[338] “Right studious she was in books,” says Bishop Fisher in his funeral sermon on this princess, “of which she had great number both in English, Latin, and French, and did translate divers matters of devotion out of French into English.”

[339] Mr. Seebohm’s interesting work on the “Oxford Reformers of 1498” has appeared since the publication of our first edition. His view of Colet’s character is naturally a more favourable one than that here given; but in representing him as a sort of Broad Churchman of the sixteenth century, he sufficiently justifies our strictures on Colet as a Catholic divine.

[340] Knight, quoting from Antiq. Britan., speaks of his preaching a second sermon after his interview with Henry VIII., wherein, at the king’s request, he spoke in favour of the French war. Of this Erasmus says nothing.

[341] To these free views, most Protestant writers, following the authority of Fox and Knight, have added that Colet was opposed to the practice of Auricular Confession. This charge is, however, distinctly disproved in his life. Not only did he bear witness to the comfort and help he himself found in the practice, but in his “Institution of a Christian Man,” written for the use of his school, he expressly enjoins the frequent use of confession. ‘Use oft tymes confessyon,’ is one of his “Precepts of Lyvynge,” besides other directions for the reception of the Sacraments of Penance and Houslynge, in sickness, and the hour of death. Colet’s strictures, however free, were in fact never directed against the doctrines of the Church, but only against popular practices of devotion. The idea of his having set himself against the use of one of the sacraments, so very welcome to those who would fain claim him as a precursor of the Reformation, has arisen from a gross misconstruction put upon a passage in one of the Epistles of Erasmus. That writer, speaking of his deceased friend, says, among other things, “Ut confessionem secretam vehementer probabat, negans se ulla ex re capere tantundem consolationis ac boni spiritus; ita anxiam ac subinde repetitam vehementer damnabat” (Eras. Jod. Jon. Ep. 577). Knight, in his Life of Colet (p. 68), paraphrases this sentence in the following extraordinary manner: “Though he approved of private confession, receiving himself a great deal of comfort and inward satisfaction from the use of it, yet he could not but condemn the popular custom of the frequent repetitions of what they called auricular confession.” The uninitiated Protestant reader is here given to understand that private confession was something quite distinct from what they called auricular confession, and that whilst Colet approved of the one, he vehemently condemned the other. The plain fact, of course, being that he approved, practised, and enjoined the right and proper use of the Sacrament of Penance, but condemned the indiscreet use which may be made of it by scrupulous and weak-headed penitents. And it is probable that most directors would be of the same opinion.

[342] Fox tells us that Colet sat with some others as judge on certain Lollards, who were burnt for heresy.

[343] In connection with the name of Ammonius, I cannot help noticing the ridiculous use which has been made of one of his familiar letters to Erasmus. A native of Lucca, he suffered much from the inclement English climate, and grumbles about it sadly, saying, moreover, that the burning of heretics has raised the price of wood. Erasmus replies in the same vein: “I am angry with the heretics for making wood so dear for us in this cold season.” The jest was rather a heartless one, yet it was but a jest; twenty-three heretics had been induced to recant, but no more than two had suffered in England up to this date of Henry’s reign: nevertheless, Knight, and some other writers, have made out from this passage the grave historic fact that such numbers were put to death at this time that all the wood in London was spent in burning them! The fact is, that Ammonius and Erasmus ceaselessly exercised their wits upon each other, and all their letters are couched in the same style of banter. Thus Erasmus professing to instruct his friend how to get on in England, says in the same merry strain: “First of all, my dear Ammonius, be impudent, thrust yourself into everybody’s business, elbow every one who stands in your way, give nothing to anybody without a prospect of getting something better, and always consult your own advantage.”

[344] This mystic number bore reference to the miraculous draught of fishes mentioned in St. John’s Gospel: ch. xxi. 11.

[345] Holte was usher at Magdalen school, and published his grammar in 1497, under the patronage of Cardinal Morton. Among the grammars enumerated by Erasmus, was one entitled “Mammotrectus” (or “a boy taught by his grandmother”), a name which, as we shall see, was sadly out of place in the academies of the sixteenth century. Before Lily’s time, says Wood, there were as many grammars as masters, and the rules of one were contradicted in another.

[346]

The result of the Eton system was, that many boys ran away from the school to escape a beating, a circumstance which led Ascham to compose his “Schoolmaster,” wherein, like Sir J. Elyot, he pleads for a more humane treatment of young scholars.

[347] Erasmus, de Pueris instituendis. Mr. Seebohm questions the fact of Colet being the “theologian” here referred to.

[348] Exercita Spiritualia. Regulæ ad sentiendum vere cum Ecclesia.

[349] Hall.

[350] Ep. 871.

[351] Wilkins, Con. iii. 736. Collier, ii. 52, 53.

[352] Pole had explained the motives of his conduct in a letter addressed to the king, of which Cranmer writes: “It is written with such eloquence, that if it were set forth and known to the common people, I suppose it were not possible to persuade them to the contrary.”

[353] Pollina, lib. i. ch. xxix.

[354] As Flaminius is frequently made much of by Protestant writers as an adherent to their opinions, it may be as well to add that the passage touching his conversion by Pole, which appears in the original Italian life of Beccadelli, is omitted in Dudizio’s Latin translation. Beccadelli was the personal friend both of Pole and Flaminius, and his testimony is above suspicion.

[355] This is admitted by Ascham, who after boasting in one letter that Homer, Thucydides, and Xenophon are now critically studied at Oxford, is to be found very soon afterwards complaining that these authors are being neglected for others of an inferior calibre. It was no better at Cambridge, where, after the departure of Sir John Cheke, the classical revival died a natural death, the study of divinity having expired long before. “It would pity a man’s heart,” says Latimer, “to hear what I hear of the state of Cambridge. There be few that study divinity, save those who must of necessity furnish the colleges.”

[356] Erasmus died two years before the publication of this report. His “Colloquies” were intended as an educational work, and were written originally for the use of the son of his printer, Froben, their elegant Latinity having found them a ready admittance into the schools. He died in the Protestant city of Basle, unfortified by the sacraments of the Church. His friends erected a monument to his memory, which they surmounted with a bust of the God Terminus, and his fellow-citizens of Rotterdam raised his statue in their great square, the bronze of which was obtained by melting down a large crucifix which had formerly stood there. The condemnation of his “Colloquies” by the congregation of cardinals, was confirmed by the judgment of the Council of Trent, which caused several of his works to be placed on the index.

[357] Concilium delectorum cardinalium et aliorum Prælatorum de emendanda Ecclesia, S. D. N. D. Paulo III. ipso jubente conscriptum, et exhibitum, anno MDXXXVIII.

[358] It is perhaps only fair to notice the earlier efforts made by St. Jerome Æmilian to establish religious colleges and seminaries for the clergy. He appears to have been greatly assisted by the advice of St. Cajetan, and as he died in 1537, must be reckoned as one of the first who organised any scheme for the reform of education. The regular clerks of Somascha continue to this day to carry on the work of their holy founder.

[359] It is stated by Phillips in his Life of Pole, that the rough draft of the decree was after his death found among his papers. Pallavicini tells us that during his absence at Padua, all important questions were communicated to him by his colleagues, especially the decree on Justification.

[360] Wilkins, Concilia, t. iv. p. 135.

[361] They were the Cardinals Moroni, Hosius, Gonzaga, D’Altemps, and Navagerio. Cardinals Simonetta and Seripando had also been joined in the Legation, but both died in the early part of 1563, and Cardinal Navagerio was appointed in room of Seripando.

[362] Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, Sess. xxiii. ch. xviii. Pallavicini, lib. xxi. ch. xii. n. 8. The prelate who most warmly supported the decree was Balduino Balduini, bishop of Aversa. See Martene, Coll. Vet. Scrip. tom. viii.

[363] Pallavicini, lib. xxi. ch. viii. n. 3.

[364] Pall., lib. xxiv. c. 7. n. 2.

[365] The words of M. Olier on this subject are worthy of quotation: “The true and only superior of the seminary is the bishop, who, containing in himself the plenitude of that grace and spirit which is to be shed over the diocese, can alone impart to it its spirit and its life. What the head is to the natural body, the bishop must be in the mystical body of his clergy, and we should labour in vain did we try any other means of sanctifying the ecclesiastical colleges. However excellent may be the sanctity possessed by those eminent and virtuous personages who are to be found scattered through the dioceses, not having that peculiar and essential grace, that spirit of headship (cet esprit de chef), which is attached to the sacred character of the episcopate, they cannot attain the fulness of spirit and of life which is capable of filling and vivifying the whole body of the clergy: for, according to St. Paul, this must flow from the head to the members by means of those joints, veins, and nerves intended for the distribution and communication of life. And these channels communicating with the Fountain Head are nothing else than the priests united to their bishop, according to the primitive ordinance of Jesus Christ.”—Vie de M. Olier, t. 2. p. 354.

[366] The Catholic university of Thonon was founded exactly with a similar purpose by Clement VIII., at the request of St. Francis of Sales, and the German bishops are said at one time to have contemplated the foundation of a university for the benefit of the Catholic youth of Germany.

[367] 1 Tim. iv. 15.

[368] Up to the present time, as we are informed by Dr. Döllinger, in his inaugural discourse to the University of Munich, the Italian clergy, the most numerous of Europe, make no use of the universities, but are content with the 217 Episcopal seminaries which they possess in their various dioceses.

[369] Ab Ecclesiis vero, musicas eas ubi, sive organo sive cantu, lascivum aut impurum aliquid miscetur, arceant Episcopi. Sess. xx. ch. ix.

[370] Caveant Episcopi ne strepitu incondito sensus sepeliatur.

[371] Pall., lib. xxiv. ch. ix. n. 6.

[372] Parvum gregem bonus Pastor, sancte quieteque pascebat. (Carol. Basc. in Vita S. Caroli. l. i. c. 6, p. 9.) It would seem as if this remarkable man were destined to take part in every good work set on foot during his lifetime, for in 1574 we find him in Spain, where as Apostolic Nuncio, he supported St. Theresa in her reforms. His love of strict discipline earned for him from the wits the nickname of “The World’s Reformer.”

[373] In the Acts of the Church of Milan (part 5, p. 948) are given the rules for study, drawn by St. Charles for the use of his seminarists. There was to be a grammar class, divided into two sections, which were to be exercised in the grammar of Emanuel Alvarez, the Jesuit, the Epistles of Cicero, and some of the works of Ovid and Virgil. The second class was to be that of the Humanities, also subdivided into two sections, in both of which the students were to practise an elegant Latin style, and to study Cicero De Officiis, his epistles to Atticus, and corrected editions of Virgil and Horace. The Greek grammar of Clenard, a celebrated professor of Louvain, was likewise to be explained three times in the week. In the Jesuit schools of Milan the Hebrew language was likewise taught.

[374] They did, in fact, after this take an engagement to serve the diocese for at least three years.

[375] 2 Esdras, iv. 17.

[376] Eccles. l. 8.