Edward the Sixth. The rapacious courtiers of this young prince were perpetually grasping at the rewards of literature; which, being discouraged or despised by the rich, was neglected by those of moderate fortunes. Avarice and zeal were at once gratified in robbing the clergy of their revenues, and in reducing the church to its primitive apostolical state of purity and poverty ". The opulent see of Winchester was lowered to a bare title: its amplest estates were portioned out to the laity; and the bishop, a creature of the protector Somerset, was contented to receive an inconsiderable annual stipend from the exchequer. The bishoprick of Durham, almost equally rich, was entirely dissolved. A favourite nobleman of the court occupied the deanery and treasurership of a cathedral with some of its best canonries. The ministers of this abused monarch, by these arbitrary, dishonest, and imprudent measures, only provided instruments, and furnished arguments, for restoring in the succeeding reign that superstitious religion, which they professed to destroy. By thus impoverishing the ecclesiastical dignities, they countenanced the clamours of the catholics; who declared, that the reformation was apparently founded on temporal views, and that the protestants pretended to oppose the doctrines of the church, solely with a view that they might share in the plunder of its revenues. In every one of these sacrilegious robberies the interest of learning also suffered. Exhibitions and pensions were, in the mean time, subtracted from the students in the universities P. Ascham, in a letter to the marquis of Northampton, dated 1550, laments the ruin of grammar schools throughout England; and predicts the speedy extinction of the universities from this growing calamity. At Oxford the public schools were neglected by the professors and pupils, and allotted to the lowest purposes. Academical degrees were abrogated as antichristian. Reformation was soon turned into fanaticism. Absurd refinements, concerning the inutility of human learning, were superadded to the just and rational purgation of christianity from the papal corruptions. The spiritual reformers of these enlightened days, at a visitation of the lastmentioned university, proceeded so far in their ideas of a superior rec. titude, as totally to strip the public library, established by that munificent patron Humphrey duke of Gloucester, of all its books and manuscriptst. I must not, however, forget, as a remarkable symptom of an attempt now circulating to give a more general and unreserved diffusion of science, that in this reign, Thomas Wilson, originally a fellow of King's 11 See Collier's Eccl. Hist. Records, lxvii. p. 80. • Burnet, Rep. P. ii. 8. P Wood, sub ann.1550. See also Strype's Cranmer, Append. N. xciii. p. 220. viz. A letter to secretary Cecil, dat. 1552. Epistol. lib. un. Commendat. p. 194 a. Lond. 1581. "Ruinam et interitum pub licarum scholarum," &c.-"Quam gravis hæc universa scholarum calamitas," &c. See p. 62 b. p. 210 a. Wood, ut supr. p. 12. * Catal. MSS. Angl. fol. edit. 1697. in Hist. Bibl. Bodl. Præfat. See vol. ii. Sect. xx. college in Cambridge, preceptor to Charles and Henry Brandon dukes of Suffolk, dean of Durham, and chief secretary to the king, published a system of rhetoric and of logic, in English". This display of the venerable mysteries of the latter of these arts in a vernacular language, which had hitherto been confined within the sacred pale of the learned tongues, was esteemed an innovation almost equally daring with that of permitting the service of the church to be celebrated in English: and accordingly the author, soon afterwards happening to visit Rome, was incarcerated by the inquisitors of the holy see, as a presumptuous and dangerous heretic. It is with reluctance I enter on the bloody reign of the relentless and unamiable Mary; whose many dreadful martyrdoms of men eminent for learning and piety, shock our sensibility with a double degree of horror, in the present softened state of manners, at a period of society when no potentate would inflict executions of so severe a nature, and when it would be difficult to find devotees hardy enough to die for difference of opinion. We must, however, acknowledge, that she enriched both universities with some considerable benefactions: yet these donations seem to have been made, not from any general or liberal principle of advancing knowledge, but to repair the breaches of refor mation, and to strengthen the return of superstition. It is certain, that her restoration of popery, together with the monastic institution, its proper appendage, must have been highly pernicious to the growth of polite erudition. Yet although the elegant studies were now beginning to suffer a new relapse, in the midst of this reign, under the discouragement of all these inauspicious and unfriendly circumstances, a college was established at Oxford, in the constitution of which, the founder principally inculcates the use and necessity of classical literature; and recommends it as the most important and leading object in that system of academical study, which he prescribes to the youth of the new society. For, beside a lecturer in philosophy appointed for the ordinary purpose of teaching the scholastic sciences, he establishes in this seminary a teacher of humanity. The business of this preceptor is described with a particularity not usual in the constitutions given to collegiate bodies of this kind, and he is directed to exert his utmost diligence in tincturing his auditors with a just relish for the graces and purity of the Latin language; and to explain critically, in the public hall, for the space of two hours every day, the Offices, De Oratore, and rhetorical treatises of Cicero, the institutes of Quintilian, Aulus Gellius, Plautus, Terence, Virgil, Horace, Livy, and Lucan; together with "First printed in the reign of Edward the Sixth. See Preface to the second edition of the Rhetoric, in 1560. He translated the three Olynthiacs, and the four Philippics, of Demosthenes, from the Greek into English. Lond. 1570. 4to. In the year 1554. "Latini sermonis ornatu et elegantia imbuendos diligenter curabit," &c. Statut. Coll. Trin. Oxon. cap. iv. Again, "Cupiens et ego Collegii mei juventutem in primis Latini sermonis puritate ac ingenuarum artium rudimentis, convenienter erudiri," &c. Ibid. cap. xv. the most excellent modern philological treatises then in vogue, such as the ELEGANCIES of Laurentius Valla, and the MISCELLANIES of Politian, or any other approved critical tract on oratory or versification'. In the mean time, the founder permits it to the discretion of the lecturer, occasionally to substitute Greek authors in the place of these". He moreover requires, that the candidates for admission into the college be completely skilled in Latin poetry; and in writing Epistles, then a favourite mode of composition, and on which Erasmus, and Conradus Celtes the restorer of letters in Germany, had each recently published a distinct systematical work. He injoins, that the students shall be exercised every day, in the intervals of vacation, in composing declamations, and Latin verses both lyric and heroicd: and in his prefatory statute, where he describes the nature and design of his foundation, he declares, that he destines the younger part of his establishment, not only to dialectics and philosophy, but to the more polite literature. The statutes of this college were submitted to the inspection of cardinal Pole, one of the chief protectors of the revival of polite letters in England, as appears from a curious passage in a letter written by the founder, now remaining; which not only displays the cardinal's ideas of the new erudition, but shows the state of the Greek language at this period. "My lord Cardinalls grace has had the overseeinge of my statutes. He muche lykes well, that I have therein ordered the Latin tonge [Latin classics] to be redde to my schollers. But he advyses me to order the Greeke to be more taught there than I have provyded. This purpose I well lyke: but I fear the tymes will not bear it now. I remember when I was a young scholler at Eton1, the Greeke tonge was growing apace; the studie of which is now alate much decaid "." Queen Mary was herself eminently learned. But her accomplishments in letters were darkened or impeded by religious prejudices. At the desire of queen Catharine Parr, she translated in her youth Erasmus's paraphrase on saint John. The preface is written by Udall, master of Eton school: in which he much extols her distinguished pro y Statut. Coll. Trin. Oxon. cap. xv. A modern writer in dialectics, Rodolphus Agricola, is also recommended to be explained by the reader in philosophy, together with Aristotle. * Ibid. cap. xv. It may be also observed here, that the philosophy reader is not only ordered to explain Aristotle, but Plato. Ibid. cap. xv. It appears by implication in the close of this statute, that the public lectures of the university were now growing useless, and dwindling into mere matters of form, viz. "Ad hunc modum Domi meos LECTIONIBUS erudiri cupiens, eos a publicis in Academia lectionibus avocare nolui.-Verum, si temporis tractu, et magistratuum incuria, adeo a primario instituto degenerent Magistrorum regentium Lectiones ordinariæ, ut inde nulla, aut admodum exigua, auditoribus accedat utilitas," &c. Ibid. cap. xv. Ibid. сар. vii. a b De Ratione conscribendi Epistolas. About the year 1500. At Basil, 1522. It was reprinted at Cambridge by Siberch, and dedicated to bishop Fisher, 1521. 4to. d Ibid. cap. xv. Every day after dinner "Aliquis scholarium, a Præsidente aut Lectore Rhetorico jussus, de themate quodam proposito, ad edendum ingenii ac profectus sui specimen, diligenter, ornate, ac breviter dicat," &c. Ibid. cap. x. e "Cæteri autem, scholares nuncupati, POLITIORIBUS Literis," &c. Ibid. cap. i. f About the year 1520. Dated 1556. See Life of Sir Thomas Pope, p. 226. ficience in literature. It would have been fortunate, if Mary's attention to this work had softened her temper, and enlightened her understanding. She frequently spoke in public with propriety, and always with prudence and dignity. In the beginning of the reign of queen Elizabeth, which soon followed, when the return of protestantism might have been expected to produce a speedy change for the better, puritanism began to prevail; and, as the first fervours of a new sect are always violent, retarded for some time the progress of ingenuous and useful knowledge. The scriptures being translated into English, and every man assuming a right to dictate in matters of faith, and to choose his own principles, weak heads drew false conclusions, and erected an infinite variety of petty religions. Such is the abuse which attends the best designs, that the meanest reader of the New Testament thought he had a full comprehension of the most mysterious metaphysical doctrines in the christian faith; and scorned to acquiesce in the sober and rational expositions of such difficult subjects, which he might have received from a competent and intelligent teacher, whom it was his duty to follow. The bulk of the people, who now possessed the means of discussing all theological topics, from their situation and circumstances in life, were naturally averse to the splendor, the dominion, and the opulence of an hierarchy, and disclaimed the yoke of episcopal jurisdiction. The new deliverance from the numerous and burthensome superstitions of the papal communion drove many pious reformers into the contrary extreme, and the rage of opposition ended in a devotion entirely spiritual and abstracted. External forms were abolished, as impediments to the visionary reveries of a mental intercourse with heaven; and because the church of Rome had carried ceremonies to an absurd excess, the use of any ceremonies was deemed unlawful. The love of new doctrines and a new worship, the triumph of gaining proselytes, and the persecutions which accompanied these licentious zealots, all contributed to fan the flame of enthusiasm. The genius of this refined and false species of religion, which defied the salutary checks of all human authority, when operating in its full force, was attended with consequences not less pernicious to society, although less likely to last, than those which flowed from the establishment of the antient superstitions. During this unsettled state of things, the English reformed clergy who had fled into Germany from the menaces of queen Mary, returned home in great numbers: and in consideration of their sufferings and learning, and their abilities to vindicate the principles of a national church erected in opposition to that of Rome, many of them were preferred to bishopricks, and other eminent ecclesiastical stations Thes e divines brought back with them into England those narrow principles concerning church-government and ceremonies, which they had imbibed in the petty states and republics abroad, where the Calvinistic dis cipline was adopted, and where they had lived like a society of philosophers; but which were totally inconsistent with the nature of a more extended church, established in a great and magnificent nation, and requiring an uniform system of policy, a regular subordination of officers, a solemnity of public worship, and an observance of exterior institutions. They were, however, in the present circumstances, thought to be the most proper instruments to be employed at the head of ecclesiastical affairs; not only for the purpose of vindicating the new establishment by argument and authority, but of eradicating every trace of the papal corruptions by their practice and example, and of effectually fixing the reformation embraced by the church of England on a durable basis. But, unfortunately, this measure, specious and expedient as it appeared at first, tended to destroy that constitution which it was designed to support, and to counteract those principles which had been implanted by Cranmer in the reformed system of our religion. Their reluctance or refusal to conform, in a variety of instances, to the established ceremonies, and their refinements in theological discipline, filled the church with the most violent divisions; and introduced endless intricate disputations, not on fundamental doctrines of solid importance to the real interests of christianity, but on positive points of idle and empty speculation, which admitting no elegance of composition, and calling forth no vigour of abilities, exercised the learning of the clergy in the most barbarous and barren field of controversial divinity, and obstructed every pursuit of polite or manly erudition. Even the conforming clergy, from their want of penetration, and from their attachment to authorities, contributed to protract these frivolous and unbecoming controversies for if, in their vindication of the sacerdotal vestments, and of the cross of baptism, instead of arguing from the jews, the primitive christians, the fathers, councils, and customs, they had only appealed to common sense and the nature of things, the propriety and expediency of those formalities would have been much more easily and more clearly demonstrated. To these inconveniencies we must add, that the common ecclesiastical preferments were so much diminished by the seizure and alienation of impropriations, in the late depredations of the church, and which continued to be carried on with the same spirit of rapacity in the reign of Elizabeth, that few persons were regularly bred to the church, or, in other words, received a learned education. Hence, almost any that offered themselves were, without distinction or examination, admitted to the sacred function. Insomuch that in the year 1560, an injunction was directed to the bishop of London from his metropolitan, requiring him to forbear ordaining any more artificers and other illiterate persons who exercised secular occupations. But as the evil was unavoidable, this caution took but little effect. About the year 1563, i Strype's Grindal, B. i. ch. iv. b. 40. Numerous illuminated artificers began early to preach and write in defence of the reformed religion. The first mechanic who left his lawful calling to vindicate the cause of the catholics, was one Miles Hoggard, |