DR. JOHN COLET, DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S IN THE REIGNS OF HENRY VII. AND HENRY VII. AND FOUNDER OF ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL, LONDON. *

THIS remarkable person was the only surviving child of 11 sons and 11 daughters, and heir of Sir Henry Colet, Knt. His father arrived at considerable wealth and civic honour as a London mercer; being senior sheriff of that city in 1477, 17 Edward IV; and Mayor of London in 1486, and 1495. During his first mayoralty the houses of Lancaster and York were united by the marriage of King Henry and the lady Elizabeth, and Prince Arthur was born.

John Colet was born in 1466, in the parish of St. Anthony (or Antholin's), London, and was there educated in the same school with Sir Thomas More ; and in which Archbishops Heath and Whitgift were afterwards educated. His mother, living to her 90th year, survived both her husband, and only sur

*Life of Dr. John Colet, by Samuel Knight, D.D. A new edition. Clarendon press, Oxford, 1833.-Carlisle's Endowed Grammar Schools.

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viving child, in the house at Stepney, bequeathed by the Dean to the master of his School of St. Paul, for residence in times of plague, or other epidemical sickness.

About 1483, J. Colet removed to St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with great distinction as to Latin and Mathematical proficiency; for Greek was scarcely known, and to teach it was to be suspected of heresy. In the revival of that, and of true grammatical learning, Colet and his intimate friend Erasmus, were destined to bear a distinguished and beneficial part. Erasmus first taught the Greek Grammar in Cambridge, having himself learnt it, after his arrival in England, from our countryman Linacer; who, and William Grocyne, were the only two tutors who were able to teach it; such a cloud of ignorance hung over our Universities, in the times immediately preceding the Reformation. Grocyne learnt Greek from Cornelius Vitellius, an Italian, who first taught Greek in the University of Oxford. Greek literature, the knowledge of the original language of the New Testament, was just revived in Italy by the learned Greeks, who fled thither after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. John Reuchlin (or Capnion, born in 1454, who was the precursor, and has been called the Father of the German Reformation, the tutor of Erasmus, Luther, and Melancthon,) was the cautious, but successful, reviver of Greek learning in Germany. Nothing more contributed to unveil the Scriptures, to promote Biblical knowledge, and to expose the errors of the Latin Fathers and Schoolmen; which some among us would, unhappily, revive and propagate!" The first Englishman who in any public school taught the Greek as well as the Latin, was Master William Lilly [the well-known Latin grammarian], first Master of St. Paul's School; the good founder whereof, Dean Colet, seeing the necessity of having a tolerable share of the Greek tongues towards the better proceeding in his theological studies, did shun no pains, nor thought himself too old to learn it, at the age of fifty, as appears" from an epistle to Erasmus, dated 13 Oct., 1516.

*

Colet was ordained Deacon and Priest in 1497; but, while holding the lower orders of Acolyth and sub-deacon, he held several preferments, St. Mary Denyngton, in Suffolk; Prebend of Botevant, in the Church of York, and several others in succession. So irregular and indecent was the administration of preferment in the times preceding the Reformation, and which had so long produced a cry for reformation "in the head and the members." He travelled in France and Italy; and then returning to Oxford, read public lectures on the Epistles of St. Paul; an example followed at Cambridge, by Dr. Warner, the friend of the martyr Bilney, and by George Stafford. On the arrival of Erasmus at Oxford, Colet introduced himself to him, in an elegant letter, which, as well as the answer, are still

extant.

He proceeded to the degree of D.D. in 1504; "a degree very becoming one who had such preferments as he then enjoyed; and greater he was designed for; though his thoughts were so much engaged, that he could hardly attend to anything else but the destruction of that idol of ignorance, the cobweb divinity of the schools, and to exalt the Scriptures and Jesus Christ in their room; which was all the honour he sought." "Those scholastical divines, on both sides of the Church of Rome, had made themselves the

* See his life by F. Barham, Esq. 1843. Whitaker and Co.

pillars and the buttresses of it; and when they were pulled away, the mighty fabric could but appear weak and ready to fall." In this, and in exposing the abuses of monasteries, the evils of celibacy, and the worship of images, Colet and Erasmus were powerful instruments in preparing the reformation. Notwithstanding Colet's consequent unpopularity with the generality of Churchmen, and his entire want of ambition, except to do good, without any step on his part he was made Dean of St. Paul's in 1505. He restored the discipline of the Church, and introduced, what was a new practice then, preaching on Sunday and all solemn festivals; an example followed by others, as Dr. Collingwood, "the first and only preacher of all the deans" of Lichfield. Dean Colet also established divinity lectures on Scripture by Grocyne, and others. Till this time "there was scarce so much as a Latin Testament in any Cathedral in England. Instead of the Gospel of Christ, there was the Gospel of Nicodemus, forsooth, affixed to a pillar in the Nave of the Church, as Erasmus says, and admired at it, in the Metropolitical Church of Canterbury."

Colet went on boldly detecting the enormous corruptions of the Roman faith and worship; and gathered up several authorities from the ancient fathers agains them. The Bishop of London, Dr. Fitz-James, at length accused him to the Archbishop as a dangerous man; and drew up articles against him. But Archbishop Warham, who knew the integrity and worth of Dean Colet, defended him; and dismissed him without giving him the trouble of a formal answer. His biographer, Dr. S. Knight, gives a full account of his troubles and persecutions, which we have not space to relate; but observes that they "made him still more devout and charitable; weaning him from the world, and bringing him in mind and soul much nearer unto Heaven."

Desirous ofestablishing an effective reformation in regard to the education of youth, and of carrying out the principles he had so long espoused, he determined to found the School of St. Paul, on the east side of that Cathedral, a plate of which noble and useful foundation is hereto prefixed. In thirty years before the Reformation more Grammar Schools were founded than in the preceding 300 years; of which Dr. Knight specifies fifteen before that of Dean Colet, which he projected about 1508, the last year of Henry VII. And after the Reformation, "the piety and charity of protestants ran so fast in this channel, that there wanted rather a regulation of Grammar Schools, than an increase of them." They were powerfully assistant in the revival of "sound learning, and religious education. Their improvement now in the same particulars, and the adequate supply of middle Commercial Schools, and Schools for the poor, is one of the great objects to be now aimed at, in proportion to our present population, as the only means of making" wisdom and knowledge the stability of our times, and strength of salvation.”

When the front of the edifice, near the Church of St. Paul, was finished, it bore the inscription, Schola Catechizationis puerorum in Christi Op. Max. fide et bonis literis, Anno Christi 1510. Let every School now erected be for the instruction of youth "in the faith of Christ, and good learning," or as the Dean expresses it in his detailed scheme, "to increase knowledge, and worshipping of God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and good christian life and manners in the children."

Jealous of the abuses to which previous foundations had been subject, the Dean constituted as "Patrones and Defenders, Governors and Rulers of

that same School, the most honest and faithful Fellowshipe of the Mercers in London, to which his father belonged. He provided therein for 153 boys, "children of all nations and countries indifferently," who "canne saye the Catechyzon, and rede and write competently." The entire document, drawn up in 1518, is given in Carlisle's Endowed Grammar Schools, Vol. II. p. 71–80. He empowered the Fellowship of the Mercers to elect the Master, "with advise and counsell of well literatur and learned men”—“ certifying him that this is no room of continuance and perpetuite, but upon his dewtie in the School." He wisely directs them to interpret and adjust the statutes from time to time; and ever since, even to this day, has his foundation been the seminary of men famous in their day, and probably of multitudes, who have been useful in the less observable duties of life. The original School was destroyed by the great fire of 1666, and rebuilt, with a Library, through the exertions of the Mercers' company in 1670.

As the love of retirement grew upon the Dean, soon after the foundation of this School "in the Honour of Christe Jesu in pueritia, and of his Blessid modir Marie," he built a house near Richmond, in Surrey, for his future residence. But being twice seized with the sweating sickness, and relapsing into it the third time, a consumption ensued, which proved fatal Sep. 16, 1519, in the 53d year of his age. He was buried in the choir of his Cathedral. The company of Mercers erected a monument, which was destroyed with the Cathedral in 1666, but of which a representation is preserved in Dugdale's history of St. Paul's, and Knight's Life of the Dean.

The wings of the building contain houses for the masters.—It is to the honour of the school, that the principal Grammars for Latin and Greek, so long used in the kingdom, and scarcely yet superseded, were the works of Colet and Lilly, the founder and first master, and of Camden, one of its scholars, the compiler of what is commonly called the Westminister Greek Grammar.

We have no published writings extant of the Dean, except the Sermon before the convocation in 1511, a powerful expostulation on the then corruptions of the Church, and a few letters. These are found in the Appendix to Dr. Knight's work.

LAY OF THE CHURCH.

THE risen Lord, the Christ, hath upward gone,
To reign, still God with God,-the Plural One!
And He, Third Person of the wondrous Three,
Hath downward pass'd, as once o'er Chaos' sea,
To mould the new-born heart to purpose high;
And guide the Twelve beneath the Saviour's eye.—
The Father's Son but recently had stood
On earth reveal'd, and cloth'd in flesh and blood :
A human soul and powers assumed within,-
Thus Man was there, but one that knew no sin.
Not self-commission'd God's High-priest to be,
He waits from heav'n the words of Deity.

Jehovah's spirit-on Jehovah shed,
Jehovah hails the consecrated head!

And hear the God-man's voice: "The price was paid When down on Calv'ry's cross my life was laid! Henceforth all pow'r in heav'n and earth is mine That pow'r be yours: go forth th' Anointed line! Yea, as my Father me, so send I you; Preach to all souls that live, baptize them too : Yours be the Gospel-keys, to bind, to loose; Whose sins ye blot, the same shall angels choose— Whose sins ye fix, the same shall angels shun ;I'm with you still till nature's course be run," He said, and straight ascending in their sight, He took to God's right-hand his glorious flight.

And have they heard the whole? nought need they ask Of counsel more, to execute their task?

Aye, much remains-they yet want hearts to hear;
New aids they need to strengthen and to cheer.
Willing they stand, but weak, and fear to err—
Till comes their promised Guide, the Comforter,
He that the Father's and the Son's behest
Alike performs, He brings in time the rest!
They in the city of Messiah's tomb

Wait for His gifts, and muse on deeds to come;
With sorrow see the Traitor's vacant chair,

Elect Matthias, and that breach repair.

?

List-list the rushing sound! all's calm without; What storms within ?-should friends expect the shout Of him th' ascended Lord, hastening amain T'avenge, with warrior-angels in his train? Retreads he then so soon that humble floor, Where sit the friendless few, the expectant poor Or is it now the whirlwind walks abroad, Whose wrath but bodes the "still small voice"-and God? He glides the Spirit glides that roof beneath; And awe-struck souls are kindled at his breath! See, cloven tongues, like lambent meteors play; Whence flames exhale some intellectual ray !— Untaught till now, with more than learning wise— Late weak, with God-like powers at once they rise; Wonders and signs 'mid Zion's courts they show ; Thence to all climes the sainted pilgrims go! Still with one strict accord they speak, they act; With pen inspired record each glorious fact; Since He, the God of peace, stands watchful by, And curbs their ev'ry thought-to Unity!

INCOG.