II. et seq. But this distinguishing favour of the King, and that start SECT. they got in their studies beyond others, kindled a secret hatred and malice against them in the minds of many of Ann. 1540, the rest of the University, and which they more manifestly shewed in that opposition they made to them afterwards, when they attempted the bringing in a more correct way of reading the Greek tongue. college of Cheke in While Mr. Cheke was in the college, what with his St. John's exemplary industry in his own studies, what with his dili- flourishes gent instruction of the youth under him, St. John's flou- bythe means rished. He directed to a better method of study, and to learning. more substantial and useful learning: so that he was said by one that knew him very well, ❝cto have laid the very "foundations of learning in that college." Under whom, or with whom, were bred Denny, Redman, Bil, Lever, Pilkington, Tong, Ayre, Ascham, Cecil, and others, spread abroad afterwards in Court, and in places of trust and honour both in Church and State. The two last mentioned were his scholars of such a size and magnitude, that they deserve to be mentioned again. Sir William Cecil was one, Cecil, his whom Leland in one of his epigrams to him takes notice pupil. of for this: Candidus erudiit noster te CHECUS amicus, CHECUS Cecropii gloria prima gregis. And one Dixon, a good poet in those times, in certain verses dedicated to him, when he came to speak of his education at Cambridge, thus expressed it: Atque frequentabas tunc numina docta sororum, Sub CHECO humano, doctiloquoque viro. And what an honour must the education of such a man as Cecil derive upon his tutor; that proved afterwards one of the wisest, justest, and most fortunate Statesmen in Europe; and to whose counsels and deliberations, the wonderful and long successes of Queen Elizabeth must, under God, be e Literarum fundamenta, te authore, in nostro collegio jacta sunt. Ascham. Epist. ii. 45. et seq. Ascham, his scholar. CHAP. chiefly attributed? The other was Roger Aschamd, one I. of the politest Latin writers of that generation, or any Ann. 1540, after. Whose learning and ingenuity appear in those two bookse he left behind him, The Schoolmaster, and The Art of Shooting out of a Bow. He was tutor in the Latin and Greek tongue to the Lady Elizabeth, afterwards Secretary of an embassy from King Edward to the Emperor; and, upon the decease of that King, Latin Secretary to Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth successively, as he was designed for that Kingf, had he lived. And Dr. in C. C. C. C. Arch. And all that good service that that well known person, Dr. Bill, afterwards did in the Church and University, was in a great measure owing to the instruction and friendship of Cheke, whose scholar he seemed to be: Dr. Bill, I say, that was Master of St. John's college, Dean of Westminster, Almoner to Queen Elizabeth, one of the Visitors of the University, and concerned in making the statutes for that collegiate Church, and (if I mistake not) Provost of Eton, and in his time a great promoter of virtue and true Vol. Epist. religion in these capacities. This man, when a student in that college of St. John's, was very poor; and being BaEp. V. 50. chelor of Arts, when he should have been chosen Fellow, had not wherewithal to discharge the arrears of college debts; a thing necessary in order to his election. By which means it was deferred, and perhaps he might have been forced at last to have quitted his course of studies, and left the University. At this pinch Cheke procured him a friend at Court with Queen Anne Bolen, a lady extraordinary munificent towards deserving scholars that needed supportation in their studies. So that nothing was wanting but the recommendation of such to her by Skip or Parker, or some other of her chief Chaplains, and the business was effected. Cheke about Michaelmas earnestly despatched d This Ascham, shewing the rules for true imitation, which he calls the Schoolmas- necessary tools and instruments wherewith it is wrought, saith, "I openly ter, p. 48. "confess they be not of mine own forgeing, but partly left unto me by the "conningest master, and one of the worthiest jentlemen, that ever England "bred, Syr John Cheke." II. Ann. 1540, et seq. a letter to Parker, laying open the condition of Bill to him, SECT. giving him the character of literatus et honestus, qui et rerum cognitione abundat et integritate morum ; i. e. learned and honest, plentifully endowed with knowledge of things, and incorrupt in his manners: that he had come into his fellowship before Easter, but that he could not get his money ready. He prayed Parker to acquaint the Queen with his condition, and to procure him favour from her; which if he would do, it would be a thing pious and holy, in promoting the studies and good learning of such as were overburdened with the misfortune of poverty: and that if he obtained this for him before All-Saints day, he would hereby do a further good deed; that is, not only to put Bill in possession of his fellowship, but give an opportunity to others to come into his room, there being then to be an election of Scholars to succeed into the empty scholarships; and him, viz. Cheke, he should infinitely oblige. And this no question was compassed by this seasonable mediation, and a foundation laid for Dr. Bill's useful learning, preferments, and influence on the public. He preferred ingenious and studious scholars of his college, as it lay in his way. William Grindal, bred up under Roger Ascham, and the best Grecian one of them in the University, he took from the college; and after some time keeping him with him, preferred him, in King Henry the Eighth's time, to read Greek to the Lady Elizabeth. Ascham recommended him to Cheke, with a great character Ascham Ep. (as fit for a Court) for his learning and studiousness, for his taciturnity, fidelity, and abstinence; and ready to take any business Cheke should put him upon. He died in the Lady Elizabeth's family, a young man of great hopes. ii. 15. And this then was the flourishing estate of the college, while Cheke, and his friends, and scholars were there. But to keep up the former good condition of that house, Ascham, after some discontinuance, desired of Secretary Cecil to have leave to return back there again, when all the rest were gone, like seed to propagate true learning and piety. Wherein he thus expressed himself: "Seeing the Mr. Cheke's goodly crop of Mr. Cheke was almost clean carried from John's. crop at St. I. Ann. 1540, et seq. 66 CHAP. "thence, [i. e. the college,] and I in a manner alone of "that time left a standing straggler, peradventure though my fruit be very small, yet, because the ground from "whence it springs was so good, I may yet be thought 66 somewhat fit for seed, when all you the rest are taken up for better store; wherewith the King and the realm is "now so nobly served." Religion takes place in St. John's. In short, Cheke promoted good religion as well as learning in his college by his labours, which had a very good influence upon that society long after. So that these two things he made his great aim: the one was to set on foot universal learning in the college; that it might not be without some that were well studied in each liberal science, and that each scholar, according as his genius prompted him, might make either one or other the main subject of his study and so St. John'ss become a storehouse of all good learning. The other thing he aimed at, was to bring into the college the study especially of divinity: not such a divinity as prevailed then in the world, corrupt and confounded with such principles and doctrines as were easily discovered to be brought in by designing men, on purpose to obtain secular ends, and to aggrandize the Bishop of Rome, and make all the world dependent on him: but such a divinity as was from God, stripped of all such gross frauds and abuses. And, for that purpose, he advised that a man should come to the study of divinity, without being at all prepossessed with the commonly received notions; but that he should fetch the whole doctrine of Christ out of the fountains of Scripture, where the avowed principles of Christianity lie; and next unto them, from the primitive and apostolical writings, which were the nearest to those fountains. And withal he particularly recommended this rule, that the greatest care and caution should be had, that nothing be derived from the sink of Pelagianism 1, to infect these divine studies. Ut singuli sic in singulis, natura duce, elaborarent, ut universa illa literarum societas in hac societate nostra [S. Johannis] contineretur. Int. Ascham. Epist. iii. 35. Ascham, ii. 45. II. Ann. 1540, et seq. A disputa John's con What effect these directions of Cheke had in the col- SECT. lege, for the study of divinity, may appear from a passage, that happened there some time after he was gone, anno 1548; a disputation was held in course. The thesis was, de Missa, ipsane Cœna Dominica fuerit, necne : i. e, concern- tion in St. ing the Mass, whether it were the Lord's Supper or no. cerning the It was managed very learnedly by Tho. Lever and Roger Mass. Hutchinson. Some in the University took this private disputation very ill. The matter was brought to that pass at length, that Ascham undertook, by the encouragement of many in that college, to dispute this question in the public schools, and to bring it forth out of their private college walls before the public University; and that for this end and intent, to learn freely from learned men what could be produced from the fountain of holy Scripture to defend the Mass; which had not only taken up the chief place in religion, and in the consciences of men, but had, by the common practice and custom of Christians, taken away all the faithful ministry of God's word and sacraments. And for this purpose, the men of St. John's had conference among themselves. They resolved that the canonical Scripture should be the authority that they would desire to have the whole matter decided by. They also heaped together the old canons of the primitive Church, the councils of Fathers, the decrees of Popes, the judgment of Doctors, the rout of Questionists, all later writers, both Germansi and Romanists. All these, as far as they could, they got together, for the furnishing themselves the better to state this question. But the matter got wind, and the noise of it, though they went about it with all the quietness, went abroad in the University; insomuch as some took public notice of it, and at last obtained so much of the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Madew, that he, by his letters, stopped this disputation. Nay, it fled as far as to Lambeth, where their enemies, with loud outcries, made complaints to Archbishop Cranmer against them: and they called them rash and heady. But though their disputation was by this means hindered, yet their studies proceeded still upon the same subject of the i Lutherans. |