CHAP. VII. A.D. 1512. Discussion on the burning of heretics. But one authentic picture of a scene which there can be little doubt occurred in this Convocation has been preserved, to give a passing glimpse into the nature of the discussion which followed upon the subject of the extirpation of heresy.' In the course of the debate, the advocates of increased severity against poor Lollards were asked, it seems, to point out, if they could, a single passage in the Canonical Scriptures which commands the capital punishment of heretics. Whereupon an old divine1 rose from his seat, and with some severity and temper quoted the command of St. Paul to Titus: A man that is an heretic, after the first and second 'admonition, reject.' The old man quoted the words as they stand in the Vulgate version: Hæreticum hominem post unam et alteram correptionem devita !' -De-vita!' he repeated with emphasis; and again, louder still, he thundered 'DE-VITA!' till everyone wondered what had happened to the man. At length he proceeded to explain that the meaning of the Latin verb 'devitare' being 'de vita tollere' (!), the passage in question was clearly a direct command to punish heretics by death !2 6 1 'Senex quidam theologus et 'imprimis severus.'—Erasmi Annotationes, edit. 1519, p. 489; and edit. 1522, p. 558. Senex quidam severus et vel supercilio teste theolo'gus, magno stomacho, respondit.'Erasmi Moria Encomium, Basle, 1519, p. 225. 2 See note of Erasmus in his 'Annotationes,' in loco Titus iii. 10; also the Praise of Folly, where the story is told in connection with further particulars. The exact coincidence between the two ac counts of the old divine's construction of Titus iii. 10 leads to the conclusion that the rest of the story, as given in the Praise of Folly, may also very probably be literally true. Knight, in his Life of Colet, concludes that as the story is told in the Praise of Folly, the incident must have occurred in a previous convocation, as this satire was written before 1512.-Knight, pp. 199, 200. But the story is not inserted in the editions of 1511 and of 1515 but it is inserted in the Basle A smile passed round among those members of Con- CHAP. VII. vocation who were learned enough to detect the gross D. 1512. ignorance of the old divine; but to the rest his logic appeared perfectly conclusive, and he was allowed to proceed triumphantly to support his position by quoting, again from the Vulgate, the text translated in the English version, Suffer not a witch to live.' For the word witch' the Vulgate version has 'maleficus.' A heretic, he declared, was clearly' maleficus,' and therefore ought not to be suffered to live. By which conclusive logic the learned members of the Convocation of 1512 were, it is said, for the most part completely carried away.1 This story, resting wholly or in part upon Colet's own relation to Erasmus, is the only glimpse which can be gathered of the proceedings of this Convocation for the 'extirpation of heresy.' II. COLET IS CHARGED WITH HERESY (1512). Before the spring of 1512 was passed, Colet's Sermon Colet's to Convocation was printed and distributed in Latin, and sermon edition of the Encomium Moria, November 12, 1519, published just after Colet's death (p. 226). Nor is the first part of the story relating to Titus iii. 10 to be found in the first edition of the Annotationes (1516). The story is first told by Erasmus in the second edition (1519), published just before Colet's death, and เ was still living, its mention should be then without any mention of Colet'sdente res acta est.'—Annotationes, 'Praise of Folly, 1519, p. 226. printed. A.D. 1512. CHAP. VII. probably in English1 also; and as there was an immediate lull in the storm of persecution, he may possibly have come off rather as victor than as vanquished, in spite of the seeming triumph of the persecuting party in Convocation. Completion of Colet's school. Jealousy against Colet's school. The bold position he had taken had rallied round him not a few honest-hearted men, and had made him, perhaps unconsciously on his part, the man to whom earnest truth-seekers looked up as to a leader, and upon whom the blind leaders of the blindly orthodox party vented all their jealousy and hatred. He was henceforth a marked man. That school of his in St. Paul's Churchyard, to the erection of which he had devoted his fortune, which he had the previous autumn made his will to endow, had now risen into a conspicuous building, and the motives of the Dean in building it were of course everywhere canvassed. The school was now fairly at work. Lilly, the godson of Grocyn, the late Professor of Greek at Oxford, was already appointed headmaster; and as he was known to have himself travelled in Greece to perfect his classical knowledge, it could no longer be doubted by any that here, under the shadow of the great cathedral, was to be taught to the boys that 'heretical Greek' which was regarded with so much suspicion. Here was, in fact, a school of the 'new learning,' sowing in the minds of English youth the seeds of that free thought and 1 There is an old English transla- | the Latin edition of 1511, i.e. 1512. tion given by Knight in his Life of Knight, p. 271. Knight speaks of Colet (pp. 289-308), printed by the old English version as 'written 'Thomas Berthelet, regius impres-probably by the Dean himself,' but sor,' and without date. Pynson was he gives no evidence in support of the King's printer in 1512 (Brewer, his conjecture.-See Knight's Life i. p. 1030), and accordingly he printed of Colet, p. 199, heresy which Colet had so long been teaching to the CHAP. VII. people from his pulpit at St. Paul's. More had already AD. 1512. facetiously told Colet that he could not wonder if his school should raise a storm of malice; for people cannot help seeing that, as in the Trojan horse were concealed armed Greeks for the destruction of barbarian Troy, so from this school would come forth those who would expose and upset their ignorance.1 No wonder, indeed, if the wrath of Bishop Fitzjames should be kindled against Colet; no wonder if, having failed in his attempt effectually to stir up the spirit of persecution in the recent Convocation, he should now vent his spleen upon the newly-founded school. But how fully, amid all, Colet preserved his temper and persevered in his work, may be gathered from the following letter to Erasmus, who, in intervals of leisure from graver labours, was devoting his literary talents to the service of Colet's school, and whose little book, 'De Copiâ Verborum,' was part of it already in the printer's hands : 6 Colet to Erasmus.2 Indeed, dearest Erasmus, since you left London I have heard nothing of you. ... 'I have been spending a few days in the country 'with my mother, consoling her in her grief on the 2 1 Neque valde miror si clarissi- | Tres Thomæ, p. 166, ed. 1612; p. 23, 'mæ scholæ tuæ rumpantur invidia. ed. 1538. Vident enim uti ex equo Trojano 'prodierunt Græci, qui barbaram 'diruere Trojam, sic è tuâ prodire 'scholá qui ipsorum arguunt atque 'subvertunt inscitiam.'-Stapleton's ccccvi. Brewer, vol. ii. No. 3190. CHAP. VII. death of my servant, who died at her house, whom A.D. 1512. A bishop blasphemes Colet's school. 'De Copiâ,' 6 she loved as a son, and for whose death she wept as though he had been more than a son. The night on 'which I returned to town I received your letter. Now listen to a joke! A certain bishop, who is held, too, to be one of the wiser ones, has been blaspheming our school before a large concourse of people, declaring that I have erected what is a useless thing, yea a bad thing-yea more (to give his own words), a temple of idolatry. Which, indeed, I fancy 'he called it, because the poets are to be taught 'there! At this, Erasmus, I am not angry, but laugh heartily.. I send you a little book containing the sermon' [to the Convocation?]. The printers said they had sent 'some to Cambridge. Farewell! Do not forget the verses for our boys, 'which I want you to finish with all goodnature and 'courtesy. Take care to let us have the second part of your "Copia." The second part of the Copia' was accordingly compreface of Erasmus. pleted, and the whole sent to the press in May, with a prefatory letter to Colet,' in which Erasmus paid a loving tribute to his friend's character and work. He dwelt upon Colet's noble self-sacrificing devotion to the good of others, and the judgment he had shown in singling out two main objects at which to labour, as the most powerful means of furthering the great cause so dear to his heart. Colet's preaching. To implant Christ in the hearts of the common people, by constant preaching, year after year, from 1 Dated 'M.DXII. iii. Kal. Maias: Londini.' |