on at once towards the completion of his clerical course; CHAP. I. but, unordained as he was, and without doctor's degree, D. 1496. in all simplicity to begin the work which had now become the settled purpose of his life, by returning to Oxford and announcing this course of lectures on St. Paul's Epistles. IV. THOMAS MORE, ANOTHER OXFORD STUDENT (1492-6). When Colet, catching the spirit of the new learning from Grocyn and Linacre, left Oxford for his visit to Paris and Italy, he left behind him at the university a boy of fifteen, no less devoted than himself to the study of the Greek language and philosophy. This boy was Thomas More. He was the son of a Thomas successful lawyer, living in Milk Street, Cheapside. More. Brought up in the very centre of London life, he had early entered into the spirit of the stirring times on which his young life was cast. He was but five years old when in April 1483 the news of Edward IV.'s death was told through London. But he was old enough to hear an eyewitness tell his father, that 'one Pottyer, dwelling in Redcross Street, without Cripple ́ gate,' within half a mile of his father's door, 'on the very night of King Edward's death, had exclaimed, His early By my troth, man, then will my master the Duke history. ""of Glo'ster be king."" And followed as this was by 6.66 16 1 'Quem ego sermonem ab eo | authorship of the history of Richard 'memini, qui colloquentes audi- III. see Mr. Gairdner's preface to • verat jam tum patri meo renun'ciatum, cum adhuc nulla proditionis ejus suspicio haberetur.' -Thomæ Mori Latina Opera,' Lovanii, 1566, fol. 46. As to the 6 Letters of Richard III. and Henry Cardinal CHAP. I. Richard's murder of the young Princes, he never forgot A.D. 1496. the incident. After some years' study at St. Anthony's School in Threadneedle Street, his father placed him in domestic service (as was usual in those times) with the Archbishop and Lord Chancellor Morton,1 a man than whom no one knew the world better or was of greater influence in public affairs-the faithful friend of Edward IV., the feared but cautious enemy of Richard, the man to whose wisdom Henry VII. in great measure owed his crown. Morton was the Gamaliel at whose feet young More was brought up, drinking in his wisdom, storing up in memory his rich historic knowledge, learning the world's ways and even something of the ways of kings, till a naturally sharp wit became unnaturally sharpened, and Morton recognised in the youth the promise of the future greatness of the man. He was but thirteen or fourteen at most, yet he would at Christmas time suddenly sometimes step in among the players, making up an extempore part of his own;' ... and the Lord Chancellor 'would often say unto the ' nobles that divers times dined with him, "This child ""here waiting at table, whosoever shall live to see it, will prove a marvellous man.”2 It was Morton who had sent him to Oxford for his better furtherance in learning.' More's genius. 6.66 3 Colet probably had known More from childhood. Their fathers were both too much of public men to be unknown to each other, and though Colet was twelve years older than young More when they most likely 1480 was assumed as the date of bered the conversation. 1 Roper, Singer's ed. p. 3. Morton was not made a cardinal till 1493. 2 Roper, p. 4. 3 Ibid. met at Oxford in 1492-3, their common studies under CHAP. I. Grocyn and Linacre were likely to bring them into A.D. 1496. contact.1 More's ready wit, added to great natural power and versatility of mind, were such as to enable him to keep pace with others much older than himself, and to devote himself with equal zeal to the new learning. fascinating Whether it was thus at Oxford that Colet had first formed his high opinion of More's character and powers, we know not, but certain it is that he was long after wont to speak of him as the one genius of whom England could boast.2 Moreover, along with great His intellectual gifts was combined in the young student character. a gentle and loving disposition, which threw itself into the bosom of a friend with so guileless and pure an affection, that when men came under the power of its unconscious enchantment they literally fell in love with More. If Colet's friendship with More dated back to this period, he must have found in his young acquaintance the germs of a character somewhat akin to his own. Along with so much of life and generous loveliness, there was a natural independence of mind which formed convictions for itself, and a strength and promptness of will whereby action was made as a matter of course to follow conviction. There was, in truth, in More's character a singular union of conservative and radical tendencies of heart and thought. 1 Colet probably left Oxford for 2 Eras. Op. iii. p. 477, A. Speaking the Continent about 1494. The most of More, Erasmus writes: 'Joannes probable date of More's stay at Ox-Coletus, vir acris exactique judicii, ford was 1492 and 1493. This in familiaribus colloquiis subinde leaves 1494 and 1495 for his studies dicere solet, Britanniæ non nisi at New Inn, previous to his entry unicum esse ingenium.' at Lincoln's Inn, in February, 1496. CHAP. I. But the intercourse between them at Oxford did not A.D. 1496. last long, for Colet, as already said, went off on his travels, leaving More buried in his Oxford studies under Linacre's tuition. More already destined for the Bar. More leaves Oxford. It was the father's purpose that the son at Oxford should be preparing for his future profession. Jealous lest the temptations of college life should disqualify him for the severe discipline involved in those legal studies to which it was to be the preparatory step, he kept him in leading-strings as far as he possibly could, cutting down his pecuniary allowance to the smallest amount which would enable him to pay his way, even compelling him to refer to himself before purchasing the most necessary articles of clothing as his old ones wore out. He judged that by these means he should keep his son more closely to his books, and prevent his being allured from the rigid course of study which in his utilitarian view was best adapted to fit him for the bar.1 So far as can be traced, this stern discipline did not fail of its end;2 he worked on at Oxford, without getting into mischief, and certainly without neglecting his books. But there was another snare from which parental anxiety was not able wholly to preserve him. Before he had been two years at Oxford, the father found out that he had begun to show symptoms of fondness for the study of the Greek language and lite 1 Stapleton's Tres Thomæ, Colon. 'strictè observavit, ut nec ad re1612 ed. chap. i. pp. 155-6. 'Hanc ficiendos attritos calceos, nisi à 'ob causam sic ei necessaria sub-patre peteret, pecuniam haberet.' 'ministravit ut ne quidem terun- See also Eras. Op. iii. p. 475, A, 'cium in sua potestate eum habere respecting his father's motive. permitteret, præter id quod ipsa 'necessitas postulabat. Quod adeò Stapleton's Tres Thomæ, Colon. 1612, p. 156. rature, and might even be guilty of preferring the CHAP. I. philosophy of the Greeks to that of the Schoolmen. ▲.D. 1496. This was treading on dangerous ground, and it seemed to the anxious parent high time that a stop should be put to new-fangled and fascinating studies, the use of which to a lawyer he could not discern. So, somewhat abruptly, he took young More away from the University, and had him at once entered as a student at New Inn.2 After the usual course of legal studies at New Inn, he was admitted in February 1496,3 just as Colet was returning from Italy, as a student of Lincoln's Inn, for a few more years of hard legal study, preparatory to his call to the Bar. More coln's Inn. enters Lin V. COLET FIRST HEARS OF ERASMUS (1496). One other circumstance must be mentioned in this chapter. Whilst Colet was passing through Paris, on his return journey from Italy, he became acquainted with the French historian Gaguinus, whose work 'De Ori'gine et Gestis Francorum,' had been published shortly before. Colet was in the habit of reading every book of history which came in his way, and no doubt this Colet first hears of |