CHAP. IV. 1506. Æt. 39. In the fiftieth year of his life, he mentions, that "his chief support was from his English re<< venues, which alone kept him from starving." In the last year of his life, he mentions the liberality of the English to him. "Thomas Crom"well, the king's secretary, and the person who " is most in his favour, hath sent me," says Erasmus, as he is translated by Doctor Jortin, "I know not why, twenty, the Archbishop of "Canterbury (Cranmer) eighteen, and the Bi"shop of London, fifteen."† Ep. 185, c. 1632, cited by Jortin, page 110. † Jortin, p. 572. I cannot refuse myself, in this place, the pleasure of transcribing, from the Hora Biblica, (sect,xvii.) a splendid instance of English munificence. "It "has been our lot to be witnesses of the most tremendous "revolution that Christian Europe has known; a new race "of enemies to the Christian religion has arisen, and shaken 66 every throne, and struck at every altar, from the Atlantic "to the Don. One of their first enormities was the murder "of a large proportion of their clergy, and the banishment "of almost the whole of the remaining part. Some thou"sands of those respectable exiles found refuge in England. "A private subscription of £.33,775. 15s. 9 d. was im"mediately made for them. When it was exhausted, a second "was collected under the auspices of his Majesty, and pro“duced £.41,304. 12s. 6d. Nor is it too much to say, "that the beneficence of individuals, whose charities on this ❝ occasion were known to God alone, raised for the sufferers a sum much exceeding the amount of the larger of the "two subscriptions. When, at length, the wants of the "sufferers exceeded the measure of private charity, Govern ment took them under its protection; and though engaged " in a war exceeding all former wars in expence, appropri IV. 3. Third visit of Erasmus, on his return to Paris, published translations both of the Hecuba and the Iphigenia Erasmus to of Euripides; and dedicated them to Wareham. England. We shall be called upon to notice other bounties of Wareham to Erasmus; Erasmus's grateful acknowledgment of them, and his eloquent tribute to his benfactor's memory. If we may believe Doctor Caius or Keys, the renowned historian of Cambridge, Erasmus during this visit to England, read lectures on the Greek language in that university; and had there his grace to be batchelor of divinity. According to the same authority, Erasmus highly praised "ated, with the approbation of the whole kingdom, a "monthly allowance of about £. 8,000 for their support; an "instance of splendid munificence and systematic libera"lity, of which the annals of the world do not furnish another "example. The management of the contributions was en"trusted to a committee, of whom Mr. Wilmot, then one "of the members of Parliament for the city of Coventry, was "president; on him the burthen of the trust almost wholly "fell; and his humanity, judgment, and perseverance in the "discharge of it, did honour to himself and his country. "It should be observed, that the contributions we have "mentioned are exclusive of those which were granted for "the relief of the lay emigrants. "So suddenly had the unhappy sufferers been driven from "their country, that few had brought with them any of "those books of religion or devotion, which their clerical "character and habits of prayer had made the companions "of their past life, and which were to become the chief "comfort of their future years. To relieve them from this "misfortune, the University of Oxford, at her sole expence, CHAP. IV. 1506. Æt. 39. the erudition of its members, and described the state of it to be so flourishing, that its schools. might vie with the best regulated, schools of the age, and that it possessed men of such merit, that compared with them, those of antient times appeared as shadows. Erasmus was succeeded in his professorship by Richard Crooke, who also had been a scholar of Grocyn. In his oration in praise of the Greek language, Crooke mentions Erasmus in the most honourable terms, and speaks of his own inferior merit with great modesty. " printed for them, at the Clarendon Press, 2,000 copies of "the Latin Vulgate of the New Testament, from an edition "of Barbou; but this number not being deemed sufficient to "satisfy their demand, 2,000 copies more were added at the "expence of the Marquis of Buckingham. Few will forget “ the piety, the blameless demeanour, the long patient suffer"ing of these respectable men. Thrown on a sudden into a "foreign country, differing from theirs in religion, language, manners and habits, the uniform tenor of their pious and "unoffending lives procured them universal respect and good will. The country that received them has been “ favoured. In the midst of the public and private calamity, "which almost every other nation has experienced, Provi"dence has crowned her with glory and honour; peace has "dwelt in her palaces, plenty within her walls; every cli"mate has been tributary to her commerce, every sea has "been witness of her victories." CHAPTER V. ERASMUS IN ITALY. 1 Great ardour for Literature in the beginning of the Fifteenth Century. 2 The Medici. 3. The Presses of Italy. 4. The Journey of Erasmus to Italy: His "Julius "Exclusus." 5. He is appointed Preceptor to Alexander, the illegitimate Son of James IV. of Scotland. 6. Honourable reception of Erasmus in Italy. 1506-1510. Et. 39-43. 1. IN the introductory chapter of this work, we attempted to present to our readers, a view of the gradual advance of literature in Europe, from the settlement of the barbarians till the commencement of the fifteenth century. At this period, Italy discovered a general ardour for the revival of science, and the restoration of the fine arts. Antient manuscripts were sought for; long and arduous voyages were undertaken to procure them; they were attentively examined, collated, Æt. 39-43. CHAP. V. copied, and circulated; ample libraries were 1506-1510. opened to the public: Chairs were founded for professors, who should instruct the lovers of literature in the Greek and Latin languages, and learned men were invited by liberal salaries to fill them. The calamities of the provinces of Greece, forced her men of letters and her artists, into Italy; the kindness, with which they were received, made them almost forget their misfortunes; the names of Plato, Homer, and Demosthenes, of Virgil, Cicero, and Livy, became generally known: the languages in which they wrote, were rendered familiar to numbers. Academies were formed, in which the learned met and discussed useful and elegant topics of knowledge: inscriptions, statues, and medals were collected: Plautus and Terence were again heard; a taste for the literature and arts of Greece and Rome found their way into almost every society: Mathematics threw out new light, astronomy became more exact: instructed by her, Italian mariners discovered the new world: Medicine, jurisprudence, and almost every other science and art, beamed with fresh splendour: Sovereigns, princes, and their ministers, magistrates, generals, the nobility, the gentry, the clergy, both favoured and cultivated literature; Princes felt that something was wanting in their courts--the nobles, that something was wanting in |