exercised a greater influence upon the revival of letters in
Germany, and was a more distinguished scholar. He had
spent much of his time in Italy, and was zealous that his
own country should obtain an equal reputation for leam-
Agricola, "^g- Agricola was hardly excelled, even by
1448-U86 Politian, in free and graceful use of Latin, and
his letters — which, after the fashion of the day, were fre-
quently written in Greek — were polished and correct. The
chief difficulty with which classic learning in Germany had
to contend was the clamorous opposition of the mendicant
friars, most of whom were sunk in the most hopeless
ignorance, a condition which they complacently accepted.
Although the Germans ranked next to the Italians in
devotion to the New Learning, the French seem to have
been beforehand in point of time, for, as early as
1458, a reluctant consent to the teaching of
Greek was wrung from the University of Paris. And
Reuchlin, i* was there that, about 1470, Eeuchlin, the
1456-1622 greatest classical scholar of his day out of Italy,
first acquired the rudiments of Greek. Eeuchlin made
such good use of his meagre opportunities that, by the
time he visited Italy in 1482, he astonished the great
scholars whom he met, and caused the old Greek master
Argyropulus to exclaim, on hearing him translate Thucy-
dides : ' Our banished Greece has flown beyond the Alps.'
Unfortunately, Reuchlin's influence over his contemporaries
was limited by his falling a victim, like Pico and other



Digitized by VjOOQIC



66 THE RENAISSANCE

great emancipated minds, to the fatal fascinations of
Cabalistic Philosophy,

Up to this time, though there were many indications
of a revived interest in Latin literature, France could
Hermony- boast of no author who was able to write good
^^® classic Latin, much less Greek ; but a certain

Spartan, called Hermonymus, who settled in Paris in
1472, had the honour of teaching (though, it must be con-
fessed, very badly) the two men who were destined to
raise scholarship to its highest pitch in France and
Germany: Budseus in the one, Erasmus in the other.
Hermonymus was succeeded in 1495 by a far greater
Lascaris, scholar, Lascaris, who came to Paris from
c. 1446-1535 Florence, and was able at last to infuse among
the French students a little of his Italian ardour for
antiquity. From this time onwards Hellenic studies made
steady, though not rapid, progress. The spread of classic
learning in France, as in Italy, was immensely helped on
by the work of the scholar printers, such as Badius (who
came to Paris from one of the schools of the Brethren of
the Common Life) ; the Estiennes, and Gourmont, who,
from the year 1495, kept up a constant succession of
editions of Latin authors, although it was not until 1507
that any serious attempt was made at printing in Greek
character. This shows that although D'Etaples, Erasmus,
and BudaBus were already working hard to promote it,
the study of Greek had not yet become generally popular.
BudflBus, BudsBus, however, became the most profound
1467-1540 Qreet scholar in Europe. In comparing him
with the Italian Humanists, whom he far excelled, we must
remember that the study of Greek had been very greatly



Digitized by VjOOQIC



THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 67

facilitated by the Aldine and other publications of Greek
texts. BudsBus is best known to posterity by his * Commen-
taries on the Greek Language/ which, though somewhat
rambling, has been of immense value to succeeding
lexicographers, and may still be read with advantage.
Erasmus, But it is Erasmus who is pre-eminently famous
1466-1686 g^g ^}jQ embodiment of all that was meant by the
New Learning — its humanity, its tolerance, its application
of the learning of the schools to matters of every-day life.
Erasmus was, in fact, the first Modem. He seems to
belong almost as much to England as to his native land,
not only by his sympathies and friendships, but also
because it was at Oxford that he received his first
adequate instruction in Greek, since he was not able to
afibrd the journey to Italy. We must retrace our steps a
little to see how this had become possible.

In England, during the first half of the fifteenth century,
learning seemed to be at the lowest ebb. Oxford was almost
Humanism deserted, and its Latinity became a by-word. Of
in England Greek there was none. Here and there, it is true,
was a man of wealth and position, who, having travelled in
Italy, and having caught the enthusiasm for letters, en-
deavoured on his return to establish himself on the model of
the Italian princely patrons, gathering scholars around
him, and causing translations of the classics to be made.

One of the first of these pioneers of learning was
Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, at whose invitation
no less a scholar than Poggio Bracciolini spent eighteen
months in this country. But the great Humanist received
no very favourable impression of the English people. He
found them given up to eating and drinking, trading, and



Digitized by VjOOQIC



68 THE RENAISSANCE

farming. There were no manuscripts to be found, and no
interest was felt in the search which was the absorbing
object of his life.

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, was another patron
of scholars who approached nearer to the Medician model.
He had many friends among the learned Italians. To the
Bodleian Library he presented a valuable collection of manu-
scripts, most of which, unhappily, were destroyed in the
partial reaction against classical learning during the reigns
of Edward and Mary. A few other such attempts were made
to acclimatise Italian scholarship, but, during the early part
of the century, without much effect. The Wars of the Eoses
were, of course, a serious hindrance to noble patronage. And
the English are not readily moved to such enthusiasms. The
New Learning had to give proof that it was something
more than a new-fangled 'accomplishment' before it
commended itself to the practical common sense of the
people. They saw that the Universities clung with
obstinate conservatism to the teaching of the Schoolmen,
and they mistrusted the new unauthorised movement.
But there were forces at work preparing the way for
better things, chief of which was the ever-increasing
discontent with ecclesiastical unreason and oppression,
felt to be intolerable by the most devout Catholics, as
well as by those in whose hearts there still lingered some
echo of the teaching of Wiclif. Then came Oaxton, with
his press and his enthusiasm, awakening an interest in
their own literature among the better educated. At last
Oxford beffan to move. In 1488 an Italian

ViteUi

scholar, ViteUi, was allowed to lecture there, and
to give some idea of the great movement that was



Digitized by VjOOQIC



THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 69

revolutionising thought in the South. Cambridge next,
under the guidance of Fisher, gradually allowed herself to
be convinced. It was from Vitelli that the rudiments
Grocyn, c. ^f Greek were learned by Grocyn, who afterwards
1446-1519 travelled to Italy and studied under the first
Latin and Greek scholars of the day — to wit, Politian and
Chalcondylas. On his return, in 1491, he began to lecture
Linacre, c. ^^ Oxford. Linacre, afterwards physician to the
1460-1624 ting^ followed in Grocyn's footsteps, and en-
deavoured to improve the existing condition of medical
science by making a translation of Galen. Some years
later he founded two lectureships in medicine, one at
Oxford, the other at Cambridge. Classical learning had
now really taken root in England, and it flourished so well
that Erasmus, when he left England in 1499, was able to
say (though, surely, in a panegyric mood) that there was
* nothing more to be sought in Italy save the pleasure of
travelling.' Erasmus judged English learning from the
little knot of enthusiasts whose friend he became, and
who included, besides Linacre and Grocyn, Archbishop
Warham, Colet, Latimer, and More.

Englishmen had found out the practical use of this
New Learning, not only in science, but for still higher
purposes. The Italian Humanists were ' too much occupied
with learning the lessons of antiquity to think of applying
them, or even to find out that they had any application ' ;
but when the cup of learning was passed on to the graver
men of the North, they perceived the infinite value of a
knowledge of the old languages as the means of freeing
the Christian religion from the weight of ecclesiastical
tradition that was threatening to extinguish it. No one^



Digitized by VjOOQIC



60 THE EENAISSANCE

did more for the advancement of learning in England than
Colet, the Dean of St. Paul's. This man had travelled
Coiet, c. i^ Italy, had mingled with the brilliant circle of
1467-1619 Lorenzo the Magnificent ; but all its culture, all
its Paganism, even its enthusiasm for antiquity, passed
him lightly by, and he came home possessed by the one
conviction that in the New Learning lay the only possible
salvation for religious faith. It was only in Italy that
the study of the classics had so paganising an influence
upon morality. Erasmus, More, Eeuchlin, Melanchthon,
and others whose names are associated both with the
Eeformation and the Eevival of Learning did not, like the
Humanists, confine themselves to Greek and Latin, but also
studied Hebrew, their object being to raise the Bible from
the oblivion and neglect into which it had been allowed to
lapse. The essential difierence between the Renaissance
in Italy and in the North may be well illustrated by con-
trasting the attitude of any of these men towards ancient
literature with that of Politian or Bembo — the Italians,
with their extraordinary sensitiveness to form, absolutely
captivated and carried away by its perfect style ; the others
seeking, and rejoicing to find, in the writings of the old
civilisation knowledge so practical, and teaching so helpful,
for all the new problems that were daily besetting them.

It was not until after the accession of Henry VIII.,
who was a friend to learning all his life, and especially
before headstrong selfishness and insatiable appetite had
obscured those good qualities of head and heart which, at
his accession, made the prospect seem so hopeful, that
Colet was able to carry out a long-cherished design by
founding the Grammar School of St. Paul's. In this he



Digitized by VjOOQIC



THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 61

was helped by Erasmus, who compiled fresh grammars for
its use. The school was intended to advance sound
classical learning and enlightened religion, while scholastic
logic was to be entirely excluded. In return for his care
to give the young generation those golden opportunities
which he himself had lacked (for he was well on in years
when he began to study Greek) the pious founder makes
but one request from his scholars : ' Lift up your little
white hands for me/ he says, * for me which prayeth for
you to God.' The novelty of his system raised a storm
of protest, and *no wonder,' wrote Sir Thomas More,

* for your school is like the wooden horse in which armed
Greeks were hidden for the ruin of barbarous Troy.'

Meanwhile Erasmus was rapidly becoming the fore-
most figure in the educated world. The first work to bring
him into prominence was his ' Adages,' a collection of notes
and illustrations upon classical proverbs and idioms, in which
his vast learning and keen observation are fully displayed.
Many of his remarks are very significant of the temper of the
time, and it is a wonder that their author escaped persecu-
tion. He attacks kings and princes with the freedom and
bitterness of a modem anarchist. * The folly of princes
has,' he says, * inflicted the greatest misery on mankind.'

* Noble cities are created by the people, and are destroyed by
princes ; the commonwealth grows rich by the industry of
its citizens, and is plundered by the rapacity of its princes.'
He compares them to the eagle, with its ' hoarse threaten-
ing scream and its rapacious wicked eyes,' * hateful to all,
the curse of all.' Monks are still more abhorrent to him.
He compares them to beetles, * dingy, filthy and vile . . .
whom it is a disgrace even to overcome, and whom no one



Digitized by VjOOQIC



62 THE RENAISSANCE

can either shake oflf or encounter without some pollution.'
The same themes reappear in his * Encomium Moriae,' or

* Praise of Folly ' (with a pun on the name of his friend
More), in which he triumphs over the ignorance and bigotry
which he believed to have received a death-blow by the
accession of the debonair young scholar, Henry VIII.
Erasmus, afber the manner of his time, was engaged in
many controversies, one of the chief of which was that with
the Italian Humanists. As we have seen, the Italian
scholars of this period had become more slavishly pedantic
than ever ; many of them, not content with imitating the
style of Cicero, would use no word or case of a word which
could not be found in their model. They polished and re-
polished their writings until they eliminated every trace of
originality. Erasmus attacks them in the dialogues en-
titled * Ciceronianus.' * Let your ftrst and chief care,' he
says, * be to understand thoroughly what you undertake to
write about. That will give you copiousness of words, and
supply you with true and natural sentiments. Then will
it be found how your language lives and breathes.' ^ This
is certainly a just description of his own methods, and of
his vigorous, spirited, and yet graceful Latin.

In the year after Henry's accession, Erasmus' friends
in England prevailed on him to come to Cambridge and
teach Greek. Of this university he says, in 1516 :

* Scarcely thirty years ago nothing was taught here but the
'^ ParvaLogicalia," *' Alexander," those antiquated exercises
from Aristotle and the " Quaestiones of Scotus " ' (all stock
text-books of scholastic learning). ' As time went on
better studies were added, a new, or at any rate a renovated,

^ Hallam, History of Europea/n Literatu/rei vol. i. p. 449.



Digitized by VjOOQIC



THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 63

Aristotle, ^nd a knowledge of Greek literature. What has
been the result? This university is now so flourishing
that it can compete with the best universities of its age.'
Gradually the New Learning took hold of the hearts of the
people as it had done in Italy, though not in the same
degree as there ; and by 1520 we are told that * The students
rush to Greek letters ; they endure watching, fasting, toil,
hunger, in the pursuit of.them.'

The brightest light of the English Humanists, and the
only one who will bear comparison with the Italians as a
Sir classical scholar, is Sir Thomas More, the man who

^omas y^Qj^ ^\^Q jQyg Qf j^2l his contemporaries by his sweet-
1478-1585 ness of temper, his gaiety, his charm of manner,
and his brilliant wit, no less than by the steadfast courage
with which he sacrificed his life in a losing cause. And his
chief work, the 'Utopia' (1516), stands out a0 the one
permanent monument of the English Revival of Letters.
Writing as the courtier and friend of the most despotic
monarch that has ever ruled this kingdom, the eagle-eyed
thinker looks forward to a time when justice and reason
shall be the guiding lights of life. His description of the
imaginary kingdom of Utopia is based on Plato's Republic ;
but Plato is left behind in More's searching inquiries into
the problems of political justice, freedom of conscience,
of labour, and of crime, and in his far-sighted anticipation
of most of those social reforms which have only of late years
been brought about. In some respects, indeed, we yet fall
behind the standard of Utopia; for instance, in community
of goods, the nine hours' working day, and compulsory
labour. More is the first of the privileged classes to
champion the cause of the poor. ' The existing condition



Digitized by VjOOQIC



64 THE RENAISSANCE

of Society is/ he says, * nothing but a conspiracy of the
rich against the poor.' And how modern is the ring of.
this sentence : ' The rich devise every means whereby they
may in the first place secure to themselves what they have
amassed by wrong, and then take to their own use and
profit, at the lowest possible price, the work and labour of
the poor. And so soon as the rich decide on adopting
these devices in the name of the public they become law.'
IvTravelling over regions almost unexplored before. More
takes human reason as his guide, and human welfare as
ids goal ; hence his book may well be called the flower of
jthe Humanistic moveme^it, taking the word Humanism in
j ;its fullest significance./ In Utopia, streets are broad and
bright, while in London they are narrow and filthy ; every
house has fine windows of glass instead of mere smoke-
holes, and its piece of garden at the back. In every vil-
lage there is a school, free to all. No man may insult
another's religion, and each may worship as his conscience
dictates. No atheist, however, is eligible for public oflSces,
because his opinions, for which he is to be pitied rajbher
than blamed, are held to be degrading to mankind^ ' The
Utopians have the power to remove their Sovereign * on
suspicion of a design to enslave his people.' In his views
upon punishment, More is especially modern. He saw, as
few were able to see for many years after he had passed
away, that punishment should be proportionate to the crime,
and intended for reform rather than for revenge, 'Se advises
that criminals should be * so used and ordered that they can-
not choose but be good, and whatsoever harm they did be-
fore, the residue of their lives to make amends for the same.'
Besides the ' Utopia,' there was very little direct literary



Digitized by VjOOQIC



THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 66

product of the Revival of Learning in England. This is
partly to be accounted for by the violence of the Lutheran
party, which threatened to extinguish classical learning
altogether at the universities, and which threw discredit
upon scholarship because the two were still inseparably
associated together in the minds of the people. So wide-
spread was this false impression that Henry was loth to
take strong measures against the Reforming party for fear
of harming his friends the scholars. But the young plant
was too hardy to perish easily. Steadily and silently it
grew, gathering vigour for its luxuriant blossoming-time,
when Elizabeth was Queen and the days of persecution
were over.

Grammar schools were established here and there by
Henry and by Edward, in which Latin at least, and some-
times Greek, were brought within reach of the middle
classes. Erasmus was succeeded at Cambridge as Greek
Lecturer by Richard Croke, a distinguished Englishman
who had been teaching at Leipsic. After him came
Wakefield, Smith, and Cheke, the two latter exercis-
ing great influence on the spread of Greek. Oxford,
though it contained more partisans of the old regime,
did not lag far behind.

The best known of the group who surrounded Cheke
at Cambridge was Ascham, famous as the father of
Ascham, English prose. It was owing principally to his
1515-1568 influence as the tutor of Henry*s children that
classical scholarship became so fashionable among the
young people of the Court. Elizabeth, as everyone knows,
could speak both Latin and Greek by the time she was
sixteen, and had read Cicero and Livy, besides being

f



Digitized by VjOOQIC



66 THE RENAISSANCE

well versed in the French and Italian literatures of the day.
Lady Jane Grey is another familiar example of this high
standard of education, which is the more surprising when
we remember that, so far, no Greek grammars or lexicons
had been published in England, and hardly any texts, and
that there were not more than one or two libraries of any
importance in the country.

Meanwhile, in France, too, there was steady progress
in classical learning, though, except Budeeus, and perhaps
Calvin, she could boast of no distinguished scholar.
Francis I., who loved to imitate all that was Italian and
cultured, established the Eoyal College at Paris (in 1531)
for the study of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and here was
maintained for some years a series of eminent teachers, the
value of whose work was hindered, however, by the
obstinate opposition of the university and of the great
ecclesiastics.

In Germany, during the storm of the Eeformation,
the schools naturally suffered even more than in England,
and they would have been in worse case had it not been
for the care of Melanchthon, who, though the
thon, friend and follower of Luther, was one of the

most distinguished men of learning of his day,
and fully appreciated the desirability of encouraging
classical education as a foundation for reform. He
improved the preparatory schools, or gymnasia^ and per-
suaded the universities to maintain Greek and Latin pro-
fessorships. By the middle of the sixteenth century, in
spite of the distrust of the monks and the fanatical
contempt of some of the Reformers, Germany was on a
j Jevel with Italy as regards general diffusion of learning



Digitized by VjOOQIC



THE EEVIVAL OF LEARNING 67

•
and the number of great scholars, and far above England /
and France.

As for Spain, she remained for a long while the refuge
of the dethroned Scholastic learning and of the barbarous
mediaeval Latin ; but she was too near to Italy for the rays
of the new light not to reach her at last. Until the four-
Humanism teeiith century she possessed no university
in Spain excopt Salamanca, and that in an unsettled
condition. It was the custom, therefore, for young
Spaniards of the higher ranks to seek their education
abroad, and especially at Bologna, where, in 1364, the
college of St. Clement was founded for their especial
benefit. But though in the early years of the fifteenth
century there were in Spain a few isolated scholars in
advance of their time, such as the Marquis of Santillana
(1398-1458), who caused translations to be made of
Virgil, Ovid, Seneca, and other Latin authors, yet the New
Learning made little advance until towards the close of the
century, when, at the resuscitated University of Salamanca,
and the newly established one at Alcaic, lectures
were given by Arias Barbosa, a pupil of Politian,
and by Lebrixa, who, in profundity of scholarship, was
almost the equal of Erasmus and BudaBus. InN
Spain, more than in the rest of Europe, had the
Eevival to contest every step of the way with the pre-
judices of ignorance and superstition. It was strongly
associated in men's minds with the Lutheran heresies,
and mafiy persons whose only fault was scholarship, such
as Sanchez, a great Latin scholar, Luis de Leon, a Hebrew
critic, and Mariana, the historian, were summoned before .
the Inquisition to avow their orthodoxy.

F 2



Digitized by VjOOQlC



68 THE RENAISSANCE



CHAPTER IV
THE BENAI88ANCE IN LITEBATUBE

Section I. — In Italy

We have seen how, in the fourteenth century, the nations
had become possessed by a spirit of unrest, of revolt, of
self-conscious activity. We have also seen how a great
part of this energy was directed towards the re-absorption
of the learning of ancient Greece and Rome. We have
now to consider the new literatures which were produced
by the influence of this regained classic culture upon the
reawakened spirit of national activity. In Italy the
splendid promise of the fourteenth century, when the rest
of Europe was in darkness, followed by the strenuous toil
Weakness ^^ ^^^ fifteenth, gave every hope for great achieve-
of Italian ments in the future. But the promise was not
to be fulfilled. Abundant and brilliant* though
it was, the new literature failed for lack of virile force.
Unless the spirit of a people be great, its literature cannot
be great; and by the end of the fifteenth century the
strength of the nation was sapped. Patriotism was dead,
morality was dead, religion was a burlesque. The new
literature had all the brilliance of premature decay ; it was
wonderfully picturesque ; it was witty, graceful, musical,



Digitized by VjOOQIC



ITALIAN LITERATUEE 69

voluptuous; but it never again touched the spiritual
grandeur of the ' Divine Comedy/ There was no lack of
genius in a generation that produced Ariosto, but the
want of moral earnestness deprived it of all its force ; and
the bulk of the work produced is only of value to us as
showing the source whence the literatures of France,
England, and Spain were derived.

The * Golden Age ' of Italian literature lies between
the time of Lorenzo de' Medici's accession to the dictator-