1 PART IL tional studies aside'; he describes him as one in whom were CHAP. united the highest attainments and the most blameless character, and in whom every virtue that became a bishop was combined in an extraordinary degree. On the other hand, it is equally evident that Fisher was not less influenced, though F in a different manner, by his successor in the professorial chair. Of the moderation which Erasmus so much admired in his patron, he was himself a conspicuous example. The good bishop took heart in his advocacy of the new learning, when he found the foremost scholar of the age not less ready to denounce the profanity of the Italian sceptics than the degeneracy 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. Jerome. 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 than their respective biographers would lead us to suppose. In their views with respect to the necessity for a thorough reform in the prevailing style of preaching, they were so far at unison, that Fisher, as we have already noted, could think of no one better qualified than Erasmus to prepare 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 Agricola's De Inventione, and only regretted that he had not hitaself 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 1 Lewis, Life of Fisher, 1 12. Vir unus vere episcopus, vere heologus. Letter to Vives (A.D. 1521), pera, 111 690, Vir omnium epis palium virtutum genere cumulaSimms Letter to cardinal Gryma(A.D. 1515), Ibid, m 142. Vir atate doctrinaque singulari.' Let or to cardinal St. George (A.D. 1515), id, in 145. See supra, p. 439. ♪ Perlegimus, Erasme, his dielas Rodolphi Agricole Dialecticam, tes nalem enim cam reperimus inter bibliopolas..... Paucis dam, nifi unquam, quantum ad artem hang pertinet, legimus juenndous et er, litius, ita singula quidem puncta expressisse vilitur. Utinam juverie precptorem ilum fuissem hartas! Mallem id profecto, neque sane mentior, quam archioniscatur aliquem. Opera, i11 1813. PART II. CHAP.Y. that respect for the learning and character of Reuchlin, which made him not only a student of his works, but a warm sympathiser with the great scholar in the struggle in which he afterwards became involved'. Influence of Nor was Erasmus's influence at Cambridge confined to members of that which he exerted through its chancellor. Other and sity. younger men sought the acquaintance of the illustrious the univer foreigner, and recalled, long after he had left, and with no little satisfaction, the details of their intercourse. It is evident indeed that none but those who felt a more or less genuine interest in his work, were likely to become his friends; and it may be safely inferred that these were only to be found among the most able and promising men in the university at that time. The whole genius of the man,—his wit, his pleasantry, his learning, his cosmopolitanism,—were in exact antithesis to academic dulness. He again, on the one hand, could speak no English; while, on the other, there were few with whom he conversed at Cambridge, but must have often shocked his ears by their uncouth Latinity and strange pronunciation. The one of whom, next to Fisher, Henry But he speaks in the most emphatic praise, is perhaps Henry Bullock (whose name, after the usual fashion, he Latinised into Bovillus), a fellow of Queens' College, mathematical! lecturer in the university, and afterwards vice-chancellor'. In him Erasmus found an enthusiastic pupil during his residence, and a valued correspondent when far away. Bullock too it was, who along with one or two others, sustained the tradition of Greek learning, in the perilous interval between their preceptor's departure and the advent of Richard Croke; and somewhat later, we find his talents. and attainments earning for him the notice of Wolsey, by whom he was induced to enter the lists against the Lutheran party, and was rewarded by a chaplaincy in the cardinal's household. Another student for whom Erasmus seems t Jack d. 1525. 1 Ei (Johannes Crullius) commendavi codicem, in quo erant Reuchlinica que misere desiderabat RoffenBis. Erasmus to More (A.D. 1517), Opera, 111 234. Geiger, Johann Reuch lin, p. 338. Cooper, Athenæ, 1 33-4. 3 Bovillus gnaviter Græcatur.' Letter to Ammonius, 111 106. PART IL have entertained a real regard, was William Gonell, also CHAPY. afterwards one of Wolsey's household, and at one time tutor in the family of Sir Thomas More'. There was also a young fellow of King's, whom he styles doctissimus and carissimus,-of the name of John Bryan, who subsequently Job Bre attracted to himself no little criticism in the university, as an assertor of the more genuine Aristotle of the Humanists against the traditional Aristotle of the schoolmen'. Another fellow on the same foundation,-a youth who had but just donned his bachelor's hood,-was Robert Aldrich, the jurenis blandæ cujusdam eloquentiæ, who accompanied Erasmus on his famed expedition to Walsingham,-to interpret for him on the journey, to quiz the guardian of the relics, and to make fun over the 'Virgin's milk;' who lived however to become bishop of Carlisle, to sit in solemn judgement on the rites and ceremonies of the Church, and to be a commissioner against heretics in queen Mary's reign'. There was also one John Watson, fellow of Peterhouse, a select preacher before JME the university, and afterwards master of Christ's College; scarcely, it would seem, so friendly to the new learning as might be desired, for Erasmus rallies him as a Scotist, but to whom he was attracted by the fact that he had travelled in Italy, and numbered among his friends there, some with whom Erasmus was also well acquainted. There is stil fem extant a pleasant letter to the latter, written by Watson from Peterhouse, informing him that the writer has just been presented to the living of Elsworth, 'only seven miles from Cambridge;''there is a capital rectory,' he adds (somewhat in the mood, apparently, to fancy himself passing rich on twenty pounds a year), but I shall have to spend half my first year's income in repairs; such as it is however, it is sampletely at your service whenever you may be disposed to me. Among other of Erasmus's acquaintance were two 1 Cooner, Athenæ, 1 94. 174187; Knight, p. 146. Kt, p. 141; Erasmus, Pere mata Regionis Ergo; Cooper, * Caper, Athenæ, 139, 40; Knight, p. 145. Nactus sum sacerd›tium intra sej tom millia a Cantabrigia, #des habet pulchras, et mecenter ni victum ntile est; porro valet vigenti nostrates libras supra ommia annua; PART II. CHAP. V. fellows of Queens' College, of maturer years,-Dr Fawne, his successor in the lady Margaret professorship, and Richard John Fawne Whitford (to whom he dedicated his translation of Lucian's d. 1519. Retard Richard Sampson d1334 bookseller. Tyrannicida), confessor to lord Mountjoy, and chaplain to bishop Fox,-and lastly, of greater note than either of these, there was Richard Sampson of Trinity Hall, another of Wolsey's clients, afterwards bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and an active participator in the affairs of state'. It is not improGerard, the bable however that Erasmus found in the shop of Gerard the bookseller, conversation as much to his mind as anywhere in the university. It was customary in those days for the authorities to license only foreigners to this trade, for as the great majority of new works issued from the presses on the continent, the necessary knowledge of books was rarely possessed by Englishmen. During some part of his stay, it would seem indeed that Erasmus was resident with Gerard, for we find him speaking of him in one letter as his host'; and we picture to ourselves the great scholar as often dropping in, to while away a tedious hour, and discussing with the worthy bookseller the typographical merits of the last production of the press at Venice or Basel, or the possi bility of getting a respectable Greek fount at Cambridge, or Bed hoc anno nunc primo fere dimi. 1 Cooper, Athena, 1 22, 79, 119; The booksellers were also regarded as agents by whom the suppression of heretical books was to be generally carried out. In a petition presented by the university to cardi Lal Wolsey in 1523, in the matter of Dr Cliffe, eid-rable importance is attached to the selection of th me ap. pointed—unam istal non leve momentum habere credimus, al ejusmodi in perpetuum profiaskoa ezrores (quod tamen, fine tue erikitadinis ope, efficere non valemne, DATApe si reaming's cuterietar academ tra, tres habere biblior polas, homines probos atque graves, * Maltos. d. genter mes ve tie erziera, quos anno IACTATEA DE camlero, Lotorem Pantalla, Jane Boats, * Opera, 19, perhaps the commercial prospects of his own forthcoming CHAR editions of the Greek Testament and St. Jerome. But though Erasmus undoubtedly found at Cambridge some staunch friends and not a few admirers,-while Fisher's patronage protected him from anything like molestation,-it would be contrary to all that we know of the prevailing tone of the university at this time, to suppose that he could long be resident without finding out how strongly his views ran v of I counter to the traditional teaching. The school of theology with which his name is identified, was in direct antagonism to the whole system then in vogue. The historical element in the Scriptures, the existence of which he clearly discerned and so ably unfolded, was precisely that element which the mediæval theologian, with all his untiring industry and elaborateness of interpretation, had neglected and ignored. To those (and such there were) who seriously believed that the Vulgate was to be preferred as a textual authority to the Greek original from which it had been derived, his labours over his Novum Instrumentum appeared a pedantic impertinence; while men of real ability and learning, like Eck of Ingoldstadt, were shocked when they heard of the non-classicality of the New Testament Greek and of erroneous quotations from the Septuagint. His estimate of the whole patristic m literature, again, was almost a complete inversion of that then accepted at all the universities. Of St. Chrysostom,-the only father of the eastern Church who appears to have received much attention from media-val students,-he spoke with undisguised contempt. St. Augustine was, according to his award, to be ranked far below St. Jerome, whom he sen styled theologorum om«ium princeps'; while with respect to Origen, then but little known and much suspected, he de-o clared that a single page of this neglected writer taught more |