Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T02:53:47.228Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Humanistic Interests of the Early Tudor Episcopate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Rosemary Masek
Rosemary Masek
Affiliation:
Miss Masek is associate professor of history in theUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Since H. L. Gray questioned the view that “Italian learning languished” between the death of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, in 1447 and 1488 when John Colet, William Grocyn, and Thomas Linacre visited Italy, several scholars have attempted to show the nature of the new learning fostered in England by such intermediaries as Robert Flemmyng, William Selling, and John Free, among others. Roberto Weiss has investigated more thoroughly than anyone else the interest of these Englishmen in the new learning during that interval. His book brings the narrative to 1485, a time which for him marks the beginning of genuine English humanism.While there is no doubt that Colet, Grocyn, and Linacre were leaders of the avant garde of humanism or that Selling, Flemmying, and Free helped bridge the gap between 1447 and 1488, some less well-known men played an important part in the advance of the new learning.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , March 1970 , pp. 5 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Gray, H. L., “Greek Visitors to England in 1455–6,” in Anniversary Essays by Students of Charles Homer Haskins (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1929), p. 81Google Scholar. Wright, E. C. in “Continuity in English Humanism,” Publications of the Modern Language Association [PMLA], 51 (1936), 370–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar, considered that Gray had not been firm enough in stating his conclusion; she further suggested the need for the kind of monograph which Roberto Weiss later wrote.

2. See Weiss, R., Humanism in England During the Fifteenth Century, 3rd ed. (London: Blackwell, 1967), pp. 5–6, 185Google Scholar, for a survey of recent scholarship. Schirmer's, W. F.Der Englische Frühhumanismus (Leipzig: B. Tauchnitz, 1931; Tubingen: M. Niemeyer, 1963)Google Scholar has been reprinted with a few changes. Thomas More, Thomas Linacre, and John Colet have received the greatest attention: see Gibson, R. W. and Patrick, J. M., St. Thomas More: A Preliminary Bibliography (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961)Google Scholar and Sullivan, Frank, Moreana (Los Angeles: Loyola University, 1964-1968)Google Scholar; O'Malley, C. D., English Medical Humanists: Thomas Linacre and John Caius (Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press, 1965)Google Scholar; Warlick, Roger, Colet and Humanism (unpublished dissertation, Boston University, 1965)Google Scholar, among other recent studies.

3. Very little is known about the educational or family background of the Benedictine monk who became abbot of Westminster in 1469 and bishop of Hereford in 1474. He may have been a member of a diplomatic mission to Louis XI in 1480; he did head a mission to Innocent VIII in May, 1487, at which time William Selling and Bishop John Shirwood were his companions: Emden, A. B., A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959), II, 1282Google Scholar (cited hereafter as BRUO); Pearce, E. H., The Monks of Westminster (Cambridge: University Press, 1916), pp. 28, 152–3Google Scholar; Scofield, Cora L., The Life and Reign of Edward IV (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1923), II, 274Google Scholar. John Leland referred to his knowing Greek, but offered no source for his authority: Commentarii De Scriptoribus Britannicis, ed. Hall, A. (Oxford: E Theatro Sheldoniano, 1709), p. 484.Google Scholar

4. BRUO, I, 499Google Scholar; Keussen, H., Der Matrikel der Universität Köln (Bonn: P. Hanstein, 1928), I, 467Google Scholar; Mitchell, R. J., “English Students at Padua,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 4th Series, 19 (1936), 106Google Scholar; Tiptoft presented Courtenay with a fine copy of Sallust's Bellum Catilinarum and Bellum Jugurthium while Courtenay was still a law student: Weiss, B., “Another Tiptoft Manuscript,” Bodieian Quarterly Record, 8 (1935–1938), 234.Google Scholar

5. BRUO, III, 1593Google Scholar. Rotherham is listed as D. D. in 1460 from Cambridge and 1463 from Oxford in Venn, John, Alumni Cantabrigiensis (Cambridge: University Press, 1922–1944), Pt. I, III, 489.Google Scholar

6. BRUO, III, 1609.Google Scholar

7. BRUO, II, 783.Google Scholar

8. BRUO, II, 1318Google Scholar. For Neville's literary interests, see Weiss, , Humanism in England, 141–8.Google Scholar

9. BRUO, III, 1692Google Scholar; Boase, C. W., Register of the Uninersity of Oxford (Oxford: Oxford Historical Society, 1885), I, 9Google Scholar; Allen, P. S., “Bishop Shirwood of Durham and His Library,” English Historical Review [EHRI], 25 (1910), 445–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10. Boase, , Register of the University of Oxford, I, 36.Google Scholar

11. BRUO, II, 1101Google Scholar; no evidence for his leaving Oxford for Cambridge is given in Wood, A., Athenae Oxoniensis (London: Printed for F. C. and J. Rivington, 1813–1820), II, 688Google Scholar. See also Brown, R. P., “Thomas Langton and His Tradition of Learning,” Transactions of the Antiquarian and Archaeological Society of Cumberland and Westmoreland, 26 (1926), 220Google Scholar; Mitchell, R. J., “English Law Students at the University of Bologna,” EHR, 51 (1936), 275, 286Google Scholar; Mitchell, R. J., “English Students at Padua,” 106.Google Scholar

12. Fowler, Thomas, History of Corpus Christi College (Oxford: Oxford Historical Society, 1893), p. 3Google Scholar. For his study at Louvain in 1479, see de Vocht, Henry, History of the Foundation and Rise of Collegium Trilingue Louvaniense, 1517–1550 (Louvain: Université de Louvain, 1951), I, 174–5Google Scholar. Fox's name is incorrectly given in Wils, Joseph, ed., Matricule de l'université de Louvain (Brussells: E. Reusens, 1903), II, 396.Google Scholar

13. Le Neve, John, Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae (London: Athlone Press, 1962), VI, 109Google Scholar; IX, 3.

14. Mitchell, R. J., “English Students at Ferrara in the XV Century,” Italian Studies, 1 (1937–1938), 77CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mitchell, R. J., “English Law Students at Bologna,” 277–8Google Scholar; Emden, A. B., A Biographical Register of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge: University Press, 1963), p. 430Google Scholar; Le Neve, , Fasti, IV, 25.Google Scholar

15. BRUO, III, 1687Google Scholar; Craster, H. H. E., “Duke Humphrey's Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio,” Times Literary Supplement, 13 05 1920, 303Google Scholar; The Victoria History of the County of Sussex (London: A. Constable and Co., 1907), II, 16–17.Google Scholar

16. Kirby, T. F., Winchester Scholars, (London: H. Frowde, 1888), p. 88.Google Scholar

17. Le Neve, , Fasti, V, 4Google Scholar; IV, 5.

18. Emden, A. B., Biographical Register of the University of Cambridge, 230.Google Scholar

19. Weiss, , Humanism in England, 103.Google Scholar

20. Ibid., 104.

21. BRUO, III, 1687Google Scholar

22. Mynors, R. A. B., ed., Catalogue of the Manuscripts of Ballioi College (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), xlvii–xlviiiGoogle Scholar; Weiss, , Humanism in England, 83–97.Google Scholar

23. Weiss, , Humanism in England, 66–7, 161Google Scholar; Provost Argentine of King's also collected humanistic works. For a discussion of his library, see Rhodes, E. E., “Provost Argentine of King's and His Books,” Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 2 (1956), 205–212.Google Scholar

24. King became bishop of Bath and Wells in 1493; Le Neve, , Fasti, VIII, 3Google Scholar. John Blythe was bishop of Salisbury in 1493 and his brother was consecrated bishop of Coventry and Lichfield in 1503: Le Neve, , Fasti, III, 3Google Scholar; X, 3.

25. Ullman, B. L., “Manuscripts of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester,” EHR, 52 (1937), 670–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Weiss, , Humanism in England, 64–5.Google Scholar

26. BRUO, III, 1666Google Scholar; Weiss, B., “New Light on Humanism in England During the Fifteenth Century,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 14 (1951), 21CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For their correspondence, see Sheppard, J. B., ed., Christ Church Letters (London: Camden Society, New Series, 1877), XIX, 26–7, 45–6Google Scholar. Langton seemed preoccupied with securing a gift of French wine for the monastery and does not mention their mutual interest in learning. An occasional glimpse of Selling's taste in manuscripts is revealed in such catalogs as James, M. R., Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover (Cambridge: University Press, 1903), pp. 174, 307Google Scholar, and James, M. R., Sources of Archbishop Parker's Manuscripts (Cambridge: Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 1899), p. 9.Google Scholar

27. Pantin, W. A., Canterbury College, Oxford (Oxford: Oxford Historical Society, New Series, 1950), VIII, 109Google Scholar; Weiss, , Humanism in England, 157Google Scholar; BEUO, II, 784.Google Scholar

28. Le Neve, , Fasti, I, 81Google Scholar. Grocyn had an interesting conversation with Erasmus on the subject of patronage and gifts of books. When Erasmus wondered why he had not been more amply rewarded for dedicating a work to a certain noted man, Grocyn replied that the patron suspected Erasmus of dedicating the same work to a number of individuals. The conversation is reported in Burrows, M., “Memoir of Grocyn,” Collectanea (Oxford: Oxford Historical Society, 1890), II, 360Google Scholar, n. 1. Plural dedications were not an unusual practice; for example, Linacre dedicated his translation of Galen's De sanitate tuenda to Henxy VIII and gave presentation copies to both Fox and Allen, Wolsey P. S., ed., Letters of Richard Fox, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1929), pp. 5, 107.Google Scholar

29. Fox, , Letters, 64–5.Google Scholar

30. Ibid., 152–6.

31. Opus Epistolarum Des. Erassmi Roterodami, ed. P. S. Allen (Oxford: University Press, 1906), I, 416–7Google Scholar. Erasmus appealed to the bishop by saying that the work, Toxaris, or On Friendship, reminded him that nothing is more Christian than a true and perfect friendship. Consult Garrod, H. W., “Erasmus and His English Patrons,” The Library, 5th Series, 4 (1949–1950), 1–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Erasmus', Epistoae, I, 417–20, 439–40, 449, 512–13, 549–50, 561–2Google Scholar for Warham's patronage.

32. Fox, , Letters, 5–9.Google Scholar

33. Cosenza, M. E., A Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary of the Italian Humanists (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1962–1967), V, 894Google Scholar; Weiss, , Humanism in England, 146–7Google Scholar. Hermonymos was in England in 1475, according to Allen, P. S., “Shirwood's Library,” 449.Google Scholar

34. Cosenza, , Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary, V, 1306Google Scholar. The Palaephati in the title of the work refers to Phasiauinus' teacher at Bologna. Andrea Alciati was one of Phasianinus' pupils; perhaps Nykke was as well.

35. Bolgar, R. R., The Classical Heritage and Its Beneficiaries (Cambridge: University Press, 1954), pp. 262–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Whether one wishes to consider the fourteenth-century discovery of lost works as “recent” is another matter. Bolgar reminds us that the recovery of a few Latin authors did not alter the character of Latin studies significantly. The history of the survival and recovery of classical works is related by Sandys, John E., A History of Classical Scholarship (New York: Hafner Pub. Co., 1958), 617–664Google Scholar; II, 6–34.

36. Allen, , “Shirwood's Library,” 447–56Google Scholar; BRUO, III, 1611Google Scholar; II, 1320.

37. Ker, M. R., “Medieval Manuscripts from Norwich Priory,” Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 1 (1964), 1–28Google Scholar; Oates, J. C. T. and Pink, H. L., “Three Sixteenth Century Catalogues of the University Library,” Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 1 (1952), 310–40Google Scholar; Munbry, A. N. L., “Notes on King's College Library in the Fifteenth Century,” Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 1 (1953), 280–6Google Scholar. Ker dispels the “myth” that Rotherham gave as many as two hundred manuscripts to the library. For a description of works given to Jesus College, see James, M. B., A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge (Cambridge: University Press, 1895), pp. 2–9.Google Scholar

38. BRUO, III, 1610Google Scholar; Grants, etc., from the Crown During the Reign of Edward the Fifth, ed. J. G. Nichols (London: Camden Society, 1854), ixl–lxiii.Google Scholar

39. Liddell, J. R., “The Library of Corpus Christi College,” The Library, 18 (1938), 385–416CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Manuzio, Aldo, Catalogus des livres grecs et latins… (Paris, 1892), p. 11.Google Scholar

40. Macray, W. D., A Register of the Members of Magdalen College, Oxford (London: Henry Frowde, 1894), II, 219.Google Scholar

41. BRUO, I, 76Google Scholar; Coxe, H. O., Catalogus Codicum MSS qui in Collegii Aulisque Oxoniensibus (Oxford: E Typographeo Academico, 1852).Google Scholar

42. BRUO, III, 1610Google Scholar. The work by Junianus Maius (fI. 1475) is incorrectly cited in BRUO. It is significant as the earliest example of a Latin dictionary printed in Italy. De Eyb's Margarita poetica is listed among the humanist works as an example of a commentary on texts by classical authors.

43. BRUO, II, 785Google Scholar; Coxe, H. O., Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of All Souls (Oxford: T. Combe, 1842).Google Scholar

44. Fox, , Letters, Appendix II, 163–66.Google Scholar

45. Rud, T., Codicum manuscriptorum Ecclesiae Cathedralis Dunelmensis (Durham: G. Andrews, 1825), p. 204Google Scholar; James, M. R., A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of St. John's College, (Cambridge: University Press, 1913), MS. 205.Google Scholar

46. BRUO, III, 1990–1.Google Scholar

47. Pace, Richard, The Benefit of a Liberal Education, ed. and trans. Manlay, Frank and Sylvester, Richard S. (New York: Renaissance Society of America, 1967), ix–xiil, 37Google Scholar; BRUO, II, 1102.Google Scholar

48. More, Thomas, The History of King Richard the Third, ed. Sylvester, Richard S. (NewHaven: Yale University Press, 1963), p. 90.Google Scholar

49. Rotuli Parliamentorum (London, 1767–1777), VI, 385, 440, 509.Google Scholar

50. Ward, G. R. M., ed., The Foundation Statutes of Bishop Fox for Corpus Christi College (London: Longman, 1843), pp. 99–100.Google Scholar

51. Ibid., 101. Bishop Fox's interest in the new learning was balanced by a certain conservatism. In 1507, Fox revised the statutes of Balliol College. In this work, he displayed his talent for organizing. The statutes were made more orderly and precise, although the course of study itseif was not changed. As late as June, 1513, Fox in fact planned an institution quite different from the one he did found at Corpus Christi. His agreement with Thomas Silkstede, prior of St. Swithun's convent, provided for the creation of a college in Oxford for monks from that convent. Bishop Hugh Oldham, however, is credited with having persuaded Fox to abandon his plan for a monastic institution. Davis, H. W. C., Balliol College (London: F. E. Robinson and Co., 1899), pp. 66, 67Google Scholar; Salter, H. E., The Oxford Deeds of Balliol College (Oxford: Oxford Historical Society, 1913), pp. 310–14.Google Scholar

52. Opus Epistolarum. … Erasmi, III, 619.Google Scholar

53. de Vocht, , History of the Collegium Trilingue, I, 380, 384, n. 3.Google Scholar

54. Ward, , Statutes of Corpus Christi, 104.Google Scholar

55. Hebrew studies did not get underway in England until the mid-sixteenth century with biblical exegesis based on Rashi's commentaries. See Rosenthal, Erwin, “Rashi and the English Bible,” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 24 (1940), 138–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Claymond himself was probably acquainted oniy with the rudiments of Greek, according to Fowler, , History of Corpus Christi, Additions and Corrections, lii.Google Scholar

56. BRUO, II, 692Google Scholar; Powicke, F. M.Medieval Books of Merton College (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931), pp. 34, 39, 40, 213–15, 217–8, 221–2, 225–30.Google Scholar

57. Liddell, , “Library of Corpus Christi,” 391.Google Scholar

58. Weiss, R., “Unpublished Correspondence of Guarino da Verona,” Italian Studies, 2 (1938–1939), 112, 113.Google Scholar