the retinue of the churchman, and went to Oxford, where he was entered as a member of Christ Church, then called Canterbury College. The period of his sojourn at the University (1497-1499) was peculiarly fortunate in the brilliant array of its celebrated classical scholars; for at that time, not only Colet, Gracyn, and Linacre, but also Lilly and Erasmus were inmates of the academy halls. This is the most eventful period of More's life, for during this time his character was formed. Associating on terms of the strictest intimacy with such men as Dean Colet, Linacre, Lilly and Gracyn, he could not but imbibe their peculiar spirit. The unformed mind of the susceptible student could not help being biased by the example, conversation and tastes of those elder associates. They had all recently returned from the shrine of literature, Florence; and there they had not only taken a mighty interest in the cause of the revival of learning, but had also drunk in the spirit of reform from the burning words of Savonarola himself. To have heard the impassioned orator of San Marco hurling his wild philippics against those in high places, was to become, almost in one's own despite, enamored of the cause of the Reformation. Yet it was not such a thorough reform as Luther and Wickliffe urged, that Savonarola with a giant's might sought to effect. He only called for a reformation of morals, not of doctrine; he wished for no infringement of the Church's authority, but aimed at a thorough purification in every direction. Savonarola has been considered by many as the precursor of the reformers; he is regarded as the aurora, as Luther is viewed as the sun, of the Reformation, but there is no real ground for this assumption. Savonarola never in reality rebelled against the Church, as did the monk of Wittemberg. He believed devotedly in all her dogmas; he participated in her sacraments; he had himself taken the solemn vows of the religious profession, and had even urged Pico to become a monk.* He only demanded a reform in practice, not in dogma, and in the name of the Church, which he venerated till death, he called with Isaiah's fervor that she should be purified from her many defilements. And such a reform as he labored to realize, More's English friends strove to inaugurate at home. And he, with all • Savonarola's sermon on the death of Pico.-More's Life of Pico. the ardor of a youthful enthusiast, espoused the sacred cause, and never till death deserted its interests. He wished his beloved England to rival Florence, not only in the revival of learning, but, chiefest of all, in the work of reform. Some pretend, from certain passages in More's writings, that his fidelity to the Catholic Church may in a measure be questioned, but his whole life disproves such a supposition. No act or word of his can be construed as implying the least disbelief on his part in any essential dogma of the Catholic creed; though he may have had his own opinions on matters extra fidem. Some maintain that in early life he did not place implicit credence in the dogma of the Pope's supremacy; but it is clear that in after years he modified his creed on this point, for at his trial he affirmed that "no temporal prince may, by any law, presume to take upon him the supreme government of the Holy Church, which rightfully belongs to the see of Rome, as a special privilege granted by the mouth of Christ himself to Peter and the bishops of Rome, his successors."* Nothing that he ever said or wrote can materially conflict with his faith as a Catholic; for, however he may sigh, pray and labor for a godly reformation in morals, he would consider it a daring tempting of the Most High to meddle with the established dogmas of the Church. As More always ridiculed and rebuked superstition and immorality, many churchmen, as a consequence, smarted as sorely beneath his lash as ever did Barnes or Tindale; yet never, withal, was he lacking in respect and obedience to the clergy as a body; no matter in what wise he chastised the corrupt members, he ever cherished a deep-seated reverence for the corporate hierarchy. True, he was a reformer, but only of the Savonarola type; and it is necessary to bear this in mind, in order to explain satisfactorily many seeming anomalies in his writings. His biting_sarcasms against monkish corruptions, and his defence of Erasmus's Moria, in which clerics are most unmercifully belabored, must consequently be viewed as bitter denunciations of flagrant abuses, and not as pleas for innovations in matters of faith. • Roper, 83. As an instance of the severe manner in which More handled the vices and errors of the religious orders, vide" Epistola Thoma Mori in qua refellit rabiosam maledicentiam monachi cujusdam juxta indocti atque arrogantis."—Latin Works. But now Master More must quit the quiet academic shades of Oxford, the cradle of the dearest friendships of his life, and betake himself to the dim apartments of New Inn, there to pore silently over solemn tomes of legal lore. His assiduity is ere long rewarded, for he is soon admitted as a member of Lincoln's Inn. Glance we now, for a moment, at the youthful advocate, as he sits in his solitary chamber, deeply immersed in his studies. There is nothing of classic elegance in his figure or features. His frame, low, yet well proportioned, seems neither capable of continued exertion nor great endurance. His chestnut* hair falls unheeded over a brow already impressed with the pale cast of thought. The natural expression of deep earnestness and habitual seriousness, that so well beseems his fine Saxon face, is relieved by the bright sparkle of his clear, gray eye, which contains within its depths worlds of humor and kindliness. There is an air of unaffected carelessness about his gait and dress, which would at first seem at variance with his solemn profession.t Piles of Greek and Latin books, with some French works, with a lyre, lie scattered around the lonely apartment, showing that the dry technicalities of the law had not transmuted the refined tastes of Erasmus' friend. But other furniture there is too in that unadorned room, which bespeaks another purpose than that of charming the imagination or ravishing the ear; for a hair shirt, a scourge of knotted cords, and a rough log are to be seen in the domicile of young Thomas More. He feels that, even amid the bustle of business, his spirit will not escape the contagion of vice in the vast world of London, and so he afflicts his body with the direst severities, that it may learn to be meekly subject to the mandates of his iron will. His Saviour for his sake bore on His godly head a cruel crown of thorns-More wears beneath his lawyer's cloak a "sharp shirt of hair;" his Saviour was inhumanly scourged at a pillar-More freely uses the discipline on his delicate frame; his Saviour fasted long in the wilderness, and had not even a stone whereon to lay His head-More Cresacre, from whom we take our description, says that his grandsire's hair was "neither black nor yellow." + Erasmus tells us that More, especially in his latter years, wore his lawyer's gown awry, which gave him the appearance of having one shoulder higher than the other. His peculiarity, of course, found numerous imitators, who, though they contrived to ape his singularity of manner, "were withal," says old Ascham, "most unlike him in the more essential things of wit and learning." thinks himself happy if he can in a measure imitate his Divine Master, by keeping rigorous fasts and betimes resting his weary head on a rude billet of wood. What would M. D'Aubigné have him do? Alas! poor Sir Thomas is in a dire difficulty if he innocently makes merry, he is charged with laxity of morals, or worldliness; if he chastises his body and reduces it to subjection, he is accused of fanaticism. Which horn of the dilemma would the poor knight, were he alive, choose to be gored on, for M. D'Aubigné charitably presents a pair? Four years pass away while More dwells near the Charterhouse, practising all the austerities of the Carthusian rule, though he has bound himself by no vow. Still he has had a serious notion of becoming a monk, Franciscan or Carthusian, but his pure mind shrinks in abhorrence from the open contaminations of the monastic institutions, and finally he discards the wish of entering the so-called religious state. Then he had a purpose, as Roper states, together with his friend Lilly, to become a priest; but, fearing that he did not possess the holiness requisite for so sacred a profession, he definitively decided on following a laic's more humble calling. With Pico's life as a pattern for him, he will seek to attain as a layman his ideal of the highest perfection.t Almost at the very moment that More turns his back forever on the cloister, impulsive Luther is binding his soul with the solemn vows at the Augustinian convent in Saxony. More's delicate spirit recoils with disgust from a lifelong imprisonment in those dark cells, where corruption so often held sway; but Luther impetuously rivets on the fetters, which, in after years, when he shall feel their thraldom, it will not cost him a thought or effort to rive. Thus seclusion within an abbey's walls begets effects so opposite in their natures. More returns to the world, from the very threshold of the sanctuary, a more devoted son of the Church; while Luther goes forth from his cell with the zealous spirit of the religious revolutionist stirring in his heart and throbbing in his brain, and with the strength of a giant he shivers the mighty fabric of the papal religion, that had stood for ages, and lives free and triumphant amid its colossal ruins. Erasmus says of More, in a letter to Hutton: "Maluit igitur maritus esse castus quam sacerdos impuris." + Letter to Joyence Leigh, Stapleton. And now that More has resolved to pass through life as a layman, thus closing a sure, and in those days almost the sole, avenue to preferment, according to the recommendation. of his Church, he seeks a spiritual director, whose advice in all matters religious he will implicitly follow; and Dean Colet is chosen as "the cunningest physician for his soul that he can find." And truly the choice was most creditable to his good sense. Following the counsel of his ghostly father, More entered the marriage state in the year 1505, and Roper records a curious fact, that exhibits, in a striking light, the peculiarity of More's character. Inclination, it seems, directed his affections to the second daughter* of Mr. John Colte, of Essex, and, "yet when he considered within himself that this would be a grief and a kind of underrating to the eldest to see her younger sister preferred before her, he, out of a kind of compassion, settled his fancy upon the eldest, and soon after married her, with all her friends' good-liking." Few, we think, in any age, stretched self-renunciation to such an extreme point. The year after his marriage, More entered Parliament, and there his bold speech and vote against subsidy claimed by the king, Henry VII., was an earnest of the youthful statesman's upright course throughout life, as well as a rebuke to the cringing minions of an unjust sovereign. Had he been content that his conduct should be determined by conveniency, instead of equity, he might have basked in the sunshine of royal favor as cosily as the very happiest court moths; but he could never act against his convictions of right; and, as he held that "the service of our country is not a mere chimerical obligation, but a real and solemn duty, which a good man will exert all the means in his power to perform," he could not give his voice to a measure that clashed with the interests of his native land. His opposition had the effect of exasperating the king, who, To this young lady, More's beautiful poem, "Ad Elisam," is most generally surmised to have been addressed. It is considered one of the most elegant lyrical productions of the sixteenth century, and not without reason, as the following extracted lines will attest: "Jam subit illa dies, quæ ludentem obtulit olim Lactea cum flavi decuerunt colla capilli, Cum tua perstringunt oculos dua sidera nostros, |