Dean Colet. treasure-house of this book, that he might know the right method of reading these Epistles. My good friend,' said Colet, 'I will do as you wish. Open your book, and we will see how many and how golden truths we may gather from one chapter only of the Epistle to the Romans.' The priest took notes of Colet's exposition, rejoicing his kind instructor's heart as well as his own. In 1497 the learned and enlightened Erasmus came to England, to study in the new school for Greek at Oxford; and becoming acquainted with Prior Charnock, they went together to hear Colet's lectures. The latter gave a friendly welcome to the Dutch stranger, who warmly accepted it, and they became firm friends for life. Both Colet and Erasmus laboured successfully to bring about a certain degree of reformation in religion. They both did much towards setting aside the cumbrous mass of questions raised by the Schoolmen,' and desired men to keep firmly to the Bible and the Creed, and to 'let divines, if they pleased, dispute about the rest.' Colet also disapproved imageworship, opposed the celibacy of the clergy, and exposed the abuses of the religious houses. Erasmus greatly benefited by his friend's counsels, and acted on his opinion in after years. 6 Colet is described as a tall, graceful, comely, well-bred man;' and in 1497 Erasmus said, in one of his letters, that his friend Colet spoke like one inspired: in his eye, his voice, his whole countenance and mien, he seemed raised as it were out of himself.' He spoke of Colet presiding at the table of a College Hall, and declared, that with two such friends as Colet and Charnock I would not refuse to live even in Scythia.' Erasmus said, 'I have found here so much polish and learning-not shallow learning, but profound and exact, both in Latin and Greek-that now I do not so much care to go to Italy. When I listen to my friend Colet, it seems to me like listening to Plato himself.' In 1499 both More and Erasmus left Oxford, to Colet's great regret. He had implored Erasmus to remain and help him to do battle against the subtleties with which the Schoolmen had loaded and corrupted true religion. Erasmus declared, that when he had gained sufficient knowledge and firmness he would join him in the combat, which promise he afterwards amply fulfilled. Colet continued his course of lecturing on the Scriptures, and convinced many. Tyndale, then a young student, gained from them that knowledge which afterwards led to his translation of the Bible into English. In 1505, Henry VII. appointed Colet to the Deanery of St. Paul's, without any application on his own part, and he had now taken the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Having resigned the great suburban living of Stepney, the Dean set himself to fulfil with diligence his new duties, and he soon infused a new spirit into the deanery. He began by giving on Sundays, and other festivals, a course of sermons on the life of our Lord, as a continuous history, and also gained the aid of other preachers, like-minded with himself, and in a short time St. Paul's became the centre of religious teaching in London. When the Dean himself preached, he taught the doctrines of Scripture in a clear and plain manner, and yet with an ability, force, and fervour, that moved the hearts, not only of the citizens, but of the learned and 'The King sent for and conversed long with the Dean in the garden of the monastery at Greenwich.' COLET AND HENRY VIII. Dean Colet. intellectual. Sir Thomas More said, ' The day on which I do not hear Colet preach is a void in my life;' and once when the Dean was in the country More wrote, The city, with all its vices and follies, has far more need of your skill than country-folk. There sometimes come into your pulpit at St. Paul's who promise well to heal the diseases of the people; but though they preach plausibly enough, their lives are so far from their words that they stir up men's wounds rather than heal them. But your fellow-citizens have confidence in you, and long for your return.' And now the revival of heathen learning and the spirit of free inquiry, or rather a wicked abuse of them, had, unhappily, led men to scepticism and infidelity, and the court of Rome had become heathenish in spirit, while devoted to classical learning, art, and science. At this critical time, twenty years after his first intercourse with Colet, the now celebrated Erasmus carried out still more his friend's lessons by the publication of a Greek and Latin version of the New Testament, exhorting Christians to meet the infidel philosophers by a reverent and critical examination of the Scriptures, casting aside the fantastic interpretations of the Schoolmen. ( In 1509, Colet having inherited the large fortune of his father, founded with it St. Paul's Free School, in the Cathedral yard, endowing it with about 35,000l. of our present money, for 153 boys, who were to be lucated in the reformed religion of Christ which he taught. Mobject,' he said, 'in this school, is to increase knowledge and the worshing of God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and good Christian life and m ners in the children.' The school was dedicated to the Child Jesus,, ose image stood above the master's chair, with the inscription, 'Hear Him.' The boys were also to be educated in the restored classics learning, to have an accurate knowledge of Latin and Greek; the corrupt monkish Latin' was never to be heard among them. Milman has remarked that the Dean drew up the statutes of the school with great wisdom and forethought, and he was careful as to the manuals that were to be used, and as to the masters that were to be appointed. For his head-master he chose Lilly, the celebrated grammarian. Colet wrote for the scholars a Latin Grammar, requesting them in the preface to remember him in their prayers. He bequeathed the school to the Mercers' Company, who still retain the trust. Thus did this good man complete his grand foundation, which ought ever to endear his memory to Englishmen, and especially to the inhabitants of the city of London. Fitzjames, however, the Bishop of London, who disliked the Dean for his superior virtues and his censures of evil, denounced the Dean's new school, whereon the latter wrote thus to Erasmus: 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 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.' Fitzjames was then cruelly persecuting the Lollards (Wycliffe's followers) as heretics, and had had two of them burnt at Smithfield. Many more of such horrors must have been committed; for a friend Dean Colet. wrote to Erasmus, 'I do not wonder that wood is so scarce and dear, the heretics cause so many holocausts.' Fitzjames desired to convict Colet, declaring that Lollards being known to attend his sermons, it was a proof that he favoured their tenets. Bishop Latimer stated in one of his sermons, that Colet would have been burnt if God had not turned the king's heart in his favour. In 1512, a Convocation was summoned for the extirpation of heresy, and the Archbishop of Canterbury appointed the Dean of St Paul's to preach before the assembled clergy, including his enemy Fitzjames. Colet chose for his text, Be not conformed to this world,' declaring that these words were chiefly applicable to ecclesiastics, whom he boldly rebuked for the evil practices to which so many were in those days addicted, and among other things denounced their luxury, their pomp, their hounds and hawks, their simony, and their anxiety for preferment. In hearing this sermon, how many,' says Milman, hated themselves, how many hated the preacher?" Henry VIII., who was now on the throne, had become intent upon war with France. On Good Friday (1515), the Dean, who was one of the king's chaplains, preached before him in the royal chapel at Greenwich, and after alluding to the warfare that Christians are bound to wage under Christ's banner, against sin, the world, and the devil,' he declared that when men fight from hatred or ambition they fight under the banner of Satan. He inquired how men could s'd each other's blood, and yet have the brotherly love enjoined by the Lord? Follow,' he said, the example of Christ, and not of Cysar and Alexander.' Colet's enemies expected that this sermon would be his in, and exulted accordingly. The King sent for and conversed lo with the Dean in the garden of the monastery at Greenwich, and hav, in his youth, a noble, generous spirit, Henry was far from being offended at the Dean's faithful admonitions, and earnestly consulted him for the relief of his mind; urging, however, that the war which he contemplated was a just one. Whether his arguments convinced Colet or not is unknown; but certain it is, that when the courtiers were recalled, they saw the King embrace Colet, and heard him say, 'Let every man have his own doctor; this man is the doctor for me.' The war party prevailed in England; the country was astir with soldiers; robbery and violence were common events. Erasmus determined to seek for quiet and peace in Holland; but before departing he visited his friend Colet, and they also took a journey together, and at Canterbury visited the shrine of St. Thomas à Becket; but Colet ridiculed the excessive veneration paid to his relics. As they came from the cathedral, an old friar offered them a piece of St Thomas's shoe to kiss. What,' said Colet, turning to Erasmus, 'do these simpletons wish us to kiss the shocs of all good men ?' 6 The Dean continued his preaching at St. Paul's Cathedral. At that time people met there to transact business, and the nave was placarded with advertisements. Masses were at the same time celebrated in the chapels and aisles before altars of the Madonna and the saints; but amid all the conflicting sounds, Colet's voice was raised to preach the Gospel of Salvation, and to denounce worldliness and superstition. The Boy on the Gate. At the deanery Colet practised great hospitality, and as Erasmus said, 'sent away his guests better than they came.' He also gathered round him a circle of more intimate friends, with whom he would converse till midnight, generally on religious subjects, and often on the topics uppermost in his mind, which were 'the wonderful majesty of Christ, and the profound wisdom of His teaching.' Dean Colet's last sermon was preached at Westminster Abbey, September 1515, at the installation of Wolsey, before the new Lord Cardinal and all the great men of the land, and he cautioned them earnestly and solemnly against pride of spirit. But though still energetic, Colet was now yearning for rest. He had suffered from that strange epidemic of former times, the sweating sickness,' probably a species of ague, and he prepared to retire to a well-ordered monastery at Sheen, where religion dwelt without a too rigid monasticism.' He wrote to Erasmus, Fitzjames of London never ceases to harass me. Every day I look forward to my retirement and retreat to the Carthusians. When you come back to us, as far as I can conjecture, you will find me there, dead to the world.' But a better rest was now prepared for Colet. His epidemic returned the same year, and ended his life upon earth at the age of fifty-three. John Colet ought to be remembered in England as one of those men whose enlightened wisdom and fearless assertion of truth led to the reformation of the National Church, and whose energy and munificence gave great and lasting aid to the national education. C. E. M. The Boy on the Gate. THE rosy-cheeked urchin that swings on the gate Is a right merry monarch in all but estate: But treasure brings trouble-what title is free? Thus better without one, thus happy is he; For the ring of his laugh is a mirthmoving strain, Which a choir of young creatures respond to again. The birds are all singing, each heart is elate With the rosy-cheeked urchin that hangs on the gate. The rosy-cheeked urchin that swings on the gate Hath Nature's own pages upon him to wait; His joyous companions-a cherubim crew, With posies of daisies and buttercups too. He boasts not of jewels on forehead or breast; But his heart is all gladness-his mind is at rest. Ah what are the honours, the glories of state, To the rosy-checked urchin that hangs on the gate? The rosy-cheeked urchin that swings on the gate Waves proudly on high his satchel and slate; The sky is all brightness--the fields are all gay; Green branches are waving-the lambs are at play: And where is the bosom that pines not to be Thus bathed in the sunlight as happy For the heart's purest pleasures we |