rites and ceremonies not in themfelves finful, he complied with them in other things. And yet (adds the Doctor) the bigots of that Church gave him a great deal of difturbance, for his fwerving from thofe palpable errors which make up the main of their religion; fuch as worshipping of images, auricular confeffion, &c. And as for the doctrine of Purgatory, which, of all others, is the moft gainful among them, it appears from a paffage in his Comment on the Epifle to the Corinthians, that he did by no means approve of it."

Though Dean Colet had not made any open attack upon the Church, he could not avoid being confid red as an enemy to it. For in his frequent preaching at St. Paul's, and before the King, and in other populous affemblies, he did not refrain from fpeaking with fome freedom and boldness against the vulgar fuperftitions, and prevailing corruptions, in the Romish Church. And the Dean had also another fymptom of Herefy; this was his being difpofed to fhew tendernefs and compaffion to thofe perfons who were perfecuted under the name of Lollards. One of thefe having been cenfured and condemned in the fpiritual court, and delivered over to the fecular power as an obftinate Heretic, Dean Colet had the humanity and the courage to interpofe with the King in his behalf, and was fo fuccefsful, as by his fingle intereft to procure the life and liberty of the condemned perfon. An act of generous compaffion, for which he was highly praised by Erafmus.

The generality of the Ecclefiaftics did, however, confider this. behaviour of Colet in a very different point of view. And they were fo much inflamed against him on this account, as well as on account of the heretical tenets which he inculcated in his preaching, that a profecution was commenced against him for Herefy; which was chiefly carried on by Dr. Fitz-James, Bishop of London. Of this affair Erafmus gives the following account: "The Dean (fays he) had never been upon good terms with his Bishop; who, to fay nothing of his manners, was an obftinate and fuperftitious Scotift, and for that reafon thought himfelf half a GOD. Of which kind of men, though I know fome whom I will not call knaves, yet I never faw one whom I thought I might truly term a Chriftian. But Colet was alfo difliked by the Prebends of his own cathedral, to whom his love of regular manners, and orderly difcipline, was by no means agreeable. And now the hatred of the old Bifhop (for he was fourscore years of age) having arifen to too great a height to be any longer concealed, he called in to his affiftance two other Bishops, equally virulent and bigotted with himself; and they, in conjunction, began to create Colet a great deal of trouble and vexation; though they made ufe of no other weapon than a charge of Herefy; but that, indeed, was then efteemed the most fatal engine they could pitch upon for the deftruction of their enemies. Accordingly they drew up certain articles, taken out of

his fermons, and exhibited them against him to the Archbishop of Canterbury. One of these articles was, that he had taught that images were not to be worshipped. A fecond, that he had preached against the the temporal poffeffions of the Bishops; by denying that the repeated exhortation of CHRIST to Peter, TO FEED HIS SHEEP, could be at all meant of hospitality, or the worldly ways of entertainment, because the Apostles were then poor, and unable to give any fuch reception. A third was, that he had preached againft fome men's cold and unaffected manner of reading their fermons ; whereby he must be underftood to reflect upon the Bishop himselt, who, on account of his age, was accuftomed to do so. But the Archb fhop (Warham), who knew the integrity and worth of Colet, undertook to defend the innocent party; and inftead of his judge, became his advocate and patron, and dismissed him without giving him the trouble of putting in any formal answer ( b).”

In 1510, died Sir Henry Colet, father to the Dean (i). In confequence of which the Dean, being his father s fole heir, fucceeded to a very confiderable eftate. Whatever revenues he derived from the Church, he delivered to his fteward, to be expended in houfe-keeping and hospitality. And the yearly produce of his paternal eftate he employed in acts of piety, benevolence, and generofity. However, as he had no very near relations,

(b)“ There may be room to conjecture, that the proceedings of the Bishop against Dean Colet, were not by way of first inftance before Archbishop Warham, but rather by appeal. That the Bishop of London had given the Dean a citation at least to his own confiftory, (where his Lordship was often found proceeding against Heretics), and upon contempt for not answering the allegations, the Bishop had denounced fome fentence of fufpenfion or filence against him, This is fufficiently intimated in other letters of Erafmus: and from this fentence Dr. Colet might appeal to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who being a Prelate of greater wifdom and moderation, faw through the charge, that it was frivolous and vexatious; and fo with a larger foul, and more Christian charity, he defended the good man from that perfecution; and encouraged him to return to his plain and useful way of preaching."--Knight, P. 92.

"Mr. Fox has obferved, that William Tyndal, in his book answering M. More, addeth moreover, and tef tifieth, that the Bishop of London

would have made the faid Colet, Dean of St. Paul's, an Heretic, for troflating the Pater Nofter into Eng1:fh, had not the archbishop of Caaterbury ftood up for the Dean.

"Bishop Latiner, who was at that time a young student at Cambridge, remembered the noife that the profecution of Dean Colet for Herefy then made, and fays exprefsly, That "he was not only in trouble, but fhould have been bornt, if God had not turned the King's heart to the contrary."-Knight, P. 93.

(i) Sir HENRY COLET was a younger fon of Robert Colet of Wendover in Buckinghamshire, Efq; and born in that county at the manor of Hale. He was bred a mercer in London, where he acquired a very confiderable fortune. In the year 1477, he was the elder of the two Sheriffs of Lordon; and in part of the years 1485, and 1487, Lord. Mayor of that city: as he was again, a fecond time, in part of the years 1495, and 1496. After he had lived many years with great reputation and honour, he died in an advanced age, and was buried at Stepney.

tions, he determined, in the midst of his life and health, to confecrate the whole property of his eftate to fome ftanding and perpetual benefaction. He had fome debate with himself with refpect to what he should pitch upon for this purpose, which would be of the greatest public utility. And after mature deliberation, he determined to found a grammar-school for the inftruction of youth in the Greek and Latin languages, in order to prepare them for the Universities; for he confidered this defign as the best calculated to promote the restoration and improvement of learning (ƒ).

Having thus fixed upon the nature of his intended charity, he could not be long in determining the place of it. London was his native city, and he bore another relation to it, as Dean of its cathedral church. He also observed that the city was in nothing more deficient, than in public fchools for the education of youth." And he thought for his further encouragement, (fays Dr. Knight), that the fons of his fellow-citizens were naturally more capable of learning, than those who had a ruftical birth and breeding." Accordingly, agreeable to these fentiments, he founded St. Paul's fchool in London, which he endowed with lands and tenements, which produced then one hundred and twenty-two

(f)" At this time the common way for, the Nobility and Gentry to educate their fons, was to fend them into a religious convent, especially of the Dominicans, Francifcans, or Auguftine Friars: Where (as Erafmus Tays) "They had not above three months time allowed them for learning grammar; and then immediately were pofted away to fophiftry, logic, fuppofitions, ampliations, reftrictions, expofitions, refolutions, and a thou. fand quibbles, and fo on to the myfteries of divinity. But if they were brought to any claffic author, Greek or Latin, they were blind, they were ignorant, they thought themselves in another world." Yet the age began now to be wifer, and to be well verfed in grammar learning was thought a matter of greater importance by all who were well withers to the restoration of learning. Particularly Bishop Waynfleet, in found ing his three fchools at Waynfleet, Brackley, and within Magdalen Col. lege in Oxford, took care that in thofe different parts of the kingdom the feeds of Greek and human literature might be early fown, to yield a plentiful increase through the whole nation, And in his foundation

of Magdalen College, as he provided fufficient falaries for a master and ufher to teach boys the rudiments of that tongue, fo for the fcholars of his houfe that should grow up to greater maturity in age and learning, he fettled a particular Profeffor to confirm and perfect them in that language." -Knight, P. 119, 120.

WILLIAM WAYNFLEET, Bifhop of Winchester, and founder of Magdalen College, Oxford, was the fon of Richard Patten, Efq; by his wife Margery, daughter of Sir Wil liam Brereton of Cheshire. He was born at Waynfleet in Lincolnshire, from whence he took his name. He was made Provost of Eaton College by King Henry VI, and was raised to the See of Winchester upon the death of Cardinal Beaufort, in 1447. He prefided thirty-nine years over that See, and adhered fo closely to the intereft of Henry VI. that he was frowned upon by Edward IV. He died in 1486, after he had feen, to his great joy, the House of Lancaster reftored in the perfon of Henry Vii. He had the reputation of a good Prelate, and was esteemed a person of confiderable abilities.

twenty.two pounds annually, but this income hath been fince greatly encreased." And this fchool, (fays Knight), which has continued for above two hundred years, could we but give the "reader a complete catalogue of the names of the most confi "derable perfons bred up in it, would have no cause to envy "any of its ftanding in Europe ( k ).”

Erafmus gives the following account of this foundation of Dean Colet's. Upon the death of his father, (fays he), when by right of inheritance he was become poffeffed of a very confiderable fum of money; left the keeping of it should corrupt his mind, and turn it too much towards the world, he laid out a great part of it in building a new fchool in the church yard of St. Paul's, dedicated to the child JESUS. A magnificent fabric; to which he added two dwelling-houses for the two feveral mafters and to them he allotted ample falaries, that they might teach a certain number of boys GRATIS; but they were not to exceed the ftipulated number. He divided the school into four apartments. The first, viz. the porch and entrance, is for Catechumens, or the children to be inftructed in the principles of religion; where no child is to be admitted, but what can read and write. The second apartment is for the lower boys, to be taught by the second mafter, or ufher. The third for the upper forms, under the head mafter: which two

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(*) "This noble impulfe of Chriftian charity, in the founding of grammar schools, was one of the providential ways and means for bringing about the bleffed Reformation. And it is therefore obfervable, that within thirty years before it, there were 'more grammar fchools erected and endowed in England, than had been in three hundred years preceding. One at Chichester by Dr. Edward Story, Bishop of that See, who left a farther benefaction to it by his laft will, dated 8th Dec. 1502. Another at Manchester, by Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, who died 1519. Another at Binton in Somerfetshire, by Dr. Fitz-James, Bishop of London, and his brother Sir John Fitz-James, Lord Chief Juftice of England. A fourth at Cirencester in Gloucestershire, by Dr. Thomas Ruthal, Bishop of Durham. A fifth at Roulfton in Staffordshire, by Dr. Robert Sherburne, predeceffor to Dr. Colet in the Deanery of St. Paul's. A fixth at Kingston upon Hull, by John Alcock, Bishop of Ely. A feventh at Sutton-Col'field in Warwickshire, by Dr. John

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Harman, (alias Veyfey), Bishop of Exeter. An eighth at Farnworth in Lancashire, by Dr. William Smith, Bishop of Lincoln, born there. A ninth at Appleby in Weftmoreland, by Thomas Langton, Bishop of Winchester. A tenth at Ipfwich in Suffolk, by Cardinal Wolfey. Another at Winburne in Dorsetshire, by Margaret, Countefs of Richmond. Another at Wolverhampton in Staf fordshire, by Sir Stephen Jennings, Mayor of London. Another at Macclesfield in Cheshire, by Sir John Percival, Mayor of London; as also another by the Lady Thomafine his wife, at St. Mary Wike in Devonthire, where he was born and ano. ther at Walthamstow in Effex, by George Monnox, Mayor of London, 1515. Bendes feveral other fchools in other parts of the kingdom. And after the Reformation was estabifhed, the piety and charity of Proteftants ran fo faft in this channel, that in the next age there wanted rather a regulation of grammar schools, than an increase of them."-Knight, P. 109.

parts of the fchool are divided by a curtain to be drawn at pleafure. Over the mafter's chair is an image of the child JESUS, of admirable workmanship, in the gefture of teaching; whom all the boys, at going in and coming out, falute with a fhort hymn. And there is a reprefentation of GOD, faying, HEAR YE HIM; these words being written by my fuggeftion. The fourth, or laft apartment, is a little chapel for divine fervice. The school has no corners, or hiding places, nor no conveniency for indolence or fleep. The boys have their diftin&t forms, or benches, one above another Every form holds fixteen; and he that is head, or captain of each form, has a little kind of desk, by way of pre-eminence. They are not to admit all boys of course, but to chuse them according to their parts and capacities.

"The wife and fagacious founder faw that the greatest hopes and happiness of the common-wealth, were in the training up of children to good literature and true religion. For which noble purpose he laid out an immenfe fum of money; and yet he would admit no one to bear a share in this expence. Some perfon having left a legacy of one hundred pounds fterling towards the fabric of the fchool, Colet perceived a defign in it; and, by leave of the Bishop, procured that money to be laid out upon the vestments of the church of St. Paul. After he had finished all, he left the perpetual care and overfight of the estate and government of his fchool, not to the Clergy, nor to the Bishop, nor to the Chapter, nor to any of the Nobility; but amongst married laymen, (the company of mercers), men of probity and reputation. And when he was afked the reason why he fo committed this truft, he answered to this effect," That there was no abso"lute certainty in human affairs; but, for his part, he found

lefs corruption in fuch a body of citizens, than in any other "order or degree of mankind." Dean Colet appointed William Lily to be the first high or chief mafter of his school (7). Erafmus,

(1) WILLIAM LILY, or LILYE, was born a Oldham, in Hampshire, about 1466. After a good founda. tion of fchool learning, he was fent to Magdalen College, Oxford, and admitted a Demy there at the age of eighteen. Having taken the degree of Batchelor of Arts, he quitted the Univerfity, and went, for religion's fake, to Jerufalem. In his return, he ftaid fome time at the ifle of Rhodes, to study the Greek language; feveral learned men having taken refuge under the protection of the Knights there, after the taking of Conftantinople. He afterwards went to Rome, where he further improved

himself in the Latin and Greek languages, under John Sulpitius and Pomponius Sabinus. On his arrival in England, in, 1509, he fettled in London, and taught grammar, poetry, and rhetoric, with good fuccefs. Being afterwards appointed by Dr. Colet mafter of St. Paul's fchool, he exercised that laborious and useful employ for the space of twelve years ; and in that time educated a great number of youths, fome of whom proved very great men. He died of the plague in 1522, aged fifty-four, and was buried in the north yard belonging to St. Paul's cathedral. He is highly praised by Erafmus, who

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