CHAP. V. altogether to the disadvantage of the Cambridge orator. professor will probably appear to be the expression of more youth of one and twenty with that of 1 Compare, from Melanchthon's Croke,-by its copious and mento plusquam Thracico revocant: difficilius esse studium litterarum renascentium quam utilius; Græca a quibusdam male feriatis ingeniis arripi, et ad ostentationem parari; dubiæ fidei Hebrea esse; interim a genuino litteras cultu perire; philosophiam desertum iri; et id genus reliquis conviciis.' Declamationes, I 16. 2 Dorner, Hist. of Protestant Theology (Clarke's Series), 1 116. PART II. apposite illustration,-its far greater command of an elegant CHAP.V. Latinity, its dexterous resort to the recognised weapons of the rhetorician, and even its broad humour,-must, we cannot but think, have been the better calculated to win the suffrages of an enthusiastic and for the most part youthful audience. cond oration. Cambridge Within a short time after Croke delivered another Croke's seoration, but one inferior in interest to the first, and chiefly designed to confirm his 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 noteworthy passage, wherein he speaks of Oxford as colonia Oxford 'a a Cantabrigia deducta, and again exhorts the university not colony. 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 Retort of way of retaliation, the venomous suggestion of Bryan Wood. Twyne, that the 'Trojan' party at Oxford were the real Cambridge colony;-an assertion that certainly finds no countenance from anything in More's letter, and that may be looked upon as entirely gratuitous. Anthony the office of tor, 1522. for life. That Croke's exertions found a fair measure of accept- Institution of ance with the university may be inferred from the fact, that Public Orawhen in 1522 the office of Public Orator was first founded, Croke was elected for life; while it was at the same time Croke elected provided, that when he had ceased to fill the office it should be tenable for seven years only. As 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 have his seat at public acts, separate from the rest'. The salary 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 Croke's efforts to awaken among the Cambridge students 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 the hostile 1 Cooper, Annals, 1 305. PART II. John Skelton, b. 1460. d. 1529. CHAP. V. pen of the poet Skelton. In a satire composed about the year 1521 or 1522, the writer represents, though with evident poetical exaggeration, this new growth of learning as overshadowing and blighting all the rest. The poet, who at this time was probably more than sixty years of age, was 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 possessed true genius. Erasmus, indeed, styles him unum Britannicarum litterarum lumen et decus; but this was written during his first visit to England, when his criticisms contained 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 evidently the expression of genuine alarm and dislike such as were shared by many at both universities at the time. His satirical "In Academia Parrot dare no probleme kepe; For Grace fari so occupyeth the chayre, That Latinum fari may fall to rest and slepe, And syllogisari was drowned at Sturbrydge fayre 1: And Donatus be dryuen out of scole; 1 For a complete collection of facts respecting this ancient fair, the existence of which is to be traced back as far as the thirteenth century, see Life of Ambrose Bonwicke, ed. Mayor, pp. 152-65. It was, in Skelton's time, and long afterwards, much resorted to by the undergraduates, and generally completely interrupted for the time the studies of the university. 2 Not, according to Warton, the great schoolman, but the author of the Margarita Poetica, a collection of Flores from the classic and other writers, printed at Nuremberg, 1472, fol.' Hist. of Eng. Poetry, 11 347. And inter didascolos is rekened for a fole; And Da Racionales3 dare not shew his pate1.' CHAP. V. PART II. Wolsey. d. Nov, 1530. to Cam In the year following upon that in which Croke delivered his two orations the university was honored by a visit from cardinal Wolsey. Hitherto Cambridge had endeavoured with Thomas but little success to ingratiate herself with the omnipotent b. 1471. 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 chancellorship,-to which he had been regularly re-elected for ten successive years,—and at his suggestion Wolsey had been solicited to accept the office. His relations We shall scarcely be justified in inferring from this fact, that bridge. 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 his usual spirit of self-abnegation, waived his personal feelings out of regard for the general welfare. Wolsey did not accept the He declines proffered honour. In a letter, wherein the pride that apes lorship. 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 1 i.e. (according to Dyce) 'Mæander's pole,' the stream or pool of the famous river: for Alexander see supra, p. 515, n. 1. The poet seems to have confounded the Mæander with the Cayster. See Iliad, 11 460. 2 The Concilia or Canon Law. 3 Logic. 4 Speke Parrot, Skelton-Dyce, 118-9. 5 In the revised editions of the statutes of St John's College (given by Fisher in the years 1524 and 1530), Wolsey's name is included in the list of benefactors for whom the prayers of the college are to be regularly offered up. This is probably attributable to the fact, that he used his influence to obtain for the col- the chancel PART II. CHAP. V. the best of his power'. Accordingly, as Fisher, in the sequel, did not go to Rome, and Wolsey declined the office, the Fisher elect- university thought it could do no better than re-elect the ed for life. Wolsey visits Cambridge, 1520. 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. The visit of the great cardinal to Cambridge was probably gladly hailed as a sign of his favour, and every effort was made to shew him an amount of respect in no way inferior 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 followed 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 appear in processions, 1 'More lyke a god celestiall 'Studebo igitur non solum gra- 2 Mr Demaus observes, in connexion with Wolsey's visit,-'Not uncommonly the reception of such visitors was followed by a plague, so severe as to compel the discontinuance of the ordinary university work; and the explanation of this phenomenon throws a curious light (or shade?) upon the domestic manners of our ancestors, When any visitor of rank was expected, special care was taken to cleanse the streets; and as they were usually dirty and unscavenged as those of an oriental city, the common receptacle for the filth and débris of the town, it is not surprising that the occasional stirring of this accumulated litter should beget a plague.' Life of Latimer, p. 18. It is certain that, in this instance, the prevalence of the epidemic prevented for a time the reassembling of the students in the following year. See Cooper, Annals, I 304. 3 Cooper, Annals, 1 303. The reception, judging from the close of Bullock's oration (see infra, p. 547), was at Great St Mary's. |