- 
nacre,  pp.  275-7.  It  will  be  seen 
from  the  foregoing  extract  that 
Johnson's  censures  apply  to  mis- 
management of  very  ancient  date. 
Of  late  the  appointment  of  Linacre 
lecturer  has  been  sought  rather  as  a 
recognition  of  acknowledged  pro- 
f  esaional  ability  than  on  account  of 


its  emoluments.  In  the  statate* 
sanctioned  by  the  queen  in  Council, 
in  18(>0,  it  was  ordered  by  statute  41 
that  the  election  should  be  vested  in 
the  master  and  seniors  of  St  John's 
CoUege ;  that  the  lectures  should  be 
open  to  any  student  of  the  univer* 
sity;  and  that  the  le<}turer  should  re- 
ceive all  payments  to  which  he  was  en- 
titled by  the  foundation,  together  with 
any  other  advantages  or  emoluments 
which  might  be  assigned  to  him  by 
the  master  and  seniors.  The  advan- 
tages thus  resulting  to  the  univer- 
sity, in  the  shape  of  -most  competent 
scientific  instruction,  have  undoubt- 
edly been  fully  commensurate  with 
the  moderate  salaiy  that  still  repre- 
sents the  original  foundation.  Fur- 
ther information  on  the  subject  will 
be  found  in  Appendix  6  to  Lord 
Brougham's  Commission. 

^  It  is .  doubtful,  as  there  were 
several  of  his  contemporaries  of  the 
same  name,  whether  this  John  Clerke 
is  the  same  as  the  one  whose  death 
in  prison  was  attended  by  such 
touching  djoumstances.  Mr.  Cooper 
{Athence,  i  124),  inclines  to  the  ne- 
gative conclusion. 


THE  CAHBBIDGB  'COLONT*  AT  OXFOBD.  605 

bad  never  motioned  to  call  any  Cambridge  man  to  his  most  chap.  tt. 
godly  college  1  It  were  s  gracious  deed  if  they  were  tried 
and  purged  and  restored  unto  their  mother  from  whence 
they  came,  if  they  be  worthy  to  come  thither  again.  We 
were  clear  without  blot  or  suBpicion  till  they  came'  1'  But  at 
the  same  time  he  was  compelled  to  admit  that  the  proselyt- 
isers  had  found  their  converts  among  '  the  most  towardly 
young  men  in  the  university.'  Wulsey's  chagrin  at  the 
discredit  thus  brought  upon  his  new  foundation  was  extreme, 
and  those  students  who  were  convicted  of  having  Lutheran 
volumes  in  their  possession  were  treated  with  barbarous 
cruelty.  They  were  thrown  into  a  noisome  dungeon,  where 
four  died  from  the  severity  and  protracted  duration  of  their 
confinement,  and  from  which  the  remainder  were  liberated  in 
a  pitiable  state  of  emaciation  aod  weakness.  Of  the  latter 
number  however  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  nearly  all  subse- 
quently attained  to  marked  distinction  in  Ufe. 

In  the  meantime  a  rigorous  enquiry  had  been  going  on  at  ftgMjfcp 
Cambridge ;  and  as  the  first  result,  towards  the  close  of  the  ^gg" 
year  1527,  George  Joye,  Bilney,  and  Arthur,  were  summoned  omgioj*. 
by  Wolsey  to  appear  before  the  cluster  at  Westminster  to 
answer  to  sundry  charges.    Joye's  narrative  of  his  individual 
experiences  is  familiar  through  various  channels  to  many 
readers.     Arriving  in  London  one  snowy  day  in  November, 
he  found  on  proceeding  to  the  chapter-house  that  Bilney  and 
Arthur  were  already  undergoing  examination;  and,  in  bis 
own  language,  '  hearing  of  these  two  poore  shepe  among  so 
many  wolves,*  was  not '  over  hasty  to  thrust  himself  in  among 
them,'     Perceiving  that  he  was  circumvented  by  treachery, 
he  successfully  outmanoeuvred  his  enemies,  and  effected  hiit  m^^i  to 
escape  from  London  to  Strassburg.    On  arriving  there  he  lost 
no  time  in  publishing  certain  letters  of  the  prior  of  Newnham 
Abbey,  by  whom  he  had  been  accused  to  the  authorities,  and 
vindicated  with  considerable  ability   the  orthodoxy   of  the 
heresies  for   which   he   had   been   cited'.     His  subsequent 

>  Dr.   London  to    Warham,  BoUs       CatUga  and  BatU  (ed.  Oatoli),  p. 
Houm   HS.    (qaoted  b;  FriHide,  □      188. 
46).      For  Dr.   London   iw  Wood,  ■  The  Letien  tcltyehe  Joham  Aik- 


606 


THE  REFOEMATION. 


Artlcl« 
Arthur. 


CHAP.  VL  disingenuous  performances  in  connexion  with  Ty-ndale's 
New  Testament,  and  Tyndale's  description  of  his  character^, 
will  perhaps  incline  us  to  conclude  that  the  severity  with 
which  Dr.  Maitland  has  commented  on  his  want  of  veracity, 
in  common  with  that  of  other  of  the  early  BeformerSy  is  in 
this  instance  not  altogether  undeserved'. 

Exwoinatioii        With  Arthur  and  Bilney,  whom  Joye  had  left  undei^oing 

wltal£Sn^  their  examination  at  the  chapter-house,  it  fared  much  the 
same  as  with  Barnes.  The  indictments  against  Arthur 
were  not  numerous ;  and  of  these,  while  he  admitted  some, 
he  denied  the  most  important.  He  denied  that  he  had 
exhorted  the  people  to  pray  for  those  in  prison  on  account  of 
their  religious  tenets,  or  that  he  had  preached  against  the 
invocation  of  saints  and  image  worship ;  but  he  confessed  to 
having  used  bold  language  in  favour  of  lay  preaching;  to 
having  declared  that  every  layman  was  a  priest';  and  more 
especially  to  having  said,  in  a  sermon  before  the  university 
on  Whit  Sunday,  'that  a  bachelor  of  divinity,  admitted  of 
the  univeiTsity,  or  any  other  person  having  or  knowing  the 
gospel  of  Ood,  should  go  forth  and  preach  in  every  place, 
and  let  for  no  man  of  what  estate  or  deg^ree  soever  he 
were:  and  if  any  bishop  did  accurse  them  for  so  doing,  his 

HtorMuta-  curses  sliould  turn  to  the  harm  of  himself.*  Of  these  latter 
articles  he  now  signed  a  revocation  and  submitted  himself  to 
the  judgement  of  the  authorities*. 

Bilney,  who  was  regarded  as  the  archheretic,  and  who 
probably  felt  that  on  his  firmness  the  constan'cy  of  his  followers 
materially  depended,  gave  more  trouble.     He  had  offended 


tioo. 


Artlclet 


BU. 


Bey. 


i 


tr«H,  priour  of  Newnham  Abbey  ft<- 
9yde$  Bedforde^  tent  iecretly  to  the 
bUhope  of  Lyncolne,  in  the  yeare  of 
ottr  Lord  1627.  Wheer  in  the  sayde 
priour  accuseth  George  Joye^  that 
tyme  being  felow  of  Peter  College  in 
Cambryge,  of  fower  opinyont :  toith 
the  answere  of  the  sayde  George  unto 
the  sayde  opinyont,  Sirassburg.  *  I 
belieye  the  date  from  StrasBburg  to  be 
merely  a  blind,  and  that  the  book 
was  printed  in  London.*  Maitland, 
Estayi  on  the  ReformatUmj  p.  12. 
^  Canon   Wcstcott,  H\$U    of   the 


English  Bible,  pp.  66-60,  69. 

'  Essays  on  the  Reformation,  pp. 
4-12. 

>  *B7  the  authority  of  God,  where 
He  aaiih  Euntes  in  mundum,  prcedi^ 
eat€  evangelium  omni  creaturce;  by 
which  authority  every  man  may 
preach.'  i^econd  Article,  Foze- 
Gattley,  rr  623).  -Arthur's  inference 
almost  suggests  a  doubt  whether  he 
rightly  tnmslated  the  Latin. 

*  Cooper,  Annals,  i  826;  Foxe- 
Cattley,  rr  620-8. 


JOTE,  ASTHUB,   AKD  BILNE7. 


607 


against  the  authority  of  the  Church  fiiir  more  seriously  by  his 
obstinate  practice  of  the  theory  which  Ari,huT  had  asserted. 
The  friars  had  twice  dn^ged  him  &om  the  pulpit;  his 
voice  had  been  heard  at  Chnstchurch  and  St.  George's  in 
Ipswich,  inveighing  against  pilgrimages  and  the  pretended 
miracles  of  the  day ;  in  the  same  city  he  had  held  a  public 
disputation  with  a  friar  on  the  practice  of  image  worship;  he 
had  been  no  less  vehement  though  less  personal  than  Baraes, 
in  his  attacks  on  the  pride  and  pomp  of  the  superior  clergy; 
and  finally,  he  was  a  relapsed  heretic*.  At  first  it  seemed 
that  he  was  resolved  to  incur  the  direst  penalties  rather 
than  abjure  a  second  time.  When  urged  by  Tunstal  he 
three  times  refused  his  submission;  but  the  persuasions 
of  his  friends  ultimately  prevuled,  and  be  again  consented 
to  sign  an  act  of  recantation.  On  the  following  Sunday, 
the  8th  of  December,  he  publicly,  along  with  Arthur,  bore 
his  fagot  in  procession  at  Paul's  Cross.  After  this  he  was  re- 
committed to  prison ;  was  a  second  time  examined  and 
abjured  by  Wolsey;  and  finally  after  twelve  months'  imprison- 
ment regained  hia  liberty,  and  was  once  more  seen  at  Cam- 
bridge, walking  and  conversing  with  Latimer  on  Heretics' 
HilL 

It   seems  beyond  question  that   it  was  with  reference 
to    this    occasion'    that    Skelton  attacked   the   Cambridge 
>  Bilnej;  denied  that  lie  had  wit*      Mr.  D7im-«  tbeoiT  Utit  Skelton  (irbo 


'  Then  the  eudinal  ftaked  him,  whe- 
ther he  hed  not  oace  nude  >n  oath 
before,   that  he  wonld  not  preach, 
rehearse,  or  defend  an;  of  Lnther'a 
opinions,    but    would    impugn    the 
■ame    eveiywhere  ?      He    anawered 
that  he  had  made  each  an  oath ;  but 
not  JawfnJly/    Foie-Catllej,  it  633. 
'not  iadiciBil7  {judieialiler  in  the 
Beguter).'    Bamet-Focock,  i  70. 
*  'For  ;e  were  worldly  shamed 
At  Ponies  croese  openlj, 
AUmeneanteetif;; 
There  lyke  a  eorte  of  eoltes, 
Te  were  f ajna  to  bear  fagottea. 
At  the/Mit  of  her  eoneepcian 
Te  snlbed  anche  eorrectionf 
Bkelton-Dyee.  i  31t.     It  will  not  be 
possible  to  reconcile  thie  relerenee  to 
Bilney's  recantation  in   1G3T,  with 


dedicated  the  '  Beplycacion '  Cardi- 
nali  nwrituijmo  ei  apottolica  tedU 
Ugato.  a  laUrtgm  legato  tuperiliuitri 
...necnon  prattntit  opusculi  fautore 
ercrUentittimo],  fled  to  the  8ane- 
tiuuy  at  Westnuasl«r  ao  earl;  aa 
163S.  'It  wonld  be  abnud,'  he  bkjh 
(i  Ifii),  'to  imagine  that,  in  16!^ 
Wolse;  oontinned  to  patronise  the 
man  who  had  written  Why  come  ye 
Bat  to  Coarte  I '  Bnt  this  objeetioD 
rests  entirely  on  the  Manmption  that 
Wolse;  identified  Skelton  thne  etalj 
as  the  author  of  that  satire,  of  which 
ve  have  no  eTidence ;  while  there  is 
eertwnl;  no  other  act  of  penance  on 
the  part  of  Cambrid;^  Beformera 
recorded  as  baring  taken  plaoe  in  a 
prior  year,  on  the  Bth  of  Dtcembrr, 
I.  e.  the  FeatI  of  the  Conception. 


I 


608  THE  BEFORKATION. 

CHAP.  VL  Reformers  in  the  lines, — the  most  contemptible  of  his  extant 
compositions, — whereby  he  sought  to  second  the  terrors  of  the 
law  by  the  lash  of  satire.  In  his  '  Replycacion  against  certain 
yong  Scholers  abjured  of  late/  dedicated  to  his  former  patron, 
we  meet  neither  with  the  poetic  fancies  of  the  '  Garlande  of 
Laureir  nor  the  vigorous  irony  of  'Colyn  Clout'  or  of  *Why 
^^  of  come  ye  nat  to  Courte?'  but  a  mere  outpouring  of  coarse 
invective  and  rancorous  spite.  He  grudges  the  poor  scholars 
the  exhibitions  which  their  talents  and  industry  had  gained 
for  them  at  the  universities*;  declares, — a  singular  chai^ 
for  a  theologian  of  the  old  school  to  prefer, — that  they  so 
'cobble  and  clout'  the  Gaspels'  and  Epistles,  that  the 
laity  are  thrown  into  the  utmost  mental  perplexity;  and 
reviles  them  in  unmeasured  terms  for  their  rejection  of  pil- 
grimages, Mariolatry,  and  image  worship*. 

It  does  not  appear  that  Bilney  on  his  return  to  Cambridge 
was  regarded  with  less  esteem  by  his  friends,  but  he  was  a 
humiliated  and  saddened  man,  and  his  sufferings  from  self- 
reproach  were  such,  that  it  was  for  some  time  feared 
that  his  reason  would  give  way.  It  is  certain  that  he  no 
longer  assumed  the  part  of  a  leader;  while,  in  the  same 
year  that  he  returned,  his  party  sustained  another  serious 

BMUhof  blow  in  the  death  of  the  eloquent  and  highminded 
Stafford.  It  was  in  the  generous  discharge  of  the  offices  of 
Christian  charity  that  the  latter  met  his  end.  During  the 
prevalence  of  the  plague  he  had  the  courage  to  visit  one  of 
the  infected, — a  master  of  arts  of  Clement's  hostel.  This 
man,  whose  name  was  Henry,  although  a  priest,  was  known 
imder  the  designation  of  'the  Conjuror,'  owing  to  his  reported 
addiction  to  the  study  of  necromancy.    His  malady,  therefore, 

^  *  Some  of  yon  had  ten  ponnde  peUers.' 

Therewith  for  to  he  foande  '  Ibid.  1 217-9.   It  will  he  ohserred 

At  the  uimrersyte  that  these  are  precisely  the  practices 

Employed  whiohe  might  have  against  which  Bilney  directed  his  at- 

he  tacks.    There  can  he  no  donht  that 

Moche  hotter  other  wayea.'  it  is  to  Bilney*s  trial  that  More  in 

Skelton-Dyce,  i  218.  his  Dialogue  (written  1528)  refers; 

*  Ihid.  I  216.    It  may  be  noted  for  the  same  heretical   tenets    are 

that  it  was  on  account  of  their  atten-  there  animadyerted  npon    in    oon- 

tion  to  the  Gospels  rather  than  to  nexion  with  a  recent  and  important 

the  Sentences,  that  the  early  Reform-  conviction  for  heresy.     See  his  Eng' 

ers  were  often  designated  as  '  Gos-  liah  JVorkt  (ed.  1557),  p.  113. 


LATDtEB's  CABD  SEBHOHS.  609 

not  improbably,  was  r^arded  as  a  special  judgement ;  and  ch*p.  vl 
Stafford,  seizing  the  opportunity,  urged  upon  him  the  un- 
lawful nature  of  his  studies  with  such  effect,  that  before  he 
left  the  '  conjuring  books '  had  been  consigned  to  the  flames. 
His  purpose  accomplished,  Stafford  went  home,  and  was  him- 
self attacked  by  the  plague  and  carried  off  in  a  few  hours'. 

With  Stafford  dead,  Bilney  discredited,  and  Barnes  in  J^;^* 
prison,  the  Cambridge  Reformers  might  have  lacked  a  leader,  {S^^fg^ 
had   not  I^timer  at  this  juncture   begun  to  assume  that 
promioeot  part  whereby  he  became  not  only  the  foremost 
man  of  the  party  in  the  university  but  '  the  Apostle  of  the 
Befbrmation'  in  England.     His  'Sermons  on  the  Card,' — 
two  celebrated  discourses  at  St.  Edward's  Church  in  Decem- 
ber, 1529, — are  a  nottt>ble  illustration  of  the  freedom  of  simile 
and  quaintncss  of  fancy  that  characterise  the  pulpit  oratory 
of   his   age.     Delivered    moreover   on   the    Sunday   before 
Christmas,  tfaey  had  a  special  relevancy  to  the  approaching 
season.     It  was  custonuu^  in   those  days  for  almost  every  cu^^^^w 
household   to   indulge   in   card-playing  at  Christmas   time.  oS^™ 
Even  the  austere   Fisher,   while   strictly  prohibiting  such 
recreation  at  all  other  times  of  the  year,   conceded   per-  ptniiud  by 

'  FWhvr  to  thfl 

mission  to  the  fellows  of  Christ's  and  St.  John  s  thus  to  ^^^Xh 
divert  Uiemselves  at  this  season  of  general  rejoicing*.     By  •™™- 


>  FnUer-Priekett  ft  Wrighl,  p. 
800.  Cuoper'B  ooujectora  {AnnaU,  i 
8S7  n.  E),  that  the  conjurer  was  per- 
lutpa  only  a,  mathematician,  Beeuis 
Mvoelj  compatible  with  what  we 
lotow  of  the  estimation  in  which  ma- 
UMmfttisal  itadiee  were  held  at  lhi« 
time;  neerl;  a  cen tar;  before,  John 
Baltntrak,  master  of  Peterhoiue,  had 
oominled  and  beqaeatbed  to  that 
aoaitj  a  complete  set  of  astronomi- 
oil  UUe«;  while  Helanchthon,  as  we 
hav*  already  seen  (npia,  p.  602),  had 
oimily  oommended  Uie  etadj  of  as- 
tndogT.  For  Uolbrook'j  laboun,  the 
Tabula  Cantabrigienta, — which  be- 
long to  the  history  of  mathematical 
■tndiM  in  the  nniTeraitj, — see  Ur. 
Halliwell's  Catalogue  of  the  ContenU 
Oftht  Codex  HolbrookianuM.  IStO. 

*  The  tcholan  were  forbidden  to 
play  eren  at  CfarittmaB  timv.    *Ad 


}uee  nemo  Bociorani  tesEeris,  aleis, 
taxi  Ilia,  chaitia  aUisre  India  jnre 
oanoaico  ye!  regni  prohibitis  ntatar, 
praterqnam  solo  Kativilatis  Christ! 
tempore,  neqne  torn  in  mnltam  noo- 
tem  aut  alibi  qnam  in  aula,  atqae  id 
dnntaiat  animi  remit  tendi  oanaa, 
non  qutegtOB  IncrlTe  gratia.  Diiei- 
pniorum  ivro  nnnin«>i  dicU»  ludot 
txenere  ullo  vnqiiam  tempore  per- 
mitrtaiiu,  aat  intra  oollegiom  ant 
extra.'  Early  Statute!  of  St.  John't 
(1530),  ed.  Mayor,  p.  138:  for  ata- 
tntea  of  1S34  tee  Ibid.  p.  S34.  !«■ 
timer  does  not  teem  to  haye  in  any 
way  hinted  diaapproTal  of  the  prac- 
tice; bnt  the  Betormers,  generally, 
denoimced  it;  and  at  the  Conneil  of 
Angsbnrg  it  was  decreed  Uiat  those 
who  conntenanced  any  game  of 
chanee  shoold  not  be  admitted  to 
the  commonion.    See  l^yloi'i  HUl. 


610 


THE  REFORMATION. 


CHAP.  VT.  having  recourse  to  a  scries  of  similes  drawn  from  the  rules 
of  primero  and  'trump\'  Latimer  accordingly  illustrated 
his  subject  in  a  manner  that  for  some  weeks  after  caused 
his  pithy  sentences  to  be  recalled  at  well  nigh  every  social 
gathering;  and  his  Card  Sermons  became  the  talk  of  both 
town  and  university.  It  need  hardly  be  added  that  his 
similes  were  skilfully  converted  to  enforce  the  new  doctrines 
he  had  embraced ;  more  especially,  he  dwelt  with  particular 
emphasis  on  the  far  greater  obligation  imposed  on  Christians 
to  perform  works  of  charity  and  mercy  than  to  go  on 
pilgrimages  or  make  costly  oflFerings  to  the  Church.  The 
novelty  of  his  method  of  treatment  made  it  a  complete 
success ;  and  it  was  felt,  throughout  the  university,  that  his 
shafts  had  told  with  more  than  ordinary  effect.  Among  those 
who  regarded  his  preaching  with  especial  disfavour,  was 
Sral^ta"  Buckenham,  the  prior  of  the  Dominican  foundation  at 
'"**'  Cambridge,  who  resolved  on  an  endeavour  to  answer  him  in 

like  vein.  As  Latimer  had  drawn  his  illustrations  from 
cards,  the  prior  took  his  from  dice;  and  as  the  burden  of 
the  former's  discourses  had  been  the  authority  of  Scripture 
and  an  implied  assumption  of  the  people's  right  to  study 
the  Bible  for  themselves,  so  the  latter  proceeded  to  instruct 
his  audience  how  to  throw  cinque  and  qiuitre  to  the  con- 
fusion of  Lutheran  doctrines — the  quatre  being  taken  to 
denote  the  *four  doctors*  of  the  Church,  the  cinqw  five 
passages  in  the  New  Testament,  selected  by  the  preacher  for 
the  occasion". 

But  an  imitation  is  rarely  as  happy  as  the  original,  nor 
was  Buckenham  in  any  respect  a  match  for  the  most  popular 
and  powerful  preacher  of  the  day ;  and  his  efibrt  at  reply 
only  served   to  call  forth  another  and  eminently  effective 


Spread  of  the 
oontruTeny 
in  the  onlTttT- 


of  Playing  Cards,  pp.  249-S8,  for  the 
games  al  cards  in  vogue  at  this 
period.  Seven  of  the  cards  in  the 
Jeu  de  ManUgna  were  named  from 
the  subjects  of  the  trivium  and  quad' 


rtvtum. 


*  From  the  French  triomphe :  so 
Latimer  in  his  first  sermon:  *The 
game  that  we  will  play  at  shaU  be 


called  the  triumph^  which,  if  it  be 
well  played  at,  he  that  de^eth  shaU 
win;  the  players  shall  likewise  win; 
and  the  standers  and  lookers  upon 
shall  do  the  same.*  Latimer,  Ser- 
motu  (ed.  Gorrie),  p.  8.  For  the  game 
of  L<i  Trion^phe,  see  Taylor,  p.  872-3; 
it  is,  he  says,  *  the  parent  of  ecart€.^ 
•  Demans,  Life  of  Latimer^ -p.  97. 


LATIHEB.  611 

aermon,  by  way  of  retort,  from  Latimer.     Others  thereupon  chap,  tl 
CDgaged  in  the  controversy.     The  duel  became  a  battle;  and 
the  whole  university  was  divided  into  two  fiercely  hostile 
parties.     West  again  entered  the  lists  against  the  Reformer, 
at  BamwelL     John  Venetus,  a  learned  foreigner,  preached 
against   him   from   the  pulpit   of  St.   Mary's'.     St.   John's 
College,   it  was   rumored  dnder  Fisher's   influence,   distin- 
guished itself  by  a  peculiarly  bitter  hostility ;  and  it  was  not  J^J^J^ 
until  the  arrival  of  the  following  missive  from   the  royal  J^^**^ 
almoner  to  Dr.  Buckmaster,  the  vice-chancellor,  that  peace, 
at  least  in  outward  observance,  was  restored  to   the  uni- 
versity : 

'  Mr.  Yioe-cbancellor,  I  hastily  commend  me  unto  yoo,  adver- 
tising th«  same  that  it  hath  been  greatlj  complained  unto  the 
kiiiges  highues  of  the  skamefull  contentions  need  now  of  late  in 
sermoDS  made  betweene  Mr  t^tymer  and  certayne  of  St.  John's 
College,  insomuch  his  grace  intendcrth  to  set  some  otdre  therein, 
which  ahnlde  not  be  greatly  to  yours  and  other  the  headea  of  the 
univerHities  worship.  Wherefore  I  prey  you  to  ose  all  your  wisdom 
and  authoritie  ye  can  to  api>ease  the  same,  so  that  no  fitrther 
complaints  be  made  thereof  It  is  not  unlikely  that  they  of  St. 
John's  procecdeth  of  some  private  malice  towards  Mr.  LatTmer, 
and  that  also  thei  l>e  animated  so  to  do  by  their  master,  Mr 
Wateon,  and  soche  other  mj  Lorde  of  Kocheaters  freendes.  Which 
malice  also,  peradventure,  cometh  partly  for  that  Mr.  lAtymer 
/avoureth  tlie  king's  cause,  and  I  assure  yon  that  it  is  so  reported 
to  the  king&  And  contrary,  peradventnre,  Mr  Latjmer  being  by 
them  exasperatei),  ia  more  vehemente  than  becometh  the  very 
evangeliste  of  Christe,  and  de  indtutria,  speaketh  in  his  sermona 
certen  poradoxa  to  oSende  and  aklaunder  the  i>eople,  which  I 
assure  yon  in  my  mjode  is  neither  wisely  donne  tit  nunc  sunt 
Umpora,  neither  like  a  goode  eTangeliate.  Ye  shall  then-fore,  in 
my  opynyon  do  well  to  commaunde  both  of  them  to  silence,  and 
that  neither  of  them  from  henceforth  preche  untyll  ye  know  fiirther 
of  the  Icinge's  pleasure,  or  elles  by  some  other  waies  to  reduce 
tbem  in  concordance,  the  wayes  how  to  ordre  the  same  I  remyt  to 
yonr  wysdom  and  Mr.  Kdmondes,  to  whom  I  praye  you  have  me 
heartily  commended,  trustinge  to  see  you  shortly.  A.t  Loudon,  the 
xxiiiith  day  of  January. 

Tour  lovinge  froeude, 

Edward  Foxe'.' 


'  Cooper,  Athena,  i  40.  *  Lamb,  CanAridge  Docnmentt,  p.  14. 


612 


THE  REFORMATION. 


ClIAP.  VI. 
Thi  Rotal 


Thomu 
Onunner. 
ft.  14891 
dLlMS. 


The 
*l]iblpUn.* 


Oftamer't 
marrtofe. 


nis  wife's 


AMoond 
time  •leeted 
fdlow  of 
Jasiu  Col. 


The  allusion  in  the  foregoing  letter  to  'the  king's  caase' 
refers  to  another  important  controversy  then  dividing  the 
sympathies  of  the  English  nation,  and  in  connexion  with 
which  the  universities  played  a  prominent  though  little 
honorable  part, — the  question  of  the  Royal  Divorce.  When 
Wolsey,  in  the  year  1324,  was  holding  out  inducements  to 
the  ablest  scholars  in  Cambridge  to  transfer  themselves  to 
his  new  foundation  at  Oxford,  there  were  some  who,  doubt- 
less from  good  and  sufficient  reasons,  declined  his  tempting 
offers;  and,  characteristically  enough,  among  this  number 
was  the  wary  and  sagacious  Cranmer.  Cranmer  was  at  that 
time  in  his  thirty-fifth  year  and  a  fellow  of  Jesus  College. 
The  circumstances  under  which  he  had  been  elected  were 
peculiar,  inasmuch  as  he  was  a  widower  and  had  vacated  a 
former  fellowship  by  marriage.  At  the  Bridge  Street  end 
of  All  Saints*  Passage  there  stood  in  those  days  a  tavern  of 
good  repute  known  by  the  sign  of  the  Dolphin.  From  its 
proximity  to  Jesus  Lane  it  was  probably  especially  patronised 
by  Jesus  men;  and  Cranmer  in  his  visits  fell  in  love  with  the 
landlady's  niece,  to  whom  his  enemies  in  after  years  were 
wont  to  refer  under  the  designation  of  'black  Joan\*  His 
marriage  soon  after  he  had  been  elected  in  1315  a  fellow  of 
Jesus  College,  involved  of  course  the  resignation  of  his 
fellowship,  and  for  a  time  Cranmer  maintained  himself  by 
officiating  as  'common  reader'  at  Buckingham  Coll^;e. 
But  within  a  twelvemonth  his  wife  died;  and  it  may  be 
looked  upon  as  satisfactory  proof  both  of  the  estimation  in 
which  his  abilities  were  held  and  that  no  discredit  attached 
to  the  connexion  he  had  formed,  that  he  was  again  elected  to 
a  fellowship  by  the  authorities  at  Jesus'. 


^  CooipeTf  Athena tilA6.  According 
to  FuUer,  Granmer*8  'frequent  re- 
pair* to  the  Dolphin  'gave  occasion 
to  that  impudent  lie  of  the  papists 
that  he  was  an  ostler.'  Fuller- 
Prickett  &  Wright,  p.  203;  Morice, 
Anecdotes  of  Archbp.  Cranmer,  in 
Nichols,  Narratives  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, p.  269. 

*  <I  know  the  statutes  of  some 
houses  run    thus:    Nolumus  socios 


noetros  esse  maritos  vel  maritatot. 
It  seems  this  last  barbarous  word 
was  not,  or  was  not  taken  notice  of, 
in  Jesus  College  statutes.  Cranmer 
herein  is  a  precedent  by  himself,  if 
that  may  be  a  precedent  which  hath 
none  to  follow  it.*  Ibid,  p.  203.  A 
recent  election,  to  a  fellowship  on 
the  foundation  of  the  college  of  the 
same  name  at  the  sister  uniyersity, 
has  falsified  FuUor^s  last  words. 


In  the  long  vacation  of  1529  the  outbreak  of  the  plague  cHXF.n. 
at  Cambridge  had  driven  avay  the  members  of  the  umversity ,  r>Z^^^' 
and  amoDg  the  number  Cranmer  had  taken  ^fdge  with  two  J^Sj^ibit 
pupils,  also  relatives,  of  the  name  of  Creasy,  at  their  father's  !uJI^£« 
house  at  Waltham.     It  so  happened  that  during  his  residence  "n"tfy 
there,  the  same  epidemic  had  compelled  the  court  to  leave  <"<■» 
IjOndoD ;  Waltham  had  likewise  been  selected  for  the  royal 
retreat ;  and  Fox,  the  writer  of  the  above  letter,  then  provost 
of  King's  Coll^,  and  Gardiner,  then  master  of  Trinity  Hall, 
were  lodged  at  Cressy's  house.  Cranmer  was  probably  already 
well  known  to  both,  and  as  hia  reputation  as  a  canonist  was 
almost  unrivalled  at  Cambridge,  they  naturally  adverted  to 
the  canonical  difficulty  that  was  then  alleged  to  be  trou> 
bling   Henry's   mind, — the   legality  of  his   marriage  with 
his  brother's  wife.     It  was  then,  according  to  the  oft-told 
story,  under  the  shadow  of  earl  Harold's  foundation, — that 
nobly  conceived  innovation  on   the  mouastic  monopoly  of 
learning', — that  the  fellow  of  Jesus  College  threw  out  the 
suggestion,  which,  as  adopted  and  carried  out  by  Henry,  was 
in  the  course  of  a  few  years  to  prove  the  downfall  of  the 
monastic  system  in  England. 

It  is  unnecessary  that  we  should  here  enter  upon  the  n»  iij'M  ' « 
merits  of  a  controversy  respecting  which,  amid  all  the  "gj"*"^ 
sophistry  and  ingenuity  that  have  been  expended  on  it,  few 
candid  students  of  the  period  are  probably  much  at  variance; 
but  the  morality  of  the  royal  divorce  and  the  morality  of 
the  universities  in  relation  to  the  question  are  distinct 
subjects,  and  the  latter,  though  its  details  are  correctly 
described  by  Mr.  Froude  as  '  not  only  wearying  but  scanda- 
lous,' lies  too  directly  in  our  path  to  be  passed  by  without 
comment.  The  question  propounded  to  the  universities,  it 
is  to  be  observed,  was  very  far  from  embracing  those  consi* 
derations  of  expediency  that  have  been  urged  by  different 
writers  in  extenuation  of  Heniya  policy.  The  loss  by  death 
of  one  after  another  of  the  royal  children,  the  possibility  of 
a  disputed  succession  and  of  the  revival  of  civil  war,  were 
not  matters  of  which  the.  pundits  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge 

■  Sm  Bopn  160-9. 


614 


THE  REF0B3CATI0K. 


^^r  — ''  ^®'"®  supposed  to  have  any  cognisance.  The  question,  which 
as  canonists  and  theologians  they  were  called  upon  to  decide, 
was  simply  whetfier  a  man  may  lawfuUy  marry  his  hrother^s 
wife,  after  tliat  brothers  deatii  without  issue^;  and  there  were 
possibly  some  half-dozen  men  of  education  and  intelligence 
in  the  kingdom  who  serioasly  believed  that  the  verdict  of 
these  learned  bodies  would  be  in  scrupulous  conformity 
with  what  they  found  to  be  the  preponderance  of  authority 
in  the  Scriptures,  the  fathers,  the  canonists,  and  the  school- 

Tht  qn^km  men.     It  was  however  patent  to  all  that  a  far  wider  question 

MBlly  IbvoIt-  , 

•**jjj««'*»|«  was  tacitly  laid   before   the  universities   as  an    inevitable 


j[jj|*y  «***»•  corollary  to  that  which  was  formally  submitted.  Pope 
Julius  II  had  granted  a  dispensation  for  Henry's  marriage 
with  Catherine ;  and  every  effort  on  the  king  s  part  to  prevail 
on  Clement  to  annul  this  dispensation  had  been  unavailing'; 
in  referring  the  question  to  the  universities  it  was  therefore 
obvious  that  Henry  was  tacitly  reviving  the  fifteenth 
century  theory  of  oecumenical  councils — that  of  an  authority 
which  could  control  the  pontifical  decrees.  Apart  therefore 
firom  the  known  sympathies  of  Ann  Boleyn  with  the 
Reformers,  the  appeal  to  the  imiversities  at  once  evoked  in 
the  most  direct  manner  fresh  demonstrations  of  that  ]>arty 
spirit  which  Cambridge  had  already  seen  raging  so  hotly 
under  the  influence  of  Latimer. 

On  the  continent,  as  at  home,  it  soon  became  evident 
how  small  was  the  probability  that  the  difierent  centres  of 
learning  would  consent  to  adjudicate  upon  the  question  on 
its  abstract  merits,  as  tested  by  the  authority  of  Aquinas 
or  Turrecremata.  In  Germany  the  Lutherans,  partly  from 
hostility  to  Henry,  partly  from  fear  of  the  emperor,  were 
almost  unanimous  in  opposing  the  divorce.  Italy  under 
the   machinations  of   Richard  Croke   proved    more  favor- 


FUlMkrat 
diMBcterof 

tlM 


^  *An  sit  jure  divino  et  natnrali 
prohibitum  ne  frater  ducat  in  uxo- 
Tom  roliotntn  (ratris  mortui  tine  li- 
herii,*  Lingard,  whose  aooount  of 
tlio  oonduot  of  the  univorsities  in 
relation  to  the  question  appears  to 
be  in  other  respects  correct,  has 
made  a  Berions  omission  in  leading 


out  the  words  in  italics.     See  HUt, 
of  England,  iv*  593,  Append,  h. 

'  Burnet  himself  admits  that  *to 
condemn  the  bull  of  a  former  pope 
as  unlawful,  was  a  dangerous  prece- 
dent at  a  time  when  the  pope's 
authority  was  rejected  by  so  many 
in  Germany.'    Bumet-Pooook,  i  81. 


THE  DITOBCE. 


615 


able  to  the  king's  wishes.  That  emineat  scholar,  who  was  chap,  tl 
now  Greek  lecturer  at  St  John' a,  had  been  sent  out,  at  the  cnkau 
su^estion  of  Cranmer,  to  collect  the  opinions  of  the  most 
distiDguished  foreign  canonists  and  jurists.  Of  the  candour 
and  impartiality  with  which  he  might  be  expected  to  dis- 
charge his  missioQ  he  had  recently  given  the  university  no 
encouraging  promise.  In  the  preceding  January  it  had  been 
decreed  by  the  senate  that  a  solemn  annual  posthumous 
service  should  be  celebrated  at  St  John's  College  in  com- 
memoration  of  the  great  benefactor  of  the  university,  its 
chancellor,  bishop  Fisher.  Croke  had  some  six  years  before 
been  elected  a  fellow  of  the  college,  and  there  were  few  of  its 
members  who  lay  under  greater  obligations  to  him  whom  it 
was  now  decided  thus  to  honour;  from  motives  however 
which  are  not  recorded  he  did  his  best  to  discourage  the 
proposal,  and  even  declared  that  Fisher  was  intent  on  usurp- 
ing the  honours  due  to  a  founder,  'in  derogation  of  the 
right  and  honour  of  the  lady  Mat:garet'  His  contemptible 
meanness  and  ingratitude  only  served  to  draw  from  Fisher  an 
earnest  and  unanswerable  letter  of  self-vindication,  and  at  a 
later  time,  from  the  historian  of  the  college,  the  not  un- 
deserved epithets  of '  an  ambitious,  envious,  and  discontented 
wretch*.'  He  was  now  to  be  heard  of  at  Venice,  professedly 
engaged  in  poring  over  ancient  Greek  manuscripts  for 
pass^es  bearing  on  the  all-engrosstng  question,  or  at 
Bologna  and  Padua,  whence  he  reported  endless  conferences 
with  various  professois  and  divines;  but  his  more  serious Hk iitMtf 
business  consisted  in  collecting  subscriptions,  duly  recognised  gu^ij^fa 
by  an  adequate  honorarium,  to  an  opinion  favorable  to  his 
royal  employer*. 


'  B^ker-Mayor.  p.  97. 

*  For  ■  detailed  account  of  Croke'a 
misuoD  EM  Burnet-Pocoek,  i  151-8. 
Bnmet  qnotiofi  the  Bomi  luuncd  b; 
Croke  in  bis  lettere,  thinlu  thej'  ««n 
hardly  be  looked  upoii  u  bribea, 
trom  the  smftUiiess  oj  the  amoiuiti ; 
'they'  rthereeipiontslheasys.  'miiBt 
hkTe  bad  very  prostitated  con- 
scienoee  if  tbey  oonld  be  hired  eo 
«heap.'  InDodd-TieTiie;(i201),  we 


find  however  larger  nmu  qnotad  : 
bat  the  moat  conclnaiTe  eTidenee  ia 
perhspa  to  be  gathered  from  Croke'a 
letter  book.  Cotton  MS.  Viteliiu 
B  13.     The  BtatemeDt  of  CaTendioh 

tLi/t  of  H'oltfy  (ed.  Singer),  p.  306], 
I  perhapti  as  triiittworth;  as  that  o( 
any  indepmdent  contemporary,  and 
he  say  a  'there  ww  ioeetimable  annul 
of  money  gi-rea  to  the  fuuona  elerki 
to  ehoke  them,  and  in  eapeeitl  to 


616 


THE  BEFORMATION. 


^^^'^        -^^  home,  though  there  is  no  evidence  of  bribery,  there 
KiiwHtiiiy  was   undeniable    intimidation.    The   very  first  letter    that 
oifonL        Henry  addressed  to  the  university  of  Oxford,  where  it  was 
well  known  that  there  existed  a  large  and  influential  party 
opposed  to  the  divorce,  contained  a  distinct  and  intelligible 
threat^;  in  a  second,  written  when  it  had  become  apparent 
that  the  anticipate  opposition  was  likely  to  result  in  an  un- 
favorable verdict,  the  threat  was  yet  more  plainly  repeated'; 
and  in  a  third  letter,  written  after  the  Cambridge  verdict 
had  been  made  known,  the  example  thus  set  was  appealed  to 
in  order  to  quicken  the  irresolute  counsels   of  the   sister 
university*.     Having  pledged   himself  to  a  theory  of  the 
history  of  the  divorce  which  represents  it  as  '  a  right  and 
necessary  measure,*  and  conceived  by  Henry  solely  from 
Mr.  Fronde*!  honorable  and  conscientious  motives,  Mr.  Froude,  in  com- 
jj^^yon-    paring  the  policy  respectively  pui-sued  by  these  two  learned 
uumMdge.    hodics,  has  not  hesitated  to  draw  the  contrast  entirely  to  the 
disadvantage  of  the  community  to  which  he  himself  belongs. 
•The  conduct  of  the  English  universities,'   he  says,   'was 
precisely  what  their  later   characters    would  have   led  us 

respectively  to  expect  from  them Cambridge,  being 

distinguished  by  greater  openness  and  largeness  of  mind  on 
this  as  on  the  other  momentous  subjects  of  the  day  than  the 
sister  university,  was  able  to  preserve  a  more  manly  bear- 
ing, and  escape  direct  humiliation*.* 


snch  as  had  the  goyemanoe  and 
onBtody  of  their  nniTersities'  seals.' 
See  also  Lingard,  Hitt,  of  England, 
iir«693. 

1  'And  in  case  yon  do  not  up- 
rightly, according  to  divine  learning, 
humble  yonrselves  herein,  ye  may  be 
assured  that  we,  not  without  great 
cause,  shall  so  quickly  and  so  sharply 
look  to  your  unnatural  misdemean- 
our herein,  that  it  shaU  not  be  to 
your  quietpess  and  ease  hereafter.* 
Fxoude,  I  258. 

*  *  And  if  the  youth  of  the  univer- 
sity will  play  masteries  as  they  begin 
to  do,  we  doubt  not  but  they  shaU 
well  perceive  that  non  est  bonum 
irritare  crabrones.'    Ibid,  i  262. 

'  .'And  so  much  the  more  marvel 
we  at  this  your  manner  of  delays, 


that  our   university  of   Cambridge 
hath  within  far  shorter  time   not 
only  agreed  upon  the  fashion  and 
manner  to  make  answere  to  us  effect* 
ually,  and  with  diligence  following 
the  same  :  but  hath  also  eight  days 
since  sent   unto  us  their  answere 
under  common  seide,  plainly  deter- 
mining, etc'    Fiddes,  Life  of  Wol- 
8ey,  Collect  No.  85.    (This  letter  ia 
not  referred  to  by  Mr.  Froude).     *So 
many    thunderclaps    of     his    dis- 
pleasure,* says  Anthony  Wood,  *had 
been  enough,  if  our  famous  univer- 
sity had  not   been  consecrated  to 
eternity,  to  have  involved  our  col- 
leges among  the  funerals  of  abbeys.* 
Wood  Gutch,  11  40. 
*  Hist,  of  England,  i  257,  262. 


THE  DITOfiCE.  617 

Without  entering  upon  the  questioD  bow  &r  the  com-  chap.ti;, 
parisou  thus  drawn  is  to  be  justified  on  a  consideration  of  niTiniiiiiM 
the  continuous  history  of  the  two  univeisities,  it  may  be  ^SH!!!};^ 
worth  while  to  examine  to  what  extent  Mr.  Froude's  eulogium  ""*■* 
of   Cambridge  is  borne  out  by  the  documentary  evidence. 
The  following  royal  letter,  the  first  formal  step  in  the  pro- 
ceedings, was  received  by  Dr.  Buckmaster,  the  vice-chancellor, 
a  fellow  of  Feterhouiie,  in  February,  1529 : — 

*  To  our  tnutj/  and  well-beloved,  the   Vice-ehtmeellor,  Doeton,  and  si^nmtf% 
SegaUea  and  Non-RegenUa  of  our  Univeraitie  of  Cambridge.        iSwSwrf 

'  By  the  Eiko. 

'  Tniaty  and  well  beloved,  we  grete  yoa  welL  And  where, 
an  in  the  matter  of  matrytnonie  between  us  and  the  Quene,  uppoa 
ooiuultation  had  with  the  gretest  clerks  of  Christendom,  as  well 
without  this  our  realme  as  within  the  same,  thei  have  in  a  grete 
Domhre  affenned  unto  us  in  writing,  and  thereunto  mbBcribed 
their  names,  that  ducere  uxorem  fhuria  foortui  sine  uberis  tit 
prohibitum  jure  divino  et  rvUvrtdi,  which  is  the  chief  and  prin- 
^palt  point  in  our  cause ;  we  therefore,  deairouse  to  knowe  and 
vnderstande  jour  myndea  and  opynions  in  that  bibalfe,  and 
nothing  dowtinge  but  like  as  ye  have  all  wayee  fonnde  us  to  yon 
and  that  our  universitie  fiivourable  benivoleut,  snd  glad  to  ex- 
tend our  auctoritie  for  youre  wealthe  and  benefite  when  ye  have 
required  the  same,  je  will  now  likewise  not  omytt  to  doo  any- 
thing whereby  ye  shulde  ministre  unto  us  gratuite  and  pleaiior, 
specially  in  declaration  of  the  truthe  in  a  cause  so  nere  touching 
us  your  prince  and  soveraine  lorde,  oat  sonle,  the  wealth  also  and 
benefite  of  thin  our  realme,  have  sent  hither  presently  for  that  our 
purpose,  our  trusty  and  right  well  beloved  clerkee  and  coun- 
sullon,  Uoieter  Doctor  Qardyner  our  secretary  and  Uaister  Fox, 
who  shall  oon  our  bihaulf  further  open  and  declare  onto  yon  the 
circumstances  of  the  premises.  Wherefore  we  will  and  require 
you  not  oonly  to  gyve  ferme  credence  unto  them,  but  abo  to 
advertise  us  bj  the  samc^  under  the  common  seole  of  that  oar 
universitie,  of  such  opy&yon  in  the  propoutiou  aforesaid  as  shul 
be  then  concluded,  and  by  the  oonsent  of  lemed  men  shall  be 
agreed  upon.  In  doying  whereof  ye  shall  deserve  our  especial] 
thanks,  and  geve  us  cause  to  encresse  our  favor  towards  you,  as 
we  sh^  not  fail  to  do  accordingly.  Qeven  under  onr  signet  at 
Yorkea  Place  the  xvith  daye  of  February',' 

Some  months   before   the  arrival  of  this  missive  the 
university  bad  been  familiarised  with  the  main  argumenta 

>  Lamb,  Cambridgt  Doeumntt,  p.  19. 


618  THE  BEFORHATION. 

iWAP.  VL  for  and  against  the  divorce  by  the  appearance  of  Cranmer^s 
treatise  on  the  lawfulness  of  marriage  with  a  brother's  wife*, 
and  its  judgement,  so  far  as  that  might  be  supposed  to  be 
amenable  to  the  influence  of  abstract  reasons,  had  thereby 
undoubtedly  been  biased  in  favour  of  '  the  king's  cause.'  It  is 
evident  indeed,  on  a  comparison  of  the  above  letter  with  the 
first  of  those  that  Henry  addressed  to  the  university  of  Oxford, 
that  he  had  grounds  at  the  outset  for  anticipating  a  far  more 
ready  assent  to  his  wishes  at  Cambridge.  Under  these  circum- 
stances it  is  therefore  of  special  interest  to  note  the  following 
report  made  to  him  by  Gardiner  and  Fox  of  the  proceedings 
that  followed  upon  the  arrival  of  his  letter : — 

OMdinerand        '  To  THE   KlNQ*S   IIlGHNESS, 

on  the  course  Pleaseth  it  your  highness  to  be  advei'tised,  that  arriving 

eoo«raiient  here  at  Cambridge  upon  Saturday  laat  past  at  noon,  that  same 
tSmSptof  the  ^ght  and  Sunday  in  the  moruiug  we  devised  with  the  vice- 
ro]^etter  chaucellor  and  such  other  as  favoureth  your  grace's  cause,  how 
bridge.  and  in  what  sort  to  compass  and  attain  your  grace's  purpose  and 

intent ;  wherein  we  assure  your  grace  we  foimd  much  towardness, 
good  will,  and  diligence,  in  the  vice-chancellor  and  Dr.  Edmunds, 
being  as  studious  to  serve  your  grace  as  we  could  wish  and  de- 
sire :  nevertheless  there  was  not  so  much  care,  labour,  study,  and 
diligence  employed  on  our  party,  by  them,  ourself^  and  other,  for 
attaining  your  gi-ace's  purpose,  but  there  was  as  much  done  by 
others  for  the  lett  aud  empeacliment  of  the  same ;  and  as  we 
assembled  they  assembled ;  as  we  made  friends  they  made  friendti^ 
to  lett  that  nothing  shoidd  pass  as  in  the  universities  name ; 
wherein  the  first  day  they  were  superiors,  for  they  had  put  in  the 
ears  of  them  by  whose  voices  such  things  do  pass,  miUtas  fabuias^ 
too  tedious  to  write  imto  your  grace.  Upon  Sunday  at  afternoon 
were  assembled  after  the  manner  of  the  university,  all  the  doc- 
tors, batchelors  of  divinity,  and  masters  of  arts,  being  in  number 
almost  two  hundred :  in  that  congregation  we  delivered  your 
grace's  letters,  which  were  read  openly  by  the  vice-chancellor. 
And  for  answer  to  be  made  unto  them,  first  the  vice-chancellor, 
calling  apart  the  doctora,  asked  their  advice  and  opinion ;  wbere- 
unto  they  answered  severally,  as  their  affections  led  them,  et  res 
ercU  in  multa  can/tmone.  Tandem  they  were  content  answer 
should  be  made  to  the  questions  bi/  indiffererU  men  ;  but  then  they 
came  to  exceptions  against  the  abbot  of  St.  Benet's,  who  seemed 

1  It  is  remarkable  that  not  a  single      is  a  matter  of  donbt.    See  Cooper, 
copy  of  this  treatise  is  known  to  be      Athena,  1 146. 
in  existence,  and  eyen  its  exact  title 


TBE  DIVORCE.  610 

to  come  for  that  purpose ;  and  likeirise  against  Dr.  Beppea  and  ™*^- T** 
Dr.  Crome )  and  also  generallf  against  all  such  as  bad  allowed 
Dr.  Cranmer'a  book,  inasmuch  as  they  had  already  declared  their 
opinion.  We  said  thereunto,  that  b;  that  reason  thej  might 
exce]>t  against  all,  for  it  was  lightlj,  that  in  a  question  eo  notable 
as  this  ix,  every  man  learned  hath  said  to  his  friend  as  he  thinketh 
in  it  for  the  time ;  but  we  ought  not  to  judge  of  anjr  man  that  he 
setteth  more  to  defend  that  which  he  hath  once  said,  than  truth 
afterward  known.  Finally,  the  vice-chancellor,  becanse  the  day 
was  much  spent  in  those  altercations,  commanding  every  man  to 
resort  to  his  seat  apart,  as  the  manner  is  in  those  assemblies, 
willed  every  man's  mind  to  be  known  secretly,  whether  they  would 
be  content  with  such  an  order  as  he  had  conceived,  for  answer  to 
be  made  by  the  university  to  your  grace's  letters ;  tohereunto  that 
nighi  thei/  would  in  no  wue  agree.  And  forasmuch  as  it  was  then 
dark  night,  the  vice-chancellor  continued  the  congregation  till  the 
next  day  at  one  of  the  clock ;  at  which  time  the  vice-chancellor 
proposed  a  grace  after  the  form  herein  enclosed ;  and  it  was  Jtrtt 
denied  ;  when  it  was  aeked  again  it  wot  even  on  both  parties  to  be 
denied  or  granted ;  and  at  the  last,  by  labour  of  friends  to  catue 
tome  to  depart  the  house  which  were  against  it,  it  was  obtained  in 
such  form  as  the  schedule  herein  enclosed  purporthetb ;  where- 
in be  two  points  which  we  would  have  left  out ;  but  considering 
by  putting  in  of  them  we  allured  many,  and  that  indeed  they 
shall  not  hurt  the  determination  for  your  grace's  j<art,  we  were 
finally  content  therewith.  The  one  point  is,  that  where  it  was 
first  that  qiitcquid  major  pan  of  them  that  he  named  deereverit 
should  be  taken  for  the  determination  of  the  university,  now  it 
referred  ad  dtiaa  parlet, — wherein  we  suppcee  shall  be  no  diffi- 
culty. The  other  point  is,  that  your  grace's  question  shall  be 
openly  disputed,  which  we  think  to  be  very  honorable;  and  it  is 
agreed  amongst  us  that  in  that  disputation  shall  answer  the  abbot 
of  St  Benet's,  Dr.  Reppes,  and  I,  Mr.  Fox,  to  all  such  as  will 
object  anything,  or  reason  against  the  conclusion  to  be  Bostained 
for  your  grace's  part  And  because  Mr.  i>r.  Clyff  hath  Bud,  that 
he  hath  somewhat  to  say  concerning  the  canon  law ;  I,  your 
seoretary,  shall  be  adjoined  unto  them  for  answer  to  be  made 
therein.  In  the  schedule,  which  we  send  onto  your  grace  here- 
with, containing  the  names  of  those  who  shall  determine  your 
grace's  question,  all  marked  with  the  letter  (A)  be  already  of  your 
grace's  opinion ;  by  which  we  trust,  and  with  other  good  means, 
to  induce  and  obtain  a  great  part  of  the  rest  Thus  we  beseech 
Almighty  God  to  preserve  your  most  noble  and  royal  estate; 

From  Cambridge,  the day  of  February. 

Your  Higbueas's  moat  humble  subjects  and  senranto, 

Stephen  Gasdiskb, 

Edwasd  Fox.' 


620  THS  REFORllATIOK. 

CHAP.  VL  The  Grace. 

*  Placet  vobis  ut 
(A)  Yicecancellarius  M<igUtri  in  theclogia 

Doctorei  Middleton, 

(A)  Salcot,  the  abbot  of  St     (A)  HejneSy 
Benets, 
Watson,  Mjlsent,  de  isio  bene  spe- 

rcUur. 
(A)  Repps,  (A)  Shaxton, 

Tomaon,  (A)  Latimer, 

Yenetuafdei8tobene8per(Uur.(A)  Simon  (Matthew), 
(A)  Edmunds,  Longford,  de  teto  bene  epe- 

Toiur. 
Downes,  Thyxtel, 

(A)  Grome,  Nicols, 

;A)  Wygan,  Hutton, 


0 

(A)  Boston,  (A)  Skip, 

■) 


(A)  Goodrich, 
(A)  Heth, 

Hadway,  de  ieto  bene  epe* 

roUur, 
Bey, 
Bayne, 
(A)  (A)  Duo  Procuratorea, 
hdbeant  plenam/actdtatem  et  atUhofikUem^  nomine  Mius  univerei' 
tatis  respondendi  liUeris  Regioi  MajesUUia  in  hoc  cangregcUiane 
lectis,  ac  nomine  totius  universitaiis  definiendi  et  detemUnandi 
qucestionem  in  dictis  liUeris  propoeitam,     lia  quod  quioquid  dtue 
partes  eorum  prcesentium  inter  ee  decreverint  respondendi  dictie 
litteris,  et  definierint  ac  determinaverint  super  qucestione  prceposUa^ 
in  iisdem  habeatur  et  reputetur  pro  responsione  definilione  ei  de- 
terminalione  totius  universitatis,  et  quod  liceat  vicecancellario  pro- 
curoftoribus  et  scruJtaioribus  litteris  super  dictarum  duamm  par* 
tiwm  definitions  et  deter minatione  concipienda  sigUlum  commune 
universitatis  apponere  :  sic  quod  dispvJtetu/r  quAestio  publice  et  antea 
legantur  coram  universitate  absque  ulteriori  gratia  desuper  petenda 
atU  obtinenda. 

Your  highness  may  perceive  by  the  notes  that  we  be  already 
sure  of  as  many  as  be  requisite,  wanting  only  three ;  and  we  have 
good  hope  of  four ;  of  which  four  if  we  get  two  and  obtain  of 
another  to  be  ahsentj  it  is  sufficient  for  our  pui*pose  \' 

Such   were  the  means  by  which,  on  the  ninth  of  the 
following  March,  a  decision  was  eventually  obtained  favor- 
able to  the  divorce ;  but  even  then  the  decision  was  coupled 
fSeS^n    by  acn  important  reservation, — that  the  marriage  was  illegal 
decision  of    if  it  could  be  pvovcd  that  Cdtherines  marriage  with  prince 

pSSiSl**"'     '  Bumet,  Hist,  of  the  Reformation,  Records  i  ii  22.  Cooper,  Annalt,  1 887-9. 


TBB  DIVOBCK.  621 

Arthur  had  been  consummated'.    It  was  however  no  alight  en*'-  ^^ 

achievement  to  have  guned  thus  much  from  the  univereity ; 

and  when  Buckmaster  presented  himself  at  Windsor  as  the  ^^l, 

bearer  of  this  determination,  he  was  received  by  Henry  with  |S^Si«0D 

every  mark  of  favour,  and  Cambridge  was  praised  for  '  the  **  ""^ 

wisdom  and  good  conveyance'  she   had  shewn.     The  only 

point  indeed  with  respect  to  which  the  king  intimated  any 

dissatisfaction  was  the  omission  of  any  opinion  concerning 

the  legality  of  pope  Julius's  dispensation.     Having  received 

a  present  of  twenty  nobles  the  vice-chancellor  took  his  leave, 

but  ill  at  ease  in  mind.     '  I  was  glad,'  he  says  in  a  letter  to 

Dr.  Edmunds,  giving  an  account  of  the  whole  business,  'I 

was  glad  that  I  was  out  of  the  courte,  wheare  many  men,  as 

I  did  both  hear  and  perceive,  did  wonder  on  me All  the^^^^ 


world  almost  cryethe  otUe  of  Cambrit^e  /or  this  acte,  and  KTJJalJ* 
specially  on  me,  but  I  must  bear  it  as  well  as  I  maye.'  He  ™'''™'^- 
then  goes  on  to  narrate  how  on  his  return  he  found  the 
university  scarcely  in  a  more  pleasant  mood.  Fox's  servant 
had  been  beaten  in  the  street  by  one  Bakers,  a  member  of 
St.  Nicholas's  Hostel ;  and  Dakers  on  being  summoned  before 
him  (the  writer),  had  demurred  to  his  authority, '  because  I 
was  famylyer,  he  stud,  with  Mr.  Secretary  [Fox]  and  Mr.  Dr. 
Thirleby.'  Thereupon  he  had  ordered  Dakers  into  custody, 
who  on  his  way  to  close  quarters  effected  his  escape  from  the 
bedell ;  'and  that  night  there  was  such  a  jettyng  in  Cam- 
bridge aa  ye  never  harde  of,  with  such  boyng  and  cryeng 
even  agaynst  our  coUeage  that  all  Cambridge  might  perceare 
it  was  in  despite  of  me',* 

Whatever  accordingly  may  be  our  opinion  of  the  expe- 
diency of  the  course  whereby  Cambridge  escaped,  in  Mr. 
Froude's  words,  'the  direct  humiliation'  that  waited  upon 
Oxford,   it  seems  impossible  on  the   foregoing  evidence  to  pmmmm 
deny,  that  this  end  was  attained  by  the  nomination  of  a  v^i^iTiti. 
commission  which,  if  we  examine  its  composition,  can  only  •«**«it 
be  regarded  in  the  light  of  a  packed  jury, — that  the  Domina- 

1  'Qnod  da««N  moram  tnttiia  hiMtom  jure  dirino  M  nktanli.' 
mortiii  noe  liberu  eogiut4m  a  pnori  Ij«mb,  Cambridge  DoeumeHU,  p.  21. 
Tiro  p«reaTiuaeiiiooFiUun....Mt  pro-  ■  Ctopn,  Anmalt.i  S40-3, 


622 


THK  REFORMATION. 


CHAP.  YT.  tion  of  this  comTnission  was  at  the  outset  opposed  by  the 
senate,  being  on  the  first  division  non-placeted,  on  the 
second,  obtaining  only  an  equality  of  votes,  on  the  third 
carried  only  by  the  stratagem  of  inducing  hostile  voters 
to  stay  away, — ^that  even  of  this  commission,  thus  com- 
posed and  thus  appointed,  it  was  found  necessary  to  per- 
suade at  least  one  member  to  absent  himself, — and  that 
finally  its  decision  was  qualified  by  an  important  reserva- 
tion, which,  if  the  testimony  of  queen  Catherine  herself, 
independently  of  other  evidence,  was  entitled  to  belief, 
involved  a  conclusion  unfavorable  to  the  divorce*. 

It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  say  that  &om  these  proceed- 
ings Fisher  stood  altogether  aloof.  He  was  throughout  a 
firm  and  consistent  opponent  of  the  divorce;  and  the  troubles 
which  beclouded  the  last  year  of  his  life  now  began  to  gather 
thickly  round  his  path.  But  neither  increasing  anxieties,  the 
affairs  of  his  bishopric,  nor  the  infirmities  of  old  age,  could 
render  him  forgetful  of  Cambridge.  Over  St.  John's  College, 
more  particularly,  he  watched  to  the  last  with  untiring 
solicitude,  and  in  its  growing  utility  and  reputation  found 


PotftkNiof 

FblMT. 


^  The  statement  of  Lingard  in  the 
matter  appears  undeniable : — ^that 
both  Clement  and  Henry  were  sen- 
sible thatf  *  independently  of  other 
considerations/  the  decisions  of  the 
universities  did  not  reach  the  real 
merits  of  the  question;  for  all  of  them 
were  founded  on  the  supposition  that 
the  marriage  between  Arthur  and 
Catherine  had  actually  been  con- 
Bummatcd,  a  disputed  point  which 
the  king  was  unable  to  prove  and 
which  the  queen  most  solemnly 
denied.'  Hist,  of  England^  iv'  551. 
The  general  feeling  of  the  two  uni- 
versities is  worthy  of  note  in  con- 
nexion with  Mr.  Fronde's  assertion 
that  *4n  the  sixteenth  century, 
queen  Catherine  was  an  obstacle  to 
the  establishment  of  the  kingdom, 
an  incentive  to  treasonable  hopes. 
In  the  nineteenth,  she  is  an  outraged 
and  injured  wife,  the  victim  of  a 
false  husband's  fickle  appetite.'  i 
94.  Perhaps  side  by  side  with  this 
representation  we  may  be  permitted 
to  place  a  seventeenth  century  and 
eighteenth  century  view:   the  first, 


that  of  the  author  of  the  Duetor  Diibi- 
tantium;  the  second,  that  of  Dodd, 
the  Catholic  historian. — *Vnio[t.e. 
the  learned  men  of  the  time]  upon 
that  occasion,  gave  too  great  testi- 
mony, with  how  great  weakness  men 
that  have  a  bias  to  determine  ques- 
tions, and  with  how  great  force,  a 
king  that  is  rich  and  powerful,  can 
make  his  own  determinations.  For 
though  Christendom  was  then  much 
divided,  yet  before  that  time  there 
was  almost  general  consent  upon 
this  proposition  that  the  Levitical 
degrees  do  not,  by  any  law  of  God, 
bind  Christians  to  their  observance.* 
Ductor  Dubituntium,  p.  222.  "It 
belongs  not  to  us  to  judge,  whether 
Julius  II  had  any  sufficient  reasons 
to  dispeiise  with  Henry  and  Cathe- 
rine; but  we  may  say,  that  Henry 
having  married  Catlierine  by  virtue 
of  that  dispensation,  and  lived  near 
twenty 'five  years  with  h^r  as  his  wife, 
could  not  lawfully  and  in  conscience 
be  parted  from  her,  that  he  might 
marry  another. '(written  1737).  Dodd- 
Tiemey,  i  231. 


_^r 

^m   jCt 

■ 

-X-'Wdfc- 

fisher'8  statutes.  629 

his  best  reward.     The  promotion  of  Metcalfe  to  the  master^  ?!^^'  P* 
ship  io  1518   had  proved  emioeiitly  favorable  to  the  beat  U]»pn*j  "f 
interests  of  the  society.     Metcalfe  was  himself  indeed  no  ^^[^^ 
proficient  in  the  new  studies ;  but  in  Fuller's  phrase,  though  "**"'* 
'with  Tbcmistocles,  he  could  not  fiddle,  he  knew  how  to 
make  a  little  college  a  great  one* ;'  and  before  Fisher's  death, 
the  overflowing  numbers  of  the  students,  their  conspicuous 
devotion  to  learning,  and  names  like  those  of  Ascham  and 
Cheke,  had  already  caused  the  college  to  be  noted  as  tb.e  most 
brilliant  society  in  the  university*.     In  the  year  1524  Fisher 
had  drawn  up  a  new  code  as  the  rule  of  the  foundation, 
modelled  to  a  great  extent  upon  that  of  Foz   at   Corpus 
Christt  College,  Oxford ;  and  in  1530  he  gave  a  third  body  o£ 
statutes  in  which  he  incorporated  many  of  the  regulations 
given  by  Wolsey  for  the  olwervance  of  Cardinal  Collega     Of 
the  minuteness  of  detail  and  elaborateness  of  the  provisiona 
that  characterise  these  last  statutes  some  idea  may  be  formed 
from  the  fact,  that  while  the  original  statutes  fill  forty-six  ^^^  . 
closely  printed  quarto  pages,  and  those  of  1524,  seventy-seven,  JgJ^"* 
the  statutes  of  1530  occupy  nearly  a  hundred  and  thirty. 
Alarmed  at  the  signs  of  the  times  and  timorous  with  old  age, 
Fisher  seems  to  have  sought  with  almost  feverish  sohcitude 
to  provide  for  every  possible  contingency  that  might  arise. 
Of  the  new   provisions   some, — such  as   the   institutiou  ofHatMkMj 
lecturers   in  Greek    and   Hebrew,  and    the  obligation   im-  j^^jj* 
posed  upon  a  fourth  part  of  the  fellows  to  occupy  them- 
selves with  preaching  to  the  people  in  English, — are  un- 
doubtedly  entitled   to  all   praise;  but   the   additions  that 
most  served  to  swell  the  new  statute-book  were  the  lengthy 
and  stringent  oaths  imposed  alike  on  master,   fellows,  and 
scholars,  and  the  introduction  of  innumerable  petty  restric- 
tions, which  it  is  difficult  to  suppose  might  not  safely  have 
been  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  acting  authorities  from 
time  to  time. 

It   illustrates   the   fVillacious   nature   of   such   elaborate 

1  Fntler-Prickett    &    Wright,    p. 
B7;  Baker.Mayor,  107-8- 
*  For  Cbeke'a    eelebrit;   in    the 


624 


THE  REFORMATIOK. 


CHAP.  VI.  precautions  that,  though  the  good  biBhop*8  care  extended  to 
TiMiututei  details  so  trifling  that  the  statute  against  'fierce  birds'  was 
utai  a KTmve  extended  to   include  the  most  harmless  of  the   feathered 

twirttrimi  in 

Jjjj^^  race, — the  thrusli,  the  linnet,  and  the  blackbird*, — ^he  yet 
JUSJf^SJSt  nevertheless  omitted  altogether  to  make  provision  with 
^Kmml  respect  to  one  most  important  point, — an  omission  which 
fifteen  years  later  it  was  found  necessary  to  repair.  We 
have  already  noted  that  the  statutes  of  Christ's  College  are 
the  first  that  contain  a  provision  for  the  admission  of 
pensioners',  and  that  it  was  therein  required,  as  also  in  e.ach 
of  the  three  codes  given  by  Fisher  to  St.  John's,  that 
students  thus  admitted  should  have  previously  furnished 
satisfactory  evidence  with  respect  to  character.  Unfortu- 
nately it  was  not  deemed  necessary  to  insert  a  similar 
requirement  with  respect  to  attainnietits,  and  an  inlet  was 
thus  afforded  at  both  colleges  to  a  class  whose  ignorance  was 
only  equalled  by  their  disinclination  to  study,  and  who, 
as  it  was  soon  found,  were  a  scarcely  less  formidable 
element  of  demoralisation  than  the  riotous  and  dissolute. 
In  less  than  twelve  years  after  Fisher's  death  we  accord- 
Tatthnony  of  ingly  find  Ascham  in  writing  to  Cranmer  (then  archbishop), 
}j™^«{gj^ informing  him  that  there  were  two  things  'which  proved 
great  hindrances  to  the  flourishing  estate  of  the  university ;' 
and  of  these  one  was  occasioned  by  such  as  were  admitted, 
'who  were  for  the  most  part  only  the  sons  of  rich  men,  and 
such  as  never  intended  to  pursue  their  studies  to  that  degree 
as  to  anive  at  any  eminent  proficiency  and  perfection  in 
learning,  but  only  the  better  to  qualify  themselves  for  some 
places  in  the  state,  by  a  slighter  and  more  superficial  know- 
ledge'.'    Of  the  general  concurrence  of  the  college  authori- 


tezlty. 


I 


^  Early  Statutet  (ed.  Mayor),  p. 
188. 

'  See  sapra,  p.  459;  thongh  pen- 
sioners are  not  recognised  by  coUege 
statutes,  they  existed  in  practice  long 
before  the  sixteenth  century.  When 
the  number  of  fellows  on  the  different 
foundations  was  bnt  small,  it  was  com- 
mon for  members  of  the  university, 
generally  masters  of  arts,  to  rent  a 
chamber  of  the  college,  for  which  they 


paid  a  pension^  and  hence  the  name 
of  pentioner.  Dr.  Ainslie,  in  his 
Inquiry  concerning  the  earliest  Ma$- 
tera  of  the  College  of  Valence  Mary, 
p.  297,  notes  an  example  of  this 
practice,  in  the  case  of  William 
Humberston,  vicar  of  Tilney,  as  early 
as  the  fourteenth  century. 

•  Strype,  Memorials  of  Cranmer,  i 
242. 


THE  milTEBSITT  PBESS.  625 

ties  in  the  view  thus  expressed  hy  Ascfaam,  we  have  satis-  CBAr.rt. 
factory  proof  in  the  fact  that  in  the  statutes  given  by  kiog 
Henry  to  St.  John's  in  the  year  1545,  an  endeavour  is  made  i*jmi«ij™ 
to  remedy  the  above  evil  (so  far  at  least  as  the  college  was  ^^°^ 
concerned),  hy  the  insertion  trf  a  clause  requiring  that  no*"^*"*"- 
pensioner  should  be  admitted  who  did  not  already  possess 
such  a  knowledge  of  Latin  as  would  enable  him  to  profit  by 
the  regular  course  of  instruction,  and  prevent  his  proving  an 
impediment  to  the  progress  of  others*. 

It  must  however  be  acknowledged  that  Fisher's  mistrust  !>*^__ 
of  the  tendencies  he  saw  around  him  was  far  from  singular,  ?»«■ 
and  the  action  of  the  university  in  reference  to  one  im- 
portant matter,  at  about  the  same  time,  sufficiently  proves 
that  a  policy  of  repression  and  coercion  was  rapidly  gaining 
ground.  It  was  soon  seen  that  Tunstal's  plan  of  buiiiing 
the  Lutheran  writings  was  of  but  small  avail,  and  the  efforts 
of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  were  now  directed  to  a  more 
effective  method, — that  of  stifiing  the  press  itself  The  first 
Cambridge  printer  was  Erasmus's  friend,  John  Siberch :  and  johs 
in  the  year  1521  he  printed  seven  hooks,  one  of  which, 
Idnacre's  translation  of  Galen  De  Temperamentta, — a  pre- 
scribed text-book  in  the  medical  couree  of  study, — claims  to 
be  the  first  book  printed  in  England  containing  Greek 
characters.  In  the  following  year  he  printed  two  more 
volumes,  and  after  that  time  we  lose  sight  of  his  productions. 

>  '  Mftiimnm  iUqne  qnod  formidA-  hoc  coUegio  qaemqoam,  ne  eit«niiim 
mna  ex  his  provemie  maliun  potest,  qaidem  sat  poenim,  graaunttieam 
n  qnoBdam  precter  htme  muaeram      in  oabionlo  buo  ant  intra  eolleginm 


connctoreset  peDaiODkriOBintncol-  dtxiettt,   turn  quia  magnom  stndlis 

leginm    admiserimoa.  qnomin   aon  sais  iiapedimentnm  erit,  (um  quia 

Integra  coDTeraatio  neteroa  inficiat,  majora    docenda   in    coIUgiii    nint, 

atqne  its  aenaim  raliqno  eorpori  per-  gramnatiea  in  ladii  litierariis  dU- 

niciea  inferatur.     Magnopere  etiam  emda  at     Haheant  aatem  qni  in 

ooDegii    intereat     at    adoleBcenteB,  collegiom  admiiin  aont  aliqaam   in 

prinaqajun  in  eolleginm  admittuntnr,  Ltteris  pTogreaeioneni,  nt  poitqiuiil 

aliqaam  prograBuonem  et  carsam  in  ad  dialectloam  re  oontnlennt,  majo- 

litteiis  lactam  habeant.    Debet  enim  rem  operun  et   diligentioiem  enm 

□onnihil   inter    lodoa   litterarioa  et  tmotn  in  Ariatotele  ponant.      Era 

Mademiam  interesse,  at  niai  fnnda-  niai  flat,  pennagnam  in  logica  dii- 

mentia  bene  jactis  e  scholia  gramma-  ceoila  jaotonun  faoient,  et  eniditia 

tieornm  ad  academiam  non   proee-  ea  que  neeeaaada  propter  nanm  eat 

dant.     Et  tare  oemitor  eoa  poetaa  inooaiia  propter  illonun  in  diaoendo 

maximam   tmctam   atudiorom  per-  tarditatem   eiit'    Early  SUxtuUt  of 

oipeic^  qui  ante  in  lingnia  medioori-  St.  John't  (ed,  M^or),  p.  85. 
tn  ptofeoanuit.     Itaqne  doUos  in 

40 


626  THE  REFORMATION. 

CHAP.TL  The  bumble  dimensions  of  the  publishing  trade  in  t'l'^sti 
days  often  led  to  the  publisher,  bookseller,  and  printer  t.ii*.si 
represented  in  one  person;  and  the  opponents  of  the  Ke- 
formation  probably  flattered  themselves  that  they  had  dis- 
covered an  effectual  means  of  excluding  heretical  literaturey 
when  in  the  year  1529  they  petitioned  Wolsey  that  only 
three  booksellers  should  be  permitted  to  ply  their  trade  at 
Cambridge,  who  should  be  men  of  reputation  and  'gravity/ 
and  foreigners,  with  full  authority  to  purchase  books  of 
foreign  merchants\  The  petition  appears  to  have  received 
no  immediate  response;  but  in  the  year  1534  a  royal  licence 
was  issued  to  the  chancellor,  masters,  and  scholars  of  the 
university  to  appoint,  from  time  to  time,  three  stationers  and 
printers,  or  sellers  of  books,  residing  within  the  university, 
who  might  be  either  aliens  or  natives.  The  stationers  or 
printers  thus  appointed  were  empowered  to  print  all  manner 
of  books  approved  of  by  the  chancellor  and  his  vicegerent, 
or  three  doctors,  and  to  sell  them,  or  any  other  books, 
whether  printed  within  or  without  the  realm,  which  had 
been  allowed  by  the  above-named  censors.  If  aliens  were 
appointed  to  the  oflSce,  they  were  to  be  reputed  in  all  re- 
spects as  the  king's  subjects.  In  pursuance  of  this  grant, 
Nicholas  Speryng,  Garrat  Gtodfrey,  and  Sygar  Nicholson, 
were  appointed  stationers  of  the  university.  The  licensed 
press  was  however  singularly  sterile ;  and  for  more  than  half 
a  century,  from  the  year  1522  to  1584,  it  would  appear  that 
not  a  single  book  was  printed  at  Cambridge." 

Of    the  three  booksellers  above  appointed,  the  third, 

5{gJi,on.  Sygar  Nicholson,  had  been  educated  at  Gonville  Hall,  and 
justified  bishop  Nix's  description  of  the  college,  by  so  strongly 
'savouring  of  the  pan,'  that  he  had  already  been  charged 
in  1629  with  holding  Lutheran  opinions  and  having  Lutheran 
books  in  his  possession.  He  had  consequently  been  for  some 
time  imprisoned,  and,  according  to  Latimer,  was  treated  with 
cruel  severity'.     That  a  member  of  the  university  should 

^  Cooper,  AnnaU  i  829;  see  also  (Feb.    1S60),    by   Mr.     Thompson 

Bupra,  p.  600,  n.  2.  Cooper,  F.8.A. 

'  See  an  article,  Th€  Cambridge  '  Cooper,  Athena,  i  51 ;  Latimer- 

University  PresSy  in  The  Bookseller  Corrie,  n  821. 


DEATH  OF  FISHER.  627 

have  eDg^ed  in  a  trade  bo  directly  and  honorably  associ-  chap.  n. 
ated  with  learning  calls  for  little  comment;  but  it  is  not 
undeserving  of  notice  that  it  was  far  from  unusual  for 
students  in  those  days  to  betake  themselves  to  crafta  and 
callings  that  had  much  less  direct  affinities  to  academic  cul- 
ture. Nor  does  it  appear  that  any  discredit  attached  to 
Buch  a  change  in  their  vocation ;  it  is  certain  at  least  that 
many  who  thus  turned  their  energies  into  a  difierent  channel 
saw  no  necessity  for  seeking  a  distant  scene  of  action.  The  Nivnbr 
disputant  who  perhaps  made  but  a  poor  figure  in  the  schools  J^^™" 
of  the  university,  not  unfrequently  reappeared  as  a  prosper-  »»"«*»• 
ous  tradesman  in  the  town.  With  his  wits  sharpened  on 
qucBStiottes  and  by  necessity,  he  flung  aside  his  clerical  attire, 
espoused  a  wife,  and  commenced  business  as  an  innkeeper, 
grocer,  baker,  or  brewer,  or  devoted  himself,  in  the  language 
of  the  corporation,  'to  other  feats  of  buying  and  selling, 
getting  thereby  great  riches  and  sul^tance.'  Though  naturally 
jealous  of  such  competition,  his  fellow-tradesmen  might  have 
contemplated  his  endeavours  with  tolerable  equanimity,  had 
he  pursued  a  consistent  course,  and  shewn  his  readiness  to 
bear  his  part  in  the  civic  burdens  and  imposts.  But  the 
habits  of  the  schools  were  still  strong  upon  him,  and  he  too 
often  eluded  the  bailiff's  appeals  with  Protean  facility.  Qua 
profits  and  emoluments  he  was  a  townsman;  qua  taxes, 
attendances,  and  contributions,  he  was  a  master  of  arts  of  the 
university.  The  indignation  of  the  honest  burgesses,  in  their 
petition  to  the  lord  chancellor  and  chief  justices,  evidently 
exceeds  their  powers  of  expression  *. 

In  the  meantime  significant  events  in  the  political  world  ™^ 
came  on  in  rapid  succession ;  and  not  long  after  Fisher  had 
drawn  up  his  last  code  for  Si  John's  College,  it  began  to  be 
evident  to  all  that  the  care  aad  vigilance  he  had  so  often 
exercised  in  the  cause  of  others  would  soon  be  needed  in  his 
own  behalf.  The  credence  which  he,  in  common  with  so 
many  other  able  men,  gave  t«  the  pretensions  of  the  Maid  of 
Kent,  and  his  subsequent  refusal  to  take  the  oath  imposed 
by  the  Act  of  Supremacy,  resulted  in  his  committal  to  the 
'  Coiner,  Arnialf,  t84T. 

40—2 


628 


THE  REFORMATION. 


mlttedto 
priion. 


FeeUncdr 
tbemuWr- 


oHAP.Ti.  Tower.  Superstitious  he  might  be,  but  where  his  super- 
Fubercom-  stitiou  did  Dot  como  into  play  he  "was  clear-sighted  and 
sagacious,  and  his  conscience  and  his  intellect  alike  refused 
assent  to  'the  Anglican  solecism/  The  foresight  he  thus 
displayed  was  indeed  in  striking  contrast  to  the  indifference 
shewn  by  his  episcopal  brethren,  by  whom  a  question  of 
really  fundamental  importance  was  treated  as  but  of  small 
moment. 

The  story  of  his  trial  and  death  are  matters  that  belong 

to  English  history,  and,  as  admirably  told  by  Mr.  Froude,  are 

still  fresh  in  the  memories  of  our  readers,  and  require  no 

further  illustration  at   our  hands.     When  it  was  known  at 

5y.~"T     Cambridge  that  the  chancellor  was  under  arrest,  it  seemed 

:     j      as  though  a  dark  cloud  had  gathered  over  the  university ; 

I      and  at  those  colleges  which  had  been  his  peculiar  care   the 

!      sorrow  was  deeper  than  could  find  vent  in  language.     The 

men  who,  ever  since  their  academic  life  began,  had  been 

conscious  of  his  watchful  oversight  and  protection,  who  as 

they  had  grown  up  to  manhood  had  been  honored  by  his 

friendship,  aided  by  his  bounty,  stimulated  by  his  example 

to  all  that  was  commendable  and  of  good  report,  could  not 

foresee  his  approaching  fate  without  bitter  and  deep  emotion ; 

and  rarely  in  the  correspondence  of  colleges  is  there  to  be 

Letter  of  Bt  foimd  such  an  expression  of  pathetic  grief  as  the  letter  in 

couege.       which   the   society   of  St.   John's  addressed  their  beloved 

patron  in  his  hour  of  trial  \     In  the  hall  of  that  ancient 

foundation  his  portrait  still  looks  down  upon   those  who, 

generation  after  generation,  enter  to  reap  where  he  sowed* 

Delineated  with  all  the  severe  fidelity  of  the  art  of  that 

period,  we   may  discern  the  asceticism  of  the   ecclesiastic 

blending  with  the  natural  kindliness  of  the  man,  the  wide 

sympathies  with  the  stem  convictions.     Within  those  walls 


^  'Ta  nobis  pater,  doctor,  pracoep- 
tor,  legislator,  omnis  denique  virtutis 
et  sanctitatis  exemplar,  l^bi  victum, 
tibi  doctrinam,  tibi  quicquid  eat 
quod  boui  yel  babemus  vel  soiinuB 

noB  debere  fatemnr Qaaeounqne 

antem  nobis  in  communi  sunt  opes, 
quioquid  babet  collegium  nostrum, 
id  si  totum  tua  causa  profunderemus. 


ne  adhuo  quidem  tuam  in  nos  bene- 
ficentiam  assequeremur.  Quare  (re- 
Terende  pater)  quicquid  nostrum  est, 
obsecramus,  utere  ut  tuo.  Tuum  est 
eritque  quicquid  possumus,  tui  omnea 
sumus  erimusque  toti.*  (Quoted  in 
Baker-Mayor,  p.  465).  See  ^[ao  Lewis, 
Life  of  Fisher,  ii  366-8. 


THE  KOTAL  mJUITCnONS.  629 

.have  since  beeo  wont  to  assemble  not  a  few  who  bare  risen  cjap.  ti, 
to  eminence  and  renown.  But  the  college  of  St.  John  the 
Evangelist  can  point  to  none  in  the  long  array  to  whom  her 
debt  of  gratitude  ia  greater,  who  have  labored  more  untir- 
ingly or  more  disinterestedly  in  the  cause  of  learning,  or  who 
by  a  holy  bfe  and  heroic  death  are  more  worthy  to  survive  in 
the  memories  of  her  sons  1 

Yet  a  few  more  months  and  both  at  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge the  changes  that  had  before  been  carried  by  atgu- 
meut,  persuasion,  and  individual  efibrt,  were  enforced  in 
ampler  measure  by  the  autbority  of  law.  Cromwell  sue-  aooHna 
cecded  to  the  chancellorship  at  Cambridge;  and  a  ruder  ^ 
hand  than  that  of  Fisher  or  Wolsey  ousted  the  professors  of 
the  old  learning  from  the  academic  chair,  and  gave  the  pages 
of  scholasticism  to  the  winds.  At  both  universities  Duns 
Scotus,  so  long  the  idol  of  the  schools,  was  dragged  from  his 
pedestal  with  an  ignominy  that  recalls  the  fate  of  Sejanus. 
The  memorable  scene  at  Oxford,  as  described  by  one  ofHbanmito. 
Cromwell's  commissioners,  diough  often  quoted,  we  shall  g^SSijS 
venture  to  quote  once  more : — '  We  have  set  Dunce  in  Bo- 
cardo,'  writes  commissioner  Leighton,  'and  have  utterly  ban- 1^^*} 

ished  him  Oxford  for  ever,  with  all  his  blind  glosses And  g — ■" — 

the  second  time  we  came  to  Kew  College,  after  we  had  de- 
clared your  injunctions,  we  foimd  all  the  great  quadrant 
court  full  of  the  leaves  of  Dunce,  the  wind  blowing  them 
into  every  comer.  And  there  we  found  one  Mr.  Greenfield, 
a  gentleman  of  Buckinghamshire,  gathering  up  part  of  the 
same  book  leaves,  as  he  said,  to  make  him  sewells  or 
bl&wnshers,  to  keep  the  deer  within  his  wood,  thereby  to 
have  the  better  cry  with  his  bounds*.' 

At  Cambridge  Cromwell  was  in  the  same  year  appointed 
visitor  as  well  as  chancellor,  and  the  letter  that  notified 
this  second  appointment  to  the  university  also  conveyed 
the  following  Boyal  Injunctions,  imposed  upon  'the  chan- 
cellor, vice-chancellor,  doctors,  masters,  bachelors,  and  all 
other  students  and  scholars,  under  pain  of  loss  of  their  dig- 

>  BtiTpe,  JfmonaU,  i  831. 


630  THE  REFORMATION. 

cHAP.Yi.  nitics,  benefices,  and  stipends,  or  expulsion  from  the  univer- 
sity :  '— 

TbiRotal  '(1)  That  by  a  'writing  to  be  sealed  with  the  common  seal  of 

of iS!?'^"'  the  university  and  subsciibcd  with  their  hands,  they  should  swear 
to  the  king^s  succession,  and  to  obey  the  statutes  of  the  realm, 
made  or  to  be  made,  for  the  cxtiq>ation  of  the  jmpal  usurjiation 
and  for  the  assertion  and  confirmation  of  the  king's  jurisdiction, 
prerogative,  and  preeminence. 

(2)  That  in  Kiug's  Hall,  King's,  St.  John's,  and  Christ's 
Colleges,  Michaelhouse,  Peterhoutse,  Gonvillc,  Trinity,  and  Pem- 
broke Halls,  Queens',  Jesus,  and  Buckingham  Colleges,  Claiv 
Hall,  and  Benet  College,  there  should  be  founded  and  continued 
for  ever  by  the  masters  and  fellows,  at  the  expense  of  those 
houses,  ifffo  daily  public  lectures,  one  of  Greek  tJte  other  of  Latin. 

(3)  That  neither  in  the  universiti/  or  any  other  college  or  hdU^ 
cr  other  places  ehould  any  heture  he  read  upon  any  of  the  doctors 
wlto  Imd  written  upon  the  Master  of  the  Seyitences,  (a)  but  that  all 

'  divinity  lectures  should  be  upon  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and 

New  Testament,  according  to  the  true  sense  thereof,  and  not  after 
the  manner  of  Scotus,  etc. 

(4)  That  all  students  should  be  permitted  to  read  the  Scrip- 
tures privately  or  to  repair  to  public  lectures  upon  them. 

(5)  That  as  the  whole  r^m,  as  well  clergy  as  laity,  had 
renounced  the  pope's  right  and  acknowledged  the  king  to  be  the 

'      supreme  head  of  the  Church,  no  one  should  thereafter  puhlidy 
read  the  canon  law,  nor  should  any  degrees  in  tJhot  law  be  conferred* 

(6)  That  all  ceremonies,  constitutions,  and  observances  that 
hindered  polite  learning  should  be  abolished. 

(7)  That  students  in  arts  should  be  instructed  in  the  ele- 
ments of  logic,  rhetoric,  arithmetic,  geography,  music,  and  philo- 
sophy, and  should  read  Aristotle,  Budolphus  Agricola  (fi),  Philip 
Melanchthon,  Trapezuntius  (y),  etc.,  and  not  the  frivolous  ques- 
tions and  obscure  glosses  of  Scotus,  Burleus  (8),  Anthony  Trom- 
bet(c),  Bricot({),  Bndiferius  (17),  etc. 

(8)  That  all  statutes  of  the  university  or  of  any  college,  hall, 
house,  or  hostel,  repugnant  to  these  articles  and  injunctions  should 
be  void. 

(9)  That  all  deans,  presidents,  wanlens,  heads,  masters,  rec- 
tors, and  officers  in  every  college,  hall,  house,  or  hostel  in  the 
university,  should  on  their  adniis!?ion  be  sworn  to  the  due  and 
faithful  observance  of  these  articles  \' 

1  Oooper,  AnnalSt  1  375.  ErliiTx^ennigdeT  Qtiodliheta  des  Sco- 

(a)  see  supra,  pp.  59-62.  tns  schrieb  onter  dem  Titel  In  Scott 

(/3)  see  supra,  pp.  412-3.  FormalitaUi  and  einen  hoohsi  ans- 

!y)  see  supra,  p.  429.  fuhrliohcn   controvertironden  Gom- 

5)  see  supra,  p.  197.  xnentar  zn  Sireetns  Terfasste,  wobei 

(e)  One  of  the  newest  commcn-  er  im  Hinblicke  auf  die  nnerlass- 

tators  on    Duns   Scotus   {d.   1518),  liche  Beinheit  der  Parteistelluug  die 

^  YieiaAiQi  Qutxsiionct  quodlibttalei  t^A  Ausicht    Brulifer^s  echon  ziemlich 


CONCLUBIOH.  631 

JThe  daj  that  saw  the  leaves  of  Duns  Scotus  fluttering  chap. 
in  the  quadrant  of  New  Collie,  may  be  regarded  as  marking  conmieii 
the  downfal  of  schoUsticiBm  in  England  ;  and  here,  if  any*  ?^™l 
where,  may  be  drawn  the  line  that   in  university  history  '''*^- 
divides  the  mediaeval  from  the  modem  age.     Yet  a  few  more 
months,  and  Erasmus,  weary  of  life  and  even  of  that  learning 
to  which  hiB  life  was  given,  sank  painfully  to  rest  at  Basel ; 
Tyndale  died  at  the  stake  at  Vilvorde ;  and  the  inaugurators 
of  the  changes  now  finding  their  full  effect  in  a  revolution 
thus   widespread  and  momentous,  gave  place   to  another 
generation.     The  men  of  that  generation  at  Cambridge  were    , 
witnesses   too    of   changes   neither  uninteresting   nor   un- 
important.     They  saw   the    authority    of    the    scholastic 
Aristotle  more  rudely  shaken  by  Kamus  in  the  schools  than 
it  had  ever  been  shaken  before ;  they  saw  in  the  foundation 
of  Trinity  CoU^e  the  rise  of  a  new  conception  of  college 
discipline  under  distinctly  Protestant  auspices;  and  with 
the  Statutes  of  Elisabeth  they  saw  the  constitution  of  the 
university  aasume  that  form  which  with  but  few  modificatiooB 
has  lasted  to  out  own  day.    But  with  these  chaages  we  find 
ourselves  in  the  presence  of  new  characters  and  new  ideas ; 
and  tite  final  triumph  of  the  Humanists  seems  to  mark  the 
point  at  which  this  volume  may  most  fitly  close. 

In  recording  the  fall  of  that  system  which  in  its  un- 
ceasing and  yet  monotonous  activity  has  so  long  engaged  our 
attention,  and  against  which  the  preceding  pages  have  been  a 
more  or  less  continuous  indictment,  our  inclination  is  less  to 
reiterate  the  conventional  phrases  that  express  the  commob 
verdict  on  its  merits,  than  to  recall  the  services  which  amid 


deutUflb  sla  zmn  ThomismnB  hinnei-' 
gmd  TM^iichtigte.'  Fmiit\,Oi$cltKht« 
der  Logik,  it  269. 

(I)  Tfitut  lotiuilogicetpeTmagU- 
tTwn  Tliomam  Bricot  abbrevialut  et 
per  eumdrm  novUiime  emendatiu, 
[Biuilfir,  1192],—'  zeigt  sich  hub 
deraalbe  ola  einea  riiionireDdeu  nnd 
iDgleicli  reclttfeitigenden  Anszng  ana 
dem  ariatotelischBn  Organon  mit 
EuuehlnM  de«  PorpbyTlaB,  bo  da«« 
wii  jede  weitere  E^merkong  Uber 
dieM  an  lioh  tuit«i|[eoidnete  Arbeit 


nnteilasBen  konnten.'  Ibid,  it  300. 
(^)  Anothei  comnieiitator  on  Si- 
rectna;  printed  in  different  editions 
of  that  author.  Venet.  1601,  1614, 
1536,  I58S.  Ho  labored  to  lednoe 
the  if  jiiinrtio  to  tTo  kinds. — tbe  dit- 
tinctio  formalxf,  and  tbe  dittinctio 
realit.  '  Dieee  Dichotomie  aber  wnrda 
hinwiedenun . .  .von  anderen  conserra- 
tlTen  Scotieten  gersdeza  ala  eine 
Hinneigong  znm  Tbomiimna  bezeioh- 
net.'    Ibid,  n  198. 


632  CONCLUSION. 

cHAF.vi.  much  extravagance,  much  puerility,  and  much  bigotry, 
scholasticism  yet  rendered  to  civilisation.  We  would  fiBdn 
remember  how  dim  was  the  age  in  which  it  rose ;  that  its 
chief  names  are  still  the  beacon  lights  whereby,  and  whereby 
alone,  the  student  can  discern  the  tradition  of  Roman  culture 
and  Athenian  thought  across  centuries  of  barbarism,  ignor- 
ance, and  superstition ;  that  at  a  time  when  the  ancient 
literature  had  been  either  forbidden  or  forgotten,  and  the 
modem  literature  was  not,  it  found  at  once  a  stimulus  and 
a  career  for  the  intellect,  and  generated  a  wondrous,  far- 
reaching,  and  intense,  if  not  altogether  healthy,  activity ; 
that  with  a  subtlety  and  power  not  inferior  to  that  of  the 
best  days  of  Hellas,  it  taught  men  to  distinguish  and  define, 
and  left  its  impress  on  the  language  and  the  thought  of 
Europe  in  lines  manifold,  deep-graven,  and  ineffaceable; 
that  the  great  contest  in  philosophy  which  it  again  initiated 
still  perplexes  and  divides  the  schools ;  that  the  study  it 
most  ardently  cultivated  and  in  which  it  had,  as  it  were, 
its  being,  has  after  long  neglect  been  revived  at  our 
universities  and  pursued  with  developements  of  system  and 
method  of  which  Aquinas  and  Duns  Scotus  never  dreamed ; 
and  thus  while  unhesitatingly  acknowledging  that  scholasti- 
cism mostly  led  its  followers  by  bitter  waters  and  over 
barren  plains,  and  that  its  reign  can  never  be  restored,  we 
may  yet  recognise  therein  a  salutary,  perhaps  a  necessaiy^ 
experience  in  the  education  of  the  world. 


APPENDIX. 


I-  I 


l> 


I 


AFPENSIZ.  639 

StatiOa  UniveriiMi*  CanlebrigiM. 

Si  aliqnis  velit  habere  aliquam  principolitatom  alicnjns  hospitii 
in  dicta  uniTersitate,  venUt  ad  dMninDm  hoepitii  illins  in  die  Saucti 
Bornabae  apostoli ;  quia  ab  illo  tempore  [11  Jun.]  luqne  ad  KatiTitatem 
Beatae  Mariae  [8  Sept]  possunt  oifferri  cantionea  et  admitti,  ot  nnllo 
alio  tempore  aoni. 

Item  qui  prior  est  tempore  prior  est  jure ;  ita,  qui  prine  offert 
cautioDem  domino  domus,  stabit  cautio ;  et  ilia  caotio  debet  praeferri 
coram  cancellario. 

Item  Bcholaria  ille  qui  dare  debet  caotionem  ipse  debet  Tenire 
domino  ho^>iUi  in  praedicto  die  vel  infra  illud  tempos,  aed  qnanto 
ci^na  tanto  melius,  ct  in  praeaentia  bedelli  rel  notarii  rel  dnonun 
testium  et  cautionem  siU  eiponere  cnm  effectn,  ri  Telit ;  ita  Tidelicel 
com  offectu,  vel  cantionem  fidqoBsoriam  vel  piguoraticiam,  id  est,  vel 
duofl  fidejuBsores  vel  nnnm  libmm  Tel  aliud  tale ;  et,  si  non  admittatnr, 
Ille  w;bolaria  debet  statim  adire  cancellarium  et  sibi  eiponere  canti- 
onem in  pnieMntia  illortim  teftiom  et  dicere  qoaliter  dominns  hospitii 
te  minns  joate  recnsarit  in  cantione  recipienda ;  et  hoc  probatA  cancel- 
Urine  stattm  te  admittet  ad  illam  cautionem  et  ad  iUam  principalitatem 
invito  diMuino  boepitii. 

Item  ille  qni  acholaris  eat  et  principaliB  aliciuos  hospitii  non  potest 
cedere  nee  alicoi  clerico  scholari  socio  remintiare  juri  sno,  aed  tantmn 
donuno  hospitii 

Item  cessionea  hiynsmodi  prohfbentur  quia  fiiissent  in  praq'tididnm 
domini  hospitii ;  quod  fieri  non  debet. 

Item  si  aliquis  ait  prindpalis  alicnjns  hospitii,  et  aliqiua  bIids 
•ehoUris  relit  inhabitare  tanqnaai  principalis  in  eodem  ho^itio,  adeat 
dominom  hoefntii  et  exponat  nbi  cantionem,  nt  didtur  supra,  ita 
dicens :  Domina,  m  placeat  tibi,  peto  me  admitti  ad  principalitatem 
bo^tii  toi  in  ilia  parochia,  qnandocunqne  prindpalis  vetit  cedera 
Tel  renuntiari  Juri  sno,  ita  quod  ego  primo  et  prindpaliter  ot  immediat* 
possim  sibi  succedere,  si  placeat  tibi,  salvo  jnre  sno  dnm  prindpalis 
fnerit  SI  non  vult,  exponas  cautionem  cancellario,  nt  te  admittat 
ad  illam  conditionem  quod  qnandocunqne  noa  fuerit  prindpalia, 
quod  tu  poesis  esse  prindpalis  et  sibi  anccedere  in  eodem  hospitio 
prao  omnibus  aliis ;  et  cancellarius  te  admittet  inrito  domino  et  inrito 
prindpalL 

Item  si  aliquis  dominns  didt  alicoi  scholari:  Vis  tu  esse  prindpalis 
illins  hospitii  mei  ?  Scbolaris  didt  quod  sic ;  sed  dominns  hospitii 
didt  quod  non  Tolt  quod  hosfritinm  tazetur  aliqno  mode;  sdiolaria 
didt  qood  non  curat ;  scholaria  ingreditur  tanqnam  prindpalis  et 
acdpit  sibi  sodos  scfaolarea  in  bospitio  sno.  Isti  scholares  hospitii 
possont  adire  cancellarium  et  facere  hosfutium  eorom  taxari  inrito 
principali  et  invito  domino,  non  obstante  contiucto  inter  dominom  et 
prindpalem,  qui  contractus  privatorum  non  potest  {Hi^judJcare  juri 
publico. 


636  APPENDIX. 

5  Named  Cantebro  a  large  brode  ryver, 
And  after  Cante  called  Cantebro, 

Thii  famous  Citie^  thia  write  the  Cronicler, 
Was  called  Cambridge;  rehersing  eke  also 
In  their  booke  their  aucthors  bothe  twoe 
Towching  the  date,  as  I  rehearse  can, 
Fro  thilke  tyme  that  the  world  began 

6  Fewer  thowsand  complete  by  accomptes  clere 
And  three  hmidreth  by  compatacion 
Joyned  thcrto  eight  and  fortie  yeare, 
When  Cantebro  gave  the  fundacion 

Of  thys  cytie  and  this  fiunous  towne 

And  of  this  noble  vniiicrsitie 

Sett  on  this  ryver  which  is  called  Canto. 

7  And  fro  the  great  transmigracion 

Of  kynges  reconed  in  the  byble  of  old 

Fro  Ihemsalem  to  babylon 

Twoe  hundreth  wynter  and  thirtie  yearcs  told. 

Thus  to  writte  myne  aucthour  maketh  me  bold, 

When  Cantebro,  as  it  well  knoweth. 

At  Atheynes  sdioled  in  his  yought, 

8  Alle  his  wyttes  g^eatlye  did  applie 

To  have  acquayntaunce  by  great  affection 
With  folke  ezperte  in  pMlosophie. 
From  Atheines  he  brought  with  hym  downe 
Philosophers  most  sovereigne  of  rcnowne 
Ynto  Cambridge,  playnlye  this  is  the  case, 
Anaxamander  and  Anaxagoras 

9  With  many  other  myne  Aucthours  dethe  fare, 
To  Cambridge  fast  can  hym  spede 

With  philosophers,  &  let  for  no  cost  spare 
In  the  Schooles  to  studdie  &  to  reede; 
Of  whoes  teachinge  great  profit  that  gan  spreade 
And  great  increase  rose  of  his  doctrine; 
Thus  of  Cambridge  the  name  gan  first  shyne 

10  As  chieffe-  schoole  &  vniuersitie 
Ynto  this  tyme  fro  the  daye  it  began 
By  deare  reporte  in  manye  a  far  countre 
Ynto  the  relgne  of  Cassibellan, 
A  woorthie  prince  and  a  ftill  knyghtlie  man, 
As  sayne  cronicles,  who  with  his  might[ie]  hand 
Let  Julius  Cesar  to  arryve  in  this  lande. 


APPENDIX.  639 

Statuta  UniBtrtiUUii  CanUbrigiaa. 

Si  aliqnia  relit  habere  ftliqium  principalitAtem  alic^jns  hospitii 
In  dicta  nniTeraitate,  veniat  ad  dominnai  hospitii  iUina  in  die  Bancti 
Bamabae  apostoli ;  quia  ab  illo  tempore  [II  Juti.]  usqae  ad  Natiritatem 
Beatae  Mariae  [8  Sept]  poaaunt  offerri  caatioDoi  et  odmitti,  et  anllo 
alio  tempore  annL 

Item  qui  prior  egt  tempore  prior  est  jure ;  ito,  qni  priiu  offert 
caotionem  domino  domiu,  Btabit  cantio;  ot  ilia  cautio  debet  praefeni 
coram  cancellario. 

Item  Bcbolaria  ille  qui  dare  debet  cantionem  ipse  debet  Tenire 
domino  hoBpitii  in  praedicto  die  rel  infra  illud  tempos,  s«d  qnanto 
citioB  t&nto  melius,  ct  in  praesentis  bedelli  vel  notarii  toI  daoram 
teetium  et  caatioaem  Bibi  eiponere  cum  effectu,  si  Telit ;  ita  ridelicet 
cum  effectn,  Tel  cautionom  Sdejasaoriam  vel  pignoraticiam,  id  est,  vel 
duos  fid^ussoros  vel  uoum  Ubnun  vel  aliud  tale;  et,  si  non  admittator, 
ille  scbolaris  debet  statim  adire  cancellariiun  ot  sibi  eiponere  canti- 
onem in  [Haesentia  illoram  testium  et  dicere  qnaliter  dominns  hospitii 
te  minus  juste  recusant  in  candone  recipienda ;  et  hoc  probato  cancel- 
larios  statim  tc  admittet  ad  iUam  cantionem  et  ad  illam  principalitatem 
innto  dcHDino  hospitii. 

Item  ille  qni  scbolaris  est  et  principalis  alici^us  hospitii  non  potest 
cedere  nee  alicoi  clerico  scbolari  socio  renuntiare  juri  sno,  sed  tantnm 
domino  hospitii 

Item  ceasiones  htgnsmodi  prohibentur  qma  foifflent  in  pratJudidDiit 
domini  hospitii ;  qaod  fieri  non  debet. 

Item  si  aliquis  sit  principalis  aliciyas  hospitii,  et  aliqnis  alius 
scbolaris  vdit  inhabitare  tanqnam  principalis  in  eodem  hospiUo,  adeat 
dominnm  hospitii  et  eipMiat  sibi  cautionem,  nt  didtnr  sllp^^  it* 
diceos :  Domine,  si  placeat  tibi,  peto  me  admitti  ad  principalitatem 
hospitii  tni  in  ilia  parochia,  qnandocunque  principalis  velit  cedem 
Tel  renimtiari  juri  sno,  ita  quod  ^o  primo  et  principaliter  et  immediate 
possim  sibi  suocedere,  ri  placeat  tibi,  salro  jure  suo  dum  principfJis 
fderit.  Si  non  Tult,  exponas  cantionem  cancellario,  ut  te  admittat 
ad  iUatn  conditionem  quod  quandocunqne  non  fiierit  principalis, 
quod  tu  possis  esse  principalis  et  sibi  succedere  in  eodem  hospitio 
prae  omnibus  aliis ;  et  cancellarins  te  admittet  inrito  domino  et  inrito 
principall 

Item  si  aliquis  dominus  dicit  alicoi  scholari :  Tis  tu  esse  prindpalls 
illius  hospitii  mei  ?  Scbolaris  dicit  quod  ric ;  sed  dominus  hospitii 
dicit  quod  non  vult  quod  hospitiom  taxetnr  aliqno  modo;  acliolarig 
dicit  quod  noD  cniat ;  scbolaris  ingreditur  tanqnam  principalis  et 
accipit  sibi  socios  scholares  in  hospitio  boo.  Isti  scbolares  ho^tii 
poesunt  adire  cancellarium  et  facere  hospitium  eorum  taiari  invito 
principal!  et  inTito  domino,  non  obstante  contractu  inter  dominum  et 
principalem,  qoi  contnctos  privatonim  non  potest  praejudicare  juri 
pnblica 


640  APPENDIX. 

liom  nallus  potest  priyare  aliqnem  principalem  sua 
tate  DOC  aliqao  modo  supplantare,  dommodo  aolnt  pennonem,  nisi 
dominas  hospitii  velit  iDhabitare,  Tel  nifli  dominos  Tendideiit  t^  bo»- 
pitiam  alicnayerit 


(D),  p.  234. 

7%^  SUUule$  qf  Michael  HouMe  under  the  ieal  qf  Harvey  de  StanUm, 
(The  earliest  college  statutes  of  the  uniyenity.) 

Uniyerais  Christ!  fidelibos  preesentibus  et  fotnris,  Herriciu  de 
Stanton  clericos  salutem,  ad  perpetuam  memoriam  subscriptonun.  Cdsa 
Plasmatoris  omnium  magnifice  bonitatis  immensitas,  creaturam  soam 
rationalem  quam  sue  similitudini  conformarat,  ingonuam  Tolens  ad 
interne  discretionis  intelligentiam  efferri,  et  in  fide  catholica  solidari, 
supcma  pictate  disposuit  creaturam  ipsam  fulgere  yirtutibus  et  doctrinisy 
at  creatorem  et  redemptorem  suum  fideliter  credendo  oognoeceret»  et 
eidem,  absque  criminis  contagione  mortiferi,  desenriret  Cumque  per 
diyini  cultus  obsequium  ot  scripturse  sacre  documentum  juxta  sane- 
Uones  canonicas  sancta  mater  eztoQatur  ecdesia.  Quibus  ab  ezoeUen- 
tiBsimo  principe  et  domino  reyerendo,  domino  Edwardo  Dei  gratia 
roge  Anglie  Ulustri,  deyotione  saluberrima  pensatis,  Idem  dominus 
rex  ad  honorem  Dei  et  augmentum  cultus  diyini  michi  gratiose  oon- 
cedero  dignatus  est,  et  per  literas  suas  patentes  concessit  et  licentiam 
dedit  pro  se  ac  hercdibus  suis,  quod  in  quodam  meeuagio  cum  per- 
tinentiis  in  Cantebrig:  ubi  exercitium  studii  fulgere  dinosdtur,  (quod 
quidem  mosuagium  michi  in  feodum  adquisiyi)  quandam  domum  scola- 
rium,  capellanorum  et  aliorum,  sub  nomine  Domus  Soolariom  Sancti 
Michaelis  Cantebrig :  per  quondam  magistrum  ^usdem  domus  regendam 
juxta  ordinationem  meam,  instituere  et  fundare  possim  et  assignare  pre- 
dictis  magistro  et  scolaribus,  habendum  sibi  et  sucoessoribus  suis  pro 
eorum  inhabitatione  im  perpctuum.  Super  quo  yenerabilis  pater  domi- 
nus Johannes  Dei  gratia  Eliensis  episcopus,  lod  diocesanus,  in  hac 
parte,  procibus  meis,  de  consensu  capituli  sui,  salubriter  annuendo^ 
gratiose  concessit,  predictam  Domum  Scolarium  Sancti  Mifih^Ali*^  at  pre- 
dicitur,  per  me  fundari  et  firmitate  perpetua  stabiliri. 

S.  3.  Quapropter  conyocatis  in  presentia  mea  magistro  Roberto  de 
Mildenhale,  magistro  Waltero  de  Buxton,  magistro  Tboma  de  Kyning- 
ham,  et  Henrico  de  Langham  presbiteris;  Thoma  de  Trumpeshale  et 
Edmundo  de  Mildenhall  presbiteris  ct  baccalauriis  in  uniyersitate 
Cantebrig :  studentibus,  qui  artium  liberalium  philosophie,  sen  thecdogie 
studio  intendebant :  dictam  domum  in  Sancte  et  Indiyidue  TrinitatiSy 
Beate  Marie  matris  Domini  nostri  Jesu  Christi  semper  Yirginis,  Saneti 
Michaelis  Archangeli,  et  omnium  Sanctorum  yenerationem,  sub  nomine 
Domus  Scolarium  sancti  Michaelis,  ut  predicitur,  predictis  Roberto, 


APPENDIX.  641 

Waltero,  Thoma,  Henrico,  Thonu,  et  Bdmnndo^  actuduibos  de  fiaao 
comentientibiu,  in  ipwniin  Boolarinm  penonii,  oolleginm  originaliter 
&cio,  ordioo,  stabilio,  et  constitno  in  bac  parte:  qoibiu  magistnim 
Rfiginald  de  Honfnge  sabdiaoouam  asaocian  concedo.  Et  pn&tsm 
magutrom  Waltemm  de  Buxton  eiadem  domoi,  coUogio,  et  locie- 
tati,  in  magiBtrum  preficio:  et  ipaum  magiatnim  ad  salabre  et 
competeni  regimen  eonmdem  omatituo,  qtdbna  qnidem  magistnt  et 
Boolariboa,  et  eomm  sncceeaoribii^  locum  inhabitationia  in  memagio 
meo  predicto  cmn  pertiiientuB  scitnato  in  parotdua  SancU  Wti-lia»tlif 
in  Tico  qui  Tocator  Helnatrete,  quod  porqniaiTi  de  magiitro  Bognro 
filio  domini  QnidoniB  Batetonrtos  im  perpetnum  ooncedo  et  aaaigiio, 
QAam  qnidem  Domnm  Scolariom  Sancti  M''^'mw1'i>  toIo  imperpetanm 
niutcapati 

S,  4.  Saper  statu  Ten  pradictce  domna  adiolariom,  bc  ordinandnm 
dnxi  et  statnendnm:  prinram  qnidem  quod  icholarea  in  eadem  demo 
dnt  preabyteri,  qni  in  artibiiB  liberaliboa  aen  philoaophla  reierint,  Tei 
aaltein  ba<x»lamii  in  eadem  sdentia  exiataot,  et  qui  in  aiiibaa  indpere 
teneantnr,  et  postqoam  ceeaaTOrint  atndio  Thedogis  intendanL  et  qood 
nullna  de  cetoro  in  societatem  dkte  domiu  admittatnr  preter  preabi- 
teroa,  Tel  aaltem  in  aacria  ordinibna  oonatitutoa,  infht  annnm  a  tempera 
admiadonia  sae  in  domnm  pnedictam,  ad  ordinem  lacerdoUlon  cancmioe 
promoTOidae,  honeatoa,  caatoa,  bnmilea,  paoiScoa,  et  indigentea  qui 
conamiliter  in  artibaa  liberalibna  aen  philoaopliia  rexerint,  vel  lalteu 
baccalaoril  in  eadem  adentia  exiatant,  et  atndio  tlieologie  nt  pre- 
didtnr,  proceaan  temporia  racent  et  intendant. 

S.  S.  Qoibna  magtslnun  preoaie  Tolo,  et  eidem  magiatro,  sen  anb- 
atitnto  ab  eodem,  (com  legitimo  impedimento  ipaom  magiatrmu  abeaae^ 
Tel  adrena  nletodine  detineri  contlgerit)  toIo,  ordino,  et  ataUlio  oettma 
dicte  Bodetatia  acolarea,  tarn  preabjteroe  qiuun  alios  anbeese,  et  ddem 
in  canonicis  et  lidtis,  pro  statu,  ntilitate  et  regimine  dictanuu  domna 
et  aodetatis  salnbriter  obedire. 

H.  6.  Et  qood  magiater  et  loolarea  Mpallani  et  alii,  menaam  oom- 
m\mem  habeant,  in  dome  predicta:  et  habitnm  confonnem,  quanto 
commode  potorint,  qoorum  qailibet  in  ordine  pnebTtema  conatitntna 
qnioqae  marcaa,  et  qnilibet  in  diaconom  ant  snbdiaconnm  ordinatna 
qoatnor  marcaa  tantununodo,  de  me  et  rebns  meia  ann^iat'm  perdpiat: 
donee,  Dd  anffingio,  pro  ipaonim  snatentatione,  in  tenementis,  redditibos, 
sen  eccleriaimn  qipropriationibna  prorideatur;  nnde  poaaint  in  forma 
predicta  anstentari.  Ita  qood  aingulia  septimania  anmptas  ciyuBlibet 
eomndem  in  eacnlentia  et  pocnlentii  dnodocim  denarioa,  niai  ex  oansa 
neceuaria  et  honesta,  non  excedat  Et  ai  quod,  anno  rerolnto,  de  pre- 
dictia  qninqne  et  qnatuor  marcia  snpererit,  compntatis  expensia  c^jnaUbet 
jnxta  ordinationem  predictam,  diatribnator  inter  aodoa  dicte  domna  fOQ 
eqnali  portione.  Habeant  inauper  dicti  acolarea  dnoa  famnloa  ad  minia- 
trandnm  eis  in  hospitio  ano,  qnonun  nterque  pro  snsUntatione  ana  in 
eacolentis  et  pocnlentis  praidpiat  singulis  septimanis  deoem  denaijM 


642  APPENDIX. 

pro  Btipendio  voro  oonmdcm  dnorom  famnlonun,  et  barbitoniorifl  el 
lotrids,  pcrcipiaut  dicti  scolares  quadra^nta  Bolidos  per  annum,  et 
si  pro  miuori  stipcndio  inter  oos  conTeiicrit,  quod  residuum  fult  inter 
ipeos  scolarcs  distribuatur,  sicut  superius  dictum  est 

S.  7.  Numcrus  vero  capoUanorum  scolarium  et  aliorum,  ut predidtur, 
juxta  quantitatcm  bonorum  ot  proTontuum  dicte  domuB,  proceasn  t^n- 
poris  augentur.  De  expensLs  yero  dictorum  capellanorum  et  Booteriam 
super  esculentis  et  poculentis,  per  unum  sive  presbyterum  aut  alium  €K 
sociis  dicte  domuB,  per  magistrum  deputandum  Ticissim  ac  altematuBy 
singulis  soptimanis  ministretur;  et  inde,  singulis  diebus  Veneris  ant 
Sabbati,  coram  magistro  et  sociis  fidoliter  computetur. 

8.  8.  Nee  aliquis  in  sodetate  dicte  domus  ponatur  seu  admittatur 
nisi  per  magistrum  et  scolaros  dicte  domus ;  qui  per  scrutinium  sodos 
eligendos  in  virtute  juramonti  sui,  eligant  simplidter  meliores;  non 
habendo  rospectum  ad  aliquam  affectionem  camaleniy  nee  instantiam, 
nee  aliquorum  requisitionem,  sou  precationem. 

8.  9.  Si  yero  dictorum  presbyterorum  seu  scolarium  alicni  talis  egri- 
tudo  superyenerit,  quod  inter  sanos  oommode  conyersari  non  debeat; 
sea  quis  eorum  reUgionem  intrayerit;  seu  aliunde  yagando  se  transtu- 
lerit ;  seu  ab  eadem  dome  per  tres  menses  continuos,  sine  lioentiamagistri, 
se  absentayerit;  seu  in  ipsa  dome  studere  neglexerit  dum  potens  fuerit 
ad  studendum;  seu  in  diyini  cultus  ministerio,  juxta  status  sui  exi- 
gentiam  et  ordinationem  predictam,  negligcns  aut  remissus  notabiliter 
extitorit;  seu  aliunde  substantiam  ad  yalentiam  centum  solidorum 
annuorum  in  temporalibus  seu  spiritualibus  consecutus  fuerit;  cesset 
ex  tunc  omnino  in  eg  us  persona  exhibitio  in  dome  predicta.  Ita  quod 
nichil  inde  pcrcipiat  in  futurum.  Quod  si  publica  turpitudinis  nota  eorum 
aliquem  inyolvcrit,  aut  in  ipsa  dome  per  eorum  aliquem  graye  scanda* 
lum  fuerit  suscitatum ;  yel  adoo  impaciliciis  et  discors  ciga  magistrum 
et  socios,  seu  jurgiorum  aut  litium  crober  suscitator  extiterit;  seu  de 
l>erjurio,  aacrilegio,  furto,  seu  rapina,  homicidio,  adulterio,  Tel  incon- 
tinentia sui3er  lapsu  camis  notorie  di£famatur;  ita  quod,  per  sodos  dicte 
domus  statute  sibi  tormino,  so  purgare  non  possit,  dicta  sustentatio 
omninQ  sibi  subtrahatur,  et  ii)se  yelut  ois  morbida,  que  totam  massam 
corrumpit,  a  dicta  congrcgationo  juxta  discretionem  magistri  et  senioris 
partis  Bocietatis  predicte,  penitus  excludatur.  Ncc  alicui  a  dome  pre- 
dicta sic  ejccto  actio  conipetat,  contra  magistrum  dicte  domua  aut 
scolares^  seu  quoscuuquo  alios  do  dicta  domo,  agendo,  appellando, 
conqucrendo,  sive  in  integrum  restitutioncm  petcndo;  nee  aiiquibos 
Uteris  seu  impetrationibus,  in  foro  ecclesiastico  seu  secular!  subyeni- 
atur:  hujusmodi  litoris  seu  impetrationibus,  qualitercunque  optentia^ 
utendo. 

S.  1 1.  Et  ne  litibus,  placitis,  seu  querelis,  bona  dicte  domus  distra- 
hantur,  per  aliquem  seu  aliquos  societatis  predicte,  aut  in  usus  alios 
convertantur,  minuantur,  aut  dissipentur;  sed  dumtaxat  in  pios  usus 
ut  prcdicitur,  erogentur;  ordino,  statue,  et  stabiLo,  ne  qui  in  dieta. 


APPEHDIX.  643 

matentatfone  ant  bonis  dicto  domiu  proprietatem  habeant,  nee  aliqnod 
sibi  Tcodicare  possint,  niai  dum  obedicntes,  tolenibiles,  hanules  fberint, 
adeo  et  modcBti  nt  maglster  et  socii  dicto  domna  oorum  couTenationem 
et  socictntem  landabilem  approbarDrint,  ot  inde  decreTwint  se  conteatoa 
in  forma  prcdicta. 

B.  12.  Hoc  antem  scolarea  dicte  domtu  diligenter  inter  >e  attendant, 
ttt  nnllu  eomm,  eKtraneoa  ant  proirfnqnoa  indncendo,  dlcto  nie  aodetat^ 
onerosnH  eiiatat;  ne  per  hoc  alioram  tnrbetnr  tnnquillitaa,  ant  conten- 
tionia  sen  jnrgiomm  materia  auscitetaT,  ant  bononim  dicte  tocietatia  in 
Ipeonun  diapendinm  portio  anbtrabator,  sen  tn  nans  alios  minns  prorida 
CODTertatnr. 

B.  13.  Contentiones  Tero  et  dtacidia  inter  sodos  dicte  domna  snborta, 
stndeat  magiiter  qjnsdem,  joxta  consilinin  sanioris  partis  eonmdem, 
diligenter  compere  et  sedare,  Tiis  et  modts  qnibni  poterit  opportnnis. 
Bed  ingmente  snper  boc  correptionia  sen  coirectioms  importnnitate, 
dominus  epiacopns  ElTOntii  qni  pro  tempore  fherit,  vel  eancenarins 
nniTersitatia  Cantebrig.  jnita  Gtctomm  contitigenthmi'  qnalitatem,  si 
neoease  ftiertt  conralatnr.  PretercA  risitetnr  dicta  domna  per  canod- 
hrimn  nnirersttatiB.Bemel,  rel  pinries,  cnm  per  magistnun  dicte  domna 
int  scolarea  fiierit  reqaisitos.  Bt  ^  qnid  oorrigendnm  inreneril^  emeO' 
dari  fodat,  jnxta  conBnetndinem  nnirerdtatis  predjcte;  nlchtl  tameo 
noTi  attemptet,  ertatnat,  ordinet,  sen  fntrodncat  per  qiwd  ordinalion] 
mee  predicte  in  aliqoibns  dorogetnr,  sen  Talent  derogari. 

Capellani  et  scolarea  societatig  predicte,  singnlis  diebna  festivis 
m^oribns,  in  predicts  ecdesia  BancU  Michaelis,  ad  matutiiiaB  et  alias 
boras  canonicaa  compotentnr  psailendas,  personaliter  conveniant;  et 
ad  missas  do  die  pront  decct  justa  festomm  exigentiam,  cnm  nota 
qoatenns  commode  recare  potorint,  celebrandas.  Singnlis  rero  diebna 
feriatis  dicant  omnes  boras  canonicas,  pront  deoet  Hoc  semper  obser- 
Tata  qnod  singnlis  dicbns  in  qnibos  licet  celebrare,  Mi$$a  itala  Vir- 
ginit  ot  MUte  d^nctorum  extra  festa  m^ora,  perpetno  celebrentnr. 
£t  quod  qnilibet  in  ordino  sacerdotal!  coDstitntna  qninqoles  In  septimaaa 
missam  celobrct,  cnm  commode  vacare  poterit,  nisi  per  icflrmitatem 
ant  alias  ex  causa  legitlma  fncrit  impoditos.  SingnUs  Tcro  diebns 
Bominids,  a  tempore  inccptionis  bjstorio  que  dicitur  Z>eiu  omnium 
nsqne  ad  adTentnm  Domini,  celobretnr  Miua  de  Trinilate.  per  singnlos 
antem  dies  Lnno,  Mina  de  Sancto  MichaeU  Archangelo.  Et  quolibet 
die  Martis,  Mi»»a  de  Sanelo  Edmundo  Rege  et  Saneto  T^oma  AreM- 
^teopo  Canluarienti  ifarti/rtbuM  et  omnibiu  Martyribiu.  Qnolibflt 
die  Mcrcurii,  MUta  de  Sancto  Johatine  Baptitta  et  alia  Mitta  de 
Sanelo  Peiro  Apostoto  et  omnStui  Apottolit.  Quolibet  die  Jofia,  Mina 
de  SanetU  Etheldrfda,  KaUrina,  Margarela,  a  omn&u*  Virffiutbut. 
QuoUbet  die  Veneris,  Mitta  de  Sancta  Cruce,  et  quolibet  die  Babbati, 
Mitta  de  Sanctis  Niehotao,  Marlino,  et  omnibu*  Confettoribut.  Et 
qnod  ille  misse  speciales,  extra  festa  dnppUcia,  celebrantnr  pa 
eqwllannm  qnem  mogister  dicte  domna  ad  hoc  vidaaliii  dni«rtt  aarig- 

41—2 


644  APPENDIX. 

nandnm,  pront  ad  miBsas  illM  speciales  horis  capUtIs  intendflre  potorint 
celebrandas. 

17.  Per  hoc  autem  intentionis  mee  non  existit,  ipsorum  aoolariam 
capellanorum  aliquem  ultra  possibilitatem  soam  congmam^  super  hojuH 
modi  missarum  celcbrationibus  faciendis,  onerare,  quo  minus  lecUonibuSy 
disputationibuB  in  scolis,  sive  studio  Taleant  vacare  oompetenter;  ei 
hec  cadem  ipsorum  oonscientiis  duxi  relinquenda.  Psalmos  vero  peni- 
tcntiales  cum  psalmis  quindecim,  scilicet  Ad  Dominum  cum  tribularer^ 
et  aliis  usualibus:  et  litania,  placebo^  et  cUrige,  ei  anifnarum  coni' 
fnetuUUionemy  dicant  secundum  usum  Sarum,  co^junctim  vel  separ- 
atim,  horis  quibus  vacare  potorint  competontibus,  suarum  pericalo 
animanim.  • 

18.  In  omnibus  vero  et  sing^is  missis  celebrandis,  tenentur  dieti 
capellani  scolares  orare,  pro  statu  universalis  Ecclosie,  et  pace  et 
tranquillitate  regni,  et  pro  salute  dicti  domini  regis,  domine  Isabdle 
regine,  domini  Edwardi  dicti  regis  primogeniti,  et  allorum  ipsiui 
regis  liberorum,  et  prefati  domini  episoopi  fllyensis,  prions  et  con» 
Tentus  ejusdem  loci,  ilea,  magistri  Rogeri  Butetonrte,  Dere  de  Wad- 
dyngle  et  omnium  parentum  amicornm,  et  benefactorum  meorum:  efe 
ipsorum  cum  ab  hoc  seculo  migraverint^  animabus,  et  omnium  reg^um 
Anglic  animabus  necnon  specialiter  pro  animabus  dominomm  Radulphi 
do  Walpol  et  Roberti  de  Oroford  quondam  episcoporum  Elyensiom; 
Johannis  doNorthwolde  quondam  abbatis  de  sancto  Edmundo;  Johannia 
de  Berwisco,  Henrici  de  Guldeford^  Johannis  de  Vivon,  Ade  de  Ikelyng- 
ham,  Galfridi  de  Kyngeston,  Johannis  do  Ely,  Parentum  et  bene&ctorum 
meorum  et  omnium  fidelium  defunctorum. 

19.  Do  cameris  vero  in  manso  habitationis  prediote  dictis  soola- 
ribus  asdignandis,  habeat  magister  cameram  principalem,  et  quo  ad 
alias  cameras  preferantur  seniores. 

20.  Item  haboant  dicti  magister  et  scolares  communem  cistam,  pro 
cartis,  scriptis,  et  higus  modi  rebus  suis  custodiendis,  cum  tribus  semiris 
et  clavibus;  quarum  unam  clavem  custodiat  master  dicte  domus,  et 
allam  clavem  unus  capellanorum,  et  tertiam  davom  alius  capellanus,  per 
magistrum  et  scolares  ad  custodiam  illam  deputandi. 

2 1 .  Cedente  vero  aut  decedente  magistro  dicte  domus,  alius  magister 
ydoneus,  providus,  et  circumspectus,  in  ordine  sacerdotali  constitutuay 
saltern  qui  in  arte  rexerit  dialectica,  per  socios  cyusdem  domus  sea 
mtyorem  et  seniorem  partem  eonmdem  secundum  numerum,  de  seipsis 
aut  aliis,  eligatur;  et  hujus  modi  electio  cancellario  universitatis  Gante- 
brig:  notificetur,  simpliciter,  approbanda,  sed  non  examinanda.  Nee 
per  hoc  habeat  cancellarius  dicte  universitatis  i>otestatem  sive  juris- 
dictionem  dictam  electionem  quassandi,  seu  de  statu  dicte  domus  ali- 
qualiter  ordinandi,  seu  aliquem  in  societatem  dicte  domus  ponendi, 
contra  formam  ordinationis  niee  supradicte. 

22.  Quod  si  forsan  scholares  dicte  domus,  cedente  vel  decedente 
magistro  ejusdem,  alium  magistrum  ad  regimen  dicte  domus,  infira  daoa 


APPENDIX.  645 

meniea  a  tempore  ceamonU  ant  deceutu  magistri,  eligere  neglexeriiit: 
tunc  statim  post  lapsmn  illorum  dnonim  mensiam,  dominns  ^iacoptu 
Elfensia,  qui  pro  temporo  fuorit,  magutmm  prefidat  et  depntet  ad 
n^nien  antedictnm;  et  hi^iu  modi  profectio  magifttri,  fiuta  per  pre- 
dictum  doniinum  epiacopum,  cancellario  noUfic^tur,  mode  superina 
uiDOtato,  Bftlra  Mmper  dictia  scoUribas  elections  libera  magiatmm 
eligeodi,  in  siagulta  aliisTacaUoDibuB,  per  mortem  autcesBionem  magiatri 
ani,  con^gentibna  in  faturum. 

S  23.  Cum  antem  aliqim  acolaris,  aive  presbiter  give  alioa,  in  ucria 
tamen  ordinibns  conBtitntoa,  ad  sodetatera  dicte  domai  rit  redpiendoi; 
•tatim  in  admiaaione  ana  bi^ns  modi  recente,  coram  magiatro  [rd] 
preaidente  dIcte  domua,  ot  Mciia,  jorabit,  inapectie  siTO  tactia  lacro- 
aanctis  ovangeliia,  qnod  predictaa  ordinationee  et  etatnta,  nt  predicitnr, 
toto  posse  mo  fideliter  obaerrabit,  qnatenna  absque  nota  peijnrii,  jnzta 
coiucientjo  sae  Beronationem,  ea  tenere  poterit  et  obaerrare. 

24.  Cetomm  liceat  mihi,  omnibus  diebua  vite  mee,  predictia  ordl- 
nationibua  addere  et  eaadem  minuere,  mutare,  declarare,  et  interprctari 
prout  et  quando,  secoBdiun  Deiun,  michi  placuerit  et  videbitur  expedire. 

25.  In  quorum  teetimouium  presentibna  aigitlam  mcnm  apposai, 
testibns  domino  Ffultone  Priore  de  Bemwelle,  Roberto  Dunoiug  majore 
Caatebrig:  Endone  do  Impriugham,  magistro  Henrico  de  Trippelowe, 
Jobonne  Morm,  Roberto  de  Ciunberton,  Fetro  de  Bermingfaani,  Adam 
de  Bungeye,  Willolmo  de  Hejwarde,  Roberto  de  Bninne,  Reginaldu  de 
Tmmpeton,  Bartholomeo  Horris,  Johamie  Pilat,  et  aliia.  Datum  apud 
Canteb.  die  lovia  proiima  ante  featum  Sancti  Hichaelis  Archangirli, 
anno  Domini  miltesimo  trecentiasimo  Ticesimo  quarto,  et  regni  domiai 
regis  Edwardi  filii  regis  Edwardi  decimo  octavo. 


(E),  p.  358. 
Ltgert  ordinarie,  extraordinarie,  ettrtorie, 

Tbe  following  passages  contain  the  different  viewa  to  wbich  I  have 
referred  in  the  text : — 

'  A  distinction  is  made  in  the  statutes  of  all  nnlverviUee  between 
those  nho  read  ordinarit  et  eurtorie,  thongh  it  is  not  verj  eas;  to 
discoTer  in  what  tbe  precise  difference  consisted :  it  is  probable  how- 
ever that  whilst  eunory  Ueturtt  were  confined  to  the  reading  of  the 
simple  toit  of  the  author,  with  the  customary  glosses  upon  it,  ths 
ordinary  lecture*  included  such  additional  comments  on  the  toxt,  as 
the  knowledge  and  researches  of  tbe  reader  enabled  him  to  supply. 
The  ordinnrg  tecturet  would  thus  appear  to  have  required  higher 
qualifications  than  the  eurtory  leeturet, — a  view  of  their  character 
which  is  confirmed  b;  a  atatuto  of  the  university  of  Paria,  ordering 
that  "Nullus  magister  ijDi  X^geA  ORDUfAsn  lectionee  raaa  debet  flnlr* 
CBBMUB.'"    Peacock,  Ohtertatimt,  App.  A,  pp.zlir,  zIt. 


646  APPENDIX. 

'  What  thoAo  cursory  lectarcs  were  we  can  only  ooi^ieciara;  pio|)«hltf 
they  were  more  whitt  we  should  call  lectures,  while  the  ordinary 
lectures  were  actual  lesions :  in  the  cursory  lecture  the  ooastiBr  wbm  the 
sole  performer,  in  the  ordinary  the  scholar  was  heard  hi^  loflsan,' 
Anstey,  Introd.  to  Munimenta  Academica,  p.  Ixix. 

'Les  le^ous  6taicut  di8tingu6es  en  ordinairet  et  e^^raarjutatret^ 
Les  lemons  ordinaircs  6taicut  ainsi  appelees  parce  <iue  te  n^ati^re^  1% 
forme,  le  jour,  rhem*o  et  le  liou  etaient  d6termin6s  par  la  Faculty  et  pai; 
la  Nation.  Ces  le9ons  ne  pouvaieut  6tre  faites  que  par  les  Maltrea. 
L'objet^  la  forme^  le  jour,  Thcure  ot  le  lien  dcs  le9Qns  extraordinairea 
4taient  laiss6s  dans  do  certainos  limites  au  libre  i^bitre  de  chacnn. 
EUes  pouvaietit  Stre  faites  soil  par  des  mattres,  soil  par  des  bacheliersJ 
Thurot,  De  rOrganisalion  de  rEnseigfiancnt,  etc»  p.  65.  M.  Thnrot 
then  quotes  in  a  noto  tho  phrases  lectiofies  cursor icv,  legere  ad  eursum, 
lectio  cursoria,  legere  cursorie;  cursory  lectures  being,  he  supposes^ 
nearly  identical  with  cjctraordinary  lectures, — the  Tiew  which  I  have 
adopted  in  the  text  In  support  of  this  view,  and  also  to  shew  that 
the  original  use  of  the  terms  ordinary  and  cursory  had  no  reference  to 
any  special  mode  of  lecturitig,  1  would  offer  the  following  considera- 
tions:— (1)  The  meaning  I  have  assigned  to  these  terms  harmonisea 
with  the  etymology;  but  if  ordinarie  be  supposed  to  have  reference  to 
a  peculiar  method  of  lecturing^  what  sense  is  to  be  assigned  to  the 
egression  e^traordinaHef  (2)  In  the  few  early  college  statntes  that 
relate  to  college  lectures^  no  such  distinctiou  is  recognised :  yet  some  o( 
these  statutes  specify  not  only  the  subjects  but  the  authors  to  be 
treated.  On  the  other  hand,  tho  view  indicated  by  M.  Thurot^ — that, 
the  cursory  locture  was  an  extra  lecture,  given  in  most  instances  by  a. 
bachelor,  whose  own  course  of  study  was  still  incomplete,  and  upon  a 
subject  which  formed  part  of  that  course, — derives  considerable  support 
from  the  following  facts: — (a)  Cursory  readers  had,  in  some  instancesi 
their  course  of  reading  assigned  to  them  by  the  reader  in  ordinary. 
Thus  in  statute  100  {Documents,  1 365,  366),  De  cursorie  legentibus  in 
jure  canonico,  we  find  the  cursory  reader  required  to  swear  se  lecUurum 
per  duos  terminos  infra  hiennium  in  lectura  sUn  assign^dtk  p«n 
ordinarie  legentem.  That  is,  according  to  Mr  Anstey's  theoiy^  the 
lecturer  engaged  upon  the  more  elementary  part  of  the  iositmoykm 
determined  what  sliould  be  read  by  the  lecturer  who  taught  the  more 
advanced  pupils !  03)  Those  i7icepting  either  in  medicine^  in  oitU  09 
canon  law,  or  in  divinity,  are  required  to  have  previously  lectnve^ 
cursorily  in  their  respective  subjects  before  admission  to  the  d^^reoi 
of  D.M.,  D.C.L.,  J.U.D.,  or  D.D.  (see  statutes  119, 120, 122,  124|  Docw- 
menis  i  375—377);  but  to  have  lectured  orc/man/y  is  never  made  a  pre- 
requisite :  for  bcforo  a  lecturer  could  be  deputed  to  deliver  an  ordin^iy 
lecture,  he  must  have  passed  through  the  wJiole  course  of  the  faculty  he 
represented,  (y)  Among  other  statutes  of  our  own  universify  wp  ^id. 
the  following:  Item  nujlus  haccalam^eus  in  artibus  aliqucm  ti^B^^mk 


APPENDIX.  647 

pmblieeUgatatit«aHnituad«t«rmi7tationiieomptalitm.  (Statute  149, 
Doeummtt  i  3S5).  This  8tatnt«  ia  entitled  D»  artUtit  emrtorit  Itgen- 
tibu$ ;  if  therefore  the  title  be  taken  in  cODJunction  with  the  statnte,  it 
IB  difficult  not  to  infer  that  lecturing  bj  bnchelurs  wu  what  waa  nnoll; 
understood  b J  eurwr^  lectures;  an  inference  whicli  derirea  cenSrmo- 
tion  from  the  following  statute  among  those  which  Mr  Anste;  has  M 
ablf  edited :  'Item,  ordinatum  eat,  quod  quilibet  Magiiter  l^ena  oriH- 
narie  metaphjaicam,  earn  legat  per  terminum  anni  ot  majorein  partem 
ad  miniu  alterios  termini  immediate  sequentia,  uec  ceaset  a  lectura  ilia 
donee  illam  rite  eomploverit,  nisi  in  casn  quo  fidem  fcoerit  coram  Can- 
cellario  ot  Procuratoribua,  quod  non  potent  commode  et  absque  danmo 
dictom  continuare  lecturam,  in  quo  casu,  facta  fide,  cossore  poterit 
liceoter,  dnm  tamen  Magiater  aliua  regena  fuerit  continuaturus  et  com* 
pletums  lecturam :  quod  ai  Magiiter  allui  tunc  in  ea  non  legerit,  potent 
licenter  per  Bachilarium  aliquem  complcri  quod  dimiltitur  do  lectuia, 
et  valobit  pro  forma  in  caau  pnemisao  eurtoria  lectura,  non  obstante 
ordinationo  priore,"  Mummenta  AeademUa,  p.  423.  Jt  remains  to 
eiamino  the  oTidenco  for  Mr.  Anate^'s  thoor;  contninod  in  the  following 
statute,  on  which  he  laya  conaiderable  stress:  '  Cum  statutum  fuerit  ab 
antiquo  quod  Magiatri  tencntea  scholaa  graiiiniaticaica  potitirai  it\for- 
mationi  Scholarium  auomm,  ci  dobito  juramenti  tcI  fidci  prtestitse, 
■ammopere  intcndere  dcbeant  et  racare,  quidum  tamcn  eorum  lucTO 
et  cnpjdjtati  inbiantes  ac  propriio  aalutis  immemorcs,  prccdicto  statuto 
contempto,  bcf  i'«»i«(  cuj'«uri(»,  quaa  Tocant  audientiam  abuaive,  in  doc- 
trime  Scholarium  auorum  evidcna  detrimentum  legore  pneamnpaemnt; 
propter  quod  Cancellariua,  utilitati  eorundom  Scholarium  et  pnedpne 
joniorum  Tolons  proapicore,  ut  tenctur,  dictam  audientiam,  quam  non 
tantnm  frivolam  acd  damnosam  profoctui  dictormn  juniomm  roputat, 
snspendendo  statuit  quod,  qnicumque  schobs  grammaticales  deinceps 
tenoro  voluerit,  sub  poena  privationia  a  regimine  scholamm,  ac  aub  pcena 
incarcerutionis  ad  libitum  Canccllarii  subeunda;,  ab  /miiumodi  lectura 
cnraoria  deaiatant,  ita  quod  nee  in  scholia  suia,  uec  alibi  in  UiiiTersitate 
hnjuamodi  curans  logant,  nee  legi  faciant  per  quoacnnqae,  sed  alllt 
omnibns  prnitcrmisais,  instructioni  positiTw  Scholarium  suoium  inten- 
dant  diligentiua  ot  iaaudent  Alii  tcto  a  Magiatris  scholas  tenentibtii, 
qui  idoDci  fuorint  reputati,  in  locia  distantibus  a  scholia  illia,  si  toIu- 
erint,  hi^usmodi  cursus  legant,  prout  antiquilat  fieri  ctnuuemt! 
{Munimenta  Academica,  pp.  96,  97.)  This  statute  is  referred  to  by 
Hr  Auste;  aa  'one  forbidding  eurtnry  lectures  except  under  certain 
reatrictions.'  '  The  most  remarkable  part  of  the  statute  is,'  he  adda, 
'that  it  complaini  that  teachers  led  b;  hope  of  gain  indulged  Uioir 
echolorv  with  curiory  lectures,  ao  that  it  would  really  aeem  that  it  waa 
not  uncommon  for  the  bojs  to  bribe  the  master  to  excuse  them  Uioir 
parsing! '  {Introd.  p.  liii.)  The  whole  of  this  criticiam,  so  far  as  it 
applies  to  the  question  berura  us,  falls  to  the  ground,  if  wo  observe  that 
't  is  not  euriory  lectura  that  are  the  subject  of  animadveraions,  bat  a 


648  APPENDIX. 

certain  mode  qf  delivering  them :  this  appears  to  be  beyond  doubt  if 
we  carefully  note  the  expressions  italicised;  and  finally  the  title  of 
the  statute,  Quomodo  legi  deberU  leetionea  cunorice  m  eehoHe  fgramr- 
matic€dibu9,  evidently  signifies  that  cursory  lecturers  in  grammar  are  to 
observe  a  certain  method,  not  that  cursory  lectures  are  to  be  discon- 
tinued. In  fiict^  in  another  statute,  which  seems  to  have  eso^ied  Mr 
Anstey's  notice,  it  is  expressly  required  that  eureory  lecturea  in 
grammcar  shall  be  given.    {Mun,  Acad,  438—9.) 


INDEX 


Abbo,  of  Flvnty,  nwUbu  Um  Indition 
of  Aknm's  *»"*■'"£,  69;  his  pn- 
pilt,  70 

Alielud,  pnpQ  ol  mili«m  of  Oluun- 
peauz,  fi7,  77,  n.  1;  Mseit*  tha 
lighta  of  reaaon  aesioat  anthoii^, 
68;  attaoked bj Onaltonu,  S8 

Aeonnitu,  of  PlorenM,  Id*  labonn 
in  oonueiion  witli  ttia  dTil  law, 
B7 

£ndiiiE,  sapporti  Aquinas  against 
Uie  Pranoiaoaiis,  131;  a  student 
at  the  nmveralt?  of  Parii,  lU 

XUnd,  king,  rtatonent  of  reepeeting 
the  knorlsdM  of  I^tin  in  Eng- 
land in  bis  tame,  11 ;  exertions  of, 
in  Twtoring  learning,  81 ;  fonnda- 
tioii  of  Oie  nniTerait;  of  (Xitoid  1^, 
now  geuenllj  lejeeted,  8S,  n.  8 

Age  ol  itndentB  at  the  uiuTenitj  ol 
Palis  in  the  Uiddle  Ages,  131; 
limitation  with  raepeet  to,  in  sta- 
tnte  retpeeting  admiimon  of  sta- 
dents  at  Eiiig'sHall,2SS;  average, 
of  the  arts  stodent  at  time  of 
entry,  8« 

Agrieola,  Bndolpbiu,  prophecy  of, 
ooneeming  the  spread  of  learning 
inOeinuuiy,  409;  Bcholanbip  of, 
410 1  tbe  De  Fomiaiido  Studio  of, 
ib.i  outline  of  tbe  contents,  ib.;  tbs 
De  Inventione  of,  412;  the  latter 
noommended  b;  Erasmns  to 
Pisher,  497 ;  a  prescribed  text-book 
at  Cambridge,  680 

Ainslie,  Dr.,  his  Memoin  of  Vans 
dt  St.  Paul,  236,  n.  1 

Aix-la-Chapelle,  deonia  of  Doonoil  at, 
ui.  817.  19 

Albertns  MagniiE,  oommsntary  of,  on 

tbe  Sentences,  62;  oommenoes  to 

leaeh  at  the  uniTersi^  of  Paiie, 

107  i    repatation    o^    ai    an    ei- 

■     pomideT  of  AiistoUa,  ib.;  Btmet 


which  stiU  bean  hli  name,  a.  a. 
8;  disorepaney  in  statements  t»- 
speoting  time  of  his  anival  m 
nvis,  it.;  known  as  the  'ape  of 
Aristotle,'  106;  method  irf  inter- 
pretation Ot,  compared  with  that 
ol  Aqniim,  ib, ;  obligatioiui  of,  to 
Avicenna,  ib.  n.  1 ;  characteiieed 
by  Praoti  as  a  mere  compiler,  fb. 
n.  9 ;  a  native  of  Swabia,  113 ;  snp- 
potts  Aqoinas  against  the  Pran- 
eiaeans,  121;  theory  of,  with  re- 
spect to  tbe  snUeet-matier  ot  logie, 
181 

Aloock,  John,  bp.  ol  Ely,  procures 
the  dissolntion  ot  the  nmmeiy  of 
Bt.  Bhadegnnd  and  the  fonndation 
of  Jeens  College,  B31;  a  benefsetoi 
to  Peterhonse,  ib.  n.  2 

Alenin,  diversity  ot  ofrinion  respeet- 
ing  share  o^  in  the  revival  of  learn- 
ing imder  Chariomagiie,  11 ;  eha- 
taeter  ot,  compared  with  that  of 
Charlemagne,  IS ;  draws  np  a 
•eheme  of  edoeation  for  the  em- 
peror,  IS;  retiree  to  Tonte,  14; 
condemns  Tirgil,  16;  and  all  pagan 
learning,  17:  library  at  York  de- 
scribed by,  ib.  n.  1;  death  of,  de- 
scribed byMonnier,  ib.n.2 ;  teacher 
of  Babanns  Manms  at  Toots.  64 ; 
tradition  of  the  teaching  of,  69 

Aldricli,  Bobt.,  fell,  of  King'Sj  a  friend 
of  EragmnB  at  Cambridge,  499 

Aldhelm,  archbp.  ol  Canterbniy,  hia 
knowledge  of  Latin  and  Qreek,  S 

Alexander  of  Aphrodisias,  extensions 
given  to  tbe  psychology  of  Aris- 
totle by,  117 

Alexander  iv,  pope,  hostile  to  the 
university  of  Facie,  119;  appealed 
to  by  the  monks  ol  Bory,  ISO 

Alexander  vi,  pope,  authorises  the 
linanfing  o(  13  preMhen  annoaUf 
by  tbe  oniveid^,  4S9 


650 


INDEX. 


Alexander,  de  Villa  Dei,  author  of  a 
oommon  text-book  on  grammar 
used  at  Cambridge,  515  and  n.  1 

AlliaciLEi,  cardinal,  unfavorable  to  the 
teacliing  of  Aquinas,  123 

Alnc,  liobert,  owner  of  a  treatise  by 
Petrarch  lent  to  a  master  of 
Michaelhouse  in  the  15th  cent.,  433 

Ambrose,  founder  of  the  conception 
of  sacerdotal  authority  in  the 
Latin  Church,  3 

AmmoniuR,  the  friend  of  Erasmas, 
492  ;  letters  from  Erasmus  to,  ib. ; 
498,  n.  3;  503,  n.  3  ;  505  and  n.  2 

Ampere,  view  of,  with  respect  to 
Charlemagne's  design,  13 

Analytics,  Prior  and  Posterior,  of 
Aristotle,  not  quoted  before  the 
twelfth  century,  29 

Anaxagoras,  the  rout  of,  the  basis  of 
the  theory  of  the  De  A  nima^  115 

Angers,  migration  to,  from  Paris  in 
1228,  107 

Anjou,  Margaret  of,  character  of, 
812  ;  Ultramontane  sympathies 
of,  313 ;  petition  of,  to  Mng  Henry 
Ti  for  permission  to  found  Queens' 
College,  ib. 

Annunciation  of  B.  V.  Mary,  college 
of  the,  Gonvillo  Hall  so  called, 
245 ;  gild  of  the,  at  Cambridge,  248 

Anselm,  St.,  successor  to  Lanfranc 
in  the  see  of  Canterbury,  49 ;  grow- 
ing thoughtfulness  of  his  thucs, 
ib.;  considered  that  nominaUsm 
was  necessarily  repugnant  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  55;  his 
Latinity  superior  to  that  of  a  sub- 
sequent age,  57;  his  death,  ib.; 
character  and  influence  of  his 
writings,  63;  perpetuated  the  in- 
fluence of  St.  Augustine,  ib.;  his 
theology  characterised  by  E^- 
musat,  64,  n.  1 ;  none  of  his  writ- 
ings named  in  the  catalogue  of  the 
library  of  Christchurch,  104 

Anstey,  Mr.,  on  the  supposed  exist- 
ence of  the  university  of  Oxford 
before  the  Conquest,  81,  n.  1 ;  on 
the  probable  adoption  of  the  sta- 
tutes of  the  university  of  Paris  at 
Oxford,  83,  84;  objections  to  the 
theory  of,  of  the  relations  of 
'grammar'  to  the  arts  course,  350, 
n.  1 

Antichrist,  appearance  of  imme- 
diately to  precede  the  end  of  the 
world,  10 

ArUichritto  Libvllus  dCy  erroneously 
attributed  to  Alcuin,  16,  n.  1 ;  its 
resemblance  to  Laotantius,  ib. 


Antony,  St.,  the  monachism  of,  com- 
pared with  that  of  the  Benedic- 
tines, 86 

Aquinas,  St.  Thomaa,  commentary  of, 
on  the  Sentences,  62;  one  of  the 
pupils  of  Albertus  at  Cologne,  107; 
method  of,  in  commenting  on  Aria- 
totlo  compared  with  that  of  Al- 
bertus, 108 ;  obligations  of,  to  Aver- 
roes,  ib,  n.  1 ;  combination  of  Aris- 
totelian and  Christian  philosophy 
in,  110;  influence  of,  on  modem 
theology,  112 ;  difficulty  of  his 
position  with  respect  to  the  New 
Aristotle,  113;  sacrificed  Ayerroes 
in  order  to  save  Aristotle,  114; 
adopted  the  method  of  Ayerroes, 
ib.;  philosophy  of,  attacked  by  the 
Franciscans,  120;  unfavorable  cri- 
ticism of  the  teaching  of,  prohibit- 
ed, 122;  canonisation  of,  \b,\  vision, 
of,  in  Dante,  ib.  Summa  of,  123 ; 
method  of,  condemned  by  yariona 
mediaeval  teachers,  ib. ;  method  of, 
as  compared  with  that  of  Lombar- 
dus,  calculated  to  promote  contro- 
versy, 125 ;  commentaries  of,  pre- 
ceded the  nova  iranslatio  of  Aris- 
totle, 126 ;  agreement  of,  with 
Boger  Bacon  as  to  the  subject- 
matter  of  logic,  180;  position  of, 
compared  with  that  of  Petrarch  ,"886 

Aqnitaine,  kingdom  o^  monasteriee 
in,  11 

Arabian  commentators  on  Aristotle, 
their  interpretations  bring  abont  a 
condemnation  of  hia  works,  97 

Aretino,  see  Brxmi. 

Argentine,  John,  provost  of  King*a^ 
426;  his  proposed  *act'  in  the 
schools,  ib, 

Aristotle,  varied  character  of  the 
influence  of,  29 ;  known  from  sizth 
to  thirteenth  century  only  as  a 
logician,  ib,;  Categories  and  Peri- 
ermenias  of,  lectured  on  by  Gerberi 
at  Bheims,  44;  his  theory  of  nni- 
versals  described  in  translation  of 
Porphyry  by  Boethius,  62;  Pre- 
dicamenta  of,  ib. ;  supposed  stody 
of,  at  Oxford  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, 83;  the  New,  when  introduced 
into  Europe,  85;  respect  for,  in- 
spired among  the  Saracens  bj 
Avonxies,  91 ;  philosophy  of,  first 
known  to  Europe  throu^  the  Ara- 
bian commentators,  ib,;  only  the 
Categories  and  De  Interpretations 
of,  known  to  Europe  bofore  the 
twelfth  century,  92 ;  translations  of, 
from  the    Arabic  and  from  the 


Oreek,  how  distiagaiBhtd,  &.;  |^- 
loftophj  o[,  not  known  to  Uie 
•ohoolmen  b«[0Te  the  tbirtMnth 
oeutury,  94;  never  mootionad  in 
the  Benlencei,  ib.;  all  the  eitast 
works  of,  known  to  Europe  through 
L&tin  Tenions  beloie  the  year  1273, 
ib.;  writings  of,  on  natnrol  science 
first  known  throogb  versions  from 
the  Arabie,  95;  compKratiTe  acoa- 
raoy  of  the  vendooe  beta  the  Latin 
ua  those  from  tbe  Arabie,  ib.itin- 
merons  pT«oeding  versions  through 
ubicb  Uie  latter  were  derived,  ib.; 
tbe  New,  diSoultiee  of  the  Chuiob 
with  respeet  to,  97 ;  varied  eharac' 
tei  of  its  eontents,  ill.;  acientifio 
treatises  ol,  condemned  at  Paris, 
ib.;  aod  again  in  121S  and  1231, 
98 ;  Dominicaa  interpretation  of, 
a  notable  phenomenon  in  the  thir- 
teenth gentni^,  lOS;  psjobology 
of,  IIG ;  translations  from  the 
Greek  text  of,  125;  Nova  Tramla- 
tie  0^  136;  Etbicaof,  newly  trans- 
lated nndec  tbe  directioa  of  Qroaae- 
taste,  164;  worthlessness  of  the 
older  versions  ot,  ib.;  the  New,  Grst 
eHects  ot  on  tbe  value  attaohed  to 
logic,  179  ;  works  ot,  studied  at 
Prague  and  Leipsio  in  tbe  fifteenth 
eentniy,  2B3,  n.  2;  authority  of, 
attacked  by  Petrarch,  300 
Aiithmetio,  treatment  of  the  subject 
by  Uartianns,  36;  treatise  on,  by 
Tunsta],  £92;  the  study  of,  recom- 
mended by  Metancbthon,  ib.  n.  1 
Argyropulos,  John,  105  ;  improve- 
ments ot  on  tbe  interpretation  of 
Ariatotle,  ib.;  declared  Cicero  had 
no  true  knowledge  of  Aristotle, 
406;  translations  of,  from  tbe 
Greek,  ib.;  admitted  eicelleuce  ot 
these,  107;  lecture  of,  attended  by 
Benchlin,  107 
AmobioE,  an  objector  to  pagan  lean- 
ing, 16 
Arts  coarse  of  stady,  when  intro- 

daced  at  Cambridge,  S42 
Arts,  faculty  ot,  tbe  first  inititnted 

•t  Paris,  77 
Arts  student,  eonrse  of  study  pur- 
sued by  tbe,  S16;  his  average  age 
ftt  entry,  346 ;  his  relations  to  bis 
'  tutor,'  ib,;  aids  aSurded  him  by 
tbe  nuiveraitj,  317 ;  aids  afforded  to 
by  polilic  cbuity,  ib. ;  bis  prospects 
on  the  oompletion  of  his  course, 362 
Arthur,  Tbo.,  a  convert  of  Uilney, 
662;  migrates  from  Trinity  B«U 
to  at.  John's,  ib.;  appointed  m&s- 


BX.  6til 

tor  of  SL  Uair-i  Hortel,  6«3: 
snmmons  of,  before  tba  chapter  at 
Westminster,  605;  aitidat  againft, 
606 ;  recantation  of,  ib. 

Arundel,  archbp.,  his  visitation  at 
Cambridge,  3^S;  commission  tifi- 
pointed  by,  ib. ;  bis  obaracter,  369, 
n.  1 ;  constitutions  of,  373 ;  when 
bp.  ot  Ely  asserted  big  jorisdiotion 
over  tbe  nniversi^,  288;  Poller's 
oommenta  on  hia  vuitation,  ib.  a.  1 

Aaobam,  SchoUmatitr  ot,  quoted,  59, 
n.  3;  testimony  of,  to  evils  le- 
suiting  from  indiscriminate  tti- 
mlBBion  of  pensioners,  621 

Asbton,  Hugh,  executor  to  tbe  oonnt- 
ess  of  Hicbinond  for  carrying  out 
foundation  of  St.John's  College,  161 

Astronomy,  treatment  ot  tbe  ecienoe 
of,  by  Uartianns,  26 

Augustine,  St.,  founder  of  tbe  dog- 
matic theology  ot  the  Latin  Chnrcb, 
3;  theory  Contained  in  tbe  Dt  Ci- 
vilate  Dei  of,  i;  junclore  at  whioh 
the  treatise  was  oomposed.lO;  obli- 
gatiouB  of  John  Scotos  to,  41;  in- 
Quence  ol  upon  Anselm,  19;  bif 
spirit  revived  in  Ansclm ,  &3;  trans- 
lations ol  Aristotle  by,  bow  dis- 
tin^oisbed  from  those  ot  a  later 
period,  93;  Platonic  tendencies  ot, 
an  element  in  tbe  literature  whioh 
Aquinas  attempted  to  reeoncile, 
113;  little  Tolued  by  many  of  the 
sts,  ISl;  regarded  by  Bur- 


net as  a  sohisn 


1,185; 


ot  the  influence  of,  ib. 

Augustinian  canons,  priory  ot  at 
Bomwell,  139 ;  hospital  of,  foonded 
at  Cambridge,  2iB 

Angustinian  biars,  their  boose  neu 
the  old  Botanic  Gardens,  139; 
character  of  as  a  body,  G61;  site 
of  their  fooudatioa  at  Cambiidgs, 
ib.  n.  3;  engrossed  tbe  tnition  of 
giamnur  at  Oiford,  565;  at  oat 
time  taught  gratuitously,  ib.; 
church  ot,  at  Cambridge,  not  in- 
cluded in  the  episcopal  jorisdia- 

AnluB  Gellios,  Lupus  of  Ferribres  in- 
tends to  forward  a  copy  of,  20;  the 
olosB  lecturer  at  C.  C.  C.  Oxford 
ordered  by  bp.  Fox  to  lectore  on, 
521,  n.  2 

Auvcrgne,  William  of,  condemnation 
of  a  peries  of  propositions  from  tbe 
-    •■      -  by.  114 


652 


INDEX. 


giyen  to  the  psyohologieal  theory 
of  Aristotle  by,  116 ;  his  theory  of 
the  Unity  of  the  Intellect,  t6. ;  the 
first  to  develope  the  psychology  of 
Axistotle  into  a  heresy,  117;  criti- 
cised by  Aquinas,  t&. ;  followed  by 
Alexander  Hales,  i6.;  influence 
exercised  by,  over  the  Franciscans, 
118;  differs  from  Aristotle  in  re- 
garding form  as  the  individualising 
principle,  120;  his  writings  rare 
in  the  Cambridge  libraries  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  826 

Avignon,  oniTersity  of,  formed  on 
the  model  of  Bologna,  74 

Ayignon,  subserviency  of  the  popes 
at,  to  French  interests,  194;  effects 
of  the  papal  residence  at,  ib. ;  in- 
fluence of  the  popes  at,  on  the  oni- 
Tersity of  Paris,  216 

B 

Bachelor,  term  of,  did  not  originally 
imply  admission  to  a  degree,  852 ; 
meaning  of  the  term  as  explained 
by  M.  Thurot,  ib.  n.  8. 

Bachelors  of  arts,  position  of,  in  re- 
spect to  college  discipline,  869 

Bacon,  Boger,  his  testimony  with 
respect  to  the  condenmation  of  the 
Arabian  commentaries  on  Aristotle 
at  Paris,  98;  repudiates  the  theory 
that  theological  truth  can  be  op- 
posed to  scientific  truth,  114,  n.  2 ; 
a  student  at  the  university  of  Paris, 
184;  his  testimony  to  the  rapid 
degeneracy  of  the  Mendicants, 
152 ;  his  opinion  of  the  early  trans- 
lations of  Aristotle,  154;  Ids  em- 
barrassment when  using  them  at 
lecture,  ib.;  his  account  of  some 
of  the  translators,  155 ;  his  career 
contrasted  with  that  of  Albertus 
and  Aquinas,  156;  unique  value  of 
his  writings,  ib. ;  his  Opus  Majus, 
Opus  Minus,  and  Opus  Tertium, 
157;  his  different  treatises  dis- 
tinguished, ib.  n.  1;  importance 
attached  by  him  to  lingnistio 
knowledge,  158;  and  to  mathe- 
matics, t^.;  probably  not  a  lec- 
turer at  Merton  College,  159,  n.  4 ; 
his  philosophic  insight  rendered 
less  marvellous  by  recent  investi- 
gations of  Arabic  scholars,  170; 
his  account  of  the  evils  resulting 
from  excessive  study  of  the  civil 
law,  209 

Baker,  Tho.,  his  observations  on  the 
estates  lost  by  St,  John's  College, 
469 


Balliol  College,  Oxford,  ft  portion  of 
Richard  of  Bury's  library  trana- 
ferred  to,  208,  n.  2;  Wyclif  master 
of,  264 ;  his  efforta  on  behalf  of  the 
secular  clergy  at,  ib. 

Balsham,  the  village  of,  formerly  « 
manor  seat  of  the  bishops  of  Ely, 
224,  n.  8 

Balsham,  Hugh,  bp.  of  Ely,  his  elee* 
tion  to  the  see,  223;  his  struggle 
with  Adam  de  Marisco,  224 ;  a  Bene- 
dictine prior,  ib. ;  an  eminently 
practical  man,  225;  his  merits  as 
an  administrator,  ib. ;  his  decision 
between  the  archdeacon  and  the 
university,  ib.\  confirms  the  sta- 
tute requiring  scholars  to  enter 
under  a  master,  226;  introduces 
secular  scholars  into  the  hospital 
of  St.  John,  227;  failure  of  his 
scheme,  ib. ;  Ids  bequests,  228,  n.  2 

Barnes,  Bobt.,  prior  of  the  Angus- 
tinians  at  Cambridge,  664;  sent 
when  young  to  study  at  Louvain, 
565;  returns  to  Cambridge  with 
Paynell,  566;  lectures  on  the  La- 
tin classics  and  St.  Paul's  Epistles, 
ib. ;  disputes  with  Stafford  in  the 
divinity  schools,  568;  presided  at 
the  meetings  at  the  White  Horse, 
678;  his  sermon  at  Si  Edward's 
Church,  675;  is  accused  to  the 
vice-chancellor.  676;  is  confronted 
privately  with  nis  accusers  in  the 
schools,  ib.\  refuses  to  sign  a  re- 
vocation, 678;  is  arrested  and  exam- 
ined before  Wolsey  in  London,  ib. ; 
is  tried  before  six  bishops  at  West- 
minster, ib. ;  signs  a  recantation, 
ib.;  his  narrative  of  the  con- 
clusion, ib.;  disclaims  being  a 
Lutheran,  680 ;  is  imprisoned  at 
Northampton,  tb. ;  escapes  to  Ger- 
many, ib. 

Barker,  John,  *the  sophister  of 
King's.'  425 

Bame^  bp.  of  Ely,  omits  to  take  the 
oaths  of  the  chancellors  of  the  uni- 
versity, 287,  n.  2 

BamweU,  priory  at,  a  house  of  the 
Augustinian  canons,  139 

Barnwell,  the  prior  of,  appointed  by 
pope  Martin  v  to  adjudieate  upon 
the  claims  of  the  university  in  the 
Barnwell  Process,  289;  fight  be- 
tween and  the  mayor  of  Cam- 
bridge, 874 

Barnwell  Process,  the,  terminates 
the  controversy  concerning  juris- 
diction between  the  bi^op  of  Ely 
and  the  university,  146;  bull  for, 


iBSDedbypopeUartitiT,  288;  tmI 
ohaiaetei  of,  290  uid  d.  2 

Basal,  oonnei]  of,  new  theory  of  papal 
power  eatablished  bj  the,  SSI 

B^ing,  John,  oBBiatB  Groaseteate  in 
tronHiSitiDg  the  TeBtameuts  of  the 
ItrelTePutriiucha.llO:  the  disco- 
Tereiof  the  maunscript  at  Athens,!  b. 

BwiolaB,  a  writer  on  jnrupmdenM 
attacked  b;  Valla,  419 

Bateman,  Vita.,  bp.  of  Norwich  ud 
(otmder  of  Trinit?  Hall,  240;  his 
character,  211;  his  funeral  at 
Avignon,  ib.  n.  1 ;  his  design  in 
the  tonndation  of  Trin.  Hall,  242; 
acooont  of  library  presented  by,  to 
Trin.  Hall,  243;  asNstanoe  given 
I^,  to  GoDville  Hall,  244;  alt«n 
the  name  of  the  EaU,  34S 

Bayeni,  Collie  de,  in  Paris,  ft 
toDDdation  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, 128;  designed  for  the  stndy 
of  medicine  and  of  the  dvil  law,  ib. 

B«anfort,  cardinal,  bequeathed  £1000 
to  Eing's  College,  310;  his  attain- 
menta  as  a  canonist,  ib. ;  his  Ul- 
tramontanism,  ib.  n.  1 

Bee,  monastery  at,  catalogue  of  its 
library.  lOI ;  lands  taken  from  to 
found  King's  College,  30o;  lands 
ol,  purchased  by  William  of  Wyke- 
ham,  ib.  n.  S 

BecoD,  Tho.,  his  lestiniODy  to  the 
value  of  Stafford's  lectures,  G67 

Bede,  the  Venerable,  his  writings  the 
text-books  of  subsequent  ages,  9; 
a  reputed  doctor  of  diiinitj  of  the 
nniversity  of  Cambridge,  66;  state 
of  learning  in  England  snbeeqaent 
to  the  time  of,  81 

Bedell,  special,  attendant  on  the 
master  of  glomery,  326,  n.  1 

Bedells,  origiually  attended  the 
schools  of  different  faculties,  144 

Bedford  Level,  the,  S30 

Begging,  a  common  practice  with 
Btudeots  in  the  middle  ages,  S4T; 
restrictioDB  imposed  on  the  prac- 
tice by  the  university  authorities, 
S4S 

Benedictiue  era,  the,  2 

Benedict,  St.,  monastery  of,  on  Monte 
Cassino,  G 

Benediotines,  the,  coKare  of.  3; 
schools  of,  13 ;  destruction  of  the 
monasteries  of  in  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, 81 ;  rapid  extension  of  the 
order  of,  under  Cnut  and  Edward 
the  Confessor,  83;  diflerent  prin- 
dpal  fouDdations  of,  tb.;  growing 
laxity  of    


SX.  653 

moUvM  to  which  the  foimataon 
of  new  branehes  ol  the  order  ia 
attributable,  ib.  and  n.  3 ;  degene- 
raoy  of  the  whole  order,  86 

Benet  Collie,  Corpus  Chntti  Col- 
lege formerly  so  called,  249,  u.  4 

Benet's  St.,  bells  of,  nsed  in  the 
19th  oentory  to  oonv«ne  university 
meetings,  299,  n.  3 

Bereogar,  view  of,  respecting  the 
Ix>rd'B  Supper,  46;  his  controversy 
with  Lanfranc,  47 ;  his  ment^ 
oharaoteristiei  compared  with 
those  of  Lanfranc,  48;  his  sub- 
miSBion  to  the  Lateran  Council,  it. 

Bernard,  St.,  of  Chartres,  charaet«r 
of  the  school  over  which  he  pre- 
sided, e? 

Bernard,  St.  ol  Clairrani,  com- 
plains of  excessive  devotion  of  the 
clergy  to  the  civil  law,  89;  alarm 
ol  at  the  progress  of  enqniiy,  68 

BessarioD,  cardinal,  403;  bis  patrio- 
tic zeal,  ib.;  his  efforts  to  bring 
about  a  union  ol  the  two  churches, 
ib.;  his  conversion  to  the  western 
Church,  404;  his  example  prodoe- 
tive  of  UtUe  result,  ib. 

Beverley,  town  of,  Fisher  bom  at,  433 

Bible,  Uie,  lecturers  not  allowed  to 
lecture  on,  until  they  had  lectured 
on  the  Sentences,  863,  n.  2 

Biblici  ordinarii  and  cursor;*,  368 

Bi4ellu*,  an  ofScer  in  the  unlveiBity 
of  Bol^na,  73 

Bilney,  "0108.,  testimony  of  to  the 
inSnence  of  Erasmus's  Oreek  TesL, 
666 ;  bis  eccentric  chvacter,  660 ; 
his  account  of  his  spiritual  ex- 
periences, lb. ;  his  character,  by 
lAtimer,  662 ;  converts  of,  ib. ; 
his  influence  as  a  Norfolk  man, 
663 ;  summoned  before  the  chapter 
at  Westminster,  605;  recants  a 
second  time,  607 ;  penance  of,  at 
Paul's  Cross,  ib. ;  returns  to  Cam- 
bridge, 608 

Bishops,  list  of,  in  1600,  who  had 
been  educated  at  Cambridga,  426 

Blaekgtone,  Sir  R.,  inaccuracy  of  hii 
account  of  the  early  stndy  of  the 
civil  law,  209 

Boetliius,  a  text-book  during  the 
Middle  Ages,  31;  the  allegory  in 
the  De  Coiuolaiione  of,  probably 
in  imitation  of  MsrtionuB,  27;  hu 
services  to  learning,  ib.\  his  trea- 
tise compared  with  that  of  Har- 
tianus,  ib.;  not  a  Christian,  38: 
oommentaries  of,  on  the  Topiea  of 
Cioero  lued  by  Uerbert  at  Bheimt, 


654 


INDEX. 


44;  thd  Baino  as  ManlinB,  ih,  note 
1;  his  comtueDtary  on  the  trans- 
lation of  l*orj)h>Ty  by  VictorinuB, 
61;  hi«  translation  of  Porphyry, 
ih. ;  change  in  his  philosophic 
opinions,  ib.\  importance  attached 
by,  to  the  question  respecting  uni- 
versals,  t6.;  difference  in  his  views 
with  respect  to  TmiverBals  as  ex- 
pressed in  his  two  oommentaries, 
68;  his  conclusions  with  respect  to 
the  question  adverted  to  by  Por- 
phyry, t6. ;  does  not  attempt  to 
decide  between  Plato  and  Aristotle, 
ib.;  reason,  according  to  Oousln, 
why  he  adopted  the  Aristotelian 
theory,  ib,;  translations  of  Aris- 
totle by,  how  distinguished  from 
those  of  a  later  period,  93 ;  passed 
for  a  Christian  writer  in  the  Mid- 
dle Ages,  96;  the  philosopher  and 
the  theologian  eoxifounded  in  cata- 
logue of  hbrary  at  Ghristohuroh, 
104;  Chaucer's  translation  of  the 
De  Contolatione  of,  the  commence- 
ment of  the  university  library,  323 

Bologna,  university  of,  the  chief 
school  of  dvil  law  in  Europe  in 
the  twelfth  century,  71;  official 
recognition  of,  by  the  emperor 
Frederic  i,  72 ;  provisions  contain- 
ed in  charter  of,  ib.\  constitution 
of,  73;  compared  with  university 
of  Paris,  75;  numbers  at,  in  the 
thirteenth  century,  130 ;  professors 
of  civil  law  at,  dressed  as  laymen, 
210;  first  received  a  f acuity  of 
theology,  215 

Bonaventura,  commentary  of,  on  the 
Sentences,  62;  a  native  of  Tus- 
cany, 113 ;  character  of  the  genius 
of,  118;  indifferent  to  Aristotle, 
ib.  n.  1 

Boniface  viii,  pope,  defied  by  William 
of  Occam,  187;  rapacity  of  alienates 
the  English  Franciscans,  194 

Booksellers,  at  Cambridge,  required 
to  suppress  heretical  books,  500,  n. 
2;  generally  foreigners,  ib. ;  licence 
of  1634  for,  626 

Booth,  Lawrence,  chanc,  raises  the 
funds  for  building  arts  schools  and 
civil  law  schools,  360 

Bouquet,  Dom,  describes  the  bene- 
fits of  the  system  introduced  by 
Charlemagne,  14 

Bourgogne,  foundation  of  the  College 
de,  129 

BradJshaw,  Mr.  H.,  his  opinion  with 
respect  to  date  of  the  catalogue  of 
library  at  ChriBtchuic^    Canter- 


bury, 100,  n.  1;  his  oriticiBm  on 
early  statute  relating  to  hostels 
quoted,  220  n.  1 

Bradwar<line,  Thomas,  his  De  Camsa 
Deif  198 ;  the  treatise  a  source  of 
Calvinistic  doctrine  in  the  Engliah 
Church,  ib.;  its  eccentric  metDod, 
199 ;  the  work  criticised  by  Sir 
Henry  Savile,  199,  n.  1|;  referred 
to  by  Chaucer,  t&.;  edited  by  Savile, 
ib.;  its  extensive  erudition,  SOOf 
had  access  to  Richard  of  Buy's 
libraiy,  ib. ;  chaplain  to  the  same* 
203 ;  ai>ocryphal  authors  cited  by, 
ib.  n,  1;  compared  with  Oeoam, 
205,  n.  1 ;  styled  by  Lechler  a  pra- 
nuntiuB  Reformationis,  ib, 

Bresch,  Jean,  Essay  on  the  Sentenees 
by,  60,  n.  2 

Brewer,  professor,  obflervations  oL 
on  the  Latinity  of  medievai 
writers,  171,  n.  1;  eritioifim  of,  on 
Erasmus's  New  Testament,  600 

Bromyard,  John,  his  Summa  PrtBdU 
cantium,  293 ;  a  Dominicany  ib. ; 
character  of  his  work,  294;  eon- 
trasted  with  Peoock,  ib, 

Bruni,  Leonardo,  his  services  to  tb» 
study  of  Aristotle,  898 ;  his  transla- 
tions of  the  Ethics  and  the  Poli- 
tics, ib.  ;  his  dedication  of  the 
latter  to  the  duke  of  Gloucester,  899 

Brucker,  unsatisfactory  decision  of, 
with  respect  to  the  Latin  transla- 
tions of  Aristotle,  92;  condemna- 
tion of  the  scholastic  Aristotle  by  ,128 

Bruliferius,  the  university  forbidden 
to  study,  630 

Bryan,  John,  felL  of  King's,  a  pupil 
of  Erasmus  at  Cambridge,  49i9; 
rejected  the  scholastic  Aristotle^ 
ib.;  takes  the  Greek  text  of  Aris- 
totle as  the  basis  of  his  lectures, 
617;  not  an  eminent  Grecian,  620 

Buckenhom,  prior  of  the  Dominicans, 
sermon  by,  in  reply  to  Latimer,  610 

Buckmaster,  Dr,  fell,  of  Peterhouse, 
letter  of  to  Dr  Edmunds  on  the 
feeling  of  the  university  in  oon- 
nexion  with  the  divorce,  621 

Buhlo,  theory  of,  that  the  medimval 
knowledge  of  Aristotle  was  derived 
from  Arabic  translations,  98 

Bullock,  Henry,  fell,  of  Queens*,  a 
pupil  and  correspondent  of  Eras- 
mus, 498;  patronised  by  WolB^,i&.; 
letter  of  to  Erasmus,  612 ;  oration 
of,  on  Wolsey*8  visit  to  Cambridge, 
646 ;  grossness  of  his  flattery,  ib. ; 
presides  at  the  burning  of  Luthn's 
works  at  Cambridge,  571 


Burbuik,  Wm.,  meretur  to  Wo1s«t, 

61S 
Bnridaniis,  hia   Quialio*e$    a   good 

iUnetratiou  of  the  eommon  mode 

of  lectimnft,  359 
Bnrlev,  Walter,  iteroDds  the  realistia 

doctriaes  at  Oxford,  197 ;  his  Ei- 

Eritio  taper  Artem  Vetertia,  16. ; 
9  statemetit  that  the  eite  of  Ox- 
ford »tli  Belected  by  pbiloeopheiB 
from  Greece  on  accoimt  of  its 
health  ineBB,  339  uid  n.  3 ;  hia  Logic 
forbidden  at  Cfunbridge,  G30 

B1U7,  Richard  of,  tntor  to  Edward- 
ni  when  prinoe  of  WiJeB,  200 ;  hia 
important  Bervioea  to  hia  pnpil,  lA. ; 
bis  aabBeqaent  oaieer,  201;  not'a 
man  of  profoond  acqairementB, 
0>. ;  his  interrlew  with  Petrarch  at 
AiigDon,  ib.\  he  diaappoiuta  the 
poet,203;  LiB  kaovledge  of  Greek, 
jb.  \  his  real  meritl,  ib.  \  hia  mania 
tor  books,  ib.  n.  2 ;  hia  wisdom  in 
book  eolleotiug,  203;  fate  of  hia 
librar?,  ib. ;  his  iitleB  for  the  ma- 
nagement oi  Durham  College  li- 
brary, ift, ;  the  mleB  almoA  iden- 
tical with  those  of  the  Sorbonne, 
SIM,  n.  I;  alight  distinotion  be- 
tween the  two,  ib. ;  hia  PhUobibUm, 
ib.  n.  2;  hia  account  of  the  gta- 
denta  of  his  diiy,  200:  on  the  de- 
generacy of  the  Mendicants,  ib.; 
bia  declaration  reapecting  the  civi- 
lianB,  211;  his  indifference  to  the 
canon  law,  ib.;  his  opinion  of  the 
univereity  of  Paris  in  hil  day, 
214 ;  his  testimonj  to  the  lethargy 
that  there  prevailed,  16, 

Bnry  St.  Edmund's,  contest  at,  be- 
tween the  monka  and  the  Francis- 
eans,  119 

Bnsleiden,  Jerome,  founder  of  the 
coiifgium  trilingut  at  Lonvain, 
EeS ;  bia  family  and  character,  ib. 

Bjrzantine  logic,  the,  influence  of, 
176 ;  its  presence  in  Duns  Scotua, 
180;  important  results  that  fol- 
lowed upon  the  introduction  of, 
184;  important  resultg  of,  with 
respect  to  nominalism,  IfH;  in- 
Btrumental  in  iutro<liicint{  the 
theory  of  the  Sappoiitiu,  ib.;  ita 
rapid  spread  in  the  15th  ccntQry,4IS 


Caen,  kbboy  of,  landa  taken  from  to 
found  King's  College,  305 

Omar,  ComnuiUaritt  of,  Lapna  ot 
Ferridiea  promiraa  to  aend  copy 


of,  SO;  eonsideTS  pMtian  to  have 
been  written  by  Hirtiua,  ib. 

Caim't  CattUi,  the  reaidenees  of  tb» 
Mendicant*,  bo  called  by  Wnlif, 
270 

CaiuB  Anberinon,  a  lecturer  on  Te- 
rence at  the  oniveraity  towarda  the 
close  of  the  I6th  century,  434 

Cam,  the  river,  329 ;  route  described 
in  ita  course,  ib. ;  it«  present  point 
ot  junction  wiUi  the  Ouse,  ib.; 
meaning  of  name,  ib.  n.  1 ;  formerly 
held  by  the  town  corporation  ol 
the  crown,  373 

Cambridge,  the  town  of.  totally  de- 
Btroyed  in  i.i>.  870,  61;  and  in 
1009,  82;  aodent  »pp«arsiioe  o^ 
832;  its  gradaal  growth,  ill.;  why 
chosen  as  a  site  of  an  tmiTeraity, 
833;  ttpect  ot  in  the  IGth  centnry, 
375 

Cambridge,  uniTenity  ot,  its  earlieat 
known  legal  reoognition,  1 ;  l^endB 
respecting  early  history  ot,  66; 
BOontineBs  of  Oar  information  ro- 
■pectiug  the  atatutes  of.  before  the 
oollege  era,  ib.;  modelled  on  the 
nnirersity  of  Paria,  ,§J[;  probable 
origin  of,  80;  earliest  legal  reoog- 
nitioD  of  the,  81;  stndents  from 
Paris  settle  in  the,  107;  preaenM 
of  studentB  from  Paris  at,  133; 
migration  from  the.  to  NorUiamp- 
ton,  135 ;  first  recognised  as  a  tta- 
dium  geniraU  in  1318,  145;  ad- 
vantagea  reetUting  from  this  recog- 
nition, 146;  chancellor  of ,  present 
at  council  of  Constance,  276;  re- 

rdcd  as  deteriorating  in  theolon 
the  fifteenth  century,  316;  ori- 
ginally only  a  grammar  school, 
840;  period  when  the  oita  course 
was  introduced  at,'>.a4^  fablea  re- 
Bpecting  early  history  of,  retailed  by 
Fisher.  450 ;  tribute  paid  by  Erasmus 
to  He  fame,(£tf7j  progress  of  Ureek 
at.  511;  declared  by  Ersamiu  in 
1616  to  be  able  to  compare  with 
the  most  celebrated  uniieraitiea, 
^;  entire  change  at,  |19^  n. 
2;  favour  shown  by  to  the~~BtudT 
of  Greek  contrasted  by  More  with 
the  conduct  of  Oxford,  526;  had 
always  outstripped  Oxford,  584; 
Woisey  conatitutetl  sole  rcYisor  of 
the  sUtates  of, 549:  abject  flattery 
of  letter  of,  to  the  cardinal,  660; 
eontribntion  of  colleges  of  to  the 
royal  loan,  551, n.  I ;  royal  visits  to, 
561 ;  scholars  from,  invited  by  Woi- 
sey to  Oxford,  GSS;  leia  loTVMd  to 


656 


INDEX. 


eeppoBe  new  doctrines  than  Oxford, 
5^;  beginB  to  take  the  lead  in 
'^Somiezion  with  the  Beformation, 
ib.;  Lather's  writings  burnt  at, 
571 ;  question  of  the  royal  diyoroe 
referred  to,  613;  conduct  of,  in 
relation  to  the  question,  compared 
by  Mr.  Froudo  with  that  of  Oxford, 
616;  letter  to  from  King  Henry, 
617 ;  decision  of,  on  the  question, 
criticised,  621;  royal  injunctionB 
to,  630 
Camerarius,  testimony  of,  to  fame  of 

Richard  Croke  at  Leipsio,  527 
Canon  law,  study  of,  founded  on  the 
Deeretam  of  Gratian,  86;  simply 
permitted  at  Merton  College,  167 ; 
permitted  but  not   obligatory  at 
Gonville  Hall,  240 ;  how  a]Dfected  by 
Occam's  attack  on  the  pap&l  power, 
259 ;  four  fellows  allowed  to  study 
at  King's,  308;  study  of,  simply 
permitted  at  Queens'  College,  317 ; 
forbidden  at  St.  Catherine's  Hall, 
818;  and  at  Jesus  College,   822; 
admission  of  bachelors  in,  from 
A.D.  1459  to  ▲.!>.  1499,  820;  doctor 
of,  former  requirements  for  degree 
of,  364 ;  lectures  on  and  degrees  in 
prohibited,  680 
Canterbury,  destruction  of  the  library 
at,  A.D.  1009,  82 ;  both  the  monas- 
teries at,  professed  the  Benedictine 
rule,  ih. ;  mode  of  life  at  monas- 
tery of  St.  Augustine  at,  described 
by  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  87 
Canterbury  Hidl,  Oxford,  efforts  of 
Simon  Islip  at,  266;  expulsion  of 
seculars  from,  ih. 
Cardinal  College,  Oxford,  foundation 
of,  551 ;  its  princely  revenues,  ih. ; 
scholars  from  Cambridge   placed 
on  the  foundation,  552;  founded 
on  the  site  of   St.    Frideswide's 
monastery,  ib,  n.  1 ;  magnificence 
of  the  design,  601  and  n.  1 
Cards,  playing  at,  allowed  to  fellows 
at  Christmas  time,  609 ;  always  for- 
bidden to  scholars,  t6.  n.  2 
Carmelites,  the,  their  house   near 

Queens'  College,  139 
Cassiodorus,  treatise  of,  a  text-book 
during  the  Middle  Ages,  21;  his 
account  of  the  Arithmetic  of  Boe- 
thius,  28,  n.  1;  escapes  the  fate 
of  Boethius  under  Theodoric,  29; 
his  Gothic  History,  30;  his  Epi- 
stles, i5. ;  his  treatise  De  A  rtibus,  ib, ; 
copy  of,  at  the  library  at  Bee,  100 
Categories  of  Aristotle,  the,  along 
with  the  De  Interpretationef  the 


only  portion  of  his  logic  rtodied 
prior  to  the  12th  century,  29 
Cavendish,  Wolse^*s  biographer,  edu- 
cated at  Cambridge,  545 
Chalcidius,  Latin  translation  of  the 

Tinutus  by,  41 
Chalcondyles,  successor  to  Argyro- 
pulos  at  Florence,  429 ;  his  edition 
of  Homer,  ih.;   his  dtteek  gram- 
mar, 430 
Champeaux,  William   of^    opens   a 

school  of  logic  in  Paris,  77,  n.  1 
Chancellor  of  the  cathedral  at  Paris, 

his  hostility  to  the  uniyersity,  80 
Chancellor,  ofSce  of  the,  in  the  uni- 
versity, 140;  his  election  biennial, 
*  ib, ;  elected  by  the  regents,  ib. ; 
duties  attached  to  the  office,  141; 
his  powers  ecclesiastical  in  their 
origin,    ib,;   originally   not   per- 
mitted to  delegate  all  his  duties  to 
the  vice-chancellor,  ib,  ;  his  powen 
distinguished  from  those  of  the 
regents,  142;  first  heoomes  vested 
with  spiritual  jurisdiction  in  the 
university,  146;  his  authority  as- 
serted by  the  Btumwell  Prooeea  ex- 
clusive of  all  ecclesiastical  juxisdie- 
tion,  289 
Chancellors,  two  at  the  university  of 

Bologna,  73 
Charlemagne,    fosters    learning    in 
conjunction  with  Alcuin,  9 ;  dieots 
of  his  rule  on  the  conoeption  of 
learning,  10 ;  his  Capitularies,  12 ; 
his  letter  to  Baugnlfus,  ib, ;  in- 
vites Alcuin  over  from  England, 
13 ;  twofold  character  of  his  work 
in  education,  ib, ;  his  mental  acti- 
vity,  14;    questions  in  grammar 
propounded  by,  to  Alcuin,  15 ;  hia 
views  in  relation  to  learning  com-  - 
pared  with  those  of  Alcuin,  17 
Charters  university,  supposed  loss 

of,  81,  n.  1 
Chicheley,  archbp.,  directs  the  con- 
fiscation of  the  estates  of  tiie  lUien 
priories,  305 
Christchurch,  monastery  oi^  Canter- 
bury,  a  mixed    foundation,  100; 
distinguished  from  that  of  St.  Au- 
gustine's,   Canterbury,  ib.  n,    S; 
contrast  presented  in  catalogue  of 
library  at,  with  that  of  a  hundred 
years  later,   105;   the  monks  o( 
nearly  driven  from  the  city  l^  the 
Dominicans,  150 
Christchurch,  Oxford,  see  Cardinal 

College 
Christ's  College,  foundation  of,  446; 
endowments  of  given  by  Margarel 


ot  BiobtDOud,  417:  orieid  ■>>- 
tatM  ol,  453;  qtuliflomtioiiB  of 
foUows  at,  46S ;  oath  taken  by  lel- 
lovi  of,  ib. ;  power  rewrred  by  sta- 
tutes of,  of  makiog  altanttions, 
4S6,  D.  3;  error  of  dean  Feaooclc 
OQ  this  point,  it). ;  dsoM  in  oath 
«diniiii»tered  to  master  of,  466; 
requirementa  tor  felloira  at,  459; 
adiaiBBion  of  peneionen  at,  ib. ; 
appointment  of  leotnrei  on  Latin 
literature  at,il'.ileotiiTea  to  be  giTen 
in  long  vacation  at,  460 ;  aUorance 
to  feUowE  for  oonmiona  at,  ib. 

Chrodegang,  bp.  of  Heti,  tonnder  of 
■eonlar  oalleftes  in  LorrBiiie,  160 

ChryioloraB,  Emmannel,  hia  chano- 
ier,  391 ;  he  acquires  the  Latin 
tongne,  893;  his  eminenoe  aa  a 
teacher  of  Uroek,  ib,;  his  Greek 
Orammai,  ib.  and  n.  3 ;  his  visit 
to  Home,  393 ;  his  death  at  Con- 
■lanoe.  395 :  his  funeral  oration  b; 
Jolianus,  396 

Cbrjsostoii),  St.,dispai>ginglf  apokea 
of  b;  Eraamoi,  GOl 

Chubbes,  Wm.,  anthor  of  a  treatise 
on  logio,  436 ;  an  adTiaer  ot  bp. 
Aieock  in  the  foundation  of  Jeana 
CoUege,  436 

Cioeio,  Lnpas  ot  Feniiiet  aaka  tor 
the  loan  ot  the  RheUrie  ot,  30; 
Topiea  of,  eiponnded  by  Qerbert 
at  Bheimi,  44 ;  stndied  as  a  model 
nnder  Bernard  ol  Chartrea,  E7; 
B^led  bv  Niebuhx  a  Scot  iyrurrot 
In  the  Kiddle  Ages,  96;  nomennu 
treatiaes  ot,  in  the  library  at  Bea, 
in  Nonnandy,  in  thirteenth  een- 
tnry.  104;  Petrarch's  model,  864; 
orations  ot,  known  in  the  twelfth 
and  tbirtecntb  centoriea,  384,  n.  3 

Cisleroian  branch  ot  the  Benedictine 
order,  S6 ;  teatitiiony  of  Hngo,  the 
papal  l«^te,  to  the  motives  of  the 
institution  ol  the  order,  ib.  n.  8 ; 
ordet  ot  the,  satiiiaed  by  Walter 


Civil  law,  study  ot,  revived  by  Ime- 


oa,  36; 


AoouTsinB,  37 ;  at  flrat  regarded  with 
hostility  by  the  Bomish  Ghnrch, 
lb.;  forbidden  t«  the  religions  or- 
den,  36;  banished  from  the  uni- 
versity of  Paris,  ib.;  its  relation  to 
the  oanon  law  explained  by  Savigny, 
ib.  Q.  3;  its  general  prevalenoe  at 
the  eIom  ol  the  13th  centnry,  39; 


the  study  of,  often  united  with  that 
ol  the  canon  law  in  Enghmd,  iIi.; 
studied  by  Lanfrauo  at  Botogua, 
47;  why  disconraged  at  Paris,  75: 
periods  during  which  the  study 
was  encouraged  or  prohibited  in 
the  university  ot  Pahs,  ib.  n.  3 ; 
none  ot  the  volumes  ot  the,  found 
in  the  library  at  Cbriitchnxt^.  104  ; 
studied  at  the  Coll^  da  B&yeax 
in  Paris,  138;  conditions  under 
which  the  stu^  of,  was  permitted 
at  Merton  College,  167:  abeoihing 
attention  to.  in  the  11th  centnry, 
308;  itu  teudenoy  to  eonfonnd  dis- 
tinetjons  between  laily  and  clergy, 
309;  inaccnraoy  of  Blackatone's 
amount  of  the  study,  ib.;  Beginald 
Fecock  on  the  evila  cesulting  from 
the  study,  ib. ;  importance  of  the 
code,  shewn  by  William  ot  No- 
garet,  311;  the  Avignonase  pora-s 
distiiignished  by  their  knowledge 
of,  ib. ;  study  of,  looked  npon  by 
the  '  artists '  and  theologians  at 
Paris  as  a  trade,  355,  n.  1;  evi- 
dent desire  of  founders  to  check 
the  excessive  attention  paid,  in 
the  18th  aentnry,  to  the,  319; 
spirit  in  which  it  was  studied  in 
Italy  entirely  mercenary,  ib.;  ad- 
missions of  bachelors  to  degrees 
in,  from  i.n.  1459  to  1499,  330; 
the  stndy  of,  eapeeiallj  attacked 
by  the  HotDBnists.  418 

aai«  College,  fuundtition  of,  350; 
designed  tu  repair  the  losses  occa- 
sioned by  the  pestilence.  361 ;  hbe- 
rality  of  sentiment  in  the  early 
■tatntea  ot,  ib.;  conditions  to  be 
observed  in  the  election  ot  fellows 
at,  3£2 ;  sizars  at,  ib. ;  its  reputa- 
tion in  the  15th  century,  314 

Clement  vii,  pope,  hia  opinion  of  the 
theologians,  313 

Clergy,  the,  their  participation  in 
secular  pnrsnits  in  the  thirteenth 
and  lonrteenth  oeotnries,  165 

Clerk,  probably  synonymous  with 
scholar,  84 

Clerk,  John,  bp.  ot  Bath  and  Wells, 
harshneaa  of,  towards  Barnes  at  hia 
trial,  679 

Clerke  (or  Clark),  John,  one  ol  the 
Cambridge  Betonners,  604,  and  n.  I 

Clnuiae  branch  ot  the  Benedictine 
order,  86 

Cnnt,  long,  convert!  the  sanonry  at 
Btu^  St.  Edmnnd'i  into  a  B«m- 
diefane  monartny,  149;  lavond 
the  ertation  of  sMular  eoUegM,  160 


656 


INDEX. 


eepoTue  new  dootrines  than  Oxford, 
55{);  begins  to  take  the  lead  in 
)Somiezion  with  the  Beformation, 
ib. ;  Luther's  writings  burnt  at, 
571 ;  question  of  the  royal  diTorce 
referred  to,  613;  conduct  of,  in 
relation  to  the  question,  compared 
by  Mr.  Froudo  with  that  of  Oxford, 
616;  letter  to  from  King  Henry, 
617 ;  decision  of,  on  the  question, 
criticised,  621 ;  royal  injunctions 
to,  630 
Camerarius,  testimony  of,  to  fame  of 

Richard  Croke  at  Leipsic,  527 
Canon  law,  study  of,  founded  on  the 
Dfcretum  of  Gratian,  86;  simply 
permitted  at  Merton  College,  167 ; 
permitted  but   not   obligatory  at 
Gonville  Hall,  240 ;  how  ejected  by 
Occam's  attack  on  the  pap&l  power, 
259 ;  four  fellows  allowed  to  study 
at  King's,  308;   study  of,  simply 
permitted  at  Queens'  College,  317 ; 
forbidden  at  St.  Catherine's  Hall, 
818;  and  at  Jesus  College,   322; 
admission  of  bachelors  in,  from 
A.D.  1459  to  A.D.  1499,  320;  doctor 
of,  former  requirements  for  degree 
of,  364 ;  lectures  on  and  degrees  in 
prohibited,  630 
Canterbury,  destruction  of  the  library 
at,  A.D.  1009,  82 ;  both  the  monas- 
teries at,  professed  the  Benedictine 
rule,  ib, ;  mode  of  life  at  monas- 
tery of  St.  Augustine  at,  described 
by  OiralduB  Cambrensis,  87 
Canterbury  Hall,  Oxford,  efforts  of 
Simon  Islip  at,  266;  expulsion  of 
seculars  from,  ib. 
Cardinal  College,  Oxford,  foundation 
of,  561 ;  its  princely  revenues,  ib. ; 
scholars  from  Cambridge    placed 
on  the  foundation,  552;  founded 
on  the  site  of   St.    Frideswide's 
monastery,  ib.  n.  1 ;  magnificence 
of  the  design,  601  and  n.  1 
Cards,  playing  at,  allowed  to  fellows 
at  Christmas  time,  609 ;  always  for- 
bidden to  scholars,  t6.  n.  2 
Carmelites,   the,  their   house   near 

Queens'  College,  189 
Cassiodorus,  treatise  of,  a  text-book 
during  the  Middle  Ages,  21;  his 
account  of  the  Arithmetic  of  Boe- 
thius,  28,  n.  1;  escapes  the  fate 
of  Boethius  under  Theodoric,  29; 
his  Gothic  Histoiy,  30;  his  Epi- 
sties,  t&. ;  his  treatise  De  Artibus,  ib. ; 
copy  of,  at  the  library  at  Beo,  100 
Categories  of  Aristotle,  the,  along 
with  the  De  Interpretationff  the 


only  portion  of  his  logie  stndM 
prior  to  the  12th  oeninry,  89 
Cavendish,  Wolse^*s  biographer^  edu- 
cated at  Cambridge,  546 
Chalcidius,  Latin  translation  of  the 

Tinutus  by,  41 
Chalcondyles,  suocessor  to   Argyro* 
pulos  at  Florence,  429 ;  his  edition 
of  Homer,  ib.;   his  G^reek  gram- 
mar, 430 
Champeaux,  William   of^    opens   ft 

school  of  logic  in  Paris,  77,  n.  1 
Chancellor  of  the  cathedral  at  Paris, 

his  hostility  to  the  university,  80 
Chancellor,  ofSoe  of  the,  in  the  uni- 
versity, 140;  his  election  biennial, 
*  ib, ;   elected  by  the  regents^  ib, ; 
duties  attached  to  the  oiBoe,  141; 
his  powers  ecclesiastical  in  their 
origin,    t6.;    originally   not    per- 
mitted to  delegate  all  bis  daties  to 
the  vice-chancellor,  ib.  ;  his  powers 
distinguished  from  those  of   the 
regents,  142;  first  becomes  vested 
with  spiritual  jurisdiction  in  the 
university,  146;  his  aathority  as- 
serted by  the  Barnwell  Prooess  ex- 
clusive of  all  ecdesiastical  jonsdio- 
tion,  289 
Chancellors,  two  at  the  university  of 

Bologna,  73 
Charlemagne,  fosters  learning  in 
conjunction  with  Aleuin,  9 ;  effects 
of  his  rule  on  the  conception  of 
learning,  10;  his  Capitularies,  12; 
his  letter  to  Baugulfus,  ift. ;  in- 
vites Aleuin  over  from  England, 
13 ;  twofold  character  of  his  work 
in  education,  ib. ;  his  mental  aeti- 
vity,  14;  questions  in  grammar 
propounded  by,  to  Aleuin,  15 ;  his 
views  in  relation  to  learning  com- 
pared with  those  of  Aleuin,  17 
Charters   university,   supposed   loss 

of,  81,  n.  1 
Chicheley,  archbp.,  directs  the  oon- 
fiscation  of  the  estates  of  tiie  lUien 
priories,  305 
Christchurch,  monastery  oi^  Canter- 
bury,  a  mixed    foundation,  100; 
distinguished  from  that  of  St.  Au- 
gustine's,   Canterbury,  ib.  n,    2; 
contrast  presented  in  catalogue  of 
library  at,  with  that  of  a  hundred 
years  later,   105;   the  monks  oi^ 
nearly  driven  from  the  city  by  the 
Dominicans,  150 
Christchurch,  Oxford,  see  Cardinal 

College 
Christ's  College,  foundation  of,  446; 
endowments  of  given  by  Margaret 


beooms  •  piofeasar  there,  S34 ; 
bu  omtioD  eompared  with  tliat  of 
Helanohtbon  D«  StudiU  Corrigm- 
dU,  537;  hia  wcond  oration,  639; 
elMted  pnblio  orator,  ih.;  iiigi»ti- 
tnde  of,  to  Fisher,  616 ;  kctiTl^ 
of,  in  It>l;,  in  gaining  opinions 
(BTorable  to  the  diTorce,  ib. 

Crome,  Dr.  Walter,  an  early  bene- 
factor to  the  muTerBi^  librw^, 
838 

Oromwell,  Tho.,  elected  chatMeUor  of 
theDmTerBit7,d39;  uid vintra',  16. ; 
oommisuonmi  of,  at  Oxford,  ib. 

Oroneher,  John,  perhapi  Uie  fonndn 
of  the  niuTersity  library,  83S 

Cnuadea,  the,  earl;  and  later  ehronl- 
elen  of,  eompared,  iS;  the  seoond, 
iU  inflnenoe  on  Eorope,  £8;  two- 
fold atilitf  of,  87 ;  Qoibert  on  the 
objeot  for  which  they  were  per- 
mitted, 88 ;  various  influenoeB  ol, 
16.;  prodaotiTe  of  inoreued  in- 
leraoarae  between  Ohriatiana  and 
Saraoeni,  SI ;  probably  tended  to 
Inoreaee  the  saspioioni  of  the 
Chnroh  wiUi  leepeot  to  Saraoenio 
literature,  97 

Cnrooiy  leetnret,  meaning  of  the 
tenn,  SS8  and  Append.  (E) 

D 

D'AiUy,  Pierre,  bp.  of  Cambn^,  edn- 
eated  at  the  eoUege  ol  Navarre,  138 

Datnian,  Peter,  boettle  to  pagan 
laaming,  IS 

Damlet,  Hagh,  master  of  Pembroke, 
opposed  to  Beginald  Peoook,  39G 

Danes,  first  invasion  of  the,  fatal  to 
learning  in  England,  9  and  81; 
seoond  invasion  of,  61;  lotses  in- 
fUeted  by,  83 

Dattens,  observation  of,  that  Aris- 
totle is  never  named  by  Peter 
Lombard,  94 

Danith  College  at  Paris,  its  foonda- 
tion  attribnted  by  Crevler  to  the 
twelfth  century,  136 

Dante,  tribnte  paid  by,  to  memory 
of  Oratian,  SO 

D'Asaaill^,  H.,  on  the  tonnation  ol 
the  nmversity  ol  Bologna,  7S ;  the 
tmiversitiee  ol  Bologna  and  FarU 
compared  by,  76,  n.  1 

D.C.L.,  former  reqnirementa  for  de- 
gree of,  3M 

D.D.  aodB.D.,  roqairements  loi  de- 
grees of,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  868; 
the  degree  formerly  gennine  hi 
eharacter,  860 


lEX.  Ga9 

De  Bnrgh,  EUe.,  fonndiess  ol  CUre 
BaU,  350;  death  ol  ■  brother  ol, 
enables  her  to  imdertalce  the  de- 
sign, ib.  n.  I 

I>e  Cmuit,  the,  a  Neo-PIatonIo  trea- 
tise, 114;  attribnted  to  Ariatotla, 
ib.  n.  1:  considered  by  Jonrdain 
(o  have  been  not  leas  popular  than 
the  Psendo-Dionynos,  ib. ;  the 
work  deeoribed  t?  Keander,  ifr. 

DeoretaU,  the  false,  84;  eritieisedbj 
Blilman,  ib.  n.  1 

Degrees,  origin  o^  oonjeotua  ol 
ConringiQs  respeotlDg,  77 ;  real 
ori^in^  sJgniBcuioe  of,  78;  oUl- 
gabons  involved  in  proeeeding  to, 
ib.;  nambar  of  those  who  prooaad- 
ed  to,  in  Uw  or  theolo^,  smallar 
than  might  be  sappoeed,  363 

De  Harttieo  Comburendo,  ststnte  of, 
969 

De  Intervretatiotie  of  Aristotle,  along 
with  tne  Categoric  the  on^  por- 
tion of  his  logic  stadied  prior  to 
the  13th  oentnry,  29 

Determine,  to,  meaning  of  the  tArm 
explained,  tlM;  by  pro^,  ib. 

Dialeotioe,  inelnde  both  logio  and 
metaphysial  in  Hartianns,  35 

Dioe,  playing  at,  forUdden  to  the 
leUows  ol  PetrarhooM,  388 

Diet  ol  students  in  mediwal  time*, 
867 

DiMiysiiu,  the  Psendo-  ,CelMtia]  HUr- 
arohy  o^  41;  translated  b7  John 
Bootns  Erigena,  42;  charaoter 
and  inflnenoe  of  the  treatise  ib. ; 
Abelard  questions  the  story  ol  hk 
apostleahjpin  Oanl,  68;  Mliolastio 
aooeptonoe  of,  as  nfnmitiml  log- 
BDpplantedths  Bible  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  ik  n.  8;  Oiooyn  in  Ue- 
timngon,  disoovan  ila  r«al  eliane> 
tei,  ib. ;  the  work  daw»HMd  t? 
Hiiman,  ib, ;  Erasmus's  aooomit 
of  Oroeyn's  disoovery,  618,  n.  1 

DiapeusatloDa  Irom  oaths,  olaoM 
against,  in  statutes  of  Christ'a 
College,  465 ;  and  in  statntes  of 
St.  John's,  466 ;  question  raised  bj 
daan  Peacock  in  connexion  with, 
f6. ;  their  original  purport,  467 

DiapntationB  in  parvinU,  399,  n.  9; 
VFhy  so  termed,  ib. 


Bs,  eiS;  what  It 
really  Involved,  614 ;  falUoy  ol  the 
•xpedisnt,  lb.;  decision  of  Can- 
bridge  on,  690 ;  aritidms  on,  693 


()53 


INDEX. 


Cobbett,  Wm.,  bis  tribnie  to  the  work 
of  the  monaHteries,  336,  n.  1 

Cobham,  Tho.,  bis  bequest  to  the  oni- 
Yersity  library  at  Oxford,  203,  n.  2 

Cocberis,  M.,  bis  edition  of  Ricbard 
of  Bary'd  Philobiblon,  204,  n.  2 

Cock-fi(tbting,  a  common  amnsement 
among  students,  873 

Colet,  John,  his  spirit  as  a  founder 
contrasted  with  that  of  bp.  Fisher, 
471;  his  small  liking  for  Augus- 
tine, 484 ;  letter  from  EIraamuB  at 
Cambridge  to,  493 

Collage,  Tho.,  bequeaths  a  fund  for 
the  encouragement  of  preaching  at 
the  uniYersity  in  1446,  439 

CoUdge  de  Montaigu,  account  gi^en 
by  Erasmus  of  the,  367 

Colleges,  of  small  importance  in  the 
university  of  Bologna,  74 ;  supposed 
by  BulsBUs  to  be  ooeyal  with  the  uni- 
yersity  at  Paris,  76;  foundation  of, 
at  Cambridge,  the  commencement 
of  certain  information  respecting 
the  university,  216;  almost  in- 
yariable  design  of  the  founders  of, 
368 ;  intend^  for  the  poorer  class 
of  students,  ib,;  standard  of  ad- 
mission  at,  369;  age  of  students 
on  admission  at,  ib, ;  discipline  at, 
ib.;  becoming  richer  required  to 
increase  the  number  of  their  fel- 
lowships, 372;  survey  of,  by  Par- 
ker, Bedman,  and  May,  ann.  1545, 
424,  n.  5 

College  life,  sketch  of,  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  366 ;  asceticism  a  dominant 
notion  in,  t6. 

Cologne,  university  of,  formed  on 
the  model  of  Paris,  74 

Commons,  liberal  allowance  for,  to 
fellows  at  King's  Hall,  254;  allow- 
ances for,  at  other  colleges,  ib,  n. 
2 ;  allowance  for,  at  Christ's  Col- 
lege, 460;  long  unfixed  at  Peter- 
house,  t&. ;  amount  prescribed  for, 
at  St.  John's  College,  461;  at  Jesus 
College,  ib.  n.  1 

Conringius,  his  conjecture  with  re- 
spect to  the  origin  of  university 
degrees,  77 

Constance,  council  of,  representatives 
from  both  universities  at,  276; 
Emmanuel  Chrysoloras  at,  394 

Constantinople,  state  of  learning  at, 
in  the  eleventh  century,  175  and 
n.  1 ;  in  the  15th  century,  con- 
trasted with  Florence,  388;  ac- 
count given  of  its  scholars  by 
Philelphus,  390;  fall  of,  400;  state 
of  learning  at,  after  capture  in 


1453,  401,  n.  8;  exiles  from,  their 
character  in  Italy  deaeribed,  403 

Constantinople,  Coll^  de,  drenm- 
stance^  which  gave  rue  to  its  foun- 
dation, 126,  n.  4 

Copemican  theory,  partial  anticipa- 
tion of,  in  the  treatise  of  Marfcianns, 
26,  note  1 

Corpus  Christ!  College,  defltmetion 
of  the  archives  of,  187;  founda- 
tion of,  247;  its  peculiar  origin, 
tft.;  motives  of  founders  of,  249; 
statutes  of,  borrowed  from  those 
of  Biichaelhouse,  t6.  and  note  5; 
requirements  with  respect  to 
studies  at,  250 ;  not  visited  fay 
commission  of  arohbp.  Arundel, 
258,  n.  1 

Corpus  Christi  College.  Oxford,  duuiq- 
script  of  Argentine's  proposed  'act ' 
in  the  library  of,  426  and  n.  2 ; 
foundation  of,  521 ;  statutes  ot  ib.; 
duties  imposed  upon  readers  of 
divinity  at,  522 

Cosin,  master  of  Corpus,  snooeeds 
Fisher  as  lady  Margaret  professor, 
374 

Councils  of  the  fifteenth  eentoxy,  re- 
presentatives from  the  universities 
present  at,  276 

Counties,  limitations  in  eleetions  to 
fellowships  with  respect  to,  838—9 

Cousin,  M.  Vict.,  his  dictum  respect- 
ing the  origin  of  the  scholastio  pihi- 
losophy,  50;  the  passage  quoted, 
id.  n.  1 ;  his  opinion  that  Boethins 
attached  small  importance  to  the 
dispute  respecting  universals  doubt- 
ful, 51,  n.  3;  his  account  of  the 
controversy  rejecting  uniyersals 
as  treated  by  Boethius,  53 ;  his 
conjecture  with  respect  to  the 
teaching  of  the  schocds  of  Charle- 
magne, 54 

Cranmer,  Tho.,  fell,  of  Jesus,  univer- 
sity career  of,  612 ;  marriage  o^  t6.; 
visit  of,  to  Waltham,  613;  Bog- 
gestion  of,  with  reppect  to  the 
royal  divorce,  ib. ;  his  treatise  on 
the  question,  618 

Credo  ut  intelligam,  dictum  of  St. 
Anbelm,  64 

Croke,  Bich.,  early  career  of,  527; 
his  continental  fame,  ib»;  instruc- 
tor in  Greek  to  king  Henry,  528; 
begins  to  lecture  on  Greek  at  Cam- 
bridge, t6.;  formally  appointed 
Greek  reader  in  1519,  ib.;  his  in- 
augural oration,  529 ;  his  Latin 
style  modelled  on  Quintilian,  ib. ; 
had  received  offers  from  Oxford  to 


Engliah  '  natioii '  In  the  oniTenitj  ot 
Parii,  ithen  lint  oalled  the  Ger- 
man 'nation,'  79,  n.  1 

Epiitola  CantabrigieTuit,  the,  686; 
^mmi;  prognoatiimtiouB  of,  ib.  u.  3 

EpUtola  Obicurorum  Kirorum,  ap- 
peuanoe  of,  £G8 

Eiasmns,  example  set  by,  of  ridi- 
Bnling  the  method  of  the  aehoolmen, 
109 ;  account  pven  by,  of  the  Cal- 
Uge  deUoutugn,367i  hiBdeBcrip- 
tion  of  the  Scotists  at  PariE.  421; 
hii  teitimon;  to  Fkher's  tIewb 
with  respect  to  the  pulpit  oratory 
of  the  time,  440;  perhapi  nailed 
Cambridge  in  the  trftiii  of  Ben.  in 
inl606,463(uidn.l;  admitted B.D. 
and  D.D.  in  1605,  153  and  n.  1; 
hii  intimacy  with  Fisher  at  this 
time,  ib.;  epitaph  on  Margaret  of 
Biehtnond  by,  463,  n.  1;  retnges 
to  ondertake  the  inabmotioa  of 
Stanley, afterwards bp.  of  El;.467; 
letter  from  bp.  Fieher  to,  470,  n. 
3;  second  Tisit  of,  to  Cambridge, 
479;  his  object  on  this  oooadon, 
473;  oiroomitanoea  that  led  to  hii 
ch<uoe  ot  Cambridge,  ib.;  reaaons 
vhy  he  gave  it  the  prefereooe  to 
Oiford,  477;  his  testimony  to  the 
MbolkrBhipotOifotd,4eO;hisob1i- 
gations  to  Linaere,  ib. ;  extent  ot 
hiB  debt  to  Oxford,  481;  hii  prefer- 
ence of  Jerome  (o  Augustine,  483 
and  501;  character  of,  487;  his 
weak  points  as  noted  by  Lntfaer  and 
Tyndale,  486  and  n.  S;  eontradic- 
t4»7  character  ot  bin  eritioisms  on 
places  and  men,  489;  bis  personal 
appearance,  the  portrait  of,  ib., 
490;  criticism  of  Lavater  on  Srst 
lectureof,  at  Cambridge, 491 ;  Cam- 
bridge letters  of,  482 ;  their  uncer- 
tain chronology,  ib, ;  his  accooat  of 
bis  first  eiperienceB  of  Cambridge, 
49S;  be  is  appointed  lad?  Mar- 
garet professor,  S>,;  failnre  of  his 
expectations  aaateiMher  of  Qreek, 
ib. ;  letters  of,  to  Ammonini  and 
Colet,  ib. ;  bis  Uboors  at  Cam- 
laidge,  494;  toreiramed  by  Colct 
he  aToided  colliaion  irith  Uie  oon- 
■erratiTe  party,  496;  protected  by 
Fiaher,  496;  bia  ftdmirstion  tor 
Fisher's  character,  ib.;  influence 
he  exerted  oTer  ^sher,  497;  his 
inflnence  over  other  members  of 
the  university,  498;  his  Cambridge 
friends,  ib.;  his  viewa  oontrasted 
with  those  prevalent  in  the  oni- 


>EX.  COl 

veruty,  601 ;  his  eitinMte  ot  the 
fathers,  ii. ;  and  of  the  medinral 
theologians,  503 ;  bis  Cambridge 
experiences  of  a  tTying  character, 
603;  hiH  deBorlplioQ  of  the  towns- 
men, 504,  n.  1;  his  want  of  eco- 
nomy, 504;  his  last  Cambridge 
letter,  506;  his  delibeiate  testi- 
mony favorable  to  Cambridge,  607  ; 
his  Nocum  IiutnimeHtum,  608;  Uiis 
strictly  Cambridge  work,  609;  its 
defects  and  merits,  610;  his  reply 
to  a  letter  from  Bnllocli.  513;  his 
third  visit  to  England,  518;  en- 
deavours to  persuade  Wm.  Latimer 
to  teach  bp.  Fisher  Greek,  619; 
leaves  En^^and  for  Louvain,  530; 
his  Noium  Tett.,  523;  befriends 
Croke,  637;  congratulates  Croke 
on  bis  appointment  as  Oreeli  reader 
at  Cambridge,  S36,  n.  3;  hii  infln- 
ence in  promoting  the  Reformation 
in  England,  656;  his  assertion  re- 
specting tbe  progress  of  the  new 
learning,  658 ;  letter  of,  to  Tivea,  re- 
specting publication  ot  his  works, 
685;  letter  to,  from  Fisher,  respect- 
ing the  Be  Rationt  Coruictumdi, 
ib. ;  tbinks  the  end  of  the  world 
is  at  band,  686;  advooatea  atrans- 
lation  ot  tbe  Scriptures  into  the 
vemacolar,  687 ;  writes  Dr  Liberc 
Arbilrio  against  Luther,  588;  de- 
nies all  sympathy  with  Lather,  ib. ; 
death  of,  631 
Erfurt,  oniveFHitj  of,  styled  narorum 

omnium  porluf,  417 
Eric  ot  Auierre,  sustains  the  tradition 

of  Alcuin's  teaching,  69 
Erigena,  John  Scotus,  an  exception 
to  tbe  philosophical  character  of 
bis  age,  40;  his  De  DiviHont  Sa- 
lara,  41;  Iiis  affinities  to  Platon- 
ism,  J6,  ;  his  philosophy  derived 
from  Augnstine,  ib. ;  tnuislates  the 
Psendo-Dionysins,  48 
Eton  College,  toondation  o(  by  Henry 

11.306 
Euclid,  translation  of  fonr  books  of, 
by  Boethins,  28;  deflnition  in,  re- 
stored   by   collation   of  a  Greek 
MS..  633 
Engenios  iii,  pope,  raises  Qratian 
to  the  bishopric  of  Chiuai,  S6;  lec- 
tures on  the  canon  law  instituted 
by,  73 
Engenios    rr,   pope,    confirms    the 

Barnwell  Proceas,  390 
Eusebiul,  stoiy  from  the  Pntparalio 
Keangrliea  of,  486 


()(;o 


INDEX. 


Doctor,  origin  of  the  degree  of,  73 ; 

its  catholicity  dependent  on  the 

pleaHure  of  the  pope,  78 
Doket,   Andrew,   first    president    of 

Queens'    College,    his    character, 

817 

Dommioans,  the,  institution  of  the 
order  of,  89 ;  open  two  schools  of 
theology  at  Paris,  107;  their  dis- 
comfiture at  the  condemnation  of 
the  teaching  of  Aquinas,  122 ;  their 
house  on  the  present  site  of  Em- 
manuel,  139;  their  rivalry  with 
the  Franciscans  described  by  Mat- 
thew Paris,  148;  establish  them- 
selyes  at  Dunstable,  150;  activity 
of,  at  Paris,  262 

Donatus,  an  authority  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  22 

Dorbellus,  a  commentator  on  Petrus 
Hispanus,  566,  n.  3 

Dress,  extravagance  of  students  in, 
232 ;  clerical,  required  to  be  worn 
by  the  scholars  of  Peterhouse,  233 ; 
a  distinctive  kind  of,  always  worn 
by  the  university  student,  348; 
often  worn  by  those  not  entitled 
to  wear  it,  ib, 

Drogo,  sustains  the  tradition  of  Al- 
cuin's  teaching  at  Paris,  70;  his 
pupils,  ib. 

Di-yden,  John,  resemblance  in  his 
Religio  Laid  to  Thomas  Aquinas, 
112,  n.  2;  his  scholastic  learning 
underrated  by  Macaulay,  ib. 

Duns  Scotus,  his  commentaiy  on  the 
Sentences,  62;  a  teacher  at  Mer- 
ton  College,  169;  difficulties  that 
preclude  any  account  of  his  career, 
172 ;  his  wondrous  fecundity,  173, 
u.  2;  task  imposed  upon  him  by 
the  appearance  of  the  Byzantine 
logic,  178;  Byzantine  element  in 
the  logic  of,  180;  exaggerated  im- 
portance ascribed  to  logic  by,  183; 
limited  the  application  of  logic  to 
theology,  184 ;  compared  with  Bo- 
ger  Bacon,  185;  long  duration  of 
his  influence,  186;  great  edition  of 
his  works,  ib,;  fate  of  his  writings 
at  Oxford,  629;  study  of  them 
forbidden  at  Cambridge,  630 

Dunstan,  St.,  reviver  of  the  Benedic- 
tine order  in  England,  81 

Durandus,  his  commentary  on  the 
Sentences,  62 

Durham  College,  Oxford,  founded  by 
monks  of  Durham,  203 

Diurham,  William  of,  his  foundation 
of  University  College,  160,  n.  1 


Eadgar,  king,  namexons  moxiMteriea 
founded  in  England  during  the 
reign  of,  81;  unfavorable  to  the 
secular  clergy,  161 

Eadward  the  Confessor,  proeperity 
of  the  Benedictines  under,  82 

Edward  ix,  letter  of,  to  pope  Jolm 
XXII,  respecting  Paris  and  Oxford, 
213,  n.  1;  maintained  82  king*! 
scholars  at  the  university,  252; 
properly  to  be  regarded  as  the 
founder  of  King's  Hall,  253,  n.  1 

Edward  iii,  commands  the  Oxford 
students  at  Stamford  to  retom  to 
the  university,  135,  n.  1;  repre- 
sented by  Gray  as  the  founder  of 
King's  Hall,  253;  builds  a  manaion 
for  the  scholars  of  King*0  Hall, 
ib.;  confiscates  the  estates  of  the 
alien  priories,  304 

Egiiihard,  letter  to,  from  bishop 
Lupus,  20 

Egypt,  called  by  Martianns,  AHa 
caput,  26 

Elenchi  Sophistici  of  Aristotle  never 
quoted  prior  to  the  12th  oentnxy, 
29 

Elv,  origin  of  the  name,  836  and 
n.  3 

Ely,  archdeacons  of,  claims  of  juris- 
diction  in  Cambridge  asserted  by, 
225 ;  nominated  the  master  of  ho- 
mely, ib, 

Ely,  bishop  of,  exemption  from  hia 
jurisdiction  first  obtained  by  the 
university,  146;  this  exemption 
disputed  by  some  bishops,  ib. ;  his 
jurisdiction  in  the  university  alter- 
nately asserted  and  unclaimed, 
287;  maintained  by  Arundel,  i6.; 
abolished  by  the  Barnwell  Procesa, 
288;  blow  given  to  the  authority 
of,  by  the  Barnwell  Process,  290, 
n.  2 

Ely,  scholars  of,  the  fellows  of  Peter- 
house  originally  so  termed,  281 

Empson,  minister  of  Henry  vu,  high- 
steward  of  the  university  in  1506, 
419 

Emser,  testimony  of,  to  fame  of 
Bichard  Croke  at  Dresden,  528 

End  of  the  world,  anticipations  o^ 
45 ;  influence  of  this  idea  upon  the 
age,  46 

En^and,  state  of  learning  in,  in  15th 
century,  297,  298 


ArutoUa,  atUeked  t^  Boger  Bmmhi, 
166 
Florence,  in  the  fifteenth  eentnry, 
oontnated   with    CouBtantinople, 
SS8j  OQltaie  of  the  wholara  of, 
869;   reUtione  of,   to   Coiutuiti- 
lurole,  890 
foidhun,  JoliD,  bp.  of  Ely,  makei 
OTer  to  Feterhonse  the  ehnnh  at 
Hinton,  330 
Foranuui,  The,  telL  ol  Qneens',  one 
of  Biluey'i  ooDTerta,  663;  hu  ler- 
Tioee  to  hia  put;,  ib. 
Fotehede,  John,   eleoted  nuster  ol 

HiehMlhoiue,  446 
Fouodera,  motiTei  of,  in  mediKral 

time^MS 
Fox,  Edw.,  bp.  ol  Hereford,  letter  b;, 
M  rofftl  eeoietu?,  to  the  muTer- 
■itf,  611;  report!  to  king  Heni7  on 
the  progvMs  of  the  diTorce  qneition 
at  Cambridge,  618 
Fox,  Bioh. ,  bp.  of  Wiaohetter,  biabop 
of  Doihun  in  1500,  436;  eze- 
ealat  to  the  oonntess  of  Richmond, 
464;  Oxford  B^mpkthiM  of,  466; 
praiseB  Eraamiu'B  yovum  Tata- 
mraluM,  611 ;  tonndl  Corpus 
Ohruti  College,  Oxford,  631;  a 
leader  of  reform  at  Oxford,  ib,; 
innoTationa  preecribed  by,  at  the 
eoU^e,  G23;  hu  Htatntea  largely 
adoi^  bj  Fisher  in  hia  flnt  le- 
Tision  of  the  atatatea  of  St.  Johu'e 
CoUege,  ib. 
nranoe,  native*  of,  to  have  the  pre- 
ference in  elMtione  to  fellowahipa 
at  Pembroke  Coll^p,  339 
FzanciBoanB,  the.  inatitntion  of  the 
order  of  the,  69;  their  rapid  aue- 
oesR  in  England,  90;  aettle  at  Cam- 
bridge, ib.;  at  Oxford  under  Qroaae- 
teite,  ib. ;  views  eeponsed  by,  with 
relerenoe  to  Aristotle,  117;  more 
nomerooa  and  infinential  than  the 
Dominicani  in  England,  156;  ee- 
tabhah  themeelvet  at  Cambridge, 
a.;  their  honse  on  the  preaent  site 
of  Sidney,  ib, ;  their  rivalry  with 
the  Dominicans  denoibed  t^  Mat- 
thew Ftint,  148;  two  ol  the  order 
empowered  to  levy  oontribations 
in  1349,  160 ;  their  interview  with 
Uroaaeteate,  IGl ;  inolined  in  their 
philosophy  to  favoor  the  indnotive 
method,  IBS,  n.  4;  eminent,  in 
England,  194 ;  eminence  of  the 
English,  at  Oxford,  213,  n.  1; 
their  tendendei  in  En^and  in  the 
Ijth  oentnry,  3G1 ;  deed  of  frater- 


nisation between  their  hooee  and 
Qneena'  College,  B17 

Freideric  n,  the  emperor,  patroniaea 
the  new  Arietotle,  98;  aecnaad  of 
writing  Dt  TWiw  iHjxwiorihu. 
ib.;  sends  translation*  ol  Aris- 
totle to  Bologna,  ib.,  n.  1;  hia 
letter  on  the  oooaaian,  ib.;  employs 
Michael  Boot  aa  a  tranalator,  ifr. 

Free,  John,  one  of  the  earliest  trans- 
lators ol  Oteek  anthers  in  Eng- 
land, S97 

Freeman,  Mr.  E.  A.,  on  the  prera- 
lent  misooneeption  respecting  earl 
Harold's  fonndation  at  Waltham, 
1S2 ;  faeta  whioh  may  tend  to 
slightly  modify  hi*  view,  169,  a.  1 

Fieibarg,  miiveraity  of,  oompromiaa 
between  the  nominalists  and  real- 
iaU  at  the,  417 

French,  stadents  permitted  to  eon> 
verse  oeoaaionally  in,  371 ;  sta- 
dents required  to  oonabme  an 
aatboT  into,  ib. 

Float,  name  of  an  ancient  family  at 
Cambridge,  323 

Fronde,  Hr.,  eompariaon  drawn  by, 
between  Oxlord  and  Cambridge  in . 
oonneiion  with  the  royal  divoroe, 
616;  his  oritioism  testsd  by  docn- 
mentary  evidence,  BIT 

Fuller.  Tho.,  hia  view  with  reepact 
to  eonflagration*  in  the  nniversity, 
1ST ;  his  anoonnt  ol  the  early 
hoatel*  qnoted,  318;  hia  comments 
on  the  visitation  of  arohbp.  Amn- 
del,38S 


Oagninns,  oitad  aa  an  historical 
anthority  by  bp.  Fisher,  460 ; 
praiaed  by  Erasmos,  ib.  n.  3 

Qairdner,  lb.,  his  opinion  on  LoUard- 
ism  quoted,  97* 

Qardiner,  Stephen,  an  activB  member 
of  Trinity  Hall,  662 ;  elected  master 
ol^  ib. :  reports  to  king  Henry  on  the 
progress  of  the  divorce  qneation 
at  Cambridge,  618 

Oasa,  Theodora*,  hia  eitimate  ol  the 
translations  of  Aristotle  I7  Argj- 
rc^nlos,  406  ;  his  aacoeas  aa  a 
teacher,  429;  his  Greek  Qranunar, 
430;  the  work  need  by  Enwmns 
at  Cambridge,  ib. 

Oaography,  errors  in  Uartianns  with 
respMtto,  36 

Oeometry.  nearly  identical  with  geo- 
graphy m  Hartianna,  35 


G62 


INDEX. 


Eofltaohias,  fifth  bp.  of  Ely,  his 
benefaotions  to  the  Hospital  of  St. 
John  the  Evangelifit,  223 

Ea^rohins,  the  martyr,  appearance 
of,  to  the  bishop  of  Terentina,  7 

Exhibition,  earliest  aniversity,  found- 
ed by  Wm.  of  Kilkenny,  223 

Expenses  of  students  when  keeping 
'acts,'  limited  by  the  authorities, 
357 


*  Father,*  the,  in  academic  cere- 
monies, 856 

Fathers,  the,  yery  imperfectly  r^re- 
sented  in  the  medi»yal  Cambridge 
libraries,  326 

Fawne,  Dr.,  lady  Biargaret  professor, 
a  friend  of  Erasmus  at  Cambridge, 
600 

Fees  paid  by  students  to  the  lecturers 
appointed  by  the  uniyersity,  859 

Fellows  of  colleges,  allowances  made 
to,  for  commons,  370;  required  to 
be  in  residence,  872;  required  to 
go  out  in  pairs,  374  and  n.  4; 
Cranmer*s  election  as  a,  when  a 
widower,  612,  n.  8  (for  standard  of 
requirements  at  election  of,  see 
under  different  colleges) 

Fen  country,  the,  329;  extent  of  in- 
undations of  former  times,  331; 
chimges  in,  resulting  from  monas- 
tic occupation,  335 ;  description  of, 
in  the  Liber  ElieruU,  336 

Ferrara,  uniyersity  of,  founded  in 
the  13th  century,  80 

Fiddes,  Dr.,  criticism  of,  on  letter 
of  the  uniyersity  to  Wolsey,  549 

Fires  at  the  uniyersities,  losses  oc- 
casioned by,  136 

Fires,  absence  of  arrangements  for, 
in  college  rooms,  369 

Fisher,  John,  bp.  of  Rochester,  his 
parentage  and  early  education, 
422 ;  entered  at  Miohaelhouse,  ib. ; 
elected  fellow,  ib. ;  elected  master, 
424;  his  yiews  and  character  at 
this  period,  ib,;  his  account  of  the 
tone  of  the  uniyersity  at  beginning 
of  15th  century,  427;  goes  as 
proctor  to  the  royal  court,  434 ;  is 
introduced  to  the  king's  mother, 
ib. ;  appointed  her  coi^essor,  435 ; 
is  elected  yice-chanoellor,  ib. ;  and 
lady  Margaret  professor,  437 ;  aims 
at  a  reyiyal  of  popular  preaching, 
440 ;  his  claims  to  rank  as  a  reform- 
er, 441 ;  elected  chancellor,  ib. ;  pro- 


moted to  the  hiahopirie  of  Boehea- 
ter,  442;  his  inilaenoe  with  the 
lady  Margaret  on  beludl  ot  Cam- 
brio^  ib. ;  resigns  his  niftstenhq> 
at  Michaelhouse,  446;  elected  pnai- 
dent  of  Queens*,  ib.;  dryers  the 
address  of  the  uniyendty  on  the 
royal  yisit  in  1506,  449;  obtains 
the  consent  of  king  Henry  to  the 
endowment  of  St.  John's  College, 
462;  preaches  funeral  aermon  for 
the  countess  of  Richmond,  468 ;  the 
task  of  carrying  out  her  deaigna  at 
Cambridge  deyolyes  upon,  465; 
presides  at  the  openingof  St.  jQhn*8 
College,  470;  giyes  statntea  to  the 
coUege  identical  with  thoee  of 
Christ's,  ib. ;  letter  from,  to  Eras- 
mus, ib,  n.  2;  character  of  statntes 
giyen  by,  to  the  two  ooUegea,  471 ; 
obtains  for  Erasmns  the  priTilege 
of  residence  at  Queens*  ColL,  472 ; 
Erasmus's  admiration  of  his  eha- 
racter,  496;  allows  EzaamiiB  a 
pension,  504;  supports  Eranniis 
in  his  design  of  the  Novum  Jnitm- 
mentum,  511 ;  his  approyal  refeined 
to  by  Erasmus,  515 ;  aspires  to  a 
knowledge  of  Greek,  519;  Groke 
announces  himself  a  delegate  of, 
at  Cambridge,  580;  resigns  the 
chancellorship  of  the  uniyeraf ty, 
541;  is  re-elected  for  life,  642;  aib- 
sent  from  the  uniyersii^  on  the 
occasion  of  Wolsey's  yisit,  648; 
why  BO,  ib.;  his  relations  to  the 
carainal,  ib. ;  he  attacks  the  nride 
and  luxury  of  the  superior  clergy 
at  the  conference,  544;  his  cha- 
racter contrasted  with  that  of 
Wolsey,  ib.;  affixes  a  copy  of  Leo's 
indulgences  to  the  gates  of  the 
common  schools,  556;  excommuni- 
cates Peter  de  Valence,  557 ;  pre- 
sides at  the  burning  of  Luther's 
works  at  Paul's  Cross,  571 ;  his 
obseryation  on  the  occasion,  ib.; 
his  treatise  against  Luther,  572; 
inclined  to  leniency  to  Barnes  at 
his  trial,  579;  writes  to  Erasmus 
urging  the  publication  of  his  De 
RcUione  Coneionandi,  586;  in- 
gratitude of  Croke  to,  615;  later 
'Statutes  of,  for  St.  John's  College, 
623 ;  death  of,  628 

Fishing,  a  fayorite  amusement  with 
students  in  former  days,  878 ;  com- 
plaints of  the  corporation  with 
respect  to,  874 

Fleming,  William,   a  translator  of 


in  the  IGtli  eentniy,  iA.  d.  3; 
Mbooli,  toniiduion  of,  duootmgcd 
in  the  16th  eentm?,  SM;  ganeial 
deoa;  of,  ib,  n.  3 

6'niiiMuiticui.  the,  at  the  nnivendtji 
in  the  Middle  AgeB,344iErmHm[i>.'> 
dewriptioii  of  the  lile  of,  346 

[Jnmtbngge,  the  mncient,  332 

Urmtiui,  Dtcretum  of,  3G ;  genenil 
Boope  of  thevork,  i6.;  diTuionsuf, 
36 :  its  geuNkl  seoeptAUM  throngh- 
out  Eojope.  ib.;  leotnrea  on,  iu- 
■tilnted  by  Engeuiiu  in  the  13th 
century,  73;  not  found  in  the 
librkiy  ftt  Chnglchaidi,  105 

(irej,  the  poet,  Installation  Ode  of, 
critioiein  on  panage  in,  336,  n.  1 ; 
imuGoraey  in,  363,  n.  1 

liny,  Wm.,  bp.  of  Ely,  gnntt  k 
forty  days'  paidon  to  ooDtiibotors 
to  the  lepaix  of  the  oonTentoal 
church  of  St.  Bhad^ond,  320; 
a  pupil  of  Goarino  at  Ferrara,  SyV : 
bntigi  a  valaaUe  oolleotion  of 
Mas.  to  England,  ib.;  iU  norel 
element*,  ib.;  he  beqneathi  it  to 
BiOliol  CoUege,  ib. 

Greek,  known  to  *'■<*■*'—.  8;  bat 
slightly  known  by  John  erf  Balis- 
1x117,  ^^1  "■  ^;  lAufrane  ignorant 
of,  101,  ti,  3;  gtsmmar  tunnd  in 
Die  catalogue  of  the  library  at 
(Jkiutohurch,  Canlerbniy,  104; 
scholars  invited  to  England  by 
GroHBetesle,  IM;  anthors,  entire 
abeeuoe  of,  tu  the  medi^Tal  Cam- 
bridge libraries,  327;  aothora  im- 
ported into  Italy  in  the  16th  oeii- 
tnr^,  400;  learning,  beoomea  au- 
■ooiated  in  the  mituls  of  mauy 
with  heresy.  406;  stDdyot.jealoa.y 
shewn  of,  in  Bfteanth  centni-y, 
483;  decreed  by  Clement  Tin  14lb 
oentory,  ib. ;  oppomtion  shewn  tu, 
at  Basel.  486 ;  more  peacefnlly  pur- 
sued at  Cambridge  Uian  at  OitonI, 
496.  D.  8;  progteaa  of  the  study  ut, 
at  Cambridge,  611 ;  anthois  nn 
which  the  classical  lecturer  of  C. 
C.  C,  Oxford,  was  required  to  Irv- 
tnre,  631,  n.  3;  Croke  appoiut- 
ed  reader  of,  at  Cuubriilge,  &i^ ; 
arguments  used  by  Croke  in  taTuur 
of  stody  of,  630 

Graek  fathers,  influence  of,  on  emi- 
nent Hamauista,  483 ;  tcMulstions 
of,  in  16th  century,  ib. ;  spirit  of 
their  theology,  484;  ordered  by  bp. 
Poi  to  be  studied  at  C.  G.  C, 
Oxford,  6i3 


Gregory  the  Great,  liia  conception 
of  edaeatioD,  6;  lie  anticipates  the 
speedy  end  ot  the  world,  ib. ;  his 
eharaoter  too  harbhly  jed^d,  7 

Gregory  iz,  letter  to,  from  Uobt. 
Groaaeteste,  90 ;  t<>rtii.Is  the  Ktudy 
of  Aristotle's  seieuliQc  treatises  at 
Paris,  98;  interferes  on  behalf 
of  the  oniTersity  of  Paris,  119 

Gregory  iiii,  p<^,  expunges  the 
more  obtioas  forgeries  in  the  De- 
ertlitm  of  Oratian,  35 

Oreiswald,  nniTemity  of,  lew  dis- 
tracted by  the  nominaliitia  oon- 
troTersiee,  41 S 

Grenoble,  nniversity  ot,  formed  ou 
the  model  of  Bologna,  74 

Qrocyn,  Wm.,  claims  of,  to  be  re- 
garded as  the  restorer  of  Greek 
learuiag  in  England,  47<J 

Grosaeteste,  Bobert,  'the  age  of,' 
84;  scant  justice  done  by  Hrilatn 
to  his  memoir,  84,  85;  Ur  Loard's 
testimony  to  his  inflaence,  86 ;  his 
testimony  to  the  rapid  encoeis  ot 
the  Franciscans  in  England,  90 ; 
bis  translation  ot  the  Testaments 
of  the  Twelve  Fatriarcbs,  110;  a 
student  at  the  nniversily  of  Paris, 
134 ;  his  iuterriew  with  the  Fran- 
ciscan messengers,  161 ;  his  death, 
153 ;  testimony  ol  Matthew  Paris 
to  his  character,  ib. ;  invitad  Greek 
scholars  to  England,  164 ;  despair- 
ed of  the  existing  versions  ol  Aris- 
totle, tb.;  ignorant  of  Greek,  166; 
good  aenaeof,  in  sanitary  questions, 
339  and  n.  1 

Grute,  Mr.,  his  essay  on  the  Pay- 
oliology  of  Aristotle,  116.  n.  1 

Onalterus,  his  denunciation  of  the 
Sentences,  62 

of  ChiTSolotas,  896 ;  his  saeeeoa  as 
a  teacher,  ib.;  his  death,  3118 
Guilds,  see  Gildf 


Haoombleue,  Bobt.,  proToet  of  Eing'a 
College,  author  of  a  oanunantary 
on  Aristotle,  436 

Bales,  Alexander,  an  Englishman, 
113;  the  first  to  oonunent  on  the 
Sentences,  117,  n.  S;  a  teusber  at 
Paris,  117;  commentary  on  the 
Jletaphysics  ttot  i>y,  ib. ;  his  Sum- 


666 


INDEX. 


ma,  ib.;  the  'Irrefragable  Doctor/ 
118;  a  stadent  at  the  nniyeraity 
of  Paris,  184 

Hallam,  his  retractation  of  credence 
in  accounts  respecting  the  early 
histoiy  of  Cambridge,  66;  scant 
justice  done  by,  to  Joordaki's  re- 
searches upon  the  medisval  Aris- 
totle, 98;  his  obserration  on  the 
character  of  English  literature 
daring  the  Biiddle  Ages,  152 

Hand,  refutation  by,  of  the  theory 
that  Boethius  was  a  martyr  in  the 
defence  of  orthodoxy,  28,  n.  2 

Harcoort,  the  College  de,  restricted 
to  poor  students,  180 

Harmer,  Anthony,  his  testimony  to 
the  character  of  Wyolif,  267 

Harold,,  earl,  faTours  the  foundation 
of  secular  colleges,  160, 161 ;  his 
foundation  at  Waltham,  161;  how 
described  in  the  charter  of  Walt- 
ham,  ib. ;  his  conception  at  Walt- 
ham  reyiyed  by  Walter  de  Merton, 
168 

Heeren,  theory  of,  that  the  media- 
▼al  knowledge  of  Aristotle  was  not 
deriyed  from  Arabic  translations, 
93 

Hegius,  school  of,  at  Deyenter,  409 

Heidelberg,  uniyersity  of,  formed 
on  the  model  of  Paris,  74;  diyision 
into  nations  at,  79,  n.  2;  triumph 
of  the  nominalists  at,  417 

Heimburg,  Gregory,  defends  the  new 
learning  at  Neustadt,  408;  subse- 
quently rejects  it,  ib. 

Heniy  u,  kmg,  expels  the  seculars 
at  Waltham,  162 

Henry  in,  writ  of,  to  the  sherifif  of 
Cambridge,  84;  inyites  students 
£rom  Paris  to  come  and  settle  in 
England,  107 

Henry  y,  his  design  to  haye  giyen 
the  reyenues  of  King's  College  to 
Oxford,  805  and  n.  2 

Heniy  yi,  resolyes  on  the  foundation 
of  Eton  and  King's  College,  805; 
supersedes  the  commission  for  the 
statutes  of  King's  College,  306; 
proyides  new  statutes  for  the  col- 
lege, ib. ;  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  ejection  of  Millington,  807 ;  at- 
tachment to  the  memory  of,  shewn 
by  Margaret  of  Richmond,  447 

Heniy  yix,  giyes  permission  to  Mar- 
garet of  Richmond  to  found  Christ's 
College,  447 ;  yisits  the  uniyersity 
in  1506,  448;  attends  diyine  ser- 
vice   in    King's    College   chapel. 


451 ;  his  bequests  towards  the  eom- 
pletion  of  the  edifice,  452;  gives 
his  assent  to  the  revocation  by  the 
lady  Margaret  of  her  grants  to 
Westminster  Abbey,  462;  bis 
death,  468 
Henry  viii,  refusal  of,  to  sanetion 
the  spoliation  of  St.  John's  Col- 
lege, 461 ;  disinclined  to  surrender 
the  estates  bequeathed  by  the  lady 
Margaret,  466 ;  decrees  that  thoee 
who  choose  to  study  Greek  at  Ox- 
ford shall  not  be  molested,  526; 
treatise  of,  against  Luther,  572; 
stops  the  controversy  between  Lati- 
mer and  Buokenham  at  Cambridge, 
611;  menaces  Oxford,  616;  letter 
of,  to  the  uniyersity  of  Cambridge, 
617 
Henry,  sir,  of  Clement's  hostel,  a 
reputed  conjurer,  608;  visited  by 
Stafford,  609 ;  bums  his  conjuring 
books,  ib. 
Heppe,  Dr.,  on  the  state  of  educa- 
tion in  the  monasteries  of  the  18th 
century,  70,  n.  2 
Heretics*  Hill,  a  walk  frequented  by 
Bilney  and  Latimer  so  called,  582 
Hermann,  a  translator  of  Aristotle 

attacked  by  Roger  Bacon,  155 
Hermolaus  Barbarus,  his  servioes  to 
learning  at  Venice,  480;  the  friend 
of  Linacre  at  Rome,  479 
Hermonymus,  G^rge,  a  teacher  of 

Greek  in  Paris,  430 
Hervey  de  Stanton,  founds  Michael- 
house,  234 ;  statutes  given  by,  to 
the  foundation.  Append.  (D). 
Herwerden,  quotation  from  a  Com* 

mentatio  of,  16,  n.  2 
Heynes,  Simon,  president  of  Queens* 
College,  attended  meetings  at  the 
White  Horse,  578 
High  steward,  office  of,  formerly  ac- 
companied by  a  salaiy,  584,  n.  3 
Hildebrand,  pope,  protector  of  Be- 

rengar,  49 
Hildegard,  fulfilment   of   her   pro- 
phecy respecting  the  Mendicants, 
149 
Hincmar,  archbp.  of  Rheims,  accepts 
the  forged  decretals,  34 ;  his  conse- 
quent submission  to  Rome,  ib. 
Histoire  Litteraire  de  France,  criti- 
cism in,  on  the   Sentences,   64, 
n.  2 
Hodgson,  Mr  Shadworth,  his  essay 
on  Time  and  Space,  189,  n.  1 ;  his 
agreement  with  Occam,  ib.;  quo- 
tation from,  on  Gerson,  279,  n.  1 


Holbiook,  JohB,  mMtar  of  F«tei- 
houw  and  chaiieellor,  Kppointa 
piootora  in  thsmattei  of  tha  B«nt- 
««U  Proociu,  389  ;  Tabula  Camta- 
brigiaua  of,  G09,  n.  1 

Holoot,  BiehArd,  diitingniihf  Im- 
tveen  theolo^aal  and  aeieiitifie 
truth,  197;  eetumred  by  Uazonini, 
ib.ii.2;  on  the  neglect  ol  theologj 
for  the  ciTil  law,  311 

Holland,  a  part  of  Lineolnahire  lor- 
merly  so  eall«d,  S33,  n.  1;  Eraa- 
moB'a  obaerrations  on,  189 

Holme,  Biehaid,  a  benefaetor  to  tfaa 
■uuTorrit;  librarj  in  the  Sftetmth 
oentury,  S33 

Bonorina  i, 
Barnwell    _ 
Cambridge,  380,  j 

HoDoritu  III,  pope,  forbids  the  Btnd; 
of  the  dTil  Uw  at  Paris,  M 

Horace,  leotorei  on,  by  Oerbert,  at 
Bheima,  44 

Hombj,  Hen.,  exaentor  to  the  eonnt- 
eaa  of  Bichinond  for  oariTing  ont 
the  fbondation  td  Bt.  John's  Col- 
lege, idi;  hia  zeal  in  the  onder- 
tafcing,  4SS 

HoapitJ  of  the  Brethren  of  St.  John, 
fonnerly  stood  on  the  site  of  St. 
Jidm's  College,  189;  foundation 
of,  233;  seooUr  eeholan  intto- 
dooed  into,  337;  separation  be- 
tween the  seoolara  and  regulars  at, 
338;  first  nnrtnred  the  college 
•onoeptioo,  ib. ;  ita  rapid  deeay 
under  the  management  of  Wzn. 
Tomlyn,  434;  character  of  the  ad- 
ministration at,  461;  eonditiou  of, 
at  heginiiing  of  16tb  cvntary,  463; 
disaolTed  b;  JnUiu  u,  467 

Hoatels,  d^mitiim  of  the  t«nn  as 
origiiMlly  nsed  at  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge, 317 ;  aceoont  of  early,  Iiom 
Fuller,  318;  early  statata  reapeet- 
ii^,  ib.  and  Appttid-  (C) ;  the  reai- 
d«DM«  of  the  wealthier  stndanta, 
868,  n.3 

Hotham,  John,  bp.  of  Ely,  probably 
the  oi^niaar  of  the  tonndation  of 
Michaelhonse,  386;  **<■  charaetor. 


I  n.3 


Hober,  miseoneeption  of,  with  re- 
spect to  the  attention  originall; 
giTen  to  the  einl  law  at  Oxford 
sod  Camlwidge,  34^  n.  3;  his  de- 
aeriptionol  the  English  nniveraitiea 
after  the  snpprssaion  of  Iiollaid- 
iim,  37fi:  errors  in  his  statement, 
ib.  i  hia  obeerratioos  on  the  effects 


d  the  itatote  ot  ProTison  quoted. 


69 

Hugo  of  St  Cher  or  ot  Tianne,  his 
wiitingi  freqaently  to  be  met  with 
in  the  Cambridge  libiariea  of  the 
IGth  oentnry,  83$;  the  difinity 
leetorer  at  C.  C.  C,  Oltord,  or- 
dered by  bp.  Fox  to  pat  ande, 
633 

Hugo  of  SL  Yictco',  his  writings  fre- 
qnentlj  to  be  foimd  in  the  Cam- 
bridge libraries  of  the  latb  oen- 
tnry, 836;  oontempt  o(  Erasmos 
for,  503 

Hnmaairta,  the,  spirit  of  their  stn- 
dies  oontrasted  with  the  preceding 
learning,  980;  few  of,  l<i  be  fonnd 
among  the  religions  orders,  416; 
their  poaitian  and  poliey  with  re- 
speot  to  the  old  leaniing,  417 ;  vie- 
toties  of,  431 ;  hopes  o^  prior  to 
the  Betormation,  E69 

Humphrey,  dnke  of  Qloneeater,  in- 
doeea  Leonardo  Bmni  to  translate 
the  FoUtiot  ot  Aristotle,  88S;  his 
bequests  to  Oxford,  3M 


Ineepting,  meaning  of  the  term  ex- 
plained, S6fi ;  aoconnt  of  the  cere- 
mony, ib. ;  heavy  expenses  in- 
onrred  at,  866;  tor  others,  1168 

Ingnlphns,  diaoredit  attaohing  to  the 
ehionieleol^  66,  n.  S 

Injimetknu,  the  royal,  to  the  mi- 
teraity,  in  1636,  639 

Innate  ideas,  theory  of,  rejected  by 
the  teaehert  ol  the  early  I^tin 
Choreb,  193 

Innocent  m,  pop«,  bnbidi  the  stndy 
ot  the  eiTil  law,  38 

Innocent  rr,  pope,  saUeeta  the  Uan- 
dicanta  at  Paria  to 
lity,  119;  empowi 
cans  to  levy  «•  .     . 

Intentio  semadd,  theory  of  the,  X 
Arabian  theory  o^  ii. 

Irneriu,  his  le^nrea  at  Bologna  on 
theeiTillaw,  S4;  the  real  fonodar 
of  that  muTersity,  73 

Isidoms,  a  text-book  dnringthe  lOd- 
dle  Ages,  31 ;  the  Origiiiet  of,  81 ; 
noTel  featnre  in,  ib.;  Dt  OJtciU 
ot,  88;  copy  of,  at  the  libraiy  at 
Bee,  100;  qnoted  by  Boger  Bacon, 


666 


INDEX. 


ma,  ib,;  the  *  Irrefragable  Doctor/ 
118;  a  student  at  the  uiuYerBity 
of  Paris,  134 

Hallam,  his  retractation  of  credence 
in  accounts  respecting  the  early 
history  of  Cambridge,  66;  scant 
justice  done  by,  to  Jourdain's  re- 
searches upon  the  medieval  Aris- 
totle, 93;  his  observation  on  the 
character  of  English  literature 
during  the  Middle  Ages,  152 

Hand,  refutation  by,  of  the  theory 
that  Boethius  was  a  martyr  in  the 
defence  of  orthodoxy,  28,  n.  2 

Harcourt,  the  College  de,  restricted 
to  poor  students,  130 

Harmer,  Anthony,  his  testimony  to 
the  character  of  WycUf,  267 

Harold,,  earl,  favours  the  foundation 
of  secular  colleges,  160, 161 ;  his 
foundation  at  Waltham,  161 ;  how 
described  in  the  charter  of  Walt- 
ham,  ib. ;  his  conception  at  Walt- 
ham  revived  by  Walter  de  Merton, 
163 

Heeren,  theory  of,  that  the  mediie- 
Tal  knowledge  of  Aristotle  was  not 
derived  from  Arabic  translations, 
93 

Hegius,  school  of,  at  Deventer,  409 

Heidelberg,  university  of,  formed 
on  the  model  6f  Paris,  74;  division 
into  nations  at,  79,  n.  2 ;  triumph 
of  the  nominalists  at,  417 

Heimburg,  Gregory,  defends  the  new 
learning  at  Neustadt,  408;  subse- 
quently rejects  it,  ib. 

HeniT  u,  kmg,  expels  the  seculars 
at  Waltham,  162 

Henry  iii,  writ  of,  to  the  sheriff  of 
Cambridge,  84;  invites  students 
from  Paris  to  come  and  settle  in 
England,  107 

Henry  v,  his  design  to  have  given 
the  revenues  of  King's  College  to 
Oxford,  306  and  n.  2 

Henry  vi,  resolves  on  the  foundation 
of  Eton  and  King's  College,  305; 
supersedes  the  commission  for  the 
statutes  of  King's  College,  306; 
provides  new  statutes  for  the  col- 
lege, ib. ;  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  ejection  of  Millington,  307;  at- 
tachment to  the  memoiy  of,  shewn 
by  Margaret  of  Bichmond,  447 

Henry  vii,  gives  permission  to  Mar- 
garet of  Bichmond  to  found  Christ's 
College,  447 ;  visits  the  university 
in  1506,  448;  attends  divine  ser- 
vice   in    King's   College   chapel. 


451 ;  his  bequests  towards  the  eoin- 

Eletion  of  the  edifice,  452;  gives 
is  assent  to  the  revocation  by  the 
lady  Margaret  of  her  grants  to 
Westminster  Abbey,  ^52;  his 
death,  463 

Henry  viii,  refusal  of,  to  aanetion 
the  spoliation  of  St.  John's  Col- 
lege, 461 ;  disinclined  to  surrender 
the  estates  bequeathed  by  the  lady 
Margaret,  466 ;  decrees  that  those 
who  choose  to  study  Greek  at  Ox- 
ford shall  not  be  molested,  526; 
treatise  of,  against  Luther,  572; 
stops  the  controversy  between  Lati- 
mer  and  Bnokenham  at  Cambridge, 
611;  menaces  Oxford,  616;  letter 
of,  to  the  university  of  Cambridge, 
617 

Henry,  sir,  of  Clement^s  hostel,  a 
reputed  conjurer,  608;  visited  by 
Stafford,  609 ;  bums  his  conjuring 
books,  ib. 

Heppe,  Dr.,  on  the  state  of  educa- 
tion in  the  monasteries  of  the  18th 
century,  70,  n.  2 

Heretics'  Hill^  a  walk  frequented  by 
Bilney  and  Latimer  so  called,  582 

Hermann,  a  translator  of  Aristotle 
attacked  by  Boger  Bacon,  155 

Hermolaus  Barbarus,  his  services  to 
learning  at  Venice,  430;  thefiriend 
of  Linacre  at  Bome,  479 

Hermonymus,  George,  a  teacher  of 
Greek  in  Paris,  480 

Hervey  de  Stanton,  founds  Michael- 
house,  234;  statutes  given  by,  to 
the  foundation.  Append.  (D). 

Herwerden,  quotation  from  a  Cam^ 
mentatio  of,  16,  n.  2 

Heynes,  Simon,  president  of  Queens* 
College,  attended  meetings  at  the 
White  Horse,  573 

High  steward,  office  of,  formerly  ac- 
companied by  a  salary,  584,  n.  8 

Hildebrand,  pope,  protector  of  Be- 
rengar,  49 

Hildegard,  fulfilment  of  her  pro- 
phecy respecting  the  Mendicants, 
149 

Hincmar,  arcbbp.  of  Bheims,  accepts 
the  forged  decretab,  34 ;  his  conse- 
quent submission  to  Bome,  ib. 

Histoire  Litteraire  de  France,  criti- 
cism in,  on  the  Sentences,  64, 
n.2 

Hodgson,  Mr  Shadworth,  his  essay 
on  Time  and  Spacer  189,  n.  1 ;  his 
agreement  with  Occam,  ib.;  quo- 
tation from,  on  Gerson,  279,  n.  1 


Uun  Uut  tit  any  othsi  Cunbridn 
oollege,  ib.  n.  S;  waftlth  of  the 
tooiuiUticin,  8ia  ftnd  n.  1 ;  Wood- 
Iwk,  provoft  of,  817;  preeedent 
conUiDsd  in  Btatates  ol,  (or  oatb 
agoiDBt  dispaiuutioDs,  456 

Eing'i  CoUege  ohftpeL  ereotioD  ot, 
461,  □.  1 

King's  H&ll,  fonndatiaa  ol,  353 ; 
earlj  statates  of,  givsa  byRichatd 
II,  363 ;  limitatioQ  u  io  age  in, 
lb. ;  other  proTisione  in,  3S1;  the 
fotindation  probably  designed  (or 
tout  of  the  wesltbier  chuses,  it. ; 
liberal  aUovuiee  for  oommons  at, 
ib. ;  not  viiited  b;  oommiaaioD  of 
Mabbp.  Amndel,  358.  n.  1 ;  irrega- 
Uritie*  at,  in  l«(h  eentmy,  988 


Ititiont,  16,  n.  1 

Lambert,  John,  feU.  of  Qneeiu',  one 
al  Bilnej'a  oonverts,  G63 

Lancaster,  duks  of,  '  alderman '  of 
the  gild  ot  Corpua  ChriBti  at  Cam- 
bridgs,349 

Lantrane,  archbp.  o(  Canterbiu?, 
hoatil«  to  pagan  leaming,  18;  bu 
oppoaitioD  to  Beren|iar,  47;  his 
Tiewi  oontraated  with  thoae  of 
Berengar,  48 ;  hii  Latinit;  aape- 
rioT  to  that  of  a  mbiaqnaat  age, 
£7 1  fonndi  laeiilar  oanotiR  at  SI 
Oregory'i,  163,  □.  1 

Langham,  Simon,  arolibiahop  of 
CviterbiuT,  eipela  the  aeonlan 
(rora  Canterbnr;  Hall,  MA 

LangtoQ,  John,  chaneetlor  ot  the 
tuuTereit;,  rerigna  hia  appoiot- 
ment  ai  commuaioner  at  King's 
College,  BM;  hii  motivai  in  m 
doing,  809 

Langton,  Stephen,  a  atDdent  at  the 
nniwiity  of  Paiii,  184 

Langaedoo,  its  oommon  law  (onnded 
upon  the  eivil  law,  88,  n.  1 

Lm»,  Coll^  de,  a  foiindation  of 
(he  14tb  oentnr;  in  Farii,  138 

Laaoaria,  Conatantine,  hii  meoM*  aa 
a  teaoher  at  Ueaaana,  iSO;  hia 
Greek  Ommmar,  481 

Latin,  itnpoitanee  □(  a  knowledga  of, 
at  the  medicTal  nniTanitiaa,  189; 
at;l«  of  writera  before  the  (hir- 
teenth  centntj  eomparedwitb  that 
ot  those  ot  a  later  date,  171,  n.l; 
iti  eolioqoial  use  among  itndenta 
imperative,  S71 ;  authora  on  whioh 


the  elaaneal  leetnnr  at  C.  C. 
C,  Oxtord,  TCI  required  bj  bp. 
Fox  to  leotore,  G31,  n.  3 

Latimer,  Hugh,  (eU.  ot  Clare,  eha- 
raoter  giyen  hj,  to  Bilne;,  863; 
hii  earl;  career  and  eharaoter, 
581;  he  attaelu  Uelanehthon,  ib.; 
big  podtioo  in  the  nniTstaitr,  tft. ; 
ii  eon*etted  W  Bilnejr,  ib.;  hii 
intimae;  with  Bilne;,  683 ;  efleeta 
of  hit  example,  ib.;  hia  aermon 
before  West,  6S>;  endea  Weat'i 
reqneet  that  be  will  preach  againit 
Lather,  ib.;  it  inhibited  b;  him 
from  preaching,  584 ;  preaehea  in 
the  chDreb  ot  the  Angnitinian 
(riara,  ib. ;  ia  summoned  be(ore 
Wolae;  in  London,  ib. ;  ii  lieeneed 
by  the  cudinal  to  preailh,  ib.;  ne- 
gotiates reipecting  the  appoint- 
ment to  the  high  stewardehip,  ib. 
n.  8 ;  Sermons  on  the  Card  by,  609 ; 
eonbDTersy  ol,  with  Bnckenbam, 
610;  (avoted  'the  Ung'aeaaae'iu 
the  qaestiou  ot  (h«  divorce,  611 

Latimer,  Wm.,  deolinea  the  oflBea  ot 
Greek  preceptor  to  bp.  Fiaher,  GIB 

Lannoy,  in  error  with  respect  to  llie 
particular  writings  o(  Aristotle  liist 
oondemned  at  Paria,  97,  n.  1 

Lavater,  oritieism  of,  on  the  portraita 
of  Braamns,  490 

Laymen,  aot  reoogniaable  aa  an  ele- 
ment in  the  onfpnal  nnireraitiei^ 
lS6,n.l 

Leohler,  Dr.,  hia  eompMlaon  ot  Oe- 
oam  with  Bradwardue,  30E,  n.  1 ; 
on  Wyalif  a  original  santimanta  to- 
warda  the  Hendioanta,  169,  n.  1 

Le  Clero,  M.  Yietor,  hia  bvorable 
view  of  the  knowledge  of  Latin 
literatnre  in  the  Middle  Ages,  31, 
n.  1 ;  statement  by,  respecting  the 
preralenee  ot  the  eivil  Uw,  88,  a, 
1 ;  oa  the  oontinnaiioe  ot  the  mo- 
nastic and  episcopal  sohooli  anb- 
■eqnent  to  the  nnivenity  era,  70, 
n.  3;  on  the  aeonlar  aaaoeiBtloiia 
ot  the  nnivetsity  o(  Puis,  79,  80; 
bis  aoeonnt  o(  the  eailjeoUegee  at 
Paria,  199 — 81;  hii  argnment  In 
reply  to  Petrarch  qnot«4  314,  n.  1 

Leotnrea,  designed  t 
stndent     (or    disp    ... 
ordered  to  be  given  i 
College  in  long  vacation,  460 

Lectniing,  ordinarte,  curaorie,  and 
txtraordinarie,  explained,  868  and 
Append.  (E) ;  two  prineipal  moilfs 
of,  »69 


670 


INDEX. 


Lee,  arehbp.,  alarm  of,  on  the  ap- 
pearanee  of  Tyndale's  New  Testa- 
ment, 699 

Legere,  meaning  of  the  tenn,  74 

Leipsie,  nniversity  of,  diyision  into 
*  nationB  *  at,79,  n.  2 ;  foundation  of, 
282,  n.  2 ;  adopts  the  corrioalnm  of 
■tndy  at  Prague,  id. ;  less  distraeted 
by  the  nominal iBtic  controTeniee, 
416 ;  fame  of  R.  Croke  at,  527 

Leland,  John,  on  the  intercoune  be- 
tween Paris  and  Oxford,  134 

Leo  z,  proclamation  of  indulgenoes 
by,  in  1516,  556 

L6on  Maitre,  on  the  decline  of  the 
episcopal  and  monastic  schools, 
68,  n.  1 ;  his  theory  denied,  69 

Lever,  Tho.,  master  of  St  John's,  his 
sermon  at  Paul's  Cross  quoted,  868, 
n.  2;  quoted  in  illustration  of  col- 
lege Ufe,  870 

Lewes,  Mr.  O.  H.,  his  supposition 
respecting  the  use  of  Lucretius  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  21,  n.  1 ;  his  criti- 
cism of  Isidorus,  81 ;  criticism  of 
his  application  of  Cousin's  dictum 
respecting  the  origin  of  the  scho- 
lastic philosophy,  50 ;  his  miscon- 
eeption  of  the  origin  of  the  dispute 
respecting  Universals,  54  and  n.  2 ; 
notice  of  Roger  Bacon's  opinions 
by,  114,  n.  2 

Libraries,  destruction  of  those  found- 
ed hy  Theodore,  Hadrian,  and 
Benedict  by  the  Danes,  81 ;  college, 
their  contents  in  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries,  825,  870 ; 
see  Univenity  Libranf 

Library  presented  to  Tnnity  Hall  by 
bishop  Bateman,  243 

Lily,  Wm.,  regarded  by  Polydore 
Yirgil  as  the  true  restorer  of  Greek 
learning  in  England,  480 

linacre  lectureships,  foundation  of, 
608 ;  misapplication  of  estates  of, 
ib,  n.  2 ;  present  regulations  con- 
cerning, iS. 

Linacre,  Wm.,  pupil  of  Selling  at 
Christchurch,  Canterbury,  478;  and 
of  YiteUiat  Oxford,  t5.;  accompanies 
Belling  to  Italy,  ib.;  becomes  a 
pupil  of  Politian  at  Florence,  ib. ; 
miuces  the  acquaintance  of  Hermo- 
laus  Barbams  at  Bome,  479 ;  pro- 
bable results  of  this  intimacy,  ib. ; 
his  return  to  Oxford,  ib,;  his 
claims  to  be  regarded  as  Uie  re- 
storer of  Greek  learning  in  Eng- 
land, 480;  obligations  of  Erasmus 
to,  ib, ;  a  staunoh  Aristotelian,  481; 


preferred  Quintilian's  style  to  that 

of  Cicero,  529,  n.  1 ;  death  of,  603 

Lioieux,  Coll^  de,  foundation  o^ 

129 
'Little  Logicals,'  the,  much  studied 
at  Cambridge  before  the  time  of 
Erasmus,  515;  see  Parva  Logi" 
ealia 
LL.D.,  origin  of  the  title,  89 
Logic,  conclusions  of^  regarded  by 
Lanfranc  as  to  be  subordinated  to 
authority,   47;  pernicious  effects 
of  too  exclusive  attention  to,  48 ; 
proficiency  in,  required  of  candi- 
dates for  fellowships  at  Peterhouse, 
281 ;  works  on,  less  common  than 
might  be  expected  in  the  medisBval 
Cambridge  libraries,  826 ;  increased 
attention  given  to,  with  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Nova  An,  843;  and 
with  that  of  the  Summuktf  ib.; 
baneful  effects  of  excessive  atten- 
tion formerly  given  to,  865;  trea- 
tise on,  by  Budolphus  Agrioola,  410, 
412 ;  extravagant  demands  of  the 
defenders  of  the  old,  516 
Lollardism  at  Cambridge,  259;  ex- 
travagances of  the  later  professors 
of,  273;  not  the  commencement  of 
the  Bef  ormation,  274 ;  brings  popu- 
lar preaching  under  suspieion,  488 
Lbmbard,  Pet^,  the  compiler  of  the 
Sentences,  59;  archbp.  of  Paris, 
ib.;  accused  of   plagiarism  from 
Abelard,  t6.  n.  2 ;  thought  to  have 
copied  Pullen,  ib. ;  honour  paid  to 
his  memoiy,  68;  a  pupil  of  Abe- 
lard, 77,  n.  1 
Lorraine,  foundation  of  secular  ecd- 

le^s  in,  160 
Louis  of  Bavaria,  shelters  Occam  <m 

his  fiight  from  Avignon,  195 
Louis,   St.,  his  admiration  of  the 

Mendicant  orders,  89 
Louvain,  universi^  of^  foundatioiii 
of,  282,  n.  2 ;  site  of,  chosen  by 
the  duke  of  Brabant  on  aoooont 
of   its   natural   advantages,  889, 
n.  8;  praised  by  Erasmus,  476; 
character    of    its    theology,    ib.; 
foundation  of  the  eoHegium  frt- 
lingue  at,  565 ;  conduct  of  the  con- 
servative party  at,  566  and  n.  1 
Lovell,   sir  Tho.,    executor  to  the 
countess  of  Richmond,  464;  his 
character  by  Cavendish,  465 
Luard,  Mr. ,  on  the  forgeries  that  im- 
posed upon  Grosseteste,  110 
Lncan,  lectures  on,  by  Gerbert,  at 
Rheims,  44 


Lnptu,  buhop  of  FenitrM,  hii  U> 
msDt  over  the  low  lUte  of  learn, 
ing  in  hii  age;  30;  hii  literuy 
Mtiiity,  a. 

Luther,  Martin,  his  observktion  on 
Erasmiu,  488;  early  treatiie*  of, 
669;  adviwii  the  rejeotion  of  the 
Seoteaoes,  i&.it.l;  and  alio  of  the 
moral  and  natiml  tieatiBea  of 
Aristotle,  ib.;  rapid  ipiMd  of  hiB 
doctrines  in  England,  670;  hi* 
writings  sabmitted  to  the  deoimon 
of  the  Sorbonae,  ib.;  oondemned 
by  them  to  b«  bnnit,  ib.  n.  1; 
Wolae;  oouiiders  himself  not  »a- 
tborised  to  burn  them,  (A.;  burns 
the  pap«l  bnll  at  Wittenberg,  ib.; 
hii  writings  sQbmitted  to  the  Lon- 
don Conference,  671;  ooademned 
bj  the  Conference,  ib.;  bomt  ftt 
Paul's  Cross,  ib. ;  and  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  ib. ;  abeorbing  at- 
tention given  to  his  writings 
thronghont  Bnrope,  583 ;  his  diw- 
trines  frighten  the  moderate  partj 
into  conBerratiim,  689;  his  son- 
trOTersy  with  Brasmns,  ib. 

Ljdgate,  John,  verses  of,  on  Fonnd*- 
tion  of  the  nnivenity  of  Cam- 
bridge, Append.  (A) 

Lyons,  ooonoil  of,  decrees  that  only 
ths  four  chief  orders  of  Hendi- 
Bsnts  shall  oontinoe  to  exist,  338 

Lyttelton,  lord,  sanies  to  which  the 
aggrandisement  of  the  monasi 
in  England  is  attributed  by,  I 


Uaeanlsy,  lord,  on  Norman  in- 
fluences in  England  prior  to  tha 
Conquest,  67 

Useiobins,  oorrection  of  eopy  of,  1^ 
a  correspondent  of  Lnpu  of  Fem- 
ires,  30;  nnmerous  copies  of,  in 
libraries  of  Bee  and  Chnstobnioli, 
Canterbury,  101 

MagitUr  aiomtria,  dvtis*  pertbnn- 
ed   by  the,   140;    natnie  of   his 

•fi^na      It  in 


340 


Hutland,  Dr.,  his  defence  of  the 
medivval  theory  with  respsct  to 
the  pursuit  of  secnlsr  leammg,  IS 

Maitre,  L^n,  on  the  revival  at  the 
commencement  of  thu£Bl<^<ntll 
oentnry,  46,  n.  1  S^ 

Hajoi,  John,  a  tsudant  atlhe  Col- 


EX.  C71 

Itg*  d*  Hontaigu,  M8;  alleged 
reason  of  hia  dtioie*  of  ChriJit'a 
College,  445 

Maiden,  prof.,  on  the  varion*  appli- 
cations of  the  term  Univenilai, 
71 ;  on  the  sanction  of  the  pope  aa 
neces^nry  to  the  catholicity  of  a 
oniTersity  degree,  78 

Ualmesbnry,  William  of,  hia  com- 
ment on  the  state  of  leanuDg  in 
England  after  the  death  of  Beds,  81 

Maolins,  see  Botthitu 

Hansel,  dean,  his  diotnm  respecting 
nominalism  and  sohoUstieiua,  197 

Manoscripts,  ancient,  preservation 
of,  largely  due  to  Charlemagne,  IS 

Hap,  Walter,  a  astiiist  of  the  Cis- 
tercians, 86,  n.  1 

Uargaret,  the  lady,  oonntess  of  Koh- 
mond,  her  lineage  described  by 
Baker,  434;  appoints  Fisher  1^ 
confessor,  435 ;  her  character,  ib,  i 
fonnda  a  profeasorship  of  dirinily 
at  both  nniveteities,  ib. ;  founds  a 
preaoherahip  at  Cambridge,  440; 
her  design  in  oonoeiion  with  West- 
minster Abbey.  444;  founds  Christ's 
College,  446 ;  visita  the  nniveiai^ 
in  1606,  44S  ;  visits  it  a  second 
time  in  1606,  ib. ;  anecdote  told  by 
Fnller  respecting,  ib.  a.  3;  pro- 
poses to  found  Bt.  John's  College, 
463 ;  obtains  consent  of  king  Heni7 
to  the  revocation  of  her  granta  to 
Westminster  Abbey,  ib.;  her  death, 
463 ;  her  atatoe  m  Weatminstei 
Abbey,  ib. ;  her  epitaph  by  Et«s- 
mns,  A. ;  funeral  sermiMi  tor,  hj 
Fisher,  ib.;   her  oharaotar,  464; 


hsr 


I,  ib. 


Hargaret,  lady,  preaaherahip,  found* 
ed,  440;  regalatiotM  of,  ib. 

Bfargaret.  lady,  professorship,  fonnd- 
ad,  436;  oripnal  endowment  o^ 
436;  regnlations  of,  ib. 

Hariaco,  Adam  de,  a  teacher  of  Wal- 
ter da  Herton,  163 ;  nominated  bj 
Hen.  m  to  the  bishopric  of  Ely, 
33S;  his  death,  334;  ootnpared 
with  Hngh  Balaham,  ib.;  warmly 
pnused  l:^  Boger  Bacon,  ib.  n.  3 

Blanh,  bp.,  misconception  of,  with 
Mtsnnoe  to  l^ndale's  New  Teabt- 
ment,  569  and  n.  3 

Hartianns,  Capella,  hi*  treatise  Ds 
tfuptiii,  23;  coarse  of  study  de- 
scribed therein,  34;  bis  erron  in 
geography,  36 ;  oompared  with 
BoeLhiuB,  37 ;  copies  of,  at  Christ- 
ohnreb,  Canteibiuy,  100 


670 


INDEX. 


Lee,  arehbp.,  alarm  of,  on  the  ap- 
pearanee  of  Tyndale'e  New  Testa- 
ment, 599 

Legerff  meaning  of  the  term,  74^ 

Leipsie,  nnivenity  of,  diyision  into 
*  nationB  *  at,79,  n.  2 ;  foundation  of, 
282,  n.  2 ;  adopts  the  oomoalnm  of 
study  at  Prague,  ib, ;  less  distraeted 
by  the  nominalistic  controrersies, 
416 ;  fame  of  R.  Croke  at,  627 

Leland,  John,  on  the  intercourse  be- 
tween Paris  and  Oxford,  134 

Leo  z,  proclamation  of  indulgences 
by,  in  1516,  556 

L6on  Maitre,  on  the  decline  of  the 
episcopal  and  monastic  schools, 
68,  n.  1 ;  his  theory  denied,  69 

Lever,  Tho.,  master  of  St  John's,  his 
sermon  at  Paul's  Cross  quoted,  868, 
n.  2 ;  quoted  in  illustration  of  col- 
lege Ufe,  870 

Lewes,  Mr.  G.  H.,  his  supposition 
respecting  the  use  of  Lucretius  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  21,  n.  1 ;  his  criti- 
cism of  Isidorus,  81 ;  criticism  of 
his  application  of  Cousin's  dictum 
respecting  the  origin  of  the  scho- 
lastic philosophy,  60 ;  his  miscon- 
ception of  the  origin  of  the  dispute 
respecting  Universals,  54  and  n.  2 ; 
notice  of  Roger  Bacon's  opinions 
by,  114,  n.  2 

Libraries,  destruction  of  those  found- 
ed hf  Theodore,  Hadrian,  and 
Benedict  by  the  Danes,  81 ;  college, 
their  contents  in  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries,  826,  870 ; 
see  Univenity  Libranf 

Library  presented  to  Trmity  Hall  by 
bishop  Bateman,  243 

LiW,  Wm.,  regarded  by  Polydore 
virgil  as  the  true  restorer  of  Greek 
learning  in  En^and,  480 

linacre  lectureships,  foundation  of, 
608  ;  misapplication  of  estates  of, 
ib,  n.  2 ;  present  regulations  con- 
cerning, ib, 

Linacre,  Wm.,  pupil  of  Selling  at 
Christchurch,  Canterbury,  478;  and 
of  Yitelliat  Oxford,  t6.;  accompanies 
Selling  to  Italy,  ib.;  becomes  a 
pupil  of  Pohtian  at  Florence,  ib. ; 
muces  the  acquaintance  of  Hermo- 
laus  Barbams  at  Bome,  479 ;  pro- 
bable results  of  this  intimacy,  ib. ; 
his  return  to  Oxford,  ib,;  his 
claims  to  be  regarded  as  the  re- 
storer of  Greek  learning  in  Eng- 
land,  480;  obligations  of  Erasmus 
to,  ib.  i  a  staunch  Aristotelian,  481; 


preftered  Quintilian*s  style  to  that 
of  Cicero,  529,  n.  1 ;  death  of,  60S 

LiHieux,  College  de,  fonndatioii  o^ 
129 

'Little  Logicals,*  the,  mneh  studied 
at  Cambridge  before  the  time  of 
Erasmus,  616;  see  Parva  Logi* 
ealia 

LL.D.,  origin  of  the  titk^  89 

Logic,  conclusions  of^  regarded  by 
Lanfranc  as  to  be  subordinated  to 
authority,  47;  pemicioas  effoeta 
of  too  exclusive  attention  to,  48 ; 
proficiency  in,  required  of  candi- 
dates for  fellowships  at  PeierhooBe, 
281 ;  works  on,  less  common  th«n 
might  be  expected  inthemedissral 
Cambridge  libraries,  826;  inereaeod 
attention  given  to,  with  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Nova  An,  343;  and 
with  that  of  the  Summula,  ib. ; 
baneful  effects  of  excessive  atten- 
tion formerly  given  to,  866;  trea- 
tise on,  by  Budolphus  Agrieola,  410, 
412;  extravagant  demands  of  the 
defeoiders  of  the  old,  516 

Lollardism  at  Cambridge,  369;  ex- 
travagances of  the  later  prof  eeaorB 
of,  278;  not  the  commencement  of 
the  Reformation,  274;  brings  popu- 
lar preaching  under  suspicion,  488 

Lbmbard,  Pet^,  the  compiler  of  the 
Sentences,  69;  arehbp.  of  Paris, 
ib.;  acous(Bd  of  plagiarism  from 
Abelard,  ib,  n.  2 ;  thought  to  have 
copied  Pullen,  ib. ;  honour  paid  to 
his  memoiy,  68;  a  pupil  of  Abe- 
lard, 77,  n.  1 

Lorraine,  foundation  of  secular  col- 
lets in,  160 

Louis  of  Bavaria,  shelters  Occam  on 
his  flight  from  Avignon,  196 

Louis,  St.,  his  admiration  of  the 
Mendicant  orders,  89 

Louvain,  universi^  of^  foundatikm 
of,  28!2,  n.  2 ;  site  of,  chosen  by 
the  duke  of  Brabant  on  aoooont 
of  its  natural  advantages,  889, 
n.  8;  praised  by  Erasmus,  476; 
character  of  its  theology,  ib.; 
foundation  of  the  eoUegium  trt- 
lingue  at,  666 ;  conduct  of  the  con- 
servative party  at,  666  and  n.  1 

Lovell,  sir  Tho.,  executor  to  the 
countess  of  Richmond,  464;  his 
character  by  Cavendish,  466 

Luard,  Mr. ,  on  the  forgeries  that  Im- 
posed upon  Grosseteste,  110 

Lncan,  lectures  on,  by  Gerbert^  at 
Rheims,  44 


Being,  49,  n.  2 1  on  (he  eraogeliBm 
of  the  Mendicant  ordero,  90 

Hoet-beelce,  William  of,  hie  transla- 
tion of  Aristotle,  13G ;  hie  tranula- 
tion  o(  Ariatotle  attacked  b;  Boget 
Bacon,  1C5 

MonasterieH,  origin  ol  their  tounda- 
tion  in  the  west'.  2 ;  monaster;  of 
Uonte  Caseino,  3,  S;  of  Malmes- 
bDl7,  8 ;  destruction  of  thoae  ol 
the  Benedictine*  bj  the  Danee,  81; 
enpereeded  ae  centTee  of  instrno- 
tiou  bj  the  muvereilieg,  207 ;  the 
patroDB  of  learning  begin  to  deepair 
of  the,  301 

MonaBticiam,  its  origin  in  the  vest, 
2;  leelinge  iu  nbich  it  took  its 
rise,  5;  its  heroic  phase,  9  ;  aeceti- 
ciam  the  profesgcd  thea'c;  of,  387 

Monks,  conb^eted  with  the  Becolar 
clergy,  86,  u.  I ;  the  gaib  of,  dis- 
continued, 87,  n.  3 

Monnier,  counterstatement  of,  with 
respect  to  the  episcopal  and  monas- 
tic scbooU,  69 

Montacnle,  Simon,  bp.  of  Ely,  me- 
diates between  the  Hospital  of  St. 
John  and  Foterhonse,  229 ;  resigns 
to  Peterhooae  hia  right  of  present- 
ing to  fellowships,  230;  gives  the 
college  its  earliest  BtaCntes,  ib. 

Montaigne,  College  de,  student  fare 
at,  130  « 

Montpellier,  ciTil  lav  taught  at,  be- 
fore fonndation  of  nniversitj,  38, 
a.  1;  nniTersity  of,  formed  on  the 
model  of  Bologna,  71;  founded  in 
the  13  th  century,  80 

More,  sir  Tho.,  quoted  in  illustra- 
tion ot  standard  of  Hiring  at  the 
oniversitieB,  371;  Endeavours  to 
persuade  Wm.  Latimer  to  teach 
bp.  Fisher  Greek,  S19 ;  his  interest 
in  the  progress  of  learaing  at  Ox- 
ford. 5U:  hia  letter  to  the  aatho- 
rities  of  Oxford  on  the  conduct  ot 
the  •  Trojans,'  525  ;  Vlopia  ol,  558  ; 
appointed  h^h  steward,  681;  Tyn- 
dale's  'Answer'  to,  quoted,  590; 
saying  of,  respecting  Tyndale'a 
New  Teslanient,  600,  n.  3 ;  refer- 
ence of,  to  Bilne.T'a  trial,  608,  n.  3 

Music,  treatment  of  the  science  by 
Mortianus,  2'i:  treatment  of  the 
science  of,  by  Boethine,  28 

N 


EX.  673 

Bamea  in  Itis  capaeit;  of  vice- 
chancellor,  ib. 

■Nation.'  German,  at  Paris,  when 
first  so  oaUed,  196,  n.  2 

•  Nationa '  in  thenniTersity  of  Paris,  78 

Mavarre,  college  of,  in  Paris,  127; 
its  large  endowments,  ib. ;  Jeanne 
of,  foundress  ol  the  college  known 
by  her  name,  ib. ;  the  chief  college 
at  Paris  in  the  141h  and  15th  oen- 
tnries,  128 ;  iniurioos  iuflnenoes  ot 
court  patronage  at,  ib.  n.  2 

Neander,  hia  oriliciBm  ot  the  De 
Cauiit,  Hi,  n.  1 

Nelson,  late  bp.  of,  his  criticism  on 
Walter  de  Merton's  design  in  found- 
ing Merton  College,  1G8 

New  College,  Oiford,  presence  of 
Wyelifa  doctrines  at,  271,  n.  2; 
an  illDatratiou  ol  the  feelinga  of 
the  patrons  of  learning  with  rs- 
-  spect  to  the  monasteriea,  302;  en- 
dinred  with  lands  purchased  of 
religious  honses,  fb.;  statutes  of, 
ib.  1  these  statates  a  model  foi 
subsequent  foundations,  803 

Nicholas  I,  pope,  accepts  the  forged 
Decretals,  31 

Nicholas  de  Lyra,  his  writings  (re- 
qnently  to  be  met  with  in  the 
Cambridge  libraries  of  the  16th 
ceutmy,  326 ;  bis  long  popularity 
with  theologians,  ib. ;  not  much 
valued  by  Kjasmus,  602 ;  the  divi- 
nity lecturer  at  C.  C.  C,  Oxford,  en- 
joined by  bp.  Foi  to  put  aside,  53S 

Nicholson,  Sygar,  stationer  to  the 
university,  626 ;  character  and  ea- 
reer  of,  ib. 

Nicomachus,  Arithmetic  of  Boetluni 
taken  from,  2B 

Nil,  bp.  of  Norwich,  fell,  ot  Trinity 
Hal^deolaration  of,  respecting  Gon- 
viUe  HaU,  664;  fonnder  of  three 
feUowships  at  Trin.  Hall,  ib.  a.  2 

Nominalism,  the  prevalent  philoso- 
phy of  the  ninth  centnry,  56,  n.  1; 
new  importance  acquired  by,  from 
its  application  to  theology,  ib. ;  ita 
tendency  opposed  to  the  doobiiM 
of  the  Trinity,  66;  trinmph  of ,  in 
the  schools.  1H8 ;  would  not  have 
appeared  with  Occam  bnt  tor  the 
Byzantine  Ingic.  ib. ;  doetrines  of, 
forbidden  at  Pnria  by  Louis  u,  196 
aud  n.  2  ;  its  adherents  oppose  the 
corruptions  of  the  Chnreli,  ib, ;  ita 
triumph  according  to  Mansel  in- 
volved the  abandonment  of  ths 
■cholaatie  method,  197 

43 


674 


INDEX. 


Non-regents,  gradually  admitted  to 
share  in  university  legislation,  142; 
the  term  explained,  361 

Norfolk,  county  of,  many  of  the  Cam* 
bridge  Reformers  natives  of,  663 

Normans,  influence  of  the,  in  Eng- 
land prior  to  tlie  Conquest,  67 

Northampton,  migratious  to,  from 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  135 

Norwold,  Hugh,  bp.of  Ely,  his  services 
to  the  Hospital  of  St.  John  the 
Evangelist,  223 

Notation,  Arabic  system  of,  intro- 
duced by  Gerbert,  43 

NovaArs,  the,  its  introduction  greatly 
increased  the  attention  given  to 
logic,  343 

Not^uni  Irutrumentum  of  Erasmus, 
508;  why  so  called,  ib.  n.  2;  de- 
fects and  errors  in,  510 ;  its  great 
merit,  511 ;  its  patrons,  ib. ;  dedi- 
cated to  Leo  X,  512  ;  sarcastic  allu^ 
sions  in,  ib. ;  name  changed  to 
Novum  Testamentum,  523 


Oath,  administered  to  regents  of  Ox- 
ford, and  Cambridge,  not  to  teach 
in  any  other  English  university, 
135,  n.  1;  of  submission,  taken  by 
chancellors  of  the  university,  to 
the  bishops  of  Ely,  287,  n.  2 ;  im- 
posed on  masters  and  fellows  of 
colleges,  454,  455 

Obbarius,  his  opinion  of  the  religion 
of  Boethius  quoted,  28,  n.  2 

Oblatif  the  term  explained,  19,  note  2 

Occam,  William  of,  his  De  Pot  estate 
opposed  to  the  papal  claims  found- 
ed on  the  canon  law,  36,  187 ; 
*the  demagogue  of  scholasticism,' 
ib. ;  extends  the  scholastic  en- 
quiries to  the  province  of  nomi- 
nalism, ib.;  his  chief  service  to 
philosophy,  189;  disclaims  the  ap- 
plication of  logic  to  theological 
difficulties,  191;  falls  under  the 
papal  censure,  196;  his  escape 
from  Avignon,  ib. ;  styled  by  pope 
John  XXII  the  Doctor  Invincibilis, 
196 ;  compared  with  Bradwardine, 
205,  n.  1 ;  his  attack  on  the  politi- 
cal power  of  the  pope  struck  at  the 
study  of  the  canon  law,  259;  his 
De  Potentate,  260 

Odo,  bishop  of  Bayeux,  regarded  none 
but  Benedictines  as  true  monks, 
82 

Odo,   abbat    of    Clugni,   hostile    to 


pagan  learning,  18 ;  pupil  of  Bemy 
of  Auxerre,  69 ;  sustains  the  tra- 
dition of  Alcuin's  teaching,  lb. ; 
acquires  a  reputation  as  having 
read  through  Priscian,  104,  n.  1 

Olleris,  M.,  his  edition  of  the  works 
of  Gerbert,  42 ;  his  view  respecting 
intercourse  of  Gerbert  with  the 
Saracens,  43,  n.  2 

Ordinarie,  fellows  of  Gonville  Hall 
required  to  lecture,  for  one  year, 
247;  lecturing,  meaning  ;^of  the 
phrase.  Append.  (£) 

'Ordinary*  lectures,  meaning  of  the 
phrase,  358  and  Append.  (E) 

Oresme,  Nicolas,  master  of  the  col- 
lege of  Navarre,  128;  his  remark- 
able attainments,  ib.  n.  1 

Origen,  highly  esteemed  by  Erasmus, 
501 ;  studied  by  some  of  the  Cam- 
bridge Reformers,  598,  n.  4 

Orleans,  migration  to,  from  Paiia  in 
1228,  107 

Orosius,  a  text-book  during  the 
Middle  Ages,  21;  his  'Histories* 
characterised  by  Ozanam,  22 ;  pre- 
pared at  the  request  of  Aagustine, 
ib. ;  description  of  the  work,  23 

Ottringham,  master  of  Michaelhoose, 
borrows  a  treatise  by  Petrarch,  433 

Ouse,  the  river,  its  ancient  and  pre- 
sent points  of  junction  with  the 
Cam,  ^9,  330 ;  its  course  as  de- 
scribed by  Spenser,  330 

Oxford,  controversies  in  the  schools 
of,  described  by  John  of  Salisbury, 
56 ;  university  of,  probable  origin 
of,  80;  town  of,  burnt  to  the 
ground  in  1009,  82 ;  early  statutes 
of,  probably  borrowed  from  those 
of  Paris,  83;  teachers  from  Paris 
at,  ib.\  students  from  Paris  at,  107; 
intercourse  of,  with  uniyersity  of 
Paris,  134;  monastic  foundations 
at,  in  the  time  of  Walter  de  Mer- 
toh,  165;  intellectual  activity  of, 
at  the  commencement  of  the  14th 
century,  171 ;  in  the  14th  century 
compared  with  Paris,  196;  takes 
the  lead  in  thought,  in  the  14th 
century,  213;  her  claim  to  have 
given  the  earliest  teachers  to  Paris, 
ib.  n.  1 ;  resistance  offered  by,  to 
archbp.  Arundel,  259,  n.  2;  a 
stronghold  of  Wyclifism,  271  ; 
schools  of,  deserted  in  the  year 
1438,  297  and  n.  2 ;  want  of  schools 
for  exercises  at,  299 ;  divinity 
schools  at, first  opened,  300;  friends 
of  Erasmus  at,  476;    Erasmuses 


Moonnt  of,  490 ;  state  of  feeling 
at,  with  reference  to  the  new  learn- 
ing, 633;  ehftoges  kt,  bH;  (ireek 
at,  ib.;  unfavorably  contrasted  by 
More  with  Cambridge,  526;  chair 
of  Greek  foanded  at,  ib. ;  outstrip- 
ped, according  to  Crake,  b;  Cam- 
bridge, 534;  eminent  men  of 
learning  who  favored,  ib.;  styled 
by  Crake,  colonia  a  Caittabrigia 
dtdueta,  539 ;  resigiu  its  st^tatea 
into  Woleey's  honcU,  540 ;  contii- 
balions  of  colleges  of,  to  the  roj^ 
loan,  551,  n.  1;  Luther's  writingE 
burnt  at,  671 ;  spread  of  the  ro- 
formed  doctrines  at,  by  means  of 
the  Cambridge  colon;,  G04i  un- 
favorably compared  with  Cam- 
bridge by  Ur.  Froode  in  connexion 
with  the  question  of  the  royal 
divorce,  616;  Cromwell'i  oommis- 
aioaeis  at,  6a9 
'Oxford  fare,'  not  Inziuioiu,  S71 


Pace,  Bich.,  pleads  the  cause  of  the 
Grecians  at  Oxford  with  Henry 
viii,  62G ;  one  o(  Wolsey's  yictinu, 
548;  his  character  as  described  by 
Erasmus,  ib.  n.  3 

Facomins,  the  monaehism  of,  eoo- 
tnuted  with  that  of  tb«  Benedic- 
tines, 66 

Padua,  university  of,  its  foundation 
the  result  of  a  migratioD  from 
Bologna,  80 

Paget,  Wm.,  a  convert  of  Bilney, 
fi63;  lectured  ou  Melanchthon's 
Bhetoric  at  Trinity  Hall,  ib. 

Pain  Peverell,  changes  the  canons  of 
St.  Uilea  to  Aogustiitian  canous, 
163,  n.  1;  removes  them  to  Bam- 
weU.  ib. 

Pandects,  see  Ciril  law 

Pantaliou,  Anchier,  his  student  life 
at  Paris,  130 

Palis,  Uatthew,  hia  account  of  the 
riot  in  Paris  in  12-28,  107;  his 
description  of  the  conduct  of  the 
Mendicants.  147;  manuscript  of 
his  Uitloria  ilajor  used,  ib.  u. 
1 ;  his  testimony  to  the  character 
of  GrosBCteste,  153;  his  comment 

Marisco  to  the  see  of  Ely,  234  ; 
hia  aceonat  of  a  wonderful  trans- 
tormatiou  in  the  (en  country,  334 
Paris,  university  of,  requirements  of, 
with  reapect  to  civil  and  canon 


i.  675 

law,  33,  n.  1 ;  in  the  13th  oentnty. 
6S;  the  model  for  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  67;  supplies  important 
presomptive  evidenoe  with  respect 
to  their  early  organisation,  68; 
chief  school  of  arts  and  theology 
in  the  12th  century,  71  ;  first 
known  application  of  the  term 
'university'  to,  ib.;  compared  with 
that  of  Bologna,  75;  theological 
character  of  its  early  teaching,  ib,; 
its  early  discipline,  76 ;  student* 
Dot  permitted  to  vote  at,  i6.  n.  2 ; 
commencement  of  its  first  oele- 
brily,  77;  'nations'  in,  78;  ita  " 
hoetility  to  the  papal  power,  79; 
its  secular  associations  explained 
by  M.  y.  Le  Clerc,  ib. ;  oonfliot  of, 
with  the  citizens,  in  1228,  106; 
colleges  of,  ib. ;  sixteen  founded 
in  the  13th  century,  ib.  n.  i  ;  sup- 
pression of  the  small  colleges  at, 
129;  mediaval  education  would-' 
have  been  regarded  aa  defective 
unless  completed  at,  ib. ;  number.^ 
of  students  at,  towards  the  close 
of  the  16th  century,  130j  its  in- 
fluence in  the  thirteenth  century, 
133 ;  students  from,  at  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  133  ;  whether  a  lay  or 
clerical  body  always  a  disputed" 
queationrIG6,u.l-;  nomiualistic  doc- 
trines forbidaen  at,  196 ;  transfer- 
ence of  leadership  of  thflught  from, 
to  Oxford,  213;  indebted  fur  its 
first  professors  to  the  Oxford  Fran- 
ciscans, ib.a.  1;  regains  Its  infln^ 
ence  in  the  15th  oentniy,  276 ;  cesa^ 
tion  of  its  intercourse  with  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  280;  ceases  to  ba 
the  supreme  oracle  of  Europe,  ib. ; 
causes   of  decline  o^  ib. ;  efforta 

prestige,  2S2  ;  subsequent  relations 
of,  to  the  English  uuiversities,  342 ; 
assistance  to  be  derived  from  its 
statutes  in  studying  the  antiquitie* 
of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,343 ;  ma- 
thematical studies  at,  in  16th  cen- 
tury, 362 ;  reputation  of,  at  com- 
mencement of  16th  cent.,  474 ; 
ceases  to  be  European  in  its  ele- 


atteuded  meetings  at  (he  1 
Horse,  673 
Parker,  iQch.,  error  in  his  Htttory  of 
Cain'.ridge  with  respect  to  the  cbite 
of  the  burning  of  Luth«r's  books, 
571,  a.  5 

43—2 


674 


INDEX. 


Non-regents,  gradually  admitted  to 
share  in  aniversity  legislation,  142; 
the  term  explained,  361 

Norfolk,  county  of,  many  of  the  Cam* 
bridge  Reformers  natives  of,  563 

Normans,  influence  of  the,  in  Eng- 
land  prior  to  the  Conquest,  67 

Northampton,  migratious  to,  from 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  135 

Norwold,  Hugh,  bp.  of  Ely,  his  services 
to  the  Hospital  of  St.  John  the 
Evangelist,  223 

Notation,  Arabic  system  of,  intro- 
duced by  Gerbert,  43 

NovaAr$f  the,  its  introduction  greatly 
increased  the  attention  given  to 
logic,  343 

Novum  Irutrumentum  of  Erasmus, 
508;  why  so  called,  ib.  n.  2;  de- 
fects and  errors  in,  510 ;  its  great 
merit,  511 ;  its  patrons,  ib. ;  dedi- 
cated to  Leo  X,  512  ;  sarcastic  allu^ 
sions  in,  ib. ;  name  changed  to 
Novum  Tettamentum,  523 


Oath,  administered  to  regents  of  Ox- 
ford, and  Cambridge,  not  to  teadi 
in  any  other  English  university, 
135,  n.  1;  of  submission,  taken  by 
chancellors  of  the  university,  to 
the  bishops  of  Ely,  287,  n.  2 ;  im- 
posed on  masters  and  fellows  of 
colleges,  454,  455 

Obbarius,  his  opinion  of  the  religion 
of  Boethius  quoted,  28,  n.  2 

Oblati,  the  term  expluined,  19,  note  2 

Occam,  William  of,  his  De  Poles tate 
opposed  to  the  papal  claims  found- 
ed on  the  canon  law,  36,  187 ; 
*the  demagogue  of  scholasticism,* 
ib. ;  extends  the  scholastic  en- 
quiries to  the  province  of  nomi- 
nalism, ib.;  his  chief  service  to 
philosophy,  189 ;  disclaims  the  ap- 
plication of  logic  to  theological 
difficulties,  191;  falls  under  the 
papal  censure,  195;  his  escape 
from  Avignon,  ib.;  styled  by  pope 
John  xxii  the  Doctor  Invincibilis, 
196 ;  compared  with  Bradwardine, 
205,  n.  1 ;  his  attack  on  the  politi- 
cal power  of  the  pope  struck  at  the 
study  of  the  canon  law,  259;  his 
De  Potestate,  200 

Odo,  bishop  of  Bayeux,  regarded  none 
but  Benedictines  as  true  monks, 
82 

Odo,   abbat    of    Clugni,    hostile    to 


pagan  learning,  18 ;  pnpil  of  Bern  j 
of  Auxerre,  69 ;  Bustaint  the  tra- 
dition of  Alcuin's  teaching,  ib,; 
acquires  a  reputation  as  having 
read  through  Priscian,  104,  n.  1 

OUeris,  M.,  his  edition  of  the  works 
of  Gerbert,  42 ;  his  view  respecting 
intercourse  of  Gerbert  with  the 
Saracens,  43,  n.  2 

Ordinarie,  fellows  of  Gonville  Hall 
required  to  lecture,  for  one  year, 
247;  lecturing,  meaning  ;^of  the 
phrase.  Append.  (£) 

'Ordinary*  lectures,  meaning  of  the 
phrase,  358  and  Append.  (E) 

Oresme,  Nicolas,  master  of  the  col- 
lege  of  Navarre,  128 ;  his  remark- 
able attainments,  ib.  n.  1 

Origen,  highly  esteemed  by  Erasmns, 
501 ;  studied  by  some  of  the  Cam- 
bridge Reformers,  598,  n.  4 

Orleans,  migration  to,  from  Pazis  in 
1228,  107 

Orosius,  a  text-book  during  the 
Middle  Ages,  21;  his  'Histories* 
characterised  by  Ozanam,  22 ;  pre- 
pared at  the  request  of  Angastina^ 
ib. ;  description  of  the  work,  S3 

Ottringham,  master  of  Michaelhoose, 
borrows  a  treatise  by  Petrarch,  433 

Ouse,  the  river,  its  ancient  and  pre- 
sent points  of  junction  with  the 
Cam,  3^9,  330 ;  its  course  as  de- 
scribed by  Spenser,  330 

Oxford,  controversies  in  the  sohoolfl 
of,  described  by  John  of  Salisbury, 
56 ;  university  of,  probable  origin 
of,  80;  town  of,  burnt  to  the 
ground  in  1009,  82 ;  early  statntee 
of,  probably  borrowed  from  thoee 
of  Paris,  83;  teachers  from  Paris 
at,  ib.;  students  from  Paris  at,  107 ; 
intercourse  of,  with  university  of 
Paris,  134;  monastic  foundations 
at,  in  the  time  of  Walter  de  Mer- 
ton,  165;  intellectual  activity  of, 
at  the  commencement  of  the  14th 
century,  171;  in  the  14th  oentoxy 
compared  with  Paris,  196;  takes 
the  lead  in  thought,  in  the  14th 
century,  213;  her  claim  to  have 
given  the  earUest  teachers  to  Paris, 
ib.  n.  1 ;  resistance  offered  by,  to 
archbp.  Arundel,  259,  n.  2;  a 
stronghold  of  Wyclifism,  271 ; 
schools  of,  deserted  in  the  year 
1438,  297  and  n.  2;  want  of  schocds 
for  exercises  at,  299 ;  divinity 
schools  at,  first  opened,  300;  frienda 
of  Erasmus  at,  476;    Erasmus's 


H 

■ 

-    ■ 

-:^X'W>'         1 

MMMont  of,  490 ;  state  of  feeling 
at,  with  relerence  to  thenewleam- 
iatt,  523;  cbougoB  at,  624;  Oreek 
at,  ib,;  unfavorablj  coutrasted  by 
More  with  Cambridge,  £'26;  cliaii' 
of  Greek  foanded  at,  ib. ;  outstrip- 
ped, according  to  Croke,  bj  Cam- 
bridge, 634 ;  eminent  men  of 
leiuruing  wLo  fuTored,  ib. ;  atjled 
by  Croke,  cotonia  a  Canlabrigia 
dtducta,  639 ;  resigns  its  atatatea 
into  Wolsey'a  hands,  619;  contri- 
butioDs  of  coUegeH  of,  to  the  royal 
loan,  651,  n.  1;  Luther's  writings 
bnint  at,  671 ;  spread  of  the  re- 
fonued  doctrines  at,  by  means  of 
the  Cambridge  colony,  604;  nn- 
favoiably  compared  nith  Cam- 
bridge by  Mr,  Fronde  in  cocmelioD 
with  the  qnegtiOQ  of  the  royal 
divorce,  616;  Cromwell's 
sioners  at,  629 
'  Oxford  fare,'  not  Ininrioiu,  371 


Pace,  Bich.,  pleads  the  canse  of  the 
Orecians  at  Oxford  with  Henry 
Tiir,626;  one  of  WolB«y'B  victims, 
5iB;  his  character  m  dCMribed  by 
Erasmus,  ii.  n.  3 

Pacomius,  the  monachism  of,  con- 
trasted with  that  of  tho  Benedio- 
tineB,  66 


Bologna,  80 

Paget,  Wm.,  a  convert  of  Bilney, 
SftS;  lectured  on  Melanchthon'a 
Bhctoric  at  Trinity  Hall,  ib. 

Pain  Peverull,  changes  the  canons  of 
St.  Ciiles  to  Aogustinian  canons, 
163,  n.  1;  removes  them  to  Bont- 

Pandects,  see  Cii'il  laa 

Pantalion,  Anchier,  his  stadent  life 
at  Paris,  130 

Paris.  Matthew,  bis  account  of  the 
riot  in  PoriH  in  1228,  107;  his 
description  of  the  conduct  of  the 
Mendicants,  147;  manuscript  of 
liiB  Uiitoria  Major  used,  it.  n. 
1 1  Ilia  testimony  to  the  character 
of  OroBBelcBte,  1S3;  his  comment 
on  the  nomination  of  Adam  de 
Marisco  to  tha  see  of  Ely,  224 ; 
his  account  of  a  wonderful  traiu- 
formation  in  the  fen  conntr;,  334 

Paris,  university  of,  requirements  of, 
with  respect  to  civil  and  canon 


EX.  C75 

law,  38,  n.  1 ;  in  the  12th  oentory, 
Si ;   the  model    lor   Oxford    and 

Cambridge,  67 ;  supplies  important 
presumptive  evideuoe  with  respeet 
to  their  early  oigauisation,  68; 
chief  Bchool  of  arta  and  theology 
in  the  12lh  century,  71  ;  first 
known  application  of  the  term 
■uuivemity'  to,  ib.;  compared  with 
that  of  Bologna,  15 ;  theological 
character  of  itu  early  teaching),  f6.; 
its  early  discipline,  76  ;  Btudenia 
not  permitted  to  vote  at,  it,  n.  2 ; 
commencement  of  its  first  oele- 
britj;,  77;  'nations'  in,  78;  its  ' 
hostility  to  the  ^apal  power,  79; 
its  secular  assoculions  explained 
by  M.  V.  Le  Clerc,  ib. ;  conflict  o^ 
with  the  citizens,  in  1228,  106 ; 
colleges  of,  ib. ;  Biiteen  founded 
in  the  13th  oentury,  ib.  u.  4;  sup- 
presBion  of  the  small  EoUeges  at, 
129;  mediieval  education  would^ 
have  been  regarded  as  defective 
unless  completed  at,  ib. ;  number,^ 
of  students  at,  towards  the  close 
of  the  16th  century,  130j  its  in- 
fluence in  the  thirteenth  century, 
132 ;  students  from,  at  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  133 ;  whether  a  lay  or 
clerical  body  always  a  disputed" 
quea  tiotirlfit),  n.  1-;  iMminalistic  doc- 
trines forbidden  at,  196 ;  transfer- 
ence of  leadership  of  thought  fnmi, 
to  Oxford,  213;  indebted  for  its 
firstprofeBBorato  the  Oxford  Fru- 
eiscans,  iti.  n.  1 ;  regains  its  influ^ 
eocein  the  16th  century,  276 ;  eeasa- 
tion  of  its  intercourse  with  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  2B0;  ceases  to  ba 
the  supreme  oracle  of  Europe,  ib.; 
causes  of  decline  of,  ib. ;  effort* 
made  by  the  popes  to  diiuiiinh  her 
prestige,  282  ;  subsequent  relations 
of,  to  the  English  universities,  343 ; 
asslBtance  to  be  derived  from  its 
statutes  in  studying  the  antiquities 
of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,343 ;  ma- 
thematical studies  at,  in  15th  cen- 
tury, 3g2;  reputation  of,  at  com- 
meuccuivut  of  16th  cant.,  474; 
ceases  to  he  Enropean  in  its  ele- 
ments, ib.  n.  3 

Parker,  Matthew,  telL  of  Corpus, 
attended  meotiiigB  at  the  Woite 
HorBeJ73 

Parker,  Mch.,  error  in  his  Ilittory  of 
Cam'iridse  with  reapect  to  the  ilate 
of  the  butmng  of  Luther's  books, 
671,  n.  5 

43—2 


<;7<; 


INDKX. 


Vnrva  Logicnlia^  BtuclieJ  at  Lei|wic 
and  Prnffue.  28*2,  n.  2 ;  a  part  of  tbe 
SinmmuUr  of  Peinis  HispaunR,  350  ; 
why  BO  ciillnl,  ih.  ii.  4  ;  not  studuHl 
in  More'K  I'topin,  861,  n.  1 

ruBchasiuH,  Itjidhertu^,  hist  lament 
over  the  prosj-HJcta  of  learning;  after 
the  time  of  Charlemagne,  19 ;  sig- 
nificance of  the  doctrine  respect- 
ing the  real  presence  maintained  bv, 
40 

Peacock,  dean,  his  obHervations  on 
diflcrepancieH  in  the  diiTorent  Sta* 
tuta  Antiqiui,  ItO,  n.  1;  question 
raised  hv,  with  reference  to  dis- 
pensation oaths,  45G ;  inaocaracy 
m  his  statement  with  respect  to 
Christ's  College,  ib.  n.  3 

Pecook,  Heginald,  an  eclectic,  290; 
mistaken  hv  P'oxe  for  a  Lollard, 
ih. ;  really  an  Ultramontanist,  ib. ; 
his  belief  in  logic,  201 ;  asserts  the 
rights  of  reason  against  dogma, 
ib. ;  repudiated  the  absolute  autho- 
rity of  both  the  fathers  and  the 
schoolmen,  292;  advociited  sub- 
iiiissiou  to  thctemix^rul  authority  of 
the  pope,  ib, ;  denied  the  right  of 
individuals  to  interpret  Scripture, 
293;  dislikotl  much  preaching,  294; 
his  eccentric  defence  of  the  bishops, 
ib.  ;  offended  both  parties,  295 ;  at- 
tacks the  doctrines  of  the  Church, 
ib. ;  his  enemies  at  Cambridge,  ib. ; 
his  character  by  prof.  Babington, 
ib.  n.  2 ;  possi])ly  a  political  suf- 
ferer, 296;  his  doctrines  forbidden 
at  the  university,  ib.  and  n.  4 

Pembroke  College,  foundation  of, 
236 ;  earliest  statutes  of,  no  longer 
extant,  237  ;  outline  of  the  revised 
statutes  of,  ib.  n.  2 ;  leading  fea- 
tures of  these  statutes,  238 ;  scho- 
lars, in  the  modern  sense,  first 
BO  named  at,  ib. ;  grammar  lirst  in- 
cluded in  the  college  course  at,  ib. ; 
limitations  of  fellowships  to  diiltr- 
ent  counties  at,  ib.  ;  preference  to 
be  given  to  natives  of  France  at,  239 ; 
its  reputation  in  the  15th  century, 
814 ;  early  catab^gue  of  tbe  library 
of,  324 ;  Fox,  bj).  of  Winchester, 
master  of,  405 

Pensioners,  first  admitted  by  statute, 
at  Christ's  College,  459;  evils  re- 
sulting from  indiscriminate  admis- 
sion of,  624 

Percival,  Mr.  E.  F.,  his  edition  of 
the  foundation  statutes  of  Merton 
CollofTc.   159,  n.  4;    his  as*Jortion 


respecting  Roger  Baoon,  ib, ;  qnoted, 
on  Walter  de  Merton'a  deaij^i  in 
the  foundation  of  Merton  College^ 
164,  n.  1 

Per>*ius,  lectures  on,  by  Gerbert  at 
Rheims,  44;  nine  c-opies  of,  in 
library  of  Christchurch,  Canter- 
burv,  104 

Peter  of  Bli)is,  account  attribated  to 
him  of  the  nniversitj  of  Cam- 
bridge, spurious,  66 

Pcterhonae,  foundation  of,  228;  be- 
comes possessed  of  the  site  of  the 
friary  De  Panitentia  Jesu^  229; 
final  arrangement  between,  and  the 
brethren  of  St  .John  the  Evangelist, 
ib. ;  prosperity  of  the  society,  ib. ; 
patronised  by  Fordham,  bp.  of  Ely, 
ib. ;  early  statutes  of,  given  by  Simon 
Montacute,  230 ;  early  statates  of, 
copied  from  those  of  Merton  Col- 
lege, Oxford,  ib. ;  character  of 
the  foundation,  231 ;  sizars  at,  ib.; 
all  meals  at,  to  be  taken  in  com- 
mon, 232;  the  clerical  dress  and 
tonsure  incumbent  on  the  scholars 
of,  ib. ;  non-monastic  character  o^ 
233 ;  fellowships  at,  to  be  vacated 
by  those  succeeding  to  benefices  of 
a  certain  value,  234 ;  its  code  com- 
pare<l  by  dean  Peacock  with  those 
of  later  foundations,  ih.  n.  1 ; 
allowance  for  fellows*  commons 
at,  in  1510,  254,  n.  2;  cardinal 
Beaufort  a  pensioner  at,  310 :  cata- 
logue of  the  library  of,  ann.  1418, 
324;  illustration  afforded  by  the 
original  catalogue  of  the  libraiy  of, 
370,  n.  1 ;  evils  resulting  from  ex- 
travagant living  at,  460;  Hornby 
master  of,  4f>5 

Petition  of  Parliament  against  ap- 
pointment of  ecclesiastics  to  offices 
of  state,  267 

Petrarch,  notice  of  the  infidelity  of 
his  day  by,  124  and  n.  2;  com- 
pares the  residence  at  Avignon  to 
the  Babylonish  captivity,  195;  his 
interview  with  Richard  of  Bury  at 
Avignon.  201 ;  liis  reproach  of  the 
university  of  Paris,  as  chiefly  en- 
nobled by  Italian  genius,214;  scene 
in  the  early  youth  of,  379 ;  his  esti- 
mate of  the  learning  of  the  nni- 
verbifies  in  his  day,  382;  his  in- 
fluonce,  ib. ;  change  in  the  modem 
e'ftimate  of  his  genius  explained, 
383 ;  his  Tiatin  style,  ib. ;  his  ser- 
%ices  to  the  study  of  Cicero,  384, 
n>^5,  n.  1 ;  his  knowledge  of  Greek, 


886;  his  inatinctiTe  appteeiation 
of  PlBto,  386;  lie  iiiitiatee  Uie 
xtrugfile  against  Arialollu,  ib, ;  his 
poBiCiou  compMred  with  that  of 
Aqninus,  ib.;  mjectcd  the  ethical 
Bjstem  of  Ari<<totIp,  387;  bqcccb- 
Boraof.ift.;  hUprophecyof thcf«lo 
that  BKHJted  tho  KtbouIracD,  432  j 
copf  of  Lis  I.eltora  in  iLc  oiiifiDul 
catalogue  of  the  librarj'  of  Pet«r- 
lionsc,  193 

Fclraa  HieimiiuB,  17fi ;  not  the  ear- 
liciit  (ran>=lalor  of  PsdlnH,  ib. ;  nu- 
lufaruua  etiitiuns  of  his  Snmmal(e, 
ITS;  thoorv enanciatiil  bv  lliu  Itp»- 
tise,  190;  its  i:iteiiE>iTe  am  in  tLe 
MiJdle  Ages,  aoO 

Fbilelphas,  bin  Elalemcnt  respoctiiig 
Oreek  Iruruiiig  at  ConslatiliuojJe 
in  llie  fifteenth  ccnlnr}',  ITn,  n.  1 ; 
n  bT,of  Coiidtantinuple 


n  the  r< 


r  lUl,  i 


Philip  AnguRdiB,  tlmliuo  of  the  epis- 
eof«l  and  monastic;  achoulg  coo- 
inenceH  vith  hia  reign,  64 

Philip  the  Fair,  of  France,  liis  strug- 
gle nitb  Boniface  viii,  191 

Picut,  aherifr,  though  a  Norman, 
[onnila  aecuiai'  canoua  at  St.  Gilea, 


for- 


Pike,  regarded  as  a  delicacy  h 
mer  days,  374,  n.  2 

Fiu,  council  of,  representatives 
from  both  the  oniversities  present 
at,  276 

Pisa,  aniversitr  of,  founded  in  the 
13th  century,  80 

Plogae,  the  Great,  241 ;  its  effects  on 
the  universitieB,  ib. 

Plague,  the,  olten  folloired  upon  the 
visits  of  illustrions  jiersonoges, 
642,  n.  2 

Plato,  Timaui  of.  translated  into 
Iiatin  by  Chalciiiius,  41 ;  his  theory 
of  Uuiiersals  described  by  Por- 
phyry as  translated  by  Buetbiiia, 
Sa  ;  Timaut  of,  probably  meant  in 
calolngiies  of  libraries  at  Dec  and 
at  Chriatchurch,  Caulerburr,  104; 
DiuiogucH  oi,  brought  by  Wni.  Griiy 
to  Euglund,  3»7 

Pledges  allowed  to  be  given  by  stn- 
dents,  144,  n.  1 

Pleasis-Sorbonne,  College  de,  foiuda- 
tion  ot,  120 

Pogpo  Braoeiolini,  Tisitn  England  in 
tlie  IStfa  century,  297;  naCuie  of 
bU  impressions,  206;  his  descrip' 
tiun  of  the  spirit  in  which  the  civil 
law  was  Rtiiilied  in  Italy,  319,  n.  2; 


his  qoarrel  with  the  Fralm  Vb- 
irriantiie,  337;  exposes  the  floti- 
tioas  character  of  the  Decretals, 
420 

Polilian,  professor  of  both  Greek  and 
Latin  at  Florence,  420 ;  his  SliKrl- 
laiira,  ib.;  the  classical  lecturer  at 
C.  C.  C,  Oxford,  ordered  to  lecture 
on  the  work,  521,  a.  2 

Poh'iloro  ViTgil,  not  the  Role  anthnr 
of  the  EliiHineul  thul  nfcribcd  tho 
(leiith  of  Stafford  to  Wolsey's  re- 
Rtntment,  54H.  n.  2 

Pope,  tlie,  reason  why  hia  sanction 
wan  originally  Fiiueht  at  tlw  foond- 
atinn  of  a  uuiverhity,  78;  at 
Avignon,  ojipohed  by  Uie  Engliali 
Fraucincaus,  193;  oalbn  impoeeil 
in  early  collegii  statutes  against 
i1iapeu.'<ations  from  the,  with  re- 
spect to  fellowship  oath.  458 

Porjihyry,  Uago^f  ot,  lecliuvs  on,  by 
Gerbert  at  BLeims,  44;  arbolastic 
philosophy  owes  ila  origin  to  a 
sentence  in,  fid ;  the  passage  quo- 
ted, ib. ;  the  puBBu'_-o  known  to  tbo 
Middle  Ages  in  two  trauBlations, 
61 ;  influence  it  was  calculated  to 
exercise  on  philosophy,  53 
Prararifalor,  the,  iu  academic  eier- 


1,  350 


■  to 


281 

Prague,  univerBi^  of,  formed  on  the 
model  ot  Paris,  74  ;  division  into 
nations  at,  79,  n.  2;  foDuded  in 
connexion  with  the  university  of 
Oxford,  215;  ilH  prcacribcd  oooreo 
of  study  adopted  by  the  university 
of  Leipsic,  282,  n.  9;  losses  bub- 
tained  bv  Puris  in  oonsequence  of 
the  creation  of.  331 ;  le^s  distracted 
bv  (be  nominaliatic  controversies, 
416 

Praiitl,  Carl,  on  the  results  of  en- 
couragement given  by  the  empeioi 
Frederic  to  the  new  Aristotle,  Of!, 
n.  1 ;  his  condemnation  of  the 
acholastie  Aristotle,  124;  the  au- 
thor's obligalicins  to  bis  Gfchiehit 
der  Ijiflik,  176;  bis  observation* 
on  the  extensive  inflnence  of  tha 
Byzantine  logic,  179;  his  estimate 
of  Orcom'a  philosophy  quoted,  189 

Preaching,  neglect  of,  iu  the  ICth 
century,  437 

Prichan),  Jas.  C,  on  distinction  be- 
tween use  of  the  false  Decretals  by 
Hiucmar'and  Nicholas,  34,  d.  1 


678 


INDEX. 


■-I 
i, 


Priories,  alien,  appropriation  of  the 
reTennes  of,  to  eudow  colleges,  303 ; 
Oough*8  account  of,  304 ;  first  se- 
qacstration  of  tbeir  estates,   i7>. ; 
act  for  the  suppression  of,  in  1402, 
ib.;    confiKoation   of,   by   archbp. 
Chicheley,  305 
Priscian,  an  authority  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  22;  numerous  copies  of,  at 
Christchurch,  Canterbury,  104 
Proctors,  the  two,  collected  the  votes 
of  the  regents,  143 ;  empowered  to 
call  a  congregation,  i&.;  their  dif- 
ferent functions,  144 
Professors  at  the  university  of  Bo- 
logna, 73 
Provisors,  statute  of,   its  operation 
nnfavorable    to    the     university, 
284 ;    Ruber's    comments  on   the 
fact,  286 ;  Lingard's  ditto,  i6.,  n.  1 
Psellus,  Michael   Constantine,   17G; 
his  treatise  on  logic,  ih. ;  transla- 
tion of  the  same  by   Petrus  His- 
panus,  ib. 
Public  Orator,  Richard  Croke  elected 
first,  539 ;  privileges  of  the  office, 
i6. 
Pullen,  Robt.,  his  work  supposed  to 
have  suggested  the  Sentences,  59, 
n.  2 ;  his  Sentences  compared  with 
those  of  Peter  Lombard,  83;  use 
to  which  his  name  is  put  by  An- 
thony Wood,   ib. ;  accoimt  of  his 
teaching  by  the  same,  ib.;  a  stu- 
dent at  the  university  of  Paris, 
134 
•Pythagoras,  the  school  of,*  period 
to  which  it  belongs,  332 


Quadrivium  of  the  Roman  schools, 
24 

Queens'  College,  scholars  of,  forbid- 
den to  embrace  the  doctrines  of 
WycliforPecock,  297,  n.  1 ;  found- 
ation of,  312;  first  founded  as 
Queen's  College  in  1418,  315; 
statutes  of,  given  by  Elizabeth 
Woodville  in  1475,  ib. ;  first  pro- 
perly styled  Queens'  College,  316; 
statutes  of,  given  at  petition  of 
Andrew  Doket,  ib.  ;  studies  and 
lectureships  at,  ib. ;  early  catalogue 
of  the  library  of,  324;  bp.  Fisher 
appointed  to  the  presidency  of,  446 ; 
residence  of  Erasmus  at,  472 

Questionist,  the,  meaning  of  the  term 
explained,  352 ;  ceremony  obsen'ed 
by,  353 


Qnintilian,  Institutefl  of,  Lnpus  of 
Ferri^res  writes  for  a  copy  of,  20 ; 
studied  as  a  model  under  Bernard 
of  Chartres,  57;  style  of,  imi- 
tated by  Croke,  529 ;  preferred  by 
Linacre  to  tliat  of  Cicero,  t6.  n.  1 

Qnirinus,  his  lament  on  the  destme- 
tion.  of  the  literary  treasures  of 
Constantinople,  400 


B 


Babanus  Manrns,  pupil  of  Alenin  at 
Tours,  54 ;  gloss  by,  on  Boetbios, 
erroneously  quoted  by  Mr.  Liewes, 
ib.\  the  gloss  quoted,  ib.  u.  2;  his 
commentary  on  Boethius,  accord- 
ing to  Cousin,  proves  that  the  dis- 
pute respecting  Universals  was 
familiar  to  the  ninth  century,  55, 
n.  1 ;  sustains  the  tradition  of 
Alcuiu's  teaching,  G9;  according 
to.bp.  Fisher,  educated  at  Cam- 
bridge, 450 
Banc^,  De,  his  attack  on  the  stady  of 

the  classics,  18 
Batramnns,  opposes  doctrine  of  real 
presence  maintained  by  Paschasius, 
40;  Ridley's  testimony  to  his  in- 
fluence, ib.  n.  8 
Bealism,  doctrines  of,  favored  a  be- 
lief in  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity, 
55 
Beason,  the,  inadequacy  of,  accord- 
ing to  Aquinas   in    attaining  to 
truth,  111 
Rectors  at  the  university  of  Bologna, 

73 
Bede,  sir  Bobt.,  fellow   of    King*s 

HaU,  518 
Bede    lectureships,    foundation    of, 

518 
Beformation,the,  took  its  rise  in  Eng- 
land, partly  from  opposition  to  the 
canon  law,  36 ;  its  relations  to  the 
new  learning  in  Italy  and  in  Ger- 
many compared,  414  ;  different 
theories  respecting  the  origin  of, 
553;  began  in  England  at  Cam- 
bridge, 554 ;  not  a  developement 
from  Lollardism,  555 ;  to  be  traced 
to  the  influence  of  Erasmus's  Greek 
Testament,  ib.;  its  spread  in  the 
eastern  counties,  563,  n.  3 
Beformers,  the  Cambridge,  meetings 
of,  572  ;  chief  names  among,  573 ; 
character  of  the  proceedings  of, 
ib. ;  not  all  young  men,  574 ;  their 
meetings  reported  in  London,  575; 


dewrt  the  theology  of  ErumoB, 
696 ;  trefttmeut  of,  b;  Wolaejr  at 
Oilord.  604 ;  proceedinga  ag&intt, 
at  Cambridge,  6a5 

BegentE,  diMtiiigui^herl  from  the  doq- 
regents,  with  respect  to  their  legis- 
lative  powers,  142  ;  the  acting  body 
ol  teBcLerii  in  the  imtvej-nily,  ib.; 
tbeii  admission  to  the  goreming 
body  forfeileJ  on  their  ceasing  to 
teacli,  112,  145 ;  poKilion  of,  in  re- 
lation to  the  Hcademic  body,  35H 

lUmuBat,  M.,  his  deacription'  of  the 
theologf  of  St.  AniteliD  qnolej, 
Gl,  n.  1 ;  obeerTstiou  on  portion 
of  the  catalogue  of  the  librarr  at 
Bee,  100,  n.  1 

Bern;  of  Auieire,  itaHtaiiiB  the  tra- 
dition of  Alcuin'e  teachiiiR,  09 

Betian,  M.,  hie  account  of  ths  nn- 
merous  preceding  Teraioas  through 
which  the  Latin  tranelatioua  of 
Aristotle  from  the  Arabic  were 
deriTed,  9u,  96;  ennmeration  of 
the  Arabian  tieresiea  bv,  117;  bia 
criticiiiin  on  the  doctrinea  con- 
demned bj  Etienne  Tempter,  121, 

Beocblin,  John,  attends  a  lecture  of 
ArgyropiiloB,  407 ;  admiration  of, 
for  Gregory  of  NazianKum,  444;  his 
knowledge  of  Greek  denounced  by 
the  older  membera  of  the  ani*er- 
ait;  of  Basel,  4S6 

Bheims,  lectares  at,  by  Qerbert,  44 ; 
migration  to,  from  Parit  in  1338, 
107 

Bhetorie,  the  etnij  of,  as  treated  of 
in  MartianDs,  25;  tanghtbyGer- 
bert  at  Bheinu.  44;  taught  in  a 
leas  mechanical  fiubion  by  Ber- 
nard of  Chartrea,  £7;  a  lecturer 
on,  appointed  in  Statutes  of  Christ's 
College,  159 

Bicbard,abbatof  Preani.  hia  writings 
found  in  the  calalogae  ot  the 
libraij  at  Christchurch,  104 ;  his 
works,  ib.  n.  3 

Bicherns,  his  History  ot  his  Times, 
ii;  his  account  of  Gert>ert'smetbod 
ot  in^lmction  at  Bheims,  44;  his 
misconception  respecting  the  To- 
plea  of  Cicero,  ib.  n.  3 

Bidlej,  Boht.,  uncle  of  the  Befontter, 
one  ot  Barnes'  opponents,  577 

Bidley,  Nivli.,  complaint  of,  respect- 
ing Tj-ndale's  Now  Teslumenl,  600 

Borne,  Erasmas'a  observations  on, 
469 

B^scellinna.  hlB  nomiualistic  views 


EX.  679 

traditional,  54 ;  new  importance 
given  by,  to  such  Tiowa,  65;  a 
pupil  of  John  the  Deaf,  70;  hil 
pnpils.  ib. 

Botheram,  Tho.,  his  benctaetiona  to 
the  nniTersity,  .S24 ;  provost  ot  the 
oathedral  church  at  Bererley,  423; 
a  promoter  of  learning,  426 

Bothrad,  bp.  of  Soiaaona,  supported 
in  his  appeal  troui  the  dccinion  of 
Uiucmar  by  the  false  Decretals, 
34 

Boy,  Wm.,  his  deocription  of  Wol- 
aey's  pomp,  542 ;  hia  statement 
that  Wolsev  waa  the  author  of 
StaEford'a  death,  643,  n.  3 

Bad's  Hostel,  mads  over  to  the  bre- 
thren  ot  the  Hospital  of  St.  John 
the  Evangelist,  328 

Bodolf  Ton  Lange,  409;  his  school 
at  Uunatar,  ib. 


St.  Atnonr,  William,  attacks  tha 
Mendicants  at  Paris,  119 ;  hia 
Pnih  of  Ike  Lail  Timtt,  i6. ;  ar- 
taignment  of,  before  the  archbp. 
ot  Paris,  ib. ;  bis  book  burnt,  120 ; 
hia  retirement  into  exile,  ib. 

St.  Basil,  bis  statement  that  Plato 
selected  the  site  of  his  Academy 
tor  its  UK  healthiness,  quoted,  338, 
n.  1 

St.  Benet,  the  chnrch  of,  probably 
onoe  the  centre  ot  a  distinct  tU- 
Uge,  S33 

St.  Bernard,  tonndation  of  eollegs  ol, 
S14;  charter  ot  its  tonndation  re- 
scinded, ib. ;  founded  hy  Henry  n, 
316 

St.  Catherine's  Ball,  foondatioD  of, 
817;  study  ot  canon  and  civil  lavr 
forbidden  at,  316;  contrast  in  the 
conception  ot  the  college  to  that  . 
of  Trinity  Hall,  ib. ;  the  college 
designed  to  educate  the  secuUr 
olerg>',  ib.;  library  of,  aNn.  1476, 
325;  the  White  Horse  Ion  origin- 
ally belonged  to,  572,  n.  1 

6l.  (iall,  monk  ot,  his  statement  re- 
spcctiiig  state  of  letters  at  the  ao- 
cessioii  ot  Charlemagne,  11 

St.  (Hies,  foundation  ot  Beenlai 
canons  at,  by  Picot,  163,  n.  1 

St.  Gathlao,  livvd  in  the  feuB  lor 
solitndi',  333 

Saint- Hi laire,  Barth^lemy,  hia  criti- 
cism un  tlie  psychology  ot  Arutotle, 


G80 


INDKX. 


Bt.  Hilary,  preface  by  Erasmus  to 

his  edition  of,  50*2 
8t.  John  the  Kvaiigeliat,  hospital  of, 

see  Hospital 
St.  John's  College,  life  at,  in  1550, 370; 
statutes  of,  require   from   fellows 
an  oath  against  diKpensutions  from 
their  oath,  456 ;  uinouut  fixed  for 
fellows'  commons  at,  461 ;  fortu- 
nate  reHultH  of   frugality  at,   i6. ; 
propoRed    foundation    of,    by   the 
lady  Margaret,  ih. ;  charter  of  the 
foundation  of,  404 ;  Shorton  first 
master  of,  ib. ;  revenues  bequeathed 
to,  by  the  lady  Margaret,  465 ;  the 
revenues    seized    by    Henry    viii, 
468 ;  partial  compeiisutiou  gained 
by,    460 ;    formal   opening   of,   in 
1516,  470 ;  clausew  in  early  statutes 
of,  contrasted  with  one  in  Colet's 
statutes  of  St.  Paul's  School,  471 ; 
foundation  of  Liuacre  lectureship 
at,  603,  n.  2;  Fisher's  later   sta- 
tutes for,  623  ;  grief  of,  at  Fisher's 
fate,  628;  letter  from,  to  him  in 
prison,  ib. 
St.   Mary's   (Gt.)   church,    formerly 
used  for  academic  exercises,  209 ; 
•  Commencement  formerly  held  at, 
855 ;  rebuilding  of,  420,  427,  n.  1 
St.   Paul,   Marie    de,   foundress    of 
Pembroke  College,  230;  a  friend 
to  the  Franciscans,  t6. ;  memoir  of, 
by  Dr.  Ainshe,  ib.  n.  1 
St  Paul's  School,  foundation  of,  471, 

n.  2 
St.  Peter's  church,  appropriation  of, 

made  over  to  Peteriiouse,  228 
St.  lUiadegund,  nunnery  of,  320; 
specially  protected  by  the  bishops 
of  Ely,  ib. ;  dissolved  in  the  year 
1496,  321;  its  revenues  given  to 
found  Jesus  College,  ib. 
St.  Thomas  du  Louvre,  college  of,  at 
Paris,  126 ;  foundation  attributed 
byCrevier  to  the  twelfth  century ,i6. 
Salerno,  university  of,  chief  school 
of  medicine  in  Europe  in  the  12th 
century,  71 
Salisbury,  John  of,  his  frequent  allu- 
sions to  the  treatise  of  Martianus, 
24,  n.  2 ;  describes  the  hostiUty  of 
the  clergy  to  the  civil  law,  38 ;  his 
description  of  the  disputes  in  the 
schools  of  Oxford,  56,  57 ;  his  de- 
scription of  tlie  different  parties, 
57,  n.  1 ;  his  Latinity  superior  to 
that  of  a  subsequent  age,  57 ;  his 
quotations  often  second-hand,  ib. 
n.  3 ;  sought  to  draw  away  A'Beckct 


from  the  study  of  the  eanon  and 
civil  law,  212 
Sallust,  eight  copies  of,  in  library  of 

Cbristchnrch,  Canterbury,  104 
Sampson,  Rich.,  fell,  of  Trinity  Hall, 
a  friend  of  Erasmus,  500;  one  of 
Wolsey's  chaplains,  545 
Saracens,  the  destruction  of  monas- 
teries by,  11 
Savigny,  on  the  growth  of  the  early 

universities,  72 
Savile,  sir  Henry,   his  criticism  on 
Bradwurdine's     De      Cauta     Dei 
quoted,  199,  n.  1 
Savonarola,    his  horror   at  the   de- 
pravity of  his  countrymen,   481; 
his  position  with  reference  to  the 
Humanists  in  Italy,  432,  n.  1 
Scholar,  the  term  originally  equiva- 
lent to  fellow,  167 ;   first  distin- 
guished from  that  of  fellow,  308 
Scholars    not  under  a  master  for- 
bidden the  university,  226 
Scholars,  foundation,  first  instituted 

at  Pembroke  College,  238 
Scholasticism,   progressive    element 

in,  173 ;  its  services,  632 
Schoolmen,  the,  difficulties  of,  with 
respect  to  the  new  Aristotle,  124 ; 
the  views  of,  compared  with  those 
of  modem   scholars,   172;   Croke 
professes  his  admiration  of,  533 
Schools,  of  the  Roman  Empire,  2 ; 
character  of  instruction  imparted 
at  the  episcopal  and  monastic,  11 ; 
of  Charlemagne,  13;  thrown  open 
to  the  secular  clergy,  ib. ;  episcopal 
and  monastic,  how  far  subverted 
by  the  universities,  68 ;  their  tra- 
dition one  of  mere  conservatisnt, 
70 ;  their  deterioration,  ib.  n.  2;  of 
arts  and  medicine,  when  formed  at 
Bologna,    73;   of   theology,  when 
founded  at  Bologna,  ib.;  at   Ox- 
ford, prior  to  the  thirteenth  cen- 
turj',  83 ;  the  common,  of  the  uni- 
versity,   299;   first  mentioned  in 
reign  of   Edw.  iii,  i&.  n.  1;    di- 
vinity,  300;  arts  and  civil  law, 
i6. 
Science,  a,  and  an  art,  distinction 

between,  179 
Scot,  Michael,  his  ignorance  as  a 

translator  of  Aristotle,  155 
Scrutators,  their  functions,  148,  145 
Selden,   John,   his    explanation    of 
hostility  shewn  by  king  Stephen 
to  the  study  of  the  civil  law,  38 
Selling,  Wm.,  feU.  of  All  Souls,  Ox- 
ford, 477 ;  his  scholarly  tastes,  i7». ; 


ttadiei  under  PoUti«n  »t  Bologna, 
it. ;  appointed  muter  ol  the  oon- 
TeDtoal  Bchool  at  Canterbury,  47S ; 
Wm.  Linaore,  pupil  of,  ib, 
Bentancee  of  Peter  Lombard,  69; 
ofaaracterieed  b^  Schtcegler,  ib.; 
deBcription  of  the  work,  ib, ;  mean- 
ing of  the  title,  ib.  n.  S;  antici- 
pation  of  Paley  Id,  ib.  n.  i;  dia- 
lectical element  in,  GO;  its  method 
of  treatment,  according  to  Consin, 
more  aeverely  logical  than  that  of 
ftny  preceding  writer,  ib.  a.  8; 
(eetimony  to  its  character  by  prof. 
Hanrice,  61;  avowed  object  of  the 
oompiler,  ib.  and  n.  1  ;  opposed  on 
its  lirHt  appearance.  61;  its  eiten- 
sive  indnanoe  and  voluminons  lite- 
ratnre,  62;  its  method  oenented 
by  OnalteniB,  ib.  a.  1 ;  apeoolation 
encouraged  by  the  expounders  of, 

■nred   by  Roger  Bacon,   167  i  re- 

ject«d  by  Lather  and  Stafford  for 

tbe  Seriptorei,  6GT,  669 
Sententiariiu,  the,  SS3 
BboKton,   Nich.,   telL    of    Oouville 

Ball,  661 1  hii  connexion  with  tbe 


■White  Horse,  673 
Shirley,  prof.,  his  view  reepeoting 
the  oontinuanoe  of  reoliitio  doc- 
tlineB  after  the  time  of  Oooam, 
19B;  his  oriticiam  on  the  effeots 
of  the  papal  reaidenoe  at  Avignon 
on  the  univeiaity  of  Paris  i^noted, 

ai6 

BhortoQ,  Bobt.,  master  of  St.  John's, 
at  the  same  time  a  fellow  of  Pem- 
broke, 373;  dean  of  Woleey'a  pri- 
vate chapel,  £46;  aeleots  tbe  Gun- 
bridge  Btodents  loF  Cardinal  Col- 
lege, 603 

Bbyreawood,  WilUtun,  176;  probably 
ibe  earliest  tranelator  of  the  Sum- 
mubEot  Petms  Hiepanns,  177;  first 
author  in  whom  the  mnemonio 
verses  are  found,  ib. ;  praised  by 
Roger  Bacon,  ib. 

Bibetcb,  John,  first  Cambridge  print- 
er, 626;  bis  edition  of  Ualen,  ib. 

Bickling,  John,  master  of  God's 
Bouse,  at  same  time  a  fellow  of 
Corpus,  373 

Sigebert,  kin|;  of  East  Anglio,  a  re- 
puted founder  of  the  UDiversity  of 
Cambridge,  66 

*  Sinai  of  the  Hiddle  Ages,'  tmi*«T«ity 
of  Paris  so  termed,  74 ;  Uonle  L'a». 


EX  681 

sino  so  styled  by  the  Benedictines, 
it.  0.3 

Sinker,  Mr.,  his  essay  on  the  Testa- 
ments of  the  Twelve  Patriarclis 
cited.  110 

Sizara,  first  inetttuted  by  statutes  of 
Clare  HaU,  263 

Bkelton,  John,  elegy  by,  on  Margaret 
of  Richmond,  463,  □.  2;  nniver- 
sity  career  of,  640  ;  extravagantly 
praised  by  Erasmus,  ib.;  his  sym- 
pathies with  the  old  learning,  lb. ; 
his  verses  attacking  the   respect 

{laid  to  Greek  at  Cambridge,  ib, ; 
alls  into  disgrace  with  Wolsey, 
648 ;  satire  o^  on  the  Cambridge 
fiefotmers,  G07  and  n.  3 

Smith,  Bich.,  a  convert  of  Bilney 
at  Trinity  Hall,  56S 

Sorbonne,  the,  regulations  of,  imi- 
tated at  Oxlord  and  Cambridge, 
67;  Coll4ge  de,  founded  in  the 
thirteenth  century  in  Paris,  126, 
n.  4;  a  theological  college,  127; 
Uie  model  for  our  earliest  Ent;- 
hsh  collsges,  ib.;  poverty  an  es- 
sential characteristic  of,  ib,  n.  S; 
rules  for  the  library  of,  copied 
•t  Durham  College,  Oxford,  204, 
u.  1 ;  decided  that  Greek  and  He- 
brew were  subversive  of  religion, 
626,  n.  2 ;  condemns  LnUier'a 
writings,  671 

Sorbonne,  Robert  de,  founder  of  the 
college  known  by  his  name,  137 

Spain,  comparatively  free  from  in- 
vasion under  the  Visigoths,  81; 
universities  of,  formed  on  the 
model  of  Bologna,  74 

Spalatin,  testimony  of,  to  the  de- 
mand for  Tyndale's  New  Testa- 
ment in  England,  699 

Spenser,  Bdm.,  bis  description  of 
the  oonrse  of  tbe  Ouse.  330;  an- 
cient propbeoy  recorded  by,  SS3, 
n.  1 

Btollord,  Edw.,  dnke  of  Bnelbni^uun, 
tbe  supposed  victim  of  Wolsey's 
resentment,  648;  generally  re- 
garded OS  the  founder  of  Backing- 
ham  College,  ib.  n.  1;  popular  be- 
lief that  his  death  was  brought 
about  by  Wolsey,  ib.  u.  2 

Stafford,  George,  fell,  of  Pembroke, 
S67 :  his  lectures  in  theology,  tb. ; 
discards  the  Sentences  for  the 
Soriptores,  •*.;  his  services  to  St. 
Paul  as  estimated  by  Beoon.  ib,; 
his  disputatiou  with  Uames  in  tlio 
divinity  schuols,  568;  visit  of,  to 


682 


IXDEX, 


I- 


r. 


Henry  the  *oonjarer/  608;  death 
of,  609 

Stamford,  migration  to,  from  nniver- 
Bity  of  Oxford,  135 ;  falfle  derivation 
of  the  name,  ib.  n.  1 ;  existing 
remains  of  colleges  and  halls  at, 
ib,;  prophecy  that  the  university 
would  one  day  be  trausfezred  to, 
882 

Stanley,  James,  bp.  of  Ely,  gives  the 
origmal  statutes  of  Jesus  College, 
821  and  n.  5;  gives  his  assent  to 
the  dissolution  of  the  hospital 
of  St.  John,  462;  subsequently 
opposes  it,  466 ;  his  character,  ib, ; 
name  of,  appears  in  list  of  bene- 
factors of  St.  John's  College,  541, 
n.  5 

Stare  in  quadragesitna,  meaning  of 
the  phrase,  354 

Statianariif  the  booksellers  of  the 
university,  144,  n.  1;  fraudulent 
practices  of,  ib. 

Statins,  lectures  on,  by  Gerbert  at 
Bheims,  44 

Statute,  early,  respecting  hostels, 
218  (see  also  App.  C);  its  pro- 
visions compared  with  those  of 
statute  67,  221;  forbidding  friars 
to  receive  into  their  order  youths 
under  eighteen,  222 

Statute  of  Provisors,  266 

Statutes,  ancient,  of  the  university, 
contradictions  to  be  found  in,  140, 
n.  1;  earliest  college,  at  Cam- 
bridge, 234 

Stephen,  king;  forbids  Vacarius  to 
lecture  on  the  civil  law,  38;  his 
motives  explained  by  Selden,  t6. 

Stokesley,  bp.  of  London,  his  repu- 
tation for  learning,  535,  n.  1 

Stokys*  Book, account  extracted  from, 
of  ceremony  observed  by  the  ques- 
tionist,  353 

Stratford,  archbp.,  order  of,  with  re- 
spect to  the  dress  of  university 
students,  233 

Stubbs,  prof.,  on  the  destruction  of 
the  Benedictine  societies  in  Eng- 
land, 81,  n.  5;  his  distinction  be- 
tween the  two  monasteries  at  Can- 
terbury quoted,  100,  n.  2 ;  quoted, 
on  the  monks  and  seculars,  161,  n. 
2;  on  the  foundation  of  secular 
colleges,  161,  n.  3 

Students  at  Oxford  in  the  twelfth 
century,  not  supported  by  pecu- 
niary assistance,  81,  n.  1 

Studies,  design  of  founders  in  the 
15th  century  that  they  should  not 


be  pursued  from  mereenary  ino< 
tives,  819,  322 

Sturbridge  fair,  referred  to  by  Skel- 
ton,  540;  note  on,  i6.  n.  1 

Suetonius,  the  classical  lecturer  at 
C.  C.  C,  Oxford,  ordered  by  bp. 
Fox  to  lecture  on,  521,  n.  2 

SummuUgf  see  Petrut  HUtpanui 

SuppUcat,  the,  nature  of,  853 

Suppotitio,  the,  theory  of,  188;  a  con- 
tribution of  the  Byzantine  logic, 
ib, 

Sylvester  n,  see  Gerbert 

Sylvius,  MnetLSf  his  lament  over  the 
fall  of  Constantinople,  401;  his 
efforts  to  awaken  a  love  of  learn- 
ing in  Germany,  408;  his  charac- 
ter contrasted  with  that  of  Gre- 
gory Heimburg,  ib. 

Syndic,  an  officer  in  the  oniversity 
of  Bologna,  73 


Tavemer,  Rich.,  attended  meetings 
at  the  White  Horse,  573 

Taxors  of  the  university,  their  funo- 
tions  described,  145 

Tempier,  Etienne,  declares  that  theo- 
logical and  scientific  truth  cannot 
be  at  variance,  114,  n.  2;  condem- 
nation of  Averroistio  opinions  by, 
118 

Terence,  lectures  on,  by  Gerbert  at 
Bheims,  44 

Tertullian,  an  objector  to  pagan 
learning,  16 

Testaments  of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs, 
translation  of,  by  Grosseteste  and 
John  Basing,  110;  a  spurious  pro- 
duction, ib. ;  Mr.  Sinker's  investi- 
gations with  respect  to  its  genuine- 
ness, ib.  n.  1 

Theiner,  his  theory  with  respect  to 
the  decline  of  the  episcopal  and 
monastic  schools  called  in  ques- 
tion, 69 

TheodoruB,  archbp.  of  Canterbory, 
his  services  to  education,  8 

Theodosius,  code  of,  survives  the 
disruption  of  the  empire,  36 

Theology,  preliminaries  to  the  study 
of,  at  Merton  College,  167 ;  study 
of,  neglected  for  that  of  the  civil  ana 
canon  law  in  the  14th  centiury,  211 
and  n.  2;  faculties  of,  when  given 
to  Bologna  and  Padua,  215 ;  Gon- 
ville  Ball  designed  by  the  founder 
to  promote  study  of,  240;  stu- 
dents of,  at  Cambridge  in  the  16th 


ceotitry.  deferibod  hj  Skelton,  4S9; 
in  Italy,  by  Petrarcb.  16.  □.  3 

Thierry,  \Villiam  of,  bis  alarm  at  tbe 
progrms  of  enquiry.  G8 

Tbixtil),  John,  fell,  nf  Pembroke,  one 
ol  Biluej'a  conTerta,  6M 

Thorpe,  sir  Bobert  de,  master  of 
Pembroke,  commences  tbe  divinity 
eehoDls  at  Cambridge,  BOO;  eiean- 
tors  of,  complete  the  ereetiun  of 
the  diviiuty  Bcbools,  tb, 

Tiedemann,  theory  of,  that  tbe  medi- 
eval knowledge  of  Aristotle  wse 
derived  from  Arabic  translations,  93 

Toml;a,  Wm.,  hia  reckless  manage- 
ment of  tbe  hospital  ol  3t.  J<^ 
tbe  Evangelist,  fH 

Tonnye,  John,  prior  of  tbe  Angnsti- 
BUulB  at  Cambridge,  £65;  aspires 
to  1e»rn  Greek,  ib, 

Topiea  of  Ariatotle,  never  qnoted 
prior  to  12th  centary,  29 

Toulouse,  civil  law  taogbt  at,  before 
fotmdatioD  of  university,  38,  n.  1 ; 
rniiversity  of,  formed  on  the  model 
of  Bologna,  71;  lonnded  in  the 
thirteenth  ceuttuy,  BO 

Tonmsments,  celebration  of,  in  tbe 
neighbourhood  of  Cambridge,  138 

TransUting,  Agricola'a  maxims  on, 
411 

TrapezaotiaB,  Qeorgins,  his  career 
as  a  scholar,  439  ;  bis  logic  intro- 
dnced  by  authority  at  Cambridge, 
ib.;  a  prescribed  teit-book  at  the 
nniversity,  630 

Trlni^  College,  Oitord,  origtaaUy 
Durham  College,  203 

Trinity,  gild  of  the  Holy,  at  Gam- 
bridge.  ai8 

Trinity  Hall,  fomidation  of,  342; 
designed  ciclasively  tor  canonisls 
and  ciTJliaDs,  ih. ;  formerly  a  hostel 
belonging  to  the  monks  of  Ely,  ib, 
n.  1 ;  conditions  imposed  at,  with 
respect  to  eleclions  of  a  maeter 
and  fellows,  213  ;  Lbrary  given  to, 
by  the  foODiler,  ib, ;  certain  sta- 
tates  of,  snbstituted  tor  those  of 
Gounlle  Hall,  216;  its  early  sta- 
tutes an  echo  oi  tbe  tradition!  of 
Avignon, 2G3;  Bilney'a converta at, 
663 

Tn'rium  of  the  Boman  schools,  24 

'Trojans,'  tbe  opponents  of  Greek  at 
Olfortl  selt-nameil,  524 

Tubingen,  nnivenity  of,  compromise 
between  tbe  nominalists  and  real- 
ists at,  417 

Tunstal,  Cothbcrf,  patronises  Enw- 


mns's  Nov.  Tfuf. ,  filS  ; 
career  of,  591 ;  character  of,  G9S  ; 
temporising  policy  of,  ib.;  his  writ- 
ings, ib, ;  his  Arithmetic,  ib, ;  bis 
interview  with  Tyndale,  693;  de- 
scription of,  by  Tyndale,  694 ; 
preaches  at  the  burning  of  Tyn- 
dale's  New  Testament,  600;  dis. 
posal  of  the  Lina«re  endowment* 
by,  603.  n.  2 

Twyne,  Brian,  disingentiona  uga- 
ment  of,  against  the  antiquity  of 
the  imiver«ity,  146,  n.  1;  his  sug- 
gestion that  the  'Trojans'  at  Ox- 
ford were  Cambridge  men,  639 

Tvndale,  Wm.,  hia  observation  on 
Erasmus,  488,  n.  9;  his  New  Tes- 
tament a  carrying  oat  of  an  idea 
Banctioned  by  Erasmus.  567;  why 
the  work  was  denounced  I7  the 
moderate  party,  688  ;  probably  did 
not  go  to  Cambridge  until  sftar 
Etosmns  bad  left.  689 1  probably  a 
pnpil  of  Croke,  iL  ;  bis  reminia- 
eences  of  Oxford,  590 ;  his  life  in 
Gloaceeterabire,  691;  hia  inter- 
view with  Tunstal,  693;  his  fer- 
viees  compared  with  those  of  Tnn- 
atal,  595;  bis  career  on  leaving 
England,  ib.;  bis  attainments  as  a 
scholar,  G96;  his  sobolarsbip  vin- 
dicated, 697  ;  followed  Lather's 
teaching,  598;  demand  for  hia 
New  Testament  in  England,  699 ; 
obaracler  of  the  work,  600 ;  btun- 
ing  of  tbe  same  at  Paul's  Cross,  ib. 

U 

Ullramonlani,  foreigners  bo  named 
in  the  oniveni^  of  Bologna,  78 

Ultramontanists,  English,  at  th« 
coancil  of  Basel,  281 ;  their  infln- 
ence  panunonnt  at  Cambridge  in 
the  16th  craitury,  387 

■  Undergraduate,'  the  term  inappliea- 
ble  to  students  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  Middle  Ages,  363 

Unity  of  the  intellect,  theory  of  the, 
117 

Universals,  controversy  respecting, 
prevalent  in  the  schools,  66 ;  evny 
Bcienee,  as  snob,  can  deal  on^ 
with,  190 

Unirertila*,  real  significance  of  tha 
term,  71;  its  first  application  to 
Paris,  ift.;  the  term  employed  in 
various  senses,  ib.;  Unirntita* 
vrtira,  ningnUr  meaning  of  the 
expression,  72.  n.  1 


684 


INDEX. 


fj; 


Uuiversiticfl,  ppontancity  of  the 
growth  of  the  early,  72  ;  classifica- 
tion of  thoBe  formeil  on  the  mo«lel 
of  Bologna  and  of  Paris  ronpec- 
tively,  74 ;  centreH  of  refonn  in  the 
14th  centun', 271 ;  on  the  nuxUl  of 
Paris,  comparative  nuniher  f«"Un{U'<l 
in  13th,  14th,  and  15th  ccnturicH, 
282  and  n.  2  ;  for  diferrnt  univrr- 
sides  see  under  retfju'ctive  nam  fit 

University  CidloKO,  the  earlient  col- 
lege fonndation  at  Oxford,  160,  n. 
1 

Univerfdty  education,  conflicting 
opinions  as  to  the  valiii)  in  which 
it  was  held  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
845 

University  Hall,  Clare  Hall  originally 
so  called,  250,  n.  1 ;  251 

University  library,  foundation  of 
tlie,  323 ;  benefactors  to,  ib. ;  two 
early  catalogues  of,  ib.;  first  library 
building,  ib. 

University  Ubrary,  Oxford,  when  com- 
menced, 203,  n.  2  ;  original  statute 
respecting  its  management,  i6. 

University  press,  the,  625 ;  its  inac- 
tivity in  the  sixteenth  century, 
626 

Urban  ii,  his  object  in  authorising 
the  Crusades,  88 

Urban  rv,  pope,  orders  the  Francis- 
cans to  quit  Bury,  150 

Urban  v,  use  of  benches  and  seats 
at  lectures  forbidden  by,  131,  n.  1 


Yacarins,  lectures  at  Oxford  on  the 
civil  law  by,  38  and  u.  2 

Valence,  Peter  de,  wiites  a  denuncia- 
tion over  Leo's  proclamation  of 
indulgences  affixed  to  the  gate  of 
the  common  schools,  557;  is  ex- 
communicated by  Fisher,  ib.;  story 
respecting,  ib. 

Valerius  Maximus,  the  classical  lec- 
turer at  C.  C.  C,  Oxford,  ordered 
by  bp.  Fox  to  lecture  on,  521,  n.  2 

Yalla,  Laurentius,  his  contests  with 
the  civilians  of  Pavia,  418;  his 
controversy  with  an  eminent  jurist, 
419 ;  the  classical  lecturer  at 
C.  C.  C,  Oxford,  ordered  by  bp. 
Fox  to  lecture  on  the  Elegantiaotj 
521,  n.  2 

Vaughan,  Dr.  Bobt.,  doubtful  charac- 
ter of  his  assumptions  with  respect 
to  Wyclif,  269 


Yonetus,  John,  preaches  against  La- 
timer at  St.  Mary's,  611 

Yercelli,  university  of,  founded  in 
the  13th  century,  80 

Verses,  memorial,  on  the  tr'vium 
and  quadriviumy  first  found  in  Dor- 
bellus,  566,  n.  3 

Viocnza,  university  of,  its  founda- 
tion tlie  result  of  a  migration  from 
Uologna,  80 

VictorinuH,  his  translation  of  tlie 
Jmfjoge  of  Porphyry  used  by  Ger- 
bert  at  Bheims,  44  ;  i^assage  in 
translation  of  Porjihyry  by,  51 ; 
quotation  from  same  translation, 
52 

Vienna,  university  of,  formed  on 
the  model  of  Paris,  74  ;  division 
into  *  nations*  at,  79,  n.  2;  statute 
of,  quoted,  ib.;  *the  eldest  daugh- 
ter of  Paris,'  215;  mathematical 
studies  required  for  degree  of  mas- 
ter of  arts  at,  in  14th  century,  351 

Virgil,  lectures  on,  by  Gerbert  at 
Bheims,  44 ;  three  copies  of,  in  li- 
brary of  Christchurch,  Canterbury, 
104 

Vischer,  Dr..  his  observations  on  the 
progress  of  nominalism  in  the 
Mid(Ue  Ages,  196,  n.  2 

ViteUi,  Cornelius,  teaches  Greek  at 
Oxford,  478 

Vitrarius,  friend  of  Erasmus,  pre- 
ferred Origen  to  any  other  fatlier, 
483 

Vives,  Frobenius  declines  to  publisli 
the  works  of,  in  consequence  of 
absorbing  attention  commanded 
by  the  Lutheran  controversy,  385 

Vulgate,  the  Latin,  errors  in,  pointed 
out  by  Boger  Bacon,  158 ;  dis- 
carded by  Erasmus  in  his  Noc. 
Tf,8t.,  523 


W 


Wainfleet,  Wm.,  provost  of  Eton, 
probably  prepared  the  second  sta- 
tutes of  King's  College,  307,  n.  1 

Walthnm,  earl  Harold's  foundation 
at,  162 

Warham,  archbp., presented  Erasmus 
to  the  rectory  of  Aldington,  604; 
munificence  of,  to  Erasmus,  518 

Warton,  his  explanation  of  the  de- 
cline of  the  monasteries  as  centred 
of  education,  207 

Watson,  John,  fell,  of  Peterhoose, 
master  of   Christ's,   a   friend    of 


Erasmiia  at  Cambridgr,  499 ;  letter 
rrom,  to  Erssmna,  ib. ;  od«  of 
BameB'  opponentB.  677 

W«ndoTec,  tejger  of,  teBlimony  of, 
to  the  anccei^Kfiil  preacliiug  of  the 
Franciscans,  91  and  a.  1 

Wee«el,  Jubn.  rebels  BKainst  the  sa- 
thoritj  of  AqaiDa<>,  4U9 

Went,  Nicholas,  fell,  of  KiaR'n,  bp. 
of  Ely,  remudela  the  »tatat«B  of 
JeBUS  College,  321  autl  d.  6;  dues  ho 
in  profeHsed  conformity  to  the  de- 
sign of  Alcock,  322  andn.  1;  though 
an  emineat  canoniBt  forbids  the 
Btudy  of  the  ean^n  law  at  Jesns 
College,  i<22;  oBtoututiuaB  ehaiac- 
ttr  of,  583;  atleoda  Lfltimer's  aer- 
moii  before  the  DniTenity,  ib.; 
asks  him  to  preach  against  Latber, 
ib. ;  inliiblta  him  from  preaching, 

■Westcott,  canon,  his  aatimate  of  Tyn- 
dale's  New  TeBtament  qnotoil,  597 

Wentminster  Abbey,  eglalef  of  the 
lad;  Margaret  profenwrfhip  en- 
tranted  to  the  authoritieg  oi,  i'iG 

Whately,  archbp.,  hia  recognition  of 
the  need  of  a  History  of  I^gie, 
171 

^hewell.  Dr.,  hia  obserration  on 
Bogcr  Bacon  combated  by  later 
writers,  170,  n.  1 

White  canuna,  the,  their  house  op- 
posite to  Pctcrbouae,  lli9 

White  Uor«e  Inn,  Ibc,  672;  site  of, 
ib.  u.  1 1  known  as  •  (lermany,'  673 

Whitfonl,  Hich.,  felt,  of  Queens'  Col- 
lege, K'BTe  of  ubaenee  grauteil  to, 
372,  n.  2 

Wilkinson,  Tho.,  retires  from  the 
presidi-noy  of  Queens'  College  to 
make  way  for  Fisher,  UB 

Williuma,  (ieorge,  !ktr.,  his  opinion 
with  reapcct  lo  statntea  ol  King's 
CiiUcge  iinotfti,  300,  n.  2 ;  S07,  n.  1 

WiuKfield,  sir  Kich.,  appointed  high 
steward  in  1624,  G84,  n.  3;  bia 
reasons  fur  desiring  the  office,  ib. 

Wittenberg,  arguments  ai<ed  al, 
agiiiust  the  study  of  Greek,  638, 
n.  1 

WoUey,  cnrdinal,  the  reputed  author 
of  the  spoliutioii  of  81,  John's  Col- 
lege ,408  ;><;mpatliicsor,iuailily  with 
Oxford,  169 ;  an  iiuitatiT  of  lip.  Fox 
in  his  innoTotions  at  Oxford,  631; 
foundn  a  chair  of  Greek  at  Oifonl. 
626 ;  is  solicited  to  accept  tho  offce 
of  chancellor  and  declines,  ib. ; 
his  name  appears  in  the   list  of 


EX  6«5 

benefactora  of  St.  John's  College, 
ib.  n.  6  ;  hia  visit  to  Cambridge, 
643;  hia  character  contrasted  with 
that  of  FUher,  644 ;  his  relations 
to  Cambridge,  646;  Tirtnes  ascribed 
to,  in  Bullock'a  oration,  646  ;  his 
Ticlima  at  tlie  uniiersities,  S48; 
is  constituted  Bole  reviser  of  the 
aUtutesot  thenniverBity  of  Oxford, 
649;  is  investedwilh  simiUr  powen 
St  Cambridge,  ib. ;  obtains  the 
king's  licence  to  endow  Cardinal 
College,  661;  invitea  scholars  from 
Cambridge  to  the  new  foundation, 
632 ;  his  scholastic  learning,  ib. ; 

Eleada  that  he  is  not  authorised  to 
uru  Lulher'a  early  treatises,  570; 
orders  active  search  to  be  made 
for  Lanier's  works,  571;  declines 
to  appoint  a  commission  to  en- 
quire into  the  doings  of  the  Cam- 
bridge Refonnera,  576  ;  is  attacked 
by  Bame?,  6Tfi;  simimons  BaniM 
to  London.STH;  authorises  Latimer 
to  preach  in  do&auce  of  the  bp.  ol 
Ely,  684 

Wood,  Anthony,  respecting  the  loaa 
of  the  most  ancient  charters  of 
Oxford,  81,  n.  1;  on  the  inter- 
course  between  Paris  and  Oxford, 
134 ;  censured  by  Mr  Ansley,  IflO, 
n.  1 ;  his  explanation  ot  the  deelina 
of  the  ardonr  of  the  univeraitie* 
in  the  Mth  centnry,  208;  hia  ob- 
servation that  nearly  all  tbe  bishops 
came  from  Oxford,  426 ;  his  retort 
on  Croke's  aastrtinn  that  Oxford 
WAS  coloaia  a  Cantubrigia  deducta, 
639 

Woodlnrk,  Bobt.,  founder  of  St.  Ca- 
therine's Halt,  317 ;  prorost  ot 
King's  College,  ib.;  hia  ability  aa 
an  a.Imiiiistmtor,  318;  forbid*  Uw 
Btudy  of  the  canon  and  dvil  Uw 
at  SI.  Catherine's,  ib.\  no  booki 
on  these  subJeclB  in  the  library  he 
gave  to  the  society,  il.  n.  3 

Woodrille,  Eli^.  iqneen  of  Edw.  r»), 
gives  the  statutes  of  Queens'  Col- 
lege, 31C 

Worcester,  earl  of,  a  disciple  of  Qiu< 
rino  at  Ferrara,  .H96 

Wyclif,  John,  Ve  Domiuio  Diritio  oL 
opposed  to  papal  claims  founded 
on  the  canon  law,  36 ;  how  tU  ft 
follower  of  Occam,  2G1;  his  relft- 
tions  to  the  Mendicants,  ib. ;  hia 
efforta  on  behalf  of  the  secular 
clerg)-  at  Oxford,  264;  leaves  Ox- 
ford,  266;    his    retniii,   ib.;    his 


I 


chmrkctor,  967;  period  at  which 
be  aunmed  thM  of  a  reform«r, 
ib.  n.  1 1  a)  tbe  original  ol  Chan- 
ocr's  Pariah  PrieBt,  ifr.  n.  3;  not 
originally   hontile  to  the  Mendi-  y 

oaotH,  2G8;  vebemence  of  hin  at- 
tack apoD  them,  370 ;  hia  docttioeB      Tear,  tbe,  1S49,  Ml ;  1&16,  proBpecta 
opposed  to  the  aivil  and  canoD  lav,  of  reform  in,  556 

372 :  hiB  works  prohibited,  ib.  Tork,  Bcbool  o^  in  the  eighth  oen- 

Wjkeham,  Wm.  of,  motives  that  led  tnry,  9 


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•ult  in  their  own  libra™,  j  work  «bioluitly  in-  c«I  proliibilory  ta  all  but  a  kw."—t,ilmry 
lorji  ol  the  Praycr-Book,  but  which  till  now 

Fasciculus  II.  In  quo  cominemur  Psalterium,  cum  ordinario 
Officii  totius  hebdomadae  juxta  Moras  Canonicas,  ec  proprio  Com- 
pletorij,  LiTANiA,  Commune  iiANcroRUH,  Ordinarium  Missae 
CUM  Canone  et  xiii  Missis,  &c.  &c.    Demy  8vo.     lu. 

"Sol  only  cKpertA  ip  LiturgiDlo^,  but  all  '^Caahrid^  bai  worthily  lakeo  the  lead 
pcrwDi  intcrcKctl  in  Ihc  hiuory  of  ihc  Anglicu  with  Ihc  Brcviuy,  which  ii  or  eiritcial  viIhc 
Book  or  Connnon  Prayer,  will  be  graieflj]  lathe  Cor  thai  pan  of  thcieformoT  the  Prayer- Book 
Syndicate  arthcCamhriilEeUDiverulyPresraT  which  will  fil  it  for  Ihe  muD  ol  our  tiDK.''-~■ 
la^waJIiinglhe  publicauDnoflhe  volume  which  CJairtk  Quarlirlf  Jtmm. 
bean  the  above  tide."— jVo'u  aiu/  Qutritt. 

Fasciculus  III.    In  quo  contineiur  Proprium  Sanctorum 

quod  et  sanctorale  dicitur,  una  cum  accentuario.     Demy  8vo.     15J. 

*#•  An  Introduction  of  130  pages,  prefixed  to  this  volume,  contains 

(besides  other  interesting  information  as  to  the  Breviary  and  its  contents) 

Mr  Bradshaw's  exhaustive  lists  or  editions  and  copies  of  the  Breviary 

and  allied  II tu laical  books. 

Fasciculi  I.  II.  III.  complete,  £2.  21. 

GREEK  AND  ENGLISH  TESTAMENT,  in  parallel 
Columns  on  the  same  page.  Edited  by  J.  Scholekielu,  M.A. 
Small  Oflavo.  New  Edition,  with  the  Marginal  References  as 
arranged  and  revised  by  Dr  SCRIVENER.    Cloth,  red  edges.    71.  6d. 

GREEK  AND  ENGLISH  TESTAMENT.  The  Stu- 
dent's Edition  of  the  above,  on  large  writing  paper.    4to.     12*. 

GREEK  TESTAMENT,  ex  editione  Stephani  tertia,  1550. 
Small  Svo.    3.;.  bd. 

THE  PARALLEL  NEW  TESTAMENT,  GREEK  AND 
ENGLISH,  being  the  AnthOTisedVerBion  set  forth  in  t6ii  arranged 
in  Parallel  Columns  with  the  Bevised  Versloii  of  1881,  and  with  the 
original  Greek,  as  edited  by  F.  H.  A.  Scrivener,  M.A.,  D.C.L., 
LL.D.  Crown  Svo.  iit.  td.  The  Revised  Version  is  tke  JoiHi 
Property  0/ the  Universities  of  Cambridge  and  Oxford, 

THE  BOOK  OF  ECCLESIASTES,  with  Notes  and  In- 
troduction. By  the  Very  Rev.  E.  H.  PlUmptre,  D.D.,  Dean  of 
Wells.    Large  Paper  Edition.     Demy  Svo.    yj.  W. 


PUBUCAT/ONS  OF 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  IN  GREEK   ACCORDING 

TO    THE    SEPTUAGINT.      Edited  by  H.  B.  Swete,   D.D 
Honorary  Fellow  of  Gonville  and  Caius  College.    VoL  1.  Genesis — 
IV  Kings.    Crown  8vo.    7j.  6d. 

Volume  II.     By  the  same  Editor.  [fn  the  Press. 

"  Der  Zweck  dieser  AusKabe,  den  i^nzen  BetOgUdi  der  Aocente  und  Spuritusder  Eikch- 
in  den  erwfthnten  H&s.  vorliegenden  kritischen  namen  lind  die  Herauw.  ihre  eigenen  W«^e 
Stoff  Qbenichtlich  zusammenzustellen  und  dem        gegangeo.** — DeuUckt  LitUratmraeituMg. 


BenOuer  das  Nach«:hlagen  in  den  Separat-  ..  .^he  Edition  has  been  executed  in  the  very 

hOchste  Lob.     Da  rugleich  der  Preis  sehr  ni.-  ***•  —^cmamiy. 

drig  gestellt  ist,  so  ist  zu  hoflfen  und  zu  wan>  *'An  edition,  whidi  for  ordinary  purposes 

schen.  dass  sic  auch  aufserhalb  des  englischen  will  prc^bly  henceforth  be  that   in  me  by 

Spracnkreises  ihre  Verbreitung  finden  werde.  readers  of  tM  Septuagint." — Guardian. 

THE  BOOK  OF  PSALMS  IN  GREEK  ACCORDING 

TO  THE  SEPTUAGINT,  being  a  portion  of  Vol.  II.  of  the  above. 
Crown  8vo.    2j.  dd, 

THE  GOSPEL  ACCORDING  TO   ST  MATTHEW  in 

Anglo-Saxon  and  Northumbrian  Versions,  synoptically  arranged: 
with  Collations  exhibiting  all  the  Readings  of  all  the  MSS.  Edited 
by  the  Rev.  W.  W.  Skeat,  Litt.D.,  Elnngton  and  Bosworth  Pro- 
fessor of  Anglo-Saxon.    New  Edition.    Demy  4to.    icxr. 

'*  By  the  publication  of  the  present  volume        for  the  scholarly  and  accurate  way  inwhich  he 

hi    "        " 


Prof.  Skeat  has  brought  to  its  conclusion  a  has  performed  his  laborious  task.  Thanks  to 
work  planned  more  than  a  half  century  ago  by  him  we  now  possess  a  reliable  edition  of  all  the 
the  late  J.  M.  Kemble...  Students  of  English        existing  MSS.  of  the  old  English  Gospels."— 


THE  GOSPEL  ACCORDING  TO  ST  MARK,  uniform 

with  the  preceding,  by  the  same  Editor.    Demy  4to.     ioj. 

THE  GOSPEL   ACCORDING  TO   ST  LUKE,  uniform 

with  the  preceding,  by  the  same  Editor.    Demy  4to.     lor. 

THE   GOSPEL  ACCORDING  TO   ST  JOHN,  uniform 

with  the  preceding,  by  the  same  Editor.    Demy  4to.     lor. 

"  The  GoiPtl  according  to  St  Jokn^  in  ticular  volume  now  before  us,  we  can  only  say 

Anglo-Saxon  and  Northumbrian   Versions:  it  is  worthy  of  its  two  predecessors.  We  repeat 

completes  an  undertaking  designed  and  com-  that  the  service  rendered  to  the  study  of  Anglo- 

menced  by  that  distinguished  scholar,  J.  M.  Saxon  by  this  Synoptic  collection  cannot  easily 

Kemble,  some  foity  years  ago.    Of  the  par-  be  overstated." — Contemporary  Review. 

THE  FOUR  GOSPELS  (as  above)  bound  in  one  volume, 
price  301. 

THE  POINTED  PRAYER  BOOK,  being  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  with  the  Psalter  or  Psalms  of  David,  pointed  as 
they  are  to  be  sung  or  said  in   Churches.    Royal  24jno.     u.  6^. 

The  same  in  square  32mo.  cloth.    6^. 

THE  CAMBRIDGE  PSALTER,  for  the  use  of  Choirs  and 
Organists.  Specially  adapted  for  Congregations  in  which  the  "  Cam- 
bridge Pointed  Prayer  Book"  is  used.  Demy  8vo.  cloth  extra,  jj.  6^. 
cloth  limp,  cut  flush,    is,  6d. 


London:  C,  J,  Clay ^  Sons,  Cambridge  University  Press  Warehouse^ 

Ave  Maria  Lane, 


THE  CAMBRIDGE   UNIVERSITY  PRESS.  7 

THE  PARAGRAPH  PSALTER,  arranged  for  the  use  of 
Choirs  by  Brooke   Foss  Westcott,  D.D.,  Regius  Professor  of 
Divinity  in  the  University  of  Cambridge.     Fcap.  410.     ^s. 
The  aun«  in  roTal  S2bio.    Oloth  Lr.    ZiUtltsr  If.  6<£ 

THE  MISSING  FRAGMENT  OF  THE  LATIN  TRANS- 
LATION OF  THE  FOURTH  BOOK  OF  EZRA,  discovered, 
aod  edited  with  an  Introduction  and  Notes,  and  a  facsimile  of  the 
MS.,  by  Robert  L.  Bensly,  M.A.,  Lord  Almoner's  Professor  of 
Arabic.    Demy  4to.     lot. 

"It  hai  been  taid  of  thi*  book  (liiit  it  h>i  BSbl«  we  uikdenajid  tbat  of  the  tufer  lin 

uidtd  » DOW  chapter  lo  the  Bible.  vDil,  Kianliiic  vhidt  CDMaiai  the   Apocryplu,  &Bd  if  llit 

u  the  (Ulemtnl  may  it  lint  >i(fil  eppeu,  it  ii  Second  Book  of  Eidni  cu  be  faiily  ailed  ■ 

nr.  ....^...irq,  of  the  actual  fact,  if  by  the  pail  of  the  Apocrypha.  "—.SMarolrtrJF'n'w. 


THE  HARKLEAN  VERSION  OF  THE  EPISTLE 
TO  THE  HEBREWS,  Chap.  xi.  28— xiii.  25.  Now  edited  for  the 
first  time  with  Introduction  and  Notes  on  this  Version  of  the  Epistle. 
By  Robert  I-  Bensly,  M.A.     Demy  8vo.     5J. 

NOTITIA  CODICIS  QUATTUOR  EVANGELIORUM 
Grxci  Membranacei  viris  dociis  hucusque  incogniti  quern  in  museo 
suo  asservat  Eduardus  Reuss  Argentoratensis.    2s. 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  LEICESTER  CODEX  OF  THE 
NEW  TESTAMENT.  By  J.  Rendel  Harris,  M.A.  With  3 
plates.     Demy  4ta     lor.  fid. 

THE  REST  OF  THE  WORDS  OF  BARUCH :  A 
Christian  Apocalypse  of  the  Year  136A.D.  The  Text  revised  with 
an  InlroductioD.     By  J.  Rendel  Harris,  M.A.     Royal  8vo.    \s. 

CODEX  S.  CEADDAE  LATINUS.  Evangelia  SSS. 
Matthaei,  Maici,  Lucae  ad  cap.  III.  9  complectens,  circa  septimum 
vel  octavum  saeculum  scriptvs,  in  Ecclesia  Cathedrali  Lichfieldiensi 
servatus.  Cum  codice  versionis  Vulgatae  Amiatino  contulit,  pro- 
legomena conscripsit,  F.  H.  A.  Scrivener,  A.M.,  D.C.L,  LL.D., 
With  3  plates,    /i.  \s. 


THEOLOGY— (ANCIENT). 

THE  GREEK  LITURGIES.  Chiefly  from  original  Autho- 
rities. By  C.  A.  SwAiNSOK,  D.D.,  late  Master  of  Christ's  College, 
Cambridge.     Crown  4to.     Paper  covers.     15/. 

'Medei  foliende  Fonchct  wird  dankbv  Griechiichen  LiluTEien  ticher  nleil  bat.'— 
anetkeanin.  dast  Swuinwn  du  Fundimeni  ru  Adolfh  Hamiacic,  Tk^obriuMt  LUtratnr 
einet    hiBtonKh-kiiliKheii    GeMbicbte    der       Ziitmr. 


8  PUBLICATIONS  OF 


THEODORE    OF    MOPSUESTIA'S    COMMENTARY 

ON  THE  MINOR  EPISTLES  OF  S.  PAUL.  The  Latin  Ver- 
sion with  the  Greek  Fragments,  edited  from  the  MSS.  with  Notes 
and  an  Introduction,  by  H.  B.  Swete,  D.D.  In  Two  Volumes. 
Volume  I.,  containing  the  Introduction,  with  Facsimiles  of  the  MSS., 
and  the  Commentary  upon  Galatians — Colossians.     Demy  8vo.     I2J. 

"It  is  the  result  of  thorough,  careful,  and  tter  Sachkenntniss  sein  Werk  mit  alien  den- 
patient  investigation  of  all  the  points  bearing  jenigen  Zugaben  ausgerOstet,  weldie  bei  eiaer 
on  the  subject,  and  the  results  are  presented  solchen  Text-Ausgabe  nur  irgend  ^  erwartet 
with  admirable  good  sense  and  modesty." —  werden  kOnnen.  .  .  .  Von  den  drei  Haupt- 
Gmardian.  handschriften  ...   sind    yortreffliche     photo- 

"  In  dem  oben  verzeichneten    Buche   liegt  graphische  Facsimile's  beigegeben,  wie  flber- 

uns  die  ersie  H&lfte  einervol!st&ndigen,ebenso  haupt  das  ganze  Werk   von  der    Unrorrtity 

sorgOUtig   gearbeiteten  wie   schOn   ausgestat*  Prtu  zu  Ounbridge  mit  bekannter  Eleganz 

teten  Aui>gabe  des  Commentars  mit  ausHlhr-  ausgestattet  vsxJ* ^-Theohgische  Literaturwei- 

Uchen   Prolegomena  und  reichhaltigen  kritis*  tung. 

chen  und  eruutemden  Anmerkungen  vor." —  "  Hemn    Swete's    Lcistung    ist    eine    so 

Literarisches  Centmlblatt.  tQchtige  dass  wir  das  Weric  in  keinen  besseren 

"Auf  Grund  dieser  Quellen  ist  der  Text  Hinden  wissen  mdchten.  und  mit  den   sich- 

bei   Swete   mit   musterhaJter   Akribie   herge-  ersten    Erwartungen    aut    das    Gelingen    der 

stellt.     Aber  auch  sonst  hat  der  Herausgeber  Fortsetzung    entgegen    sehen." — G^Uimgisdu 

mit  unermudlichem    Fleisse    und   eingehend-  gtUhrU  Anseigttn  (Sept.  x88i)l 

Volume  II.,  containing  the  Commentary  on  i  Thessalonians — 
Philemon,  Appendices  and  Indices.     I2j. 

"  Eine  Aus^abe  .  .  .  flQr  wclche  alle  zuging-  (Sept.  23,  1883X 
lichen  HQIfsmittel  in  musterhafter  Weise  be>  "Mit  derselben  Sorgfalt  bearbeitet  die  wir 

nutzt  wurdcn  .  .  .  eine  reife  Frucht  siebenj&hri-  bei    dem    ersten    Thei^    gerQhmt    haben."— 

gen  Fleisses." — Theohgische  Literaturzeitung  Literarischts  Centraiblatt  (July  9g^  1883X 

SAYINGS   OF  THE  JEWISH    FATHERS,  comprising 

Pirqe  Aboth  and  Pereq  R.  Meir  in  Hebrew  and  English,  with  Cri- 
tical and  Illustrative  Notes.  By  Charles  Taylor,  D.D.,  Master 
of  St  John's  College,  Cambridge.    Demy  8vo.     \os, 

\  "The   'Masseketh    Aboth'  stands  at  the  "  A  careful  and  thorough  edition  which  does 

1  head  of  Hebrew  non-canonical  writings.     It  is  credit  to  English  scholarship,  of  a  short  treatise 

I  of  ancient  date,  claiming  to  contain  the  dicta  from  the  Mishna,  containing  a  series  of  seo> 

I  of  teachers  who  flourished  from  B.C.  aoo  to  the  tences  or  maxims  ascribed  mostly  to  Jewish 

same  year  of  our  era.     Mr  Taylor's  explana-  teachers  immediately  preceding,  or  immediately 

tory  and  illustrative  commentary  is  very  full  following  the  Christian  era.  .  ." — Ccntem^ 

1  and  satisfactory." — Spectator.  rary  Review, 

'  A  COLLATION  OF  THE  ATHOS  CODEX  OF  THE 

SHEPHERD  OF  HERMAS.  Together  with  an  Introduction  by 
Spyr.  p.  Lambros,  Ph.  D.,  translated  and  edited  with  a  Preface  and 
Appendices  by  J.  Armitage  Robinson,  M.A.,  Fellow  and  Dean  of 
Christ's  College,  Cambridge.     Demy  8vo.     3^.  6^. 

THE  PALESTINIAN  MISHNA.    By  W.  H.  Lowe,  M.A., 

Lecturer  in  Hebrew  at  Christ's  College,  Cambridge.   Royal  8vo.   21J. 

SANCTI   IRENiEI   EPISCOPI   LUGDUNENSIS   libros 

quinque  adversus  Haereses,  versione  Latina  cum  Codicibus  Claro- 
montano  ac  Arundeliano  denuo  collata,  praemissa  de  placitis  Gnos- 
ticorum  prolusione,  fragmenta  necnon  Graece,  Syriace,  Armeniace, 
I  commentatione   perpetua    et    indicibus    variis    edidit    W.    Wigan 

Harvey,  S.T.B.  Collegii  Regalis  olim  Socius.    2  Vols.    8vo.     i8j. 

M.    MINUCII    FELICIS  OCTAVIUS.     The  text  revised 

from  the  original  MS.,  with  an  English  Commentary,  Analysis,  Intro- 
dudlion,  and  Copious  Indices.  Edited  by  H.  A.  Holden,  LL.D. 
Examiner  in  Greek  to  the  University  of  London.    Crown  8vo.    7^.  W. 


London :  C.  J.  Cla  y  6r*  Sons,  Cambridge  University  Press  Warehouse^ 

Ave  Maria  Lane. 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS.  9 

THEOPHILI  EPISCOPI  ANTIOCHENSIS  LIBRI 
TRES  AD  AUTOLYCUM  edidit,  Prolefomenis  Vereione  Notulis 
Indicibus  instnucil  G.  G.  Humphry,  S.T.B.     Post  Svo.    5*. 

THEOPHYLACTI  IN  EVANGELIUM  S.  MATTH^I 
COMMENTARIUS,  edited  by  W.  G.  HUMPHRY,  B.D.  Prebendary 
of  St  Paul's,  late  Fellow  of  Trinity  College.     Demy  Svo.    7*,  6d, 

TERTULLIANUS  DE  CORONA  MILITIS.  DE  SPEC- 
TACULIS,  DE  IDOLOLATRIA,  with  Analysis  and  English  Notes, 
by  George  Currey,  D.D.  Preacher  at  the  Charter  House,  late 
Fellow  and  Tutor  of  St  John's  College.    Crown  Svo.     S.t. 

FRAGMENTS  OF  PHILO  AND  JOSEPHUS.  Newly 
edited  by  J.  Rendel  Harris,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Clare  College, 
Cambridge.    With  two  Facsimiles.    Demy  4to.     12s.  bd. 

THE  TEACHING  OF  THE  APOSTLES.  Newly  edited, 
with  Facsimile  Text  and  Commentary,  by  J.  Rendel  HARRIS,  M.A. 
Demy4to.    £1.  \s. 


TEE0L0OT-{EKGLISH). 

WORKS  OF  ISAAC  BARROW,  compared  with  the  On- 
gioal  MSS.,  enlarged  with  Materials  hitherto  unpublished.  A  new 
Edition,  by  A.  Napier,  M.A.    9  Vols.    Demy  8vo.    £'i- it- 

TREATISE  OF  THE  POPE'S  SUPREMACY,  and  a 
Discourse  concerning  the  Unity  of  the  Church,  by  Isaac  Barrow. 
Demy  Svo.    js.  6d. 

PEARSON'S  EXPOSITION  OF  THE  CREED,  edited 
by  Temple  Chevallier,  B.D.  New  Edition.  Revisedby  R.  SiNKBR, 
D.D.,  Librarian  of  Trinity  College.     Demy  Svo.     I2J. 

mof  Bithop  Peanon'a  fBiDOUA       Colkf« Allogether  thii  appttrt  lo  be  ibe 

^lutjiut  been  Lbued  by  [he       mott  complete  and  coDvenienl  edilion  u  jrcl 


unbridee  tlaivenity  Preu.  Il  is  the  well-  published  a 
ovn  edition  of  TeinpleChevallici,thoTOIlchly  cogniKd  in 
echauled  by  ihe  Rev.  R.  Sinker,  of  Tnnity        CmMrdiMH. 


AN  ANALYSIS  OF  THE  EXPOSITION  OF  THE 
CREED  written  by  the  Right  Rev.  John  Pkarson,  D.D.  late  Lord 
Bishop  of  Chester,  by  W.  H.  Mill,  D.D.     Demy  Svo.    is. 

WHEATLY  ON  THE  COMMON  PRAYER,  edited  by 
G.  E.  CORRiE,  D.D.  late  Master  of  Jesus  College.    Demy  Svo.    ^s.  dd. 

TWO  FORMS  OF  PRAYER  OF  THE  TIME  OF  QUEEN 
ELIZABETH,     Now  First  Reprinted.    Demy  Svo.    f>d, 

C^SAR  MORGAN'S  INVESTIGATION  OF  THE 
TRINITY  OF  PLATO,  and  of  Philo  Judaus,  and  of  the  effefls 
which  an  attachment  to  their  writings  had  upon  the  principles  and 
reasonings  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Christian  Church.  Revised  by  H.  A. 
HOLDEN,  LLD.     Crown  Svo.    4J. 

^e  Univertity  Prut  Wartfuute, 


TO 


PUBUCATIONS  OF 


SELECT  DISCOURSES,  by  JOHN  Smith,  late  Fellow  of 
Queens'  College,  Cambridge.  Edited  by  H.  G.  Williams,  B.D.  late 
Professor  of  Arabic.     Royal  8vo.    js.  6d. 


"The  'Select  Discourses*  of  John  Smith, 
collected  and  published  from  his  fnpers  after 
his  death,  are,  in  my  opinion,  much  the  most 
considerable  work  left  to  us  by  this  Cambridge 
School  f the  Cambridge  PlatontsuJ.  They  have 
a  right  to  a  place  in  English  literary  history." 
— Mr  Matthew  Arnold,  in  the  CoHtem/o- 
rary  Rrtnew. 

^'Of  all  the  products  of  the  Cambridge 
School,  the  'Select  Discourses'  are  perhaps 
the  highest,  as  they  are  the  most  accessible 
and  the  most  widely  appreciated... and  indeed 


no  spuitually  thoughtful  mind  can  read  them 
unmoved.  They  carry  us  so  directly  into  an 
atmosphere  of  divine  philoioph^,  lumanotu 
with  the  richest  lights  of  meditative  genius... 
He  was  one  of  those  rare  thinkers  in  whom 
largeness  of  view,  and  depth,  and  wealth  of 
poetic  and  speculative  insight,  only  served  to 
evoke  more  fully  the  religious  spirit,  and  while 
he  drew  the  mould  of  his  Uioughtfrom  Plotinus, 
he  vivified  the  substance  of  it  from  St  PauL**— 
Principal  Tulloch,  Rati^mal  Tht^Ugy  w 
EngUmd  in  tkt  ijtk  Century. 

THE  HOMILIES,  with  Various  Readings,  and  the  Quo- 
tations from  the  Fathers  given  at  length  in  the  Original  Languages. 
Edited  by  the  late  G.  E.  CORRiE,  D.D.     Demy  8vo.    yj.  6d. 

DE  OBLIGATIONE  CONSCIENTIiE  PRiELECTIONES 

decern  Oxonii  in  Schola  Theolog^ca  habitae  a  Roberto  Sanderson, 
SS.  Theologian  ibidem  Professore  Regio.  With  English  Notes, 
including  an  abridged  Translation,  by  W.  Whewell,  D.D.  late 
Master  of  Trinity  College.     Demy  8vo.     js,  6d. 

ARCHBISHOP  USHER'S  ANSWER  TO  A  JESUIT, 

with  other  Tra<5ls  on  Popery.  Edited  by  J.  Scholefield,  M.A.  late 
Regius  Professor  of  Greek  in  the  University.     Demy  8vo.     js,  6d. 

WILSON'S  ILLUSTRATION  OF  THE  METHOD  OF 

explaining  the  New  Testament,  by  the  early  opinions  of  Jews  and 
Christians  concerning  Christ.    Edited  by  T.  Turton,  D.D.   8vo.    $s. 

LECTURES  ON  DIVINITY  delivered  in  the  University 

of  Cambridge,  by  John  Hey,  D.D.  Third  Edition,  revised  by  T. 
Turton,  D.D.  late  Lord  Bishop  of  Ely.    2  vols.     Demy  8vo.     ijj. 

S.  AUSTIN   AND    HIS   PLACE   IN   THE   HISTORY 

OF  CHRISTIAN  THOUGHT.  Being  the  Hulsean  Lectures  for 
1885.     By  W.  Cunningham,  D.D.     Demy  8vo.    Buckram,  i2j.  td, 

CHRIST  THE  LIFE  OF  MEN.  The  Hulsean  Lectures 
for  1888.    By  the  Rev.  H.  M.  STEPHENSON,  M.A.    Crown  8vo.    2s.6d. 

THE    GOSPEL    HISTORY  OF  OUR    LORD    JESUS 

CHRIST  IN  THE  LANGUAGE  OF  THE  REVISED 
VERSION,  arranged  in  a  Connected  Narrative,  especially  for  the 
use  of  Teachers  and  Preachers.  By  Rev.  C.  C.  James,  M.A,  Rector 
of  Wortham,  Suffolk,  and  late  Fellow  of  King's  College.  Crown  8vo. 
y.  td. 


ARABIC,  SANSKRIT,  SYBIAC,  &c. 

THE  DIVYAvADAnA,  a  Collection  of  Early  Buddhist 
Legends,  now  first  edited  from  the  Nepalese  Sanskrit  MSS.  in 
Cambridge  and  Paris.  By  E.  B.  Cowell,  M.A,  Professor  of 
Sanskrit  in  the  University  of  Cambridge,  and  R.  A.  Neil,  M.A., 
Fellow  and  Lecturer  of  Pembroke  College.     Demy  8vo.     i8j. 


London :  C  J.  Cla  v  &*  Sons,  Cambridge  University  Press  Warehouse, 

Ave  Maria  Lane, 


THE  CAMBRIDGE   UNIVERSITY  PRESS.  II 

POEMS  OF  BEHA  ED  DIN  ZOHEIR  OF  EGYPT. 
With  a  Metrical  Translation,  Notes  and  Intioduction,  by  E.  H. 
Palmer,  M.A.,  Barrister-at-Law  of  the  Middle  Temple,  late  Lord 
Almoners  Professor  of  Arabic,  formeTly  Fellow  of  St  John's  College, 
Cambridge,    z  vols.  Crown  4to. 

Vol.  I.    The  Arabic  Text.    iq*.  6rf. 

Vol,  II.  English  Translatioh.    loj.  f>d. 

'^Wd  hare  no  haiiutiaD  La  uyinf  tlut  in       mnutcd,  br  not  luikilfiil  loiirarintii  of  the 

both  Prof  Palmcc  has  made  u  addition  toOri.       •tyle>  of  Rvcnt  of  our  awn  ranurit*  poeU, 

rrauful ;   aod  that,  while  hii  knoarledEC  of  "  Thii  lumpliuiui  Blidoa  of  ibt  poema  of 

Arabic  ii  a  lulGcient  niaraniEc  foi  hii  maueir  Behi^ed-dln  Zoheir  u  a  nry  weicons  addidon 
of  IhE  Diiiinxl.  hii  Enaliih  compoiiiioni  an       lo  Ihe  unall  leria  of  Eauan  pocu  lewiiibla 

THE  CHRONICLE  OF  JOSHUA  THE  STYLITE,  com- 
posed in  Syriac  a.d.  507,  with  an  English  translation  and  notes,  by  the 
lale  W.  Wright,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Arabic.     Demy  8vo,     lot.  6rf. 

'■  Die  lehmiche  klcini!  ChiDnilc  Jouaa  hu  rin  Lehnniuel  (Dr  den  irrivJieii  Uuterricbt :  ■• 
nacb  Auemani  und  Marlin  in  Wneht  elncn  cncbeint  auch  Ecradc  lur  rtchlcn  Zcit,  da  die 
drif Icp  Bcarbf  iter  gcTiinden,  der  neb  un  dia       iweita  Aiu^cabe  von  Roedi^en  i yruchcr  Cbi«a- 

d«  Kcalicn  wcKDllich  verdinl  MAacbt  hal  und  diejeDigc  von  Kinch-Benuleln  aas  Doch 
.  . .  Wa.  Joiua-Auifabc  iu  cine  tenr  danken^  in  weniien  EinniplareD  imhanden  iit." — 
went  Gabe  und  bewndcri  empfchlcniwen  ala       DtHlKhr  LilttralurttilKitt. 

KALILAH    AND   DIMNAH,   OR,  THE  FABLES  OF 

BIDPAl  ;  being  an  account  of  their  literary  history,  together  with 
an  English  Translation  of  the  same,  with  Notes,  by  I.  G.  N.  Keith- 
FaLCONER,  M,A,,  late  Lord  Almoner's  Professor  of  Arabic  in  the 
University  of  Cambridge,    Demy  8vo,    is.  dd. 

nalopAkhyAnam,  or,  the  tale  of  NALA; 

containing  the  Sanskrit  Text  in  Roman  Characters,  followed  by  a 
Vocabulary  and  a  sketch  of  Sanskrit  Grammar,  By  the  late 
Rev.  Thomas  Jarrett,  M.A.  Trinity  CoUege,  Regius  Professor 
of  Hebrew.     Demy  8vo.     lOi, 

notes  on  the  tale  of  NALA,  for  the  use  of 
Classical  Students,  by  J.  Peile,  Litt.D.,  Master  of  Christ's  College. 
Demy  8vo,     \is. 

CATALOGUE  OF  THE  BUDDHIST  SANSKRIT 
MANUSCRIPTS  in  the  University  Library,  Cambridge.  Edited 
by  C.  Bendall,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Gonville  and  Caius  College.    Demy 

8vo,     1 2  J. 

placed  in  Mr  Ekndall's  hands^  from  Ihe  cha-  Oriental  tcholan.  and  we  hope  he  nuT  ham 
racier  of  his  work  il  il  evident  the  sdeciion  before  him  a  Isng  course  of  Hicctsiful  lafiour  in 
was  judicious  and  we  may  fairly  conEralulate       theficM  he  has^osen/'—jf/^^mrwaf. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  ALEXANDER  THE  GREAT, 
being  the  Syriac  version  of  the  Pseudo-Callisthenes,  Edited  from 
Five  Manuscripts,  with  an  English  Translation  and  Notes,  by 
E.  A.  W.  Budge,  M,A.,  Assistant  in  the  Department  of  Egyjitian 
Antiquities,  British  Museum,  Demy  8vo.  i^s.  {The  Edition  is 
limited lo  250  copies^ 


12 


PUBUCATIONS  OF 


GBEEK  AND  LATIN  CLASSICS,  ftc. 

SOPHOCLES:    The   Plays  and   Fr^rments,  with   Critical 

Notes,  Commentary,  and  Translation  in  English  Prose,  by  R,  C. 
J  EBB,  Litt.D.,  LL.D.,  Regius  Professor  of  Greek  in  the  University  of 
Cambridge. 

Purt  L   OedipnB  Tyrannns.   Demy  8va   New  Edition,    izs.  6d. 

Part  n.    Oedipus  OoloneuB.    Demy  8vo.    New  Edition,     ixr.  6^ 

Part  in.    Antigone.    Demy  8vo.    izs.  dd. 

Part  IV.    PhilocteteB. 

'*  Of  his  explanatory  and  critical  notes  we 
can  onlv^  spealc  with  admiration.  Thorough 
scholarship  combines  with  taste,  erudition,  and 
boundless  industry  to  make  this  first  volume  a 
pattern  of  editing.  The  work  is  made  com> 
plete  by  a  prose  translation,  upon  pages  alter- 
nating with  the  text,  of  which  we  may  say 
Portly  that  it  display  sound  judgment  and 
taste,  without  sacnficmg  precision  to  poetry  of 
expression." — Tk^  Times. 

"Professor  Jebb's  edition  of  Sophocles  is 
already  so  fully  established,  and  has  received 
such  appreciation  in  these  columns  and  else* 
where,  tnat  we  have  iudged  this  third  volume 
when  we  have  said  that  it  is  of  a  piece  with 
the  others.  The  whole  edition  so  far  exhibits 
perhaps  the  most  complete  and  elaborate  edit- 
orial work  which  has  ever  appeared,  "^^^t/wr- 
day  Reviero. 


\In  the  Press. 

"Prof.  Jebb's  keen  and  profound  sympathy. 
not  only  with  Sophocles  and  all  the  best  of 
ancient  Hellenic  hfe  and  thought,  but  also  with 
modem  European  culture,  constitntes  him  an 
ideal  interpreter  between  the  ancient  writer 
and  the  modern  reader." — Atlunmutm. 

"  It  would  be  difficult  to  praise  this  third  in- 
stalment of  Professor  Jebb's  unec^ualled  editioa 
of  Sophocles  too  warmly,  and  it  is  almost  a 
work  of  supererogation  to  praise  it  at  all.  It  b 
equal,  at  least,  and  perhaps  superior,  in  merit, 
to  either  of  his  previous  instalments ;  and  when 
this  is  said,  all  u  said.  Yet  we  cannot  refrain 
from  formally  recognisinfl:  once  more  the  con- 
summate Greek  scholarship  of  the  editor,  and 
from  once  more  doing  grateful  homage  to  hi* 
masterly  tact  and  literary  skill,  and  to  his  un- 
weariea  and  marvellous  industry." — Spectator. 


AESCHYLI    FABULAE.— IKETIAE2    XOH*OPOI    IN 

LIBRO  MEDICEO  MENDOSE  SCRIPTAE  EX  VV.  DD. 
CONIECTURIS  EMENDATIUS  EDITAE  cum  Scholiis  Graecis 
et  brevi  adnotatione  critica,  curante  F.  A.  Paley,  M.A.,  LL.D. 
Demy  8vo.    7J.  (id. 

THE  AGAMEMNON  OF  AESCHYLUS.    With  a  Trans- 

lation  in  English  Rhvthm,  and  Notes  Critical  and  Explanatory. 
New  Edition  Revised.  By  the  late  Benjamin  Hall  Kennedy, 
D.D.,  Regius  Professor  of  Greek.     Crown  8vo.    df. 

"One  of  the  best  editions  of  the  masterpiece  of  Greek  tragedy." — Atheruntm. 

THE  THEiETETUS  OF  PLATO  with  a  Translation  and 
Notes  by  the  same  Editor.    Crown  8vo.     'js.  6d. 

ARISTOTLE.— nEPI  ^TTXHS.  ARISTOTLE'S  PSY- 
CHOLOGY, in  Greek  and  English,  with  Introduction  and  Notes, 
by  Edwin  Wallace,  M.A.,  late  Fellow  and  Tutor  of  Worcester 
College,  Oxford.    Demy  8vo.     i8j. 

"The  notes  are  exactly  what  such  notes 
ought  to  be, — helps  to  the  student,  not  mere 
displays  of  learning.  By  far  the  more  valuable 
paits  of  the  notes  are  neither  critical  nor  lite- 
rary, but  philosophical  and  expository  of  the 
thought,  and  of  tne  connection  of  thought,  in 
the  treatise  itself.  In  this  relation  the  notes  are 
invaluable.  Of  the  translation,  it  may  be  said 
that  an  English  reader  may  fairly  master  by 
means  of  it  this  great  treatise  of  Aristotle." — 
Spgctatcr. 


"  Wallace's  Bearbeitiing  der  Aristotelischen 
Psychologie  ist  da»  Werk  eines  denkenden  und 
in  alien  Schriften  des  Aristoteles  und  grfissten- 
teils  auch  in  der  neueren  Litteratur  zu  densel- 
ben  belesenen  Mannes .  .  .  Der  schwfichste 
Teil  der  Arbeit  ist  der  kritisdie .  .  .  Aber  in 
alien  diesen  Dingen  liegt  auch  nach  der  Ab- 
sicht  des  Verfassers  nicht  der  Schwerpunkt 
seiner  Arbeit,  sondem." — Prof.  Susemihl  in 
PhilologucKt  Wocfumchrift. 


London :  C.  J.  Cla  v  &*  Sons,  Cambridge  University  Press  Warehouse, 

Ave  Maria  Lane. 


THE   CAMBRIDGE   UNfVERSlTY  PRESS.  13 

ARISTOTLE.— nepl  AlKAIOSTNHS.  THE  FIFTH 
BOOK  OF  THE  NICOMACHEAN  ETHICS  OF  ARISTOTLE.. 
Edited  by  Henry  Jackson,  Litt.D.,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College, 

Cambridge.     Demy  8vo.    6*. 

"nil  Dot  too  mud)  to  uy  Ihil  tome  of  ih*  will  hope  thit  thii  Ii  sot  tha  only  portiOB  of 
pmBU  be  liiscuuQ  Iihvc  nerer  hjid  to  modi  ihe  AriButelian  viitinct  wfaich  be  »  Uktlf  to 
Ugfat  lbrE>in3  upon  chcm  before.  .  .  .  SdboUrt       ediL** — At/unjtum. 

ARISTOTLE.  THE  RHETORIC.  With  a  Commentary 
by  the  late  E.  M.  Cope,  Fellow  of  Trinity  CoUege,  Cambridge,  re- 
vised and  edited  by  J.  E.  Sandys,  Litt.D.  With  a  biographical 
Memoir  by  the  late  H.  A.  J.  Munro,  Litt.D.  3  Vols.,  Demy  8vo. 
Now  reduced  to  2Ir.  {originally  published  ai  in.  6d.) 

"ThiinrorkiiiamanywiTicrEiIiubleUIbe  "Mr  Sudit  hu  perftrmed  hii  iMuoui 

ItnivenilyorCambhdEe.  IfinEngliihiludcnt  dutici  with  mirked  ■bAllvuduliiunUc  um. 

withei  to  bave  9  lull  coi^nplioo  ol  what  11  con- Tn  every  ptrt  01  bi«  wotk — revitinE. 

tiinedLDthe^dbftfpvVorArifttotle.to  MrCope*!  luppLcmeDtinc,  and  completinE— li«  liJtB  doD« 

editioo  he  mu&t  go." — Acajitmy.  frjicctdingly  well." — Examiner. 

PINDAR.  OLYMPIAN  AND  PYTHIAN  ODES.  With 
Notes  Explanatory  and  Critical,  Introductions  and  Introductory 
Essays.  Edited  by  C.  A.  M.  FenneLL,  Lilt.  D.,  late  Fellow  of 
Jesus  College.    Crown  8vo.    Kp. 

lion  of  Ihc  Olympiu  ind  Pylhun  odei.     He         in  comperalive  philology."— ..4 Ji(<«nni. 

—  THE  ISTHMIAN  AND  NEMEAN  ODES.  By  the  same 
Editor.     Crown  8vo.    ^r. 

"  .  .  .  Ai  1  haody  and  iojlmctive  cdilioD  of  viluible  help  la  Ibe  study  of  the  moit  difficult 

a  difficult  clauic  no  work  of  recent  yean  nir-  of  Greek  nulllor^  nod  is  tnricbed  witb  nou> 

pu»t  Mr  Feoneirs  'Pindar.'" — AtMtnnm.  OD  poinu  of  ichoUnhip  and  elnnolofT  which 

"Thb   work    it   in   no   way   inferiot   to  cnuld  ooly  have  been  wnlien  bya  ictiolai  of 

thcpnviouB  volume-  The  commeotary  aJforda  very  high  aitainmeDta." — Satitr^ajr  Ji^wirm. 

DEMOSTHENES.  PRIVATE  ORATIONS  OF,  with  In- 
troductions and  English  Notes,  by  the  late  F.  A.  Paley,  M.A. 
and  J.  E.  Sandvs,  LittD.  FeUow  and  Tutor  of  St  John's  College, 
and  Public  Orator  in  the  University  of  Cambridge. 

Part  1.  Contra  Phonnionem,  Lacritum,  Pantaenetum,  Boeotum 
de  Nomine,  Boeotum  de  Dote,  Dionysodoruni.  New  EdlUon. 
Crown  8vo.    6s. 

"Mr  Pnley'i  fkcholarthip  it  lound  and  literature  which  beari  upon  lut  author^  and 
accunle.  hii  eji]>erieQce  oT  editing  wide,  and       the  elucidatioo  of  matlen  of  daily  lifet  in  Ihe 

abiliiiei.  to  [he  productian  of  lucb  manuali  oblaini  full  i.i*rir>  •■  hi.  t,,^.  wJ 

ju  thew,  Ibey  will  be  received  with  gratitude  hope  this  ec 

thtoiuhout  the  higher  ichools  of  the  country.  general  siuu^   _.    . — .- 

Mr  Sandyi  ii  deeply  read   in   [he   German  than  has  hiibetto  been  pc 

Part  II.     Pro  Phormione,  Contra  Stephanum  I.  II.;  Nicostra-   ■ 
tum,  Cononem,  Calliclem.    New  Edition.    Crown  8vo.     ys.  6d. 

"  I(  i>  long  >in«  we  ban  cwne  upon  a  work       mo9theDei'.'-^a(*>'i£>/  Xrvinv. 

reKBCcK    and   illustration    than    Mr   Sandn'l        Cambridge  scbolanhip,  and  aught   [o  be  ea- 
contiibution  to  Ihe  'Private  Onlioni  of  De-       leosively  uied."— .1/.4n«ijw. 

DEMOSTHENES.     SPEECH    AGAINST    THE    LAW 

OF  LEPTINES.  With  Introduction,  Critical  and  Explanatory 
Notes  and  Autotype  Facsimile  from  the  Paris  MS.  Edited  by  J.  E. 
Sandys,  LittD.     Demy  8vo.    gj. 


14  PUBLICATIONS  OF 


DEMOSTHENES     AGAINST     ANDROTION      AND 

AGAINST  TIMOCRATES,  with  Introductions  and  English  Com- 
mentary, by  William  Wayte,  M.A.,  late  Professor  of  Greek,  Uni- 
versity College,  London.    Crown  8vo.    yj.  dd, 

illustrating  Attic   Law,  as' that  law  was  in-       a  most  lucid  and  interesting  introduction,  Mr 


'  These  speeches  are  highly  interesting,  as  they  are  worthy  of  all  admiration  .  .  .  Besides 

trating  Attic   Law,  as  that  law  was  in-  a  most  lucid  and  interestiiu;  introduction,  Mr 

fluenced  by  the  exigences  of  politics  ...  As  ]^<^3f^  ^^'^  given  the  student  eflfective   help 

vigorous  examples  of  the  great  orator's  style,  in  his  running  commentary." — Spectator.  . 

PLATO'S  PHiEDO,  literally  translated,  by  the  late  E.  M. 
Cope,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  revised  by  Henry 
Jackson,  Litt.  D.,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College.    Demy  8vo.     5J. 

P.  VERGILI  MARONIS  OPERA,  cum  Prolegomenis 
et  Commentario  Critico  edidit  B.  H.  Kennedy,  S.T.P.,  Extra 
Fcap.  8vo.     3J.  6^. 

THE  BACCHAE  OF  EURIPIDES.     With  Introduction, 

Critical  Notes,  and  Archaeological  Illustrations,  by  J.  £.  Sandys, 
LittD.     New  and  Enlarged  Edition.     Crown  8vo.     i2s.  6d. 

"  Ofthe  present  edition  ofthe^ocrAir  by  Mr  "The  volume  is  interspersed  with  well- 
Sandys  we  may  safely  say  that  never  before  has  executed  woodcuts,  and  its  general  attractiTc- 
a  Greek  play,  in  England  at  least,  had  fuller  ness  of  f<»in  reflects  great  <xedit  on  the  Uni- 
justice  done  to  its  criticism,  interpretation,  Tersity  Press.  In  the  notes  Mr  Sandys  has  more 
and  archaeological  illustration,  whether  for  the  than  sustained  his  well-earned  reputation  as  a 
young  student  or  the  more  advanced  scholar.  careful  and  learned  editor,  and  shows  consider* 
The  Cambridge  Public  Orator  may  be  said  to  able  advance  in  freedom  and  lightness  of  style, 
have  taken  the  lead  in  issuing  a  complete  edi-  .  .  .  Under  such  drcumstanoes  it  is  superfluous 
tion  of  a  Greek  play,  which  is  destined  perhaps  to  say  that  for  the  piuposes  of  teachers  and  ad- 
to  gain  redoubled  favour  now  that  the  study  of  vanced  students  this  handsome  edition  far  sar- 
ancient  monuments  has  been  applied  to  its  il-  passes  all  its  predecessors.** — AiAmatam, 
lustration." — Saturday  RevUw. 

THE  TYPES  OF  GREEK  COINS.    By  Percy  Gardner, 

Litt.  D.,  F.S.A.  With  i6  Autotype  plates,  containing  photogpraphs  of 
Coins  of  all  parts  of  the  Greek  World.  Impl.  4to.  Cloth  extra, 
£i,  lis,  6d.\  Roxburgh  (Morocco  back),  £2.  2J. 

"  Professor  Gardner's  book  is  written  with  be  distinctly  recommended  to  that  omnivoroos 
such  lucidity  and  in  a  manner  so  strai|j;htfor-  class  of  readers — 'men  in  the  schools*.**— ^«- 
ward  that  it  may  well  win  converts,  and  it  may        turday  Review. 

ESSAYS  ON  THE  ART  OF  PHEIDIAS.     By  C  Wald- 

STEIN,  Litt.  D.,  Phil.  D.,  Reader  in  Classical  Archaeology  in  the 
University  of  Cambridge.  Royal  8vo.  With  numerous  Illustrations. 
16  Plates.     Buckram,  30J. 

"  His  book  will  be  universally  welcomed  as  "  *  Essays  on  the  Art  of  Pheidias'  form  an 

a  very  valuable  contribution  towards  a  more  extremely    valuable    and    important   piece  of 

thorough  knowledge  of  the  style  of  Pheidias."—  work.  .  .  .  Taking  it  for  the  illustrations  alone. 

The  Academy.  it  is  ai)  exceedingly  fascinating  book." —  Times. 

AN     INTRODUCTION     TO     GREEK    EPIGRAPHY. 

Part  I.  The  Archaic  Inscriptions  and  the  Greek  Alphabet  by  E.  S. 
Roberts,  M.A.,  Fellow  and  Tutor  of  Gonville  and  Caius  College. 
Demy  8vo.     With  illustrations.     i%s. 

"  We  will  say  at  once  that  Mr  Roberts  ap-  notices  bearing  on  each  document.  Explana- 
pears  to  have  done  his  work  very  well.  The  tory  remarks  either  accompany  the  text  or  are 
book  is  clearly  and  conveniently  arranged.  added  in  an  appendix.  To  the  whole  is  pre- 
The  inscriptions  are  naturally  divided  accord-  fixed  a  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  alphabet  up 
ing  to  the  places  to  which  they  belong^  Under  to  the  terminal  date.  At  the  end  the  result  is 
each  head  are  given  illustrations  sufficient  to  resumed  in  general  tables  of  all  the  alphabets, 
show  the  characteristics  of  the  writing,  one  classified  according  to  their  connexions;  and  a 
copy  in  letters  of  the  original  form  (sometimes  separate  table  illustrates  the  alphabet  of  Athens, 
a  facsimile)  being  followed  by  another  in  the  The  volume  contains  about  five  hundred  in- 
usual  cursive.  References,  which  must  have  scriptions,  and  forms  a  moderate  octavo  of  about 
cost  great  labour,  are  given  to  the  scattered  four  hunched  pages. "^>5'a^n^j'  Review, 


London :  C,  7.  CLAy&*  SoNSy  Cambridge  University  Press  Warehouse^ 

Ave  Marin  Lane, 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS.  15 

M.  TULLI  CICERONIS  AD  M.  BRUTUM  ORATOR. 

A  revised  text  edited  with  Introductory   Essays  and  with  critical 
and  explanatory  notes,  by  J.  E.  Sandvs,  Liit.D.     Demy  (ivo.     i6f. 

"Thii   VDlume.    which    a   adorned  with  "Amodet  ediliop."— S^toCir. 

Kvera]  good  woodcuu,  fonu  i  handunw  uid  '*  The  conuncntary  ii  m  every  way  vorthy 

— 1 i^iri™.  .„.k.  r- — i..ij —  edilioniof       of  tht  editor"!  high  npaatian."—/1caJtmjt. 


M.  TULLI  CICERONIS  DE  FINIBUS  BONORUM 
ET  MALORUM  LIBRI  QUINQUE.  The  text  revised  and 
explained ;  with  a  Translation  by  JAMES  S.  REID,  Litt.  D.,  Fellow 
and  Tutor  of  Gonvillc  and  Caius  CoUege.  3  Vols.  [/»  the  Press. 
Vol.  III.     Containing  the  Translation.     Demy  8vo.    Sx. 

M.  T.  CICERONIS  DE  OFFICIIS  LIBRI  TRES,  with  Mar- 
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HOLDEN,  LL.D.    Sixth  Edition,  Revised  anci  Enlarged.  Cr.Svo,  gs. 

"Few  ediiioni  of  aduiic  hive  found  10      poslion    of   the   work    Koiit.-— A mtriaiM 
much  fanui  u  Dc  Holdeo'i  Di  Officiu.  and      Jmirmil c/ PUlnlcgf. 
ihc  pTeKnt  reviiion  (sixth  edition)  nukei  the 

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Libri    Tres,  with    Introduction  and   Commentary  by  JOSEPH   B. 
Mavor,  M.A.,  together  with  a  new  collation  of  several  of  the 
English  MSS.  by  J.  H.  SwaINSON,  M.A. 
Vol,  I.    DemySvo.     iQs.td.        Vol.11.    \ls.f>d.        Vol.  IIL    ICW. 
"  Such  editknuu  that  of  which  Prof.  Mitoi      way  adminibh' luited  to  meet  (he  neediof  Ihe 

do  much  to  remedy  Ihii  uodcKrved  DeglccL    ll      could  be  eipecled  from  hl>  well-liDowii  Icani- 
Ii  ope  on  which  great  paini  and  much  learning      ing  and  scholarihip."— Xfda^M;^. 
have  evidently  been  upended,  pod  ii  id  every 

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A  TREATISE  ON  GEOMETRICAL  OPTICS.  By 
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An  elementary  TREATISE  ON  QUATERNIONS. 
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AN  ATTEMPT  TO  TEST  THE  THEORIES  OF 
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\Nearly  nady. 

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THE  ANALYTICAL  THEORY  OF  HEAT,  by  Joseph 

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THE  ELECTRICAL  RESEARCHES  OF  THE  Hon.  H. 

Cavendish,  F.R.S.  Written  between  1771  and  1781.  Edited  from 
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by  the  late  J,  Clerk  Maxwell,  F.R.S.  Demy  8vo.  i8j. 
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Demy  3vo.     151. 

Lalhir  Meyer ;  but  in  Ihii  couniry  ihe  KudcBt 
h»  had  10  contcDI  himieir  oHih  luch  woriu  u 
Dr  Tilden'i '  Introducdon  w  Cheoiical  Philo- 

slcndEr  Mr  PulitOD  Muic  having  'aimed  U  ■ 
books  have  been  Jefi  far  behiad.  German  more  compreberuive  icheine,  hu  pvoduccd  a 
iludentf,  10  be  Hire,  puuftan  excellent  ffuide  tyiicinatK:  iRatiKoaibepriDcipktof  chciBlcal 
(□  the  ptcKDI  <utt  of  the  Kleace  in  '  Die  phildaphy  which  tunds  far  in  advance  of  irv 
Mndenen    Tbeor^en   der  Chemie'  of  Pior.        kindred  work  in  OUT  Uingua(t.''—,1t4<iBnia. 

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MuiR,  M.A.,  and  CHARLES  SLATER,  M.A.,  M.B.   Crown  8vo.   \s.  dd. 
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Work.    By  M.  M.  Pattison  MuiR,  M.A.,  and  D.  J.  Carnegie,  B.A. 

Crown  8vo.     y. 
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Chemistry  in  the  Universityof  Cambridge.  Cr.  4to.  NtwEdition.  &t. 


cbemii^    thought 


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LECTURES  ON  THE  PHYSIOLOGY   OF   PLANTS, 

by  S.  H.  Vines,  ScD.,  Professor  of  Botany  in  the  University  of 
Oxford.     Demy  8vo.    With  Illustrations.     2IJ. 

"To  say  that  Dr  Vines*  book  is  a  most  In  erudition  it  stands  alone  among  English 

vmltuble  addition  to  our  own  bounical  litera-  books,  and  will  compare  favourably  with  any 

ture  is  but  a  narrow  meed  of  praise:  it  \%  a  foreiKu  competitors." — Nature. 
work  which  will  uke  iu  place  as  cosmopolitan  :  ''The  work  forms  an  important  conbibu- 

DO  more  clear  or  concise  discussion  of  tne  diffi-  tioo  to  the  literature  of  the  subject.  ...It  will  be 

cuk  chemistry  of  metabolism  has  appeared. ...  eagerly  welcomed  by  all  students." — Academy. 

A  SHORT   HISTORY  OF  GREEK  MATHEMATICS. 

By  J.  Gow,  LittD.,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College.     Demy  8vo.     lor.  dd. 

DIOPHANTOS  OF  ALEXANDRIA;  a  Study  in  the 
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THE  MATHEMATICAL  WORKS  OF  ISAAC  BAR- 
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THE  FOSSILS  AND  PALiEONTOLOGICAL  AFFIN- 
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LAW. 

ELEMENTS  OF  THE  LAW  OF  TORTS.     A  Text-book 

for  Students,  By  Melville  M.  Bigelow,  Ph.D.,  Lecturer  in  the 
Law  School  of  the  University  of  Boston,  U.S.A.  Crown  8vo.  loit.  6rf. 
"  Iliibaied  on  IhtorigiiulAncticiin  edition.  ihowinEEiuI  grup  of  lubJEd  ...  A  very  full 
btit  it  is  ui  Knghih  Tcirl'baalc  with  £iigliiih  inden  cnnancei  the  value  of  thi*  boitk.  which 
authoriliea  and  atatutel  and  lilutimioiu  nib'  should  take  a  promineDt  place  vnong  the  reaLiy 
uituicd  very  geiKtaUy  for  the  Amcricui ...  The  Lnul  worthy  lejtt-bookt  for  the  lue  of  Mudcntt." — 
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A  SELECTION  OF  CASES  ON  THE  ENGLISH  LAW 
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Inn,  Barrister  at  Law.    Koyal  8vo.     28j. 

"An   invaluable   iodide   towards   the    best    method    of   Legal   study. "^Adu  Qttarttrij 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  ROMAN  LAW  ON 
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1884.  By  T.  E.  SCRUTTON,  M.A.     Demy  8vo.     los.  60. 

L^^r,7^^Ri^'^  kuultha.  .  lax«d  Un,«™.y  diould  promote  by  .t.  pm«."- 

LAND   IN   FETTERS.     Being  the  Yorke  Prize  Essay  for 

1885.  By  T.  E.  SCRUTTON,  M.A.    Demy  8vo.    7s.  6d. 

COMMONS  AND  COMMON  FIELDS,  OR  THE  HIS- 
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HISTORY  OF  THE  LAW  OF  TITHES  IN  ENGLAND. 
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St  John's  College  and  the  Middle  Temple.     Demy  8vo.     7J,  6<t. 

HISTORY  OF  LAND  TENURE  IN  IRELAND.  Being 
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LL.M.     Demy  8vo,     loj.  6d. 

AN  ANALYSIS  OF  CRIMINAL  LIABILITY.  By  E.  C. 
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PRACTICAL  JURISPRUDENCE,  aComment  on  AUSTIN. 

By  E.  C.  Clark,  LLD.     Crown  Svo.    cy. 

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A  SELECTION  OF  THE  STATE  TRIALS.  By  J.  W. 
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History,  University  College,  London.  Crown  8vo.  Vols,  L  and  II. 
In  3  pans.    Now  reduced  to  3(Xr.  {originally  published  at  ^fa.) 

tatj  aTEDftLadd  which  ii  concerned  with  (he       ocdiury  ooaitt."^ TJkt  Atm^tm^. 

THE  FRAGMENTS  OF  THE  PERPETUAL  EDICT 
OF  SALVIUS  JULIANUS,  collected,  arranged,  and  annotated  by 
Bryan  Walker,  \I.A.,LLD.,  late  Law  Lecturer  of  St  John's  College, 
and  Fellow  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Cambridge.     Crown  8vo.     6s. 

IhB  unc  kind  of  thaTough  .ind  wcll^rdered  tup*  turpTiKd  to  And  how  HbundaDdy  the  ejt- 

tludv  which  wu  brouKhL  l9  Uc.it  upoQ  tha  Dotef  tuil  fraffmeDti  illuHrfic  uid  cFulj  Dp  pointt 

lo  the  CommeaUrici  and  Ihe  Inililutei  .   .   .  which  hare  atlnctcd  hit  iltention  in  the  Cum- 

Hithcno    ihc    Edict    hu    hem  alnuHt  iuc-  msnuriei,  or  the  Inslilutei,  or  the  Disot.*— 

ceuible  to  the  Drdiiury  Enaliah  iiudent,  uid  Lmm  Timri. 

BRACTON'S  NOTE  BOOK.  A  Collection  of  Cases  de- 
cided in  the  King's  Courts  during  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Third, 
annotated  by  a  Lawyer  of  that  time,  seemingly  by  Henry  of  Bratton. 
Edited  by  F.  W.  Maitland  of  Lincoln's  Inn,  Barrister  at  Law, 
Downing  Professor  of  the  Laws  of  England.  3  vols.  Demy  8vo. 
Buckram.    £3.  js.     Nit. 

AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  STUDY  OF  JUS- 
TINIAN'S DIGEST.  Containing  an  account  of  its  composition 
and  of  the  Jurists  used  or  referred  to  therein.  By  Henry  John 
KoBV,  M.A.,  formerly  Prof,  of  Jurisprudence,  University  College, 
London.     Demy  8vo.    9*. 

JUSTINIAN'S  DIGEST.     Lib.  VII.,  Tit.  I.    De  Usufmctu, 
with  3.  Legal  and  Philological  Commentary.    By  H,  J.  Koby,  MJ^. 
Demy  8vo.    9^. 
Or  the  Two  Parts  complete  in  One  Volume.     Demy  8vo,     i&t. 

or  legMl,  h"  been  lei! 'uiwfi«l.     M'ore  infonn'       ^l^cf.     Nowhere  cIk  cin  a  ckanr  view 


(h>  Diiest  ai  large  by  i  pnliminary  account.       the  mdiiicn  of  Roman  lesal 
covcTuis  nearly  300  pagei,  of  Che  mode  of       taioed  aod  developed. " — Tkt\ 


THE  COMMENTARIES  OF  GAIUS  AND  RULES  OF 
ULPIAN.  With  a  Translation  and  Notes,  by  J.  T.  Abdv,  LLD., 
Judge  of  County  Courts,  late  Regius  Professor  of  Laws  in  the 
University  of  Cambridge,  and  the  late  Brvan  Walker,  M.A.,  LL.D,, 
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-Ai  leholari  and  a!  editor.  MtMn  Ahdy  '      ' 


Tht 


fcw  Dotcj  and  Ihwe  merely  by       fancifBlrepreMnUtion  ofil.'— .<l'fc''«n.r-.'' 

THE  INSTITUTES  OF  JUSTINIAN,  translated  with 
Notes  by  J.  T.  Abdy,  LL.D.,  and  the  late  Bryan  Walker,  M.A., 
LL.D.    Crown  8vo.     its. 

"We  welcome  here  a  valuable  contribution       the  ordinary  Mudeni,  wtu»E  iitenlion  is  dia- 
•..■).•  •iiiilv  nf  iuriinrudence.    The  leil  ol  the       traded  from  the  lubjecc-maliei  by  the   dif- 
ly  Mrplej(ing,  «en  to       ficiiliy  of  stniggling  through  the  lanKUa|»  in 

■  '   liable."— 5/Kto/Bi^.' 


"avaS'lh- 

i'i'n'"  °di«™ 
Lc'h^p  that'll 


THE  CAMBRIDGE   UNIVERSITY  PRESS.  21 

SELECTED  TITLES  FROM  THE  DIGEST,  annotated 

by  the  late  B.  Walker,  M.A.,  LL.D.    Part  !■    Mandati  vel  Contra. 

Digest  xvn.  I.    Crown  8vo.     s^- 
Part  II,     De  Adquirendo  rcrutn  dominio  and  De  Adquireoda  vel 

amittenda  possessione.     Digest  XLi.  I  and  11.    Crown  8vo.    (a. 
Part  III.    De  Condiciionibus.    Digest  XII.  I  and  4 — 7  and  Digest 

xiil.  1—3.    Crown  8vo.    6r. 
GROTIUS  DE  JURE  BELLI  ET  PACIS.  with  the  Notes 

of  Barbeyrac  and  others  ;  accompanied  by  an  abridged  Translation 
of  the  Text,  by  W,  Whewell,  D.D.  late  Master  of  Trinity  College. 
3  Vols.     Demy  Svo.     I3s.     The  translation  separate.  f>s. 

mSTOBICAL  WORKS,  ftc. 

THE  LIFE  AND  LETTERS  OF  THE  REVEREND 
ADAM  SEDGWICK,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge,  and  Woodwardian  Professor  of  Geology  from  1818  10 
1873.  (Dedicated,  by  special  permission,  to  Her  Majesty  the  Queen.) 
By  John  Willis  Clark,  M.A.,  F.S.A.,  formerly  Fellow  of  Trinity 
College,  and  Thomas  M'Kennv  Hughes,  M.A.,  Woodwardian 
Professor  of  Geology.     2  vols.     Demy  Svo.  [Nearly  ready. 

MEMORIALS  OF  THE  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  ELWES 
CORRIE,  D.U.,  formerly  Master  of  Jesus  College,  Cambridge. 
Edited  by  M.  Holroyd.     Demy  8vo.     i2j. 

THE  DESPATCHES  OF  EARL  GOWER,  English  Am- 
bassador at  the  court  of  Versailles  from  June  1790  to  August  1792, 
to  which  are  added  the  Despatches  of  Mr  Lindsay  and  Mr  Munro, 
and  the  Diary  of  Lord  Palmerston  in  France  during  July  and 
August  1791.    Edited  by  Oscar  Browning,  M.A.    DemySvo.    t5.r. 

LIFE  AND  TIMES  OF  STEIN,  OR  GERMANY  AND 
PRUSSIA  IN  THE  NAPOLEONIC  AGE,  by  j.  R.  Seelev, 
M.A.,  Regius  Professor  of  Modem  History  in  the  University  ol 
Cambridge,  with  Portraits  and  Maps.     3  Vols.     Demy  Svo.     3tM. 


.fiSi; 


very  paidoDAble  pride  ■!  Kein 


.  kind  >cu.i 

iuuicfw 

.uin  no  page  (hii  1 

•"ff^"™ 

mud  BOM 

Di  Civil  Service.    tniLiihnicii  will 

THE    GROWTH    OF    ENGLISH     INDUSTRY    AND 
COMMERCE  DURING  THE  EARLY  AND  MIDDLE  AGES. 


By  W.  Cunningham,  D.D.,  University  Lecturer.     Demy  Svo.     16*. 

""    " 5  CHIC  of  uccp-        ilunhaJlliw  ihE  •uied  facu  in  (he  mt  t  " 


uta  iiiglily  praiKd.    Il  is  dwnicten»d  by  re-        cl&intess  and  felicity  of  enpreuion. 
jearch  and  ihoughl,  by  a  rcDurkahle  power  at       m^H. 

CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLES  OF  GREEK  HISTORY. 

Accompanied  by  a  short  narrative  of  events,  with  references  to  the 
sources  of  information  and  extracts  from  the  ancient  authorities,  by 
Carl  Peter.  Translated  from  the  German  by  G.  Chawner, 
M.A.,  Fellow  of  King's  College,  Cambridge.     Demy  4to.     I(M. 


32  PUBUCATIONS  OF 

THE  ARCHITECTURAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  U 

VERSITY  OF  CAMBRIDGE  AND  OF  THE  COLLEGES 
CAMBRIDGE  AND  ETON,  by  the  Ute  Robert  Willis,  : 
F.R.S.,  Jaclcsonian  Professor  in  the  University  of  Cambridge.  Ei 
with  large  Additions  and  brought  up  to  the  m^sent  time  by  J 
Willis  Clark,  M.A,  formerly  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  ( 
bridge.     Four  Vols.    Super  Royal  8vo.   £fo.  in. 

Also  a  limited  Edition  of  the  same,  consisting  of  I30  Dumb 
Copies  only,  laree  paper  Quarto  i  (he  woodcuts  and  steel  engrav 
mounted  on  India  paper ;  price  Twenty-five  Guineas  net  each 
THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CAMBRIDGE  FROM  T 
EARLIEST  TIMES  TO  THE  ROYAL  INJUNCTIONS 
1535-  by  J.  B.  Mullinger,  M.A,  Lecturer  on  History  and  Libra 
lo  St  John's  College.  Part  I.  Demy  8vo.  (734  pp.),  I3J. 
Part  11.  From  the  Royal  Injunctions  of  1535  lo  the  Accessio 
Charles  the  First.    Demy  8vo.     i8j. 

"  He  ihcwi  in  the  olalulct  of  the  Collecei,  "Uc    MuIMdeci    diipliyi.     on    adin 

Ihc  inlcrnalurEuiiutiiHi  ef  the  Univenitf,  lu  thorguKhneu  in  iiii  work.      Nolhing  cm 

coaiuciiun  wLtn  naliooft]  problemL  iu  imdiu,  marc  ciduusEive  uid  cxnucientLoui    llu 

ill  uciaL  lifVf     All   Ihii  he  copibinei  id  a  method :    uid  hit  ■tyLc.ii  mclureua 

fonn  vhidi    i<   eminently   iwidable."- Pior.  ele».led,"-71«/.. 
Cbugktuh  in  Csmt.  Rniau. 

SCHOLAE  ACADEMICAE:  some  Account  of  the  Stui 

at  the  English  Universities  in  the  Eighteenth  Century.  B] 
Wordsworth,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Peterhouse.     Demy  8vo.     icm. 

qiHDtitv  of  tnipnte  ud   curioui  iufonnjiiiDn       rsince.  ud  u  inch  it  wmbe  of  penn 
about  the  working  of  Cunbiidte  inMiiutinni  in       nine  (or  the  hiitoricid  knowledge  of  Ei 

oTlhe  coireipandini  lUte  of  things  at  Oiford. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  COLLEGE  OF  ST  JOHN  T 
EVANGELIST,  by  THOMAS  BAKER,  B.D.,  Ejected  FeUow.  E<J 
by  John  E.  B.  Mayor,  M.A.    Two  Vols.    Demy  8vo.    241. 

HISTORY  OF  NEPAL,  translated  by  MuNSHl  Sh 
Shunker  Singh  and  Pandit  Shri  Gunanand;  edited  witl 
Introductory  Sketch  of  the  Country  and  People  by  Dr  D.  Wric 
late  Residency  Surgeon  at  KathmandQ,  and  with  facsimiles  of  na 
drawings,  and  portraits  of  Sir  JUNG  Bahadur,  the  King  OF  Nei 
&c.    Super-royal  8vo.     loj.  iid. 

KINSHIP  AND  MARRIAGE  IN  EARLY  ARAB: 
by  W.  Robertson  Smith,  M.A,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Arabic 
Fellow  of  Christ's  College.     Crown  8vo.    7j.  W. 

IS  leuMd  and  inimcrl;r  ■>  Pi^osot  RobcTIHin       in  Ear!^  Araiia."—tfatwrr. 

TRAVELS  IN  ARABIA  DESERTA  IN  1876  AI 
1877.  By  Charles  M.  Doughty,  of  Gonville  and  Caius  Colli 
With  Illustrations  and  a  Map.     2  vols.     Demy  8vo.    £y  ys. 


d^jd^fr 


S*K/at„r. 
viuled  by  pceviou!  ''Ill  nlue  ai 


tmveUcrt,  but  none,  we  venture  10  think,  have       simply   caunot   I 
doDC  iheir  work  with  ufunch  thorouEhoer'  ""        "— '— 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS.  33 

A  JOURNEY  OF  LITERARY  and  ARCHAEOLOGICAL 
RESEARCH  IN  NEPAL  AND  NORTHERN  INDIA,  during 
the  Winter  of  1884-5.  By  Cecil  BENDalL,  M.A.,  Professor  of 
Sanskrit  in  University  College,  London.     Dtmy  8vo.     lor. 

THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  CANADA.  By  J.  E.  C. 
MuNRO,  LL.M.,  Professor  of  Law  and  Political  Economy  at  Vic- 
toria University,  Manchester.     Demy  8vo,     loj. 


CAKBRIDOE  HISTOBICAL  ESSATS. 

POLITICAL  PARTIES  IN  ATHENS  DURING  THE 
PELOPONNESIAN  WAR,  by  L.  WhIBlev,  M.A.,  Fellow  of 
Pembroke  College,  Cambridge.  (Prince  Consort  Dissenalion,  1888.) 
Second  Edition,     Crown  8vo.     li.  6d. 

POPE  GREGORY  THE  GREAT  AND  HIS  RELA- 
TIONS  WITH  GAUL,  by  F.  W.  Kei.i.ett,  M.A.,  Sidney  Sussex 
College.    (Prince  Consort  Dissertation,  1888.)    Crown  8vo.     2t.  bd. 

THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  EXPERIMENTS  OF  THE 

COMMONWEALTH,  being  the  Thirlwall  Prize  Essay  for  1889, 
by  E.  JENKS,  B.A-,  LL.B.,  Fellow  of  King's  College,  Cambridge. 
Crown  8vo.     is.  bd. 


MISCELLAKEOUS. 

THE  LITERARY  REMAINS  OF  ALBRECHT  DURER, 
by  W.  M.  Conway.  With  Transcripts  from  the  British  Museum 
MSS.,  and  Notes  by  Lima  Eckenstein.  Royal  8vo.  an.  (Tlu 
Edition  is  limited  to  500  copies.) 

GRAY  AND  HIS  FRIENDS.     Letters  and  Relics  in  great 

part  hitherto  unpublished.    Edited  by  the  Rev.  D.  C.  Tovey,  M.A, 

{In  the  Press. 

A  LATIN-ENGLISH  DICTIONARY.  Printed  from  the 
(lncomplete)MS.ofthelateT.H.KEY,M.A.,F.R.S.  Cr.4to.  z\s.6d. 

THE  COLLECTED  PAPERS  OF  HENRY  BRAD- 
SHAW,  including  his  Memoranda  and  Communications  read  before 
the  Cambridge  Antiquarian  Society.  With  \-^  fiu-simihs.  Edited 
by  F.  J.  H.  JENKINSON,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College.  Demy 
8vo.     i6j, 

THE  LATIN  HEPTATEUCH.  Published  piecemeal  by 
the  French  printer  WILLIAM  MoREL  (1560)  and  the  French  Bene- 
dictines E.  Martene  (1733)  and  J,  B.  Pitra  (1852-88).  Critically 
reviewed  by  John  E.  B.  Mayor,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Latin  in  the 
University  of  Cambridge.     Demy  8vo.     loj.  fid. 

A  CATALOGUE  OF  ANCIENT  MARBLES  IN  GREAT 
BRITAIN,  by  Prof.  Adolf  Michaelis.  Translated  by  C,  A.  M. 
FennELL,  Litt.  D.     Royal  8vo.     Roxburgh  (Morocco  back),  £1.  is. 

"The  book  11  beautifully  uccutcd.aDd  Willi  mlt.ia\  lo  the  Syndio  oFlhe  Univenitr  Pm 

iuftwhindwinepljilei,  ind  eiMlleni  indeHi,  for  Ihe  tibcial  facililiti  iflbidtd  by  tfacia  u>- 

doei  much  crrdil  10  the  Cambvidge  Prctf.   All  wardt  tbc  production  of  thif  importapi  viduBe 

lovers  of  true  art  aod  of  woodwork  fbould  be  by  Profeucr  HidueliL"— .^n/Kn^/  Rrvvm, 


14  PUBLICATIONS  OF 

CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  THE  TEXTUAL  CRITICISM 
OF  THE  DIVINA  COMMEDIA.  Including  the  complete  col- 
lation throughout  the  Inferno  of  all  the  M5S.  at  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge.    By  the  Rev.  Edward  Moore,  D.D.     Demy  8vo.     zu. 

RHODES  IN  ANCIENT  TIMES.  By  Cecil  Torr,  M.A. 
With  six  plates.     Demy  8vo.     ic».  fsd. 

RHODES  IN  MODERN  TIMES.  By  the  same  Author. 
With  three  plates.     Demy  8vo.     &f. 

THE  WOODCUTTERS  OF  THE  NETHERLANDS 
during  the  last  auArter  of  the  Fifteenth  Century.  In  3  parts.  I.  His- 
tory of  the  Wooacutters.  II.  Catalogueof  their  Woodcuts.  III.  List  of 
Books  containing  Woodcuts.  By  W.  M.  Conwav.  DemySvo.  xoi.td. 

THE  LITERATURE  OF  THE  FRENCH  RENAIS- 
SANCE. An  Introductory  Essay.  By  A.  A.  Tillev,  M.A.  Cr.  8vo.  61. 

FROM  SHAKESPEARE  TO  POPE:  an  Inquiry  into 
the  causes  and  phenomena  of  the  rise  of  Classical  Poetry  in  England. 
Bv  Edmund  Gosse,  M.A.    Crown  8vo,    6t. 

CHAPTERS  ON  ENGLISH  METRE.  By  Rev.  JOSEPH 
B.  Mavor,  M.A.     Demy  8vo.     ^i.bd. 

A  GRAMMAR  OF  THE  IRISH  LANGUAGE.    By  Prof. 

WiNDiscH.   TranslatedbyDr  Norman  Moore.  Crown  8vo.  Ts.td. 
LECTURES  ON  TEACHING,  delivered  in  the  University 

of  Cambridge  in  the  Lent  Term,  1880.    By  J.  G.  Fitch,  M.A.,  LL.D. 

Her  Majesty's  InspectorofTrainingColleges.  Cr.8vo.  New  Edit.  ^s. 

"Mr   Fiich's  book  coven  »  widE  a  field         beil  uillinf  coilir  nimii  Tor  Ihe  leacher."— 
ud  rouchEi  on  to  niuir  buming  qucttioiu  that       Patl  Mail  GatilU. 

LECTURES  ON  THE  GROWTH  AND  MEANS  OF 
TRAINING  THE  INTELLECTUAL  FACULTY,  delivered  in  the 
University  of  Cambridge.  By  FRANCIS  Wakner,  M.D.,  F.R,C.F. 
Crown  8vo.     4J.  6rf. 

OCCASIONAL    ADDRESSES    ON     EDUCATIONAL 

SUBJECTS.     By  S.  S.  Laurie,  M.A.,  LI-D.     Crown  8vo.     5J. 
A  MANUAL  OF  CURSIVE  SHORTHAND.     By  H.  L. 

Cai.lendar,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College.  Ex.  Fcap.  8vo.    2j, 
A  SYSTEM   OF  PHONETIC  SPELLING  ADAPTED 

TO  ENGLISH.     By  H.  L  Callkndab,  M.A    Ex.  Fcap.  8vo.     6rf. 
A  PRIMER  OF  CURSIVE  SHORTHAND.    By  H.  L. 

Callendar,  M.A.     Ex.  Fcap.  8vo.    6rf. 
ESSAYS    FROM    THE    SPECTATOR    IN    CURSIVE 

SHORTHAND.    By  H.  L.  CallendaR,  M.A.    Ex.  Fcap.  8vo.    6rf. 
READING  PRACTICE  IN  CURSIVE  SHORTHAND. 

Easy  Extracts  for  Beginners.    The  Gospel  according  to  St  Mark, 

(First  half).    The  Vicar  of  Wakefield.     Chaps.    1.— V.    Alice   in 

Wonderland.     Chap.  VIL    ^d.  each. 

For  other  books  on  Education,  see  Pitt  Press  Series,  p.  39. 


THE  CAMBRIDGE   UNIVERSITY  PRESS.  25 

STUDIES  IN  THE  LITERARY  RELATIONS  OF 
ENGLAND  WITH  GERMANY  IN  THE  SIXTEENTH 
CENTURY.     By  C  H.  Herford,  M.A.     Crown  8vo.    9*. 

ADMISSIONS  TO  GONVILLE  AND  CAIUS  COLLEGE 
in  the  University  of  Cambridge  March  1558 — 9  to  Jan.  1678 — 9. 
Edited  by  J.  Vehn,  Sc.D.,  and  S.  C.  Venn.     Demy  8va     lor. 

ECCLESIAE  LONDINO-BATAVAE  ARCHIVVM. 
TOMVS  Frimvs.  Abrahami  Ortelii  et  virorum  eruditomm  ad 
eundem  el  ad  Jacobvm  Ciilivm  Ortelianvm  Epistidae,  1524— 
i6z8.  ToMvs  Secvndvs.  EPISTVLAE  ET  TRACTATVS  cum 
Rcformalionis  turn  Ecclesiae  Londino-Batavae  Historiam  Illustrantes 
1544 — [622.  Ex  autographis  mandante  Ecclesia  Londino-Batava 
edidit  Joannes  Henricvs  Hessels.  Demy  4to.  Each  volume, 
separately,  £^%.  \os.    Taken  together  ^5.  is.    Net. 

CATALOGUE    OF   THE    HEBREW  MANUSCRIPTS 

preserved  in  the  University  Library,  Cambridge.  By  Dr  S.  M, 
Schiller- SziNESSY.  Volume  I.  containing  Section  i.  The  Holy 
Scriptures;  Section  II.    Commentaries  ok  tht  Bible.    Demy  8vo,    9*. 

A  CATALOGUE  OF  THE  MANUSCRIPTS  preserved 
in  the  Library  of  the  University  of  Cambndge.  Demy  8vo.  5  Vols. 
lOJ.  each.     INDEX  TO  THE  CATALOGUE,     Demy  8vo.     lOJ. 

A  CATALOGUE  OF  ADVERSARIA  and  printed  books 
preserved  in  the  Library  of  the  University  of  Cambridge.     3J,  6d. 

THE  ILLUMINATED  MANUSCRIPTS  IN  THE  Li- 
brary of  the  Fitiwilham  Museum,  Catalogued  with  Descriptions,  and 
an  Introduction,  by  W.  G.  Searle,  M.A.     Demy  Svo.     ^s.  bd. 

A    CHRONOLOGICAL    LIST    OF    THE    GRACES, 

Documents,  and  other  Papers  in  the  University  Registry  which 
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CATALOGUS  BIBLIOTHECiE  BURCKHARDTIAN.^. 
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GRADUATI  CANTABRIGIENSES :  SIVE  CATA- 
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STATUTES  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CAMBRIDGE. 
With  Acts  of  Parliament  relating  to  the  University.    8vo.    3^.  fid. 

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TRUSTS,  STATUTES  AND  DIRECTIONS  affecting 
(1)  The  Professorships  of  the  University.  (2)  The  Scholarships 
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London:  C.  J.  Clay  &•  SOM 


36 


PUBLICATIONS  OF 


\ 

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I 


'  •! 


1' 

;  I. 


I 
I     .  ' 


II 

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^" 


Cjbe  Caml)rit)i0e  3Bil)le  tor 
I^tt)<iol0  anH  Colleges. 

General  Editor  :   The  Very  Reverend  J.  J.  S.  Perowne,  D.D., 

Dean  of  Peterborough. 


**  It  is  difficult  to  commend  too  highly  this  excellent  series." — Guardian. 

'*  The  modesty  of  the  general  title  of  this  series  has,  we  believe,  led  many  to  mtsimderstand 
its  character  and  underrate  its  value.  The  books  are  well  suited  for  study  in  the  upper  forms  of 
our  best  schools.,  but  not  the  less  are  they  adapted  to  the  wants  of  all  BiUe  students  who  are  not 
specialists.  We  doubt,  indeed,  whether  an)[  of  the  numerous  popular  commentaries  recently 
issued  in  this  country  will  be  found  more  serviceable  for  general  use.** — Academy. 

"  One  of  the  most  popular  and  useful  literary  enter]mses  of  die  nineteenth  century." — Baptist 
MafttMtnt. 

"  Of  great  value.  The  whole  series  of  comments  for  schook  is  highly  esteemed  by  students 
capable  of  forming  a  judgment  The  books  are  scholarly  without  being  pretentious:  information 
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The  Very  Reverend  J.  J.  S.  Perowne,  D.D.,  Dean  of  Peterborough,  has 
undertaken  the  general  editorial  supervision  of  the  work,  assisted  by  a  staff  of 
eminent  coadjutors.  Some  of  the  books  have  been  already  edited  or  undertaken 
by  the  following  gentlemen  : 

Rev.  A.  Carr,  M.A.,  late  Assistant  Master  at  Wellington  College* 

Rev.  T.  K.  Cheyne,  M.A.,  D.D.,  Canon  of  Rochester. 

Rev.  S.  Cox,  Nottingham. 

Rev.  A.  B.  Davidson,  D.D.,  Professor  of  Hebrew^  Edinburgh. 

The  Ven.  F.  W.  Farrar,  D.D.,  Archdeacon  of  Westminster. 

Rev.  C.  D.  GiNSBURG,  LL.D. 

Rev.  A.  E.  Humphreys,  M.A.,  late  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 

Rev.  A.  F.  KiRKPATRiCK,  B.D.,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Begins  Professor 

of  Hebrew. 
Rev.  J.  J.  Lias,  M.A.,  IcUe  Professor  at  St  David's  Collie,  Lampeter. 
Rev.  J.  R.  LuMBY,  D.D.,  Norrisian  Professor  of  Divinity. 
Rev.  G.  F.  Maclear,  D.D.,  Warden  of  St  Augustine^s  College,  Canterbury. 
Rev.  H.  C.  G.  MOULE,  M.A.,  laU  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  PrincipcU  of 

Ridley  Hall,  Cambridge. 
Rev.  E.  H.  Perowne,  D.D.,  Master  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Cambridge. 
The  Ven.  T.  T.  Perowne,  B.D.,  Archdeacon  of  Norwich. 
Rev.  A.  Plummer,  M.A.,  D.D.,  McLster  of  University  College,  Durham. 
The  Very  Rev.  E.  H.  Plumptre,  D.D.,  Dean  of  Wells. 
Rev.  H.  E.  Ryle,  M.A.,  Hulsean  Professor  of  Divinity, 
Rev.  W.  SiMCOX,  M.  A.,  IcUe  Rector  of  Weyhitl,  Hants, 
W.  Robertson  Smith,  M.A.,  Professor  of  Arabic  and  Fellviu  of  Christ's 

College. 
The  Very  Rev.  H.  D.  M.  Spence,  M.A.,  Dean  of  Gloucester. 
Rev.  A.  W.  Streane,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Cambridge, 


London :  C.  J.  Cla  y  ^  Soi^s,  Cambridge  University  Press  IVarehouse, 

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THE  BOOK  OF  JOSHUA.     By  the  Rev.  G.  F.  Maclear,  D.D. 

With  1  Maps.     Ji.  W. 
THE    BOOK    OF    JUDGES.     By  the  Rev.  J.  J.   Lias,   M.A. 

With  Map.     31.  6^. 
THE    FIRST    BOOK    OF   SAMUEL.     By  the  Rev.   Professor 

KiKKPATKiCK,  B.D.     With  Map.     31.61/. 
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KiRKPATRtcK,  B.D.     With  1  Maps.     3/.  6</. 
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THE    BOOK   OF    ECCLESIASTES.     By  the  Very  Rev.  E.  H. 

Plumptrk,  D.D.    y. 
THE   BOOK  OF  JEREMIAH.     By  the   Rev.  A.  W.  Streame, 

M.A.    Wilh  Map.    41.  (vi. 
THE  BOOK  OF  HOSEA.   By  Rev.  T.  K.  Chevne,  M.A.,  D.D.  y. 
I'HE  BOOKS  OF  OBADIAH  AND  JONAH.     By  Archdeacon 

Perowne.     u.  fid. 
THE  BOOK  OF  MICAH.     By  Rev.  T.  K.  Chevne,  D.D.     u.  &/. 
THE  BOOKS  OF  HAGGAI,  ZECHARIAH  AND  MALACHL 

By  Archdeacon  Pbrownb.     y.  6J. 
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Rev.  A.  Carr,  M.A.    With  i  Maps.     u.  dd. 
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G.  F.  Maclbar,  D.D.     With  4  Maps.     u.  &/. 
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A.  Pluhmer,  M.A.,  D.D.     With  4  Maps.     ^l.  6J. 
THE    ACTS    OF    THE    APOSTLE&     By  the  Rev.   Professor 

LuMBV,  D.D.     With  4  Maps.     4J.  W. 
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MouLE,  M.A.     it.  6d. 
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MOULE,  M.A.      11.  W. 

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THE  GENERAL  EPISTLE  OF  ST  JAMES.     By  the  Very  Rev. 
E.  H.  Plumptrb,  D.D.     u,  td. 

t  THE   EPISTLES   OF  ST  PETER  AND  ST  JUDE.     By   the 

1  same  Editor,    ai.  td. 

jl  THE  EPISTLES  OF  ST  JOHN.      By  the   Rev.  A.  Plummer, 

M.A.,  D.D.    3/.  td. 

Preparing, 

S  THE   BOOK  OF  GENESIS.     By  the  Very  Rev.  the   Dean  of 

.il  Peterborough. 

■  THE   BOOKS  OF   EXODUS,   NUMBERS  AND   DEUTERO- 

NOMY.   By  the  Rev.  C.  D.  Ginsburg,  LL.D. 

THE   BOOKS   OF   EZRA  AND   NEHEMIAH.     By   the    Rev. 
?  Prof.  RVLE,  M.A. 

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THE  BOOK  OF  ISAIAH.     By  Prof.  W.  Robertson  Smith,  M.A. 

THE  BOOK  OF  EZEKIEL.     By  the  Rev.  A.  B.  Davidson,  D.D. 

i  THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  GALATIANS.     By  the  Rev.  E.   H. 

I'  Perowne,  D.D. 

\  THE  EPISTLES  TO  THE  COLOSSIANS  AND  PHILEMON. 

•  By  the  Rev.  H.  C.  G.  Moule,  M.A. 

Y  THE  EPISTLES  TO  TIMOTHY  AND  TITUS.     By  the  Rev. 

4-  A.  E.  Humphreys,  M.A. 

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CI)e  Smaller  CambrOige  Bible  tot  ^(booIfi(. 

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THE  GOSPEL  ACCORDING  TO  ST  MATTHEW.     By  Rev. 
A.  Carr,  M.A. 

THE    GOSPEL    ACCORDING    TO     ST     MARK.     By    Rev. 
G.  F.  Maclear,  D.D. 

THE  GOSPEL  ACCORDING  TO  ST  LUKE.     By  Archdeacon 
Farrar,  D.D. 


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^f)t  Camfiriligf  ®rrtib  Q^estammt  {or  #d)ool0 
anb  CoIUg7«> 

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English  Notes,  prepared  under  the  direction  of  the  General  Editor, 

Thk  Very  Reverend  J.  J.  S.  PEROWNE,  D.D. 


Now  Ready. 

LI 
III 

"CopiDui  illiutraliom,  nthered  Tra 
Lc  aid  ID  (he  Hudcni.    Tbey  tat  ir 


THE   GOSPEL   ACCORDING   TO   ST   MATTHEW.     By  the 
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A  rcnuikably  inicR^unf.  ohilt  ill  ciplaiui 
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G.  F.  Maclkar,  D.D.     With  3  Maps.     +/■  *«'■ 

vn  etctlient  sketch  of  Ihe  tpecii]  chkjseuriMia  of  Ihii  GnpcJ :  fm  ftnilyAJ*.  and  a  chapflo-  oo  Ih« 
tut  af  ihe  Near  TetUDKBI  geaenlly .  . .  Ttie  vock  ii  conpleied  by  three  (ood  mapi."— .f'fv. 
day  RrvifV- 

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Plummek,  M.A.,  D.D.    With  4  Mips.     61. 

•a  been  made  to  '  The  Canbridir  Greek  Teatameiil  lor  Sdmela,' 


THE  ACTS  OF  THE  APOSTLES-   By  the  Rev.  Prof.  Lumby,  D.D., 
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THE   FIRST  EPISTLE  TO  THE  CORINTHIANS.     By  the 
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THE  SECOND  EPISTLE  TO  THE  CORINTHIANa     By  the 
Rev,  J.  J.  Lias,  M.A.  [Prtparing. 

THE  EPISTLE  TO  THE  HEBREWS.     By  Arch.  Farrar,  D.D. 
31.  6rf. 


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t  who  can  nad  Latin  with 


in_g  information  about  early  English  I 
oTall  puti  M  the  national  life,  aince 


books  of  the  '  Ecclewtstial  Hiuorr'  wUh  that 
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Plainly  apfl*  lo  Ua  aota 
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the  Chun 


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By  the  same  Editor,     li-. 

CAESAR.  DE  BELLO  GALLICO  COMMENT.  I.  II.  III. 

by  the  same  Editor.    31. 

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and  COMMENT.  VII.  by  the  same  Editor,    is.  each. 

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CAESAR.     DE  BELLO  CIVILI  COMMENT.  I.  by  the 

same  Editor.  [/«  the  Press. 

CICERO.      ACTIO   PRIMA    IN    C.  VERREM.      With 

I  i  Introduction  and  Notes.    By  H.  Cowis,  M.  A.,  Fellow  of  St  John's  College, 

4  Cambridge,     is,  6d. 

CICERO.     DEAMICITIA.     Edited  by  J.  S.  Reid,  Litt.D., 

Fellow  and  Tutor  of  Gonville  and  Caius  College.    New  Edition.     31.  6d, 

'  I  "  Mr  Reid  has  deddedlv  attained  his  aim,  namely,  *  a  thorough  examination  of  the  Latinity 

-  of  the  dialogue.' The  revision  of  the  text  is  most  valuable,  and  comprehends  sundr> 

'  acute  corrections.  .  .  .    This  volume,  like  Mr  Reid's  other  editions,  is  a  solid  gain  to  the  scholar- 
ship of  the  country." — Atfututum. 

1;  •  "A  more  distinct  gain  to  scholarship  is  Mr  Reid's  able  and   thorough  edition  of  the  />/ 

,'•;  AmicitiA  of  Cicero,  a  work  of  which,   whether  we  regard  the  exhaustive  introduction  or  l^e 

i'l  instructive  and  most  suggestive  commentary,  it  would  be  difficult  to  speak  too  highly.   .  .  .  When 

■  I'j  we  come  to  the  commentary,  we  are  only  amazed  by  its  fulness  in  proportion  to  its  bulk. 

.  '^  Nothing  is  overlooked  which  can  tend  to  enlarge  the  learner's  general  knowledge  of  Ciceronian 

■1 ' ;  Latin  or  to  elucidate  the  text. "—  Saturday  Rrvuw. 


■4 


I 


'11 


f*i 


CICERO.     DE    SENECTUTE.    Edited  by  J.   S.   Reid, 

Litt.D.     Revised  Edition.     3/.  6d, 

*'  The  notes  are  excellent  and  scholarlike,  adapted  for  the  upper  forms  of  public  schools,  and 
ikely  to  be  useful  even  to  more  advanced  students."— ^iMin/MiK. 

CICERO.    DIVINATIO  IN  Q.  CAECILIUM  ET  ACTIO 

prima  in  C.  VERREM.  With  Introduction  and  Notes  by  W.  E. 
Heitland,  M.A.,  and  Herbert  Cowie,  M.A.,  Fellows  of  St  John's 
College,  Cambridge,     y, 

CICERO.    PHILIPPICA  SECUNDA.    With  Introduction 

and  Notes  by  A.  G.  Peskett,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Magdalene  Collie,    y,  6</. 

CICERO.    PRO  ARCHIA  POETA.    Edited  by  J.  S.  Reid. 

Litt.D.     Revised  Edition,     is, 

"  It  is  an  admirable  specimen  of  careful  editing.  An  Introduction  tells  us  everything  we  could 
wish  to  know  about  Archias,  about  Cicero's  connexion  with  him,  about  the  merits  of  the  trial,  and 
the  genuineness  of  the  speech.  The  text  is  well  and  carefully  printed.  The  notes  are  clear  and 
scholar-like. .  .  .  No  boy  can  master  this  little  volume  without  feeling  that  he  has  advanced  a  long 
•step  in  scholarship." — The  Academy. 

CICERO.     PRO  BALBO.     Edited  by  J.  S.  Reid,  Litt.D. 

•  is,  6d, 

**  We  are  bound  to  recognize  the  pains  devoted  in  the  annotation  of  these  two  orations  to  the 
minute  and  thorough  study  of  their  Latinity,  both  in  the  ordinary  notes  and  in  the  textual 
appendices." — Saturday  Ktview. 

London:  C.  J.  Clay  &-  Sons,  Cambrids^e  University  Press  Warehmtsey 

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THE  CAMBRIDGE  VNIVEHSITY  PRESS.  33 

CICERO.  PRO  MILONE,  with  a  Translation  of  Asconius' 
lolrodaclion.  Marginal  Analysis  and  Engliih  Noles.  Edited  by  the  Kev. 
John  Smyth  Pukton,  B.D.,Ule  Pcesident  and  Tutor  of  St  Catharine'* 
College,    ij,  M. 

"The  editorial  work  il  ciceJlcDlly  &siai.'—Tki  Acadtmy. 

CICERO.  PRO  MURENA.  With  English  Introduction 
and  Notes.  By  W.  E.  Heitland,  M.A.,  Fellow  and  Classical  Lecturer 
or  St  John's  College,  Lambiidgc.    ftMond  BdlUui,  okMfBllr  revlBAd.    31. 

"ThiHOtudcnu  an  U  be  d«in«l  foruinaie  •ho  hart  W  nad  Gceni'i  lively  and  hrillianl 
ur^OAfor  L.UureDa  viCb  Mr  Heilluid'i  handy  cditiinl,  ivhi^ii  maybe  pnuunuiced  Vour-tquarc' 
ID   point  a\  equipmeal,   abd  which    haa,  not  wLlhoul   Bood  reaton,  attained  the  honoura  of  a 

CICERO.    PRO    PLANCIO.     Edited  by  H.  A.  HOLDEN. 

LL.D.,  Examiner  in  Greek  10  the  University  of  London.    Second  Edition. 

CICERO.     PRO  SULLA.     Edited  by  J.  S.  Reid,  Litt.D. 

■carceLy  oeedt  any  commendation  ol^  our*.  Hii  cditioD  of  the  tpcech  Pro  SvUa  ii  fully  equal  in 
Bierit  to  the  volumet  which  he  bat  already  pubhthed  ...  It  would  be  difficult  to  ipeak  too  tighly 

Ucera's  style  and  the  Laliniiy  of  hia  period  than  by  m^inf  a  careful  aludy  of  Ihi^  speech  with 

IchoUnhip  enables  him  lo  delecl  and  explain  the  shghtest  points  of  diuinciioD  heiveen  the 
usages  of  differeni  auihon  aud  diflereni  penods  .  .  .  I'he  noiei  are  followed  by  a  •aliuble 
appendii  on  the  teai,and  another  onpoinuof  tmlugrsphyi  aaexeelleni  Lndev  brinft  the  work 

CICERO.    SOMNIUM  SCIPIONIS.     With  Intt<xiuctioii 

and  Noles.     By  W.  D.  Pbakuan,  M.A.,  Head  Master  of  FoUdam  School, 
Jamaica.     ■.. 

HORACE.    EPISTLES.  Book  I.     With  Notes  and  Intro- 

duction  by  E.  S.  Shuck  HURUif,  M.A.     it.  6d. 
LIVY.      Book    IV.      With    Notes    and    Introduction,    by 

Rev.  H.  M.  Stephenson,  M.A.     v.  &J. 
LIVY.     Book    V.      With    Notes   and    Introduction    by   L. 

Whiblkv,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Pembroke  Collece.     u.  6d.  [SicrUy. 

LIVY.     Books  XXL,  XXII.    With  Notes,  Introduction  and 

Maps.    By  M.  S-  Dimsuale,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  King's  College.    11.  6ii.  each. 

LUCAN.     PHARSALIA  LIBER  PRIMUS.    Edited  with 

English  Introduction  and  Notes  by  W.  E.   Hkitland,  M.A.  aod  C.  E. 

Haskins,  M.A.,  Fellows  and  Lecturers  of  St  John's  College,  Cambridge. 

"A  careful  and  uholarlike  produclioii." — Ti'iwj. 

"  In  nice  parallels  of  Lucan  from  Latin  pocta  aitd  Iron  Shakspeare.  Mr  Hatkiaa  aad  Mr 
Heitland  deserve  prajid.  "Saturday  Ktvifw^ 

LUCRETIUS.  Book  V.  With  Notes  and  Introduction  by 
J.  D.  Dlff,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,    u. 

OVID.     FASTI.     Liber  VI.     With  a  Plan  of  Rome  and 

Notes  by  A.  Sidgwick,  M.A.,  Tutor  of  Corpus  Chiisti  College,  Oxfbid. 


34 


PUBLICATIONS  OF 


I 


:i 


QUINTUS    CURTIUS.    A  Portion  of  the  History. 

(Alexander  in  India.)  By  W.  £.  Hbitland,  M.  A.,  Fellow  and  Lecturer 
of  St  John's  College,  Cambridge,  and  T.  £.  Raven,  B.A.,  Assistant  Master 
in  Sherborne  School.    31.  6^. 

**  Equally  commendable  as  a  genuine  addition  to  the  ezistinK  stock  of  school-books  is 
AUxmmder  in  IndtA.  a  compilation  from  the  eighth  and  ninth  books  of  Q.  Curtius,  edited  for 
the  Pitt  Press  by  Messrs  Heitland  and  Raven.  .  .  .  The  work  of  Curtius  has  merits  of  its 

o«m,  which,  in  former  generations,  made  it  a  favourite  with  English  scholars,  and  which  still 
make  it  a  popular  text- book  in  Continenul  schools. .....    The  reputation  of  Mr  Heitland  is  a 

sufficient  guarantee  for  the  scholarship  of  the  notes,  which  are  ample  without  being  excessive, 
and  the  book  is  well  furnished  with  all  that  is  needfiil  in  the  nature  of  maps,  indices,  and 
appendices."  —ActuUmy. 

VERGIL.     AENEID.     Libri  I.,  II.,  III.,  IV.,  V.,  VI.,  VII. 

VIII.,  IX.,  X.,  XI.,  XII.  Edited  with  Notes  by  A.  SiDGWiCK,  M.A., 
Tutor  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford,     u.  dd.  each. 

*'  Mr  Sidgwick's  Vergil  is we  believe,  the  best  school  edition  of  the  poet." — Guardiatt, 

*'  Mr  Arthur  Sidgwick's  *  Vergil,  Aeneid,  Book  XII.'  is  worthy  of  his  repuution,  and  is  dis- 
tinguished by  the  same  acuteness  and  accuracy  of  knowledge,  appreciation  of  a  boy's  difficulties 
and  inf^enuity  and  resource  in  meeting  them,  which  we  have  on  other  occasions  had  reason  to 
liaise  m  these  pa^es." — Tht  Academy, 

**  As  masterly  in  its  clearly  divideid  preface  and  appendices  as  in  the  sound  and  independent 
character  of  its  annotations.  .  .  .  There  is  a  great  deal  more  in  the  notes  than  mere  compilation 
and  suggestion. ...  No  difficulty  is  left  unnoticed  or  yxiAiaxtid!itA.**--Saturday  Ranew. 

VERGIL.    AENEID.     LiBRI  IX.  X.  in  one  volume.     3j. 
VERGIL.    AENEID.     Libri  X.,  XL,  XII.  in  one  volume. 

VERGIL.    BUCOLICS.    With  Introduction  and  Notes,  by 

the  same  Editor.     \s,  6 J. 

VERGIL.     GEORGICS.     Libri   L   II. 

Editor,     w.     LiBRi  III.  IV.     2s, 

.  "  This  volume,  which  completes  the  Pitt  Press  edition  of  Virgil's  Georgics,  is  distinguished  by 
the  same  admirable  iudgment  and  first-rate  icholarship  as  are  con^cuous  in  the  former  volume 
and  in  the  "Aeneid  '  by  the  same  talented  editor.*'— A iArmeum. 

VERGIL.     The   Complete   Works,  edited   with   Notes,   by 

A.  .SiDGWiCK,  M.A.,  Two  vols.  Vol.  I.  containing  the  Text  and  Intro- 
duction.   3J.  6d,      Vol.  II.     The  Notes.     4J.  6d, 


By    the    same 


III.     FRENCH. 


CORNEILLE.    LA  SUITE  DU  MENTEUR.    A  Comedy 

in  Five  Acts.    Edited  with  Fontenelle's  Memoir  of  the  Author,  Voltaire's 
Critical  Remarks,   and    Notes  Philological   and  Historical.     By    the    late 

GUSTAVB   MaSSON.      2S. 

DE   BONNECHOSE.     LAZARE   HOCHE.     With   Four 

Maps,  Introduction  and  Commentary,  by  C.  Colbeck,  M.A.,  late  Fellow  of 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge.     Revised  Edition,     w. 

D'HARLEVILLE.      LE    VIEUX    CELIBATAIRE.      A 

Comedy.     With  a   Biographical  Memoir,  and  Grammatical,  Literary  and 
Historical  Notes.    By  Gustave  Masson.    ^s. 


London  :  C  J,  Cla  y  ^  Sons,  Cambridge  University  Press  IVareAouse^ 

Ave  Maria  Lane, 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS.  3S 

DE   LAMARTINE.      JEANNE   D'ARC      With   a   Map 

and  Notes  Historical  and  Philological  and  a  Vocabulary  by  Kev.  A.  C. 
Clapin,  M.A.,  St  John's  College,  Cambridge,  and  Bachelier-^-Leitres  of 
Ihe  Univeisity  or  Fiance.     Enlaced  Edition,     u. 

DE  VIGNY.     LA  CANNE  DE  JONC.     Edited  with  Notes 

by  Rev.  H.  A.  Bull,  M.A.     is. 

ERCK.VIANN-CHATRIAN.     LA  GUERRE.    With  Map, 

Introduction  and  CommenUry  by  the  liiv.  A.  C.  CLAFIH,  M.A.     ji. 

LA  BARONNE  DE  STAEL-HOLSTEIN.    LE  DIREC- 

TOIKE.  (Considerations  lur  la  Revolution  Franfaise.  Troiiiime  et 
quatriime  parties.}  With  a  Critical  Notice  of  Ihe  Author,  a  Chronological 
Table,  and  Notes  Historical  and  Philologica],  by  G.  Massun,  B.A.,  and 
G.  W.  Prothbro,  M.A.     Revised  and  enlarged  Edition,     it. 

"  Prusui  under  Frederick  Uie  Grell,  Inij   Fnnce  under  Ilie  Direciorr    brinf  ut  fiee  to  rue 
KApeeiLveiy  with  periodt  of  tiinory  wlijch  tl  it  rifhl  &ltou]d  be  known  tboroiightr,  and  which 

wurld-luiown  warli  of  Madunc  dc  5uEI  on  iht  Frendi  RetMuDOD.  ii  l>a«oad  all  pntUc  for 
the  eicetlcnce  both  of  in  <tyle  and  of  its  mauer."— 7ii'w(. 

LA  BARONNE   DE  STAEL-HOLSTEIN.     DIX  AN- 

NEES  D'EXIL.  Livre  II.  Chapitres  1— S.  With  a  Biographical 
Sketch  of  (he  Author,  a  Selection  of  Poetical  Fragments  by  Madame  de 
Stael's  Contemporaries,  and  Notes  Historical  and  PhiTulogicaL  ByGusTAVx 
MassON  and  G.  W.  ProtHERO,  M.A.     Revised  and  enlarged  edition,     is. 

LEMERCIER.    FREDEGONDE  ET  BRUNEHAUT.    A 
Tragedy  in  Five  Acts.      Edited  with  Notes,  Genealogical  and  Chronological 


MOLIERE.     LE  BOURGEOIS  GENTILHOMME,  Com^- 

die-I)allet  en  Cinq  Actes.     (i6;o.)     With  a  lite  of  Moliere  and  Graromalical 
and  Philoli^cal  Notes.     By  Rev.  A.  C.  Clapin.     Kevi^  Edition.     1^.  6/. 

MOLIERE.     L'ECOLE  DES  FEMMES.     Edited  with  In- 
troduction and  Notes  by  GEORGE  .SAlt^TSBUKV,  M.A.    it.  dd. 

"  Mr  Sainisbury's  dear  and  scholarly  notes  are  rich  in  ilhutnllDn  of  the  v.iluahic  kind  that 

MOLIERE.    LES   PRECIEUSES    RIDICULES.     With 

Introduction  and  Notes  by  E.  G.  W.  Braumioltz,  M.A.,  Ph.D.    Univenitj 
Lecturer  in  French,    is. 

PI  RON.     LA  METROMANIE,  A  Comedy,  with  a  Bio- 

graphical  Memoir,  and  Grammatical,   Ijtetary  and  Historical  Notes.     By 
G.  Masson.     Ii. 
RACINE.     LES    PLAIDEURS.     With    Introduction  and 
Notes  by  E.  G.  W.  Brausholtz,  M.A.,  Ph.D.     is. 

S AINTE-BEU VE.  M.  DARU  (Causeries  du  Lundi. Vol.  IX.). 

With  Biographical  Sketch  of  the  Author,  and  Notes  Philological  and  Histo- 
rical.    By  GusTAVK  Masson.  11. 
SAINTINE.     LA  PICCIOLA.     The  Text,  with  Introduc- 
tion, Notes  and  Map,  by  Rev.  A.  C.  Clapin.     it. 

London :  C.  J.  O-A  r  &•  Sons,  Cambridn  Universily  Press  Warekoutc, 
Av€  Maria  Lane. 


36  PUBLICATIONS  OF 


SCRIBE   AND  LEGOUVE.     BATAILLE   DE   DAMES. 

Edited  by  Rev.  II.  A.  Bull,  M.A.     is, 

SCRIBE.     LE    VERRE   D'EAU.     With    a    Biographical 

Memoir,  and  Grammatical,  Literary  and  Historical  Notes.  By  C.  CoLBKCK, 
M.A.     a  J. 

"It  may  be  national  prejudice,  but  we  consider  this  edition  far  superior  to  any  of  the  series 
which  hitherto  have  been  edited  exclusively  by  foreigners.  Mr  Colbeck  seems  better  to  under* 
stand  the  wants  and  difficulties  of  an  English  boy.  Ihe  etymological  notes  especially  are  admi- 
rable. .  .  .  The  historical  notes  and  introduction  are  a  piece  of  thorough  honest  wcrk.^ — y^unuii 
tf  EducatwH. 

SEDAINE.      LE   PHILOSOPHE   SANS   LE  SAVOIR. 

Edited  with  Notes  by  Rev.  li.  A.  Bull,  M.A.,  late  Master  at  Wellington 
College.     IS, 

THIERRY.  LETTRES  SUR  L'HISTOIRE  DE  FRANCE 

(XIII.— XXIV.).  By  GusTAVE  Masson,  B.A.  and  G.  W,  Prothero,  M.A. 
With  Map.     2J.  (hI, 

THIERRY.     RECITS  DES  TEMPS  MEROVINGIENS 

1— III.  Edited  by  GusTAVE  Masson,  B.A.  Univ.  Gallic,  and  A.  R.  Ropes, 
M.A.    With  Map.     is. 

VILLEMAIN.     LASCARIS,  ou  LES  GRECS  DU  XV". 

SIi!.CLE,  Nouvelle  Historique,  with  a  Biographical  Sketch  of  the  Author, 
a  Selection  of  Poems  on  Greece,  and  Notes  Historical  and  Philological. 
By  GusTAVE  Masson,  B.A.     is. 

VOLTAIRE.    HISTOIRE  DU  SIECLE  DE  LOUIS  XIV. 

Part  I.  Chaps.  I. — XIII.  Edited  with  Notes  Philological  and  Historical, 
Biographical  and  Geographical  Indices,  etc.  bv  G.  Masson,  B.A.  Univ. 
Gallic,  and  G.  W.  Prothero,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  King's  Collie,  Cambridge. 
IS.  6d. 

Part  II.     Chaps.  XIV.— XXIV.     With  Three  Maps 

of  the  Period.     By  the  same  Editors.     2s.  6d, 

Part  III.     Chap.   XXV.   to   the   end.     By  the   same 


Editors,     w.  6d. 

XAVIER  DE  MAISTRE.     LA  JEUNE  SIBERIENNE. 

LE  LfiPREUX  DE  LA  CIT£  D'AOSTE.     With   Biographical  Notice, 
Critical  Appreciations,  and  Notes.    By  G.  Masson,  B.A.     is.  6d. 


IV.     GERMAN. 

BALLADS    ON    GERMAN    HISTORY.     Arranged    and 

Annotated   by   W.    Wacner,   Ph.  D.,   late   Professor  at   the  Johanneum, 
Hamburg,     is. 

"It  carries  the  reader  rapidly  through  some  of  the  most  important  incidents  connected  with 
the  German  race  and  name,  from  the  invasion  of  Italy  by  the  Visigoths  under  their  King  Alaric, 
down  to  the  Franco-German  War  and  the  installation  of  the  present  Emperor.  The  notes  supply 
very  well  the  connecting  links  between  the  successive  periods,  and  exhibit  in  its  various  phases  of 
growth  and  progress,  or  the  reverse,  the  vast  unwieldy  mass  which  constitutes  modem  Germany." 
—  Times. 


London :  C,  J,  Cla  y  &*  SoNSf  Cambridge  University  Press  Warehouse^ 

Ave  Maria  Lane. 


THE  CAMBRIDGE    UNIVERSITY  PRESS.  37 

BENEDIX.  DOCTOR  WESPE.  Lustspiel  in  fiinf  Auf- 
lUgcn,     Edited  with  Notes  by  Karl  Hermann  Breul,  M.A.     jj. 

FREYTAG.     DER  STAAT  FRIEDRICHS  DES  GROS- 

SEN.     Wiih  Notes.    By  Wilhblm  Wagnek,  Ph.D.     «. 

GERMAN  DACTYLIC  POETRY.    Arranged  and  Anno- 

taled  by  the  same  Editor,     y. 

®oetf)e'«  ffnabeniaftrf.  (1749—17590  GOETHE'S  BOY- 
HOOD :  being  the  First  Three  Books  of  his  Autobiography.  Amngeil 
and  Annotated  by  the  same  Editor.    :i. 

GOETHE'S    HERMANN     AND    DOROTHEA.     With 

in  Inlroduclion  and  Notes.     By  the  same  Editoi.     Revised  edition  by  J.  W. 
Cartmell,  M.A.     y.  6d. 

"The  nolei  are  amonji  the  b»<  Ihll  we  kndw.  with  rhc  rFservarion  thai  they  are  oUea  tos 

GUTZKOW.      ZOPF    UND    SCHWERT.      Lustspiel    in 

Ttinr  Aulziigen  von.    With  a  Bit^raphical  and  Historical  Inlroduclion,  English 
Notes,  and  an  Index.     By  H.  J.  Wolsten holme,  B.A.  (Lond.).    jj.  6d- 


HAUFF.  DAS  BILD  DES  KAISERS.  Edited  by  Karl 
Hermann  BREt;L,  M.A.,  Ph.U.    ji. 

HAUFF.    DAS  WIRTHSHAUS  IM  SPESSART.  Edited 

by  A.  ScHLOTTMANN.  Ph.  D.,  late  Assistant  Mastei  at  Uppingham  School. 
y.  fid. 

HAUFF.     DIE  KARAVANE.    Edited  with  Notes  by  A. 

SCHLOTTMANN,   Ph.  D.      y.  W. 

IMMERMANN.  DER  OBERHOF.  A  Tale  of  West- 
phalian  Life,  With  a  Life  of  Immermann  and  Engli^^h  Notes,  by  Wilhblk 
Wagner,   Ph.D.,  late  Professor  at  the  Johanneum,  Hamboi^.     y. 

KOHLRAUSCH.    "Bafl  3a6ri8i3  (The  Year  1813).   With 

English  Notes.   By  W.Wagner,      w. 

LESSING  AND  GELLERT.      SELECTED    FABLES. 

Edited  with  Notes  by  Karl  Hermann  Breul,  M.A.,  Lecturerin  Geiman 

at  the  University  of  Cambridge,    y. 

MENDELSSOHN'S  LETTERS.     Selections  from.    Edited 

by  James  Sime,  M.A.     31-, 

RAUMER.    '5>fr  erfie  ffreuMUg  (THE  FIRST  CRUSADE). 

Condensed  from  the  Author's  'History  of  the  Hohenstaufen',  with  a  life  of 
Raitmer,  two  Plans  and  English  Notes.     Ry  W.  Wagner,     ti. 

"CetUunly  no  mare  inlereitmdlnok  could  be  made  the  lubjeci  of  uaminaliDni     The  llo¥y 
oribe  FintCtuudehuui  undjHng  iniereiL    The  noicijue.  onihe  whole,  good.'— f'ifwa/i'nu/ 

RIEHL.     CULTURGESCHICHTLICHE  NOVELLEN. 

With  Grammatical,   Philological,   and    Historical  Notes,   an<l   a   Complete 
Index,  l>y  H.  J.  Wolstenholme,  B.A.  (Land.).     31.  fid. 


38  PUBUCATIONS  OF 

SCHILLER.  WILHELM  TELL.  Edrted  with  Intro- 
dnclion  and  Notei  hy  Karl  Hbuiann  Bkeul,  M.A.,  University  Lecturer 
in  German,     u.  6>/. 

UHLAND.  ERNST.  HERZOG  VON  SCHWABEN.  With 

Inlrodaclion    and    Note».     By    H.    J.    Wolstxnholmb,    B.A.    (Lond.), 
Lectarei  in  Gennan  at  Newnham  Collie,  Cambridge,     y.  td. 


V.    ENGLISH. 
ANCIENT   PHILOSOPHY.    A   SKETCH    OF,  FROM 

THALES  TO  CICERO,  by  Iosiph  B.  Mavok.  M.A.  31.  W. 
'■Prorcuor  Mayor  conlributo  u  ihi  Pin  Pnu  Serio  A  SktUk  tf  Amcuul  PkilMtttkf  in 
which  He  hii  tndeairaund  10  civc  ■  ■cncral  vie*  of  the  phiUwiphlcs]  ly^.tEmi  illuitraicd  by  ihe 
faniui  of  iHe  nuuEn  of  DiEuphriicil  and  clhicai  tcicnce  Train  Thila  10  Cicero.  In  Ihc  eoiinc 
ofhiiikElch  he  uliEii  ocuiinn  id  tive  cimciiie  iiulyiEi  af  Plato 'i  Republic,  and  of  the  Eihitxand 
Polilin  of  Ariitolle :  and  Iheie  ahilracii  ■>!!  be  10  laiiie  nadEn  not  itae  JEait  uKfnl  ponioni  a\ 
■he  book."— 7-*/  Cmardian. 

ARISTOTLE.   OUTLINES  OF  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF. 

Compiled  l>y  Edwin  Wallace,  M.A..  LL.D.  (St  Andrews),  late  Fellow 
of  Worcester  CollcEe.  Oxford.     Third  Edition  Enlarged.     41,  6d. 

"A  judicioui  leLECtinn  of  characleriiric  paua^ca.  arranged  in  para[Tapn«,  each  of  whicli  ir 
preceded  b)r  a  mai^Ierly  and  penpLcuouB  EngUkh  mst\yUi,"—Sc^ttmaiL 

"Given  in  a  comparativtly  tmall  compain  a  very  |ood  fketch  of  Arutotte'i  leachine.'* — Sttt. 

BACON'S    HISTORY    OF    THE    REIGN    OF    KING 

HENRV  VII.     With  Notes  by  the  Rct.  J.  Rawson  Lumbv.  D.D.     is. 
COWLEY'S  ESSAYS.     With  IntrofJuction  and  Notes.     By 
the  Rev.  J.  Rawson  Lumbv.  D.D.,  Noiriiian  Proressor  of  Divinity;  Fellow 
of  St  Catharine's  Collie,     ^s. 

MORE'S  HISTORY  OF  KING  RICHARD  III.    Edited 


MORE'S  UTOPIA.  With  Notes  by  the  Rev.  J.  Rawsok 
Lumbv,  D.D.    jj.  6</. 

"It  wai  ariginally  writien  in  I.aLinand  doev  boiftnd  a  place  en  ordirary  bookihclvea.  Avery 
fr«u  bAMi  hat  theRfore  been  conficrrEd  on  Ihe  ccaeral  Engliih  reader  by  the  iniuiuen  of  ibe 
>//</>n'ii.5'rr^i.  inlhcisHieofacDnvEnicnlliltlEvoluine  of  J/m'i  Ul^!a  noi  in  ihe  oriEinal 
Latin,  bul  in  Ihe  quaint  Enfliii  Tramtalim  lluna/  maJt  ^  Itaflu  Kti^wit.  which  adds  a 

pfeie'and  'KhoU^ly''fa*hian  by'W  j!"r.  Liunby°ih<  Norriiiao  Prafewir  of  Dignity"  thw  unt 

Enjtiith  liieialuK."— CKan/uH. 

THE  TWO  NOBLE  KINSMEN,  edited  with  Intro- 
duction and  Notes  by  the  Rev.  rrofessoi  Skeat,  Litt.D.,  formerly  Feiiou 
of  Christ's  College,  Camhridge.     31.  6J. 


VI.    EDUCATIONAL  SCIENCE. 

COMENIUS.  JOHN  AMOS,  Bishop  of  the  Moravians.  His 
Life  and  Educational  Works,  by  S.  S.  Lai;rib,  M.A.,  F.R.S.E.,  Professor  of 
the  Institutes  and  History  of  Education  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 
New  Edition,  revised.     3/.  6J. 

y  Press  It'irrinuse, 


THE  CAMBRIDGE   UNIVERSITY  PRESS.  39 

EDUCATION.  THREE  LECTURES  ON  THE  PRAC- 
TICE OF.  I.  On  Marking,  by  H.  W.  Eve,  M.A.  II.  On  Sdmulus,  l^ 
A.  SiDGWiCK,  M.A.  III.  On  the  Teaching  o(  Latin  Verse  Composition,  l^ 
E.  A.  Abbott,  D.D.    ts. 

LOCKE  ON  EDUCATION.    With  Introduction  and  Notes 

;k,  M.A.    jj.  6rf. 

too  youag  to  find  Itaii  book  iiittniting :  there  ii  no  teacher  too  old  to  find  it  prolSublc.'— nr 
Scktci  BHikliH,  Nm  Vtri. 

MILTON'S   TRACTATE    ON    EDUCATION.     A   fac- 

umile  reprint  from  the  Edition  of  1673.  Edited,  wilh  Introduction  and 
Notes,  bv  Oscar  Browning,  M.A.    11. 

"A  leiante  rrprinl  of  Milion'i  famrmt  leII0  to  Mut«r  SinilKl  Hicttib  «>  X  dclidemtun, 

oreftir  «taii-/'of  the  Xorli  given  in   hit  '  Hiiiory  of  Eduuiional  Theories  "—7™™/  'f 
BincttUm. 

MODERN     LANGUAGES.      LECTURES     ON     THE 

TEACHING  OF,  <Ie1iveied  in  the  University  of  Cambridge  in  the  Lent 
Term,  1887.    By  C.  Colbeck,  M.A.,  Assistant  Master  of  Harrow  School,    ts. 
ON    STIMULUS.     A  Lecture  delivered  for  the  Teachers' 
Training  Syndicate  at  Cambridge,  May  1881,  by  A   Sidgwick,  M.A.     u. 

TEACHER.     GENERAL  AIMS  OF  THE,  AND  FORM 

MANAGEMENT.  Two  I-eetures  delivered  in  the  University  of  Camhridge 
in  the  Lent  Term,  1883,  by  Archdeacon  FaRhar,  D.D.,  and  R.  B.  PooLR, 
B.D.  Head  Mastei  of  Bedford  Modem  School,     ij.  lU. 

TEACHING.     THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  OF.     By  the 
Rev.  Edward  Thhing,  M.A.,  late  Head  Master  of  Uppingham  School 
and  Fellow  of  King's  College,  Cambridge.     New  Edition.     41.  6^. 
"Any  mtenipi  10  lummarii*  the  commn  o(  the  nolume  would  fail  10  give  our  render!  n 
(Mte  of  iKc  plcuure  that  ill  peruul  hu  given  va-'—Jmniai a/ Eiincaliaii. 

BRITISH     INDIA,    A    SHORT    HISTORY    OF.     By 

Rev.E.  S.  Caklos,M.A., late  Head  Masler  of  Exeter  GranimarSchool.    is. 

GEOGRAPHY,    ELEMENTARY    COMMERCIAL.     A 

Sketch  of  the  Commodities  and  the  CounlHcs  of  the  World.  By  H.  R. 
Mill,  Sc.IX,  F.R.S.E.,  Lecturer  on  Commercial  Geography  in  the  Hcriol- 
Walt  College,  Edinburgh.     11. 

AN  ATLAS  OF  COMMERCIAL  GEOGRAPHY.  In- 
tended as  a  Compatiion  to  the  above.  By  J,  G.  Bartholomew, 
F.R.G.S.    With  an  Introduction  by  Dr  H.  R.  MILL.    y. 


VII.     MATHEMATICS. 

EUCLID'S  ELEMENTS  OF  GEOMETRY.      Books  I. 

&  II.     Ediiol  by  H.  _M.  Taylor,   M.A.,  Fellow  and  formerly  Tutor  of 
Trinity  Colleee,  Cambridge.     11.  &/. 

Books  III.  and  IV.     By  the  same  Editor. 

[In  Ihc  Press. 
\Other  Volumes  are  in  pre(mrationI\ 


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