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 SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

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OD the death of his &ther, who died in 1610, he delitrered his chuich rerenues to hii steward to be expended in acts of housekeeping and hospi- tality ; and employed the annual produce of nis patonal estate in acts of piety, beneficence, and generositr. Having no very near, or poor lelatires, he founded the grammar school of St. Paul's, in London, which he endowed with lands and tenements, for the support of a head master, a second master, or usher, and a chaplain, for the instruction of one hundred and nfty-thiee boys in the Greek and Latin languages; and placed it under the care of the company of mer- ceis; and appointed William Lily to be the head master of the school. His honesty and zeal against the corruptions of the clergy increased he number of his enemies; but, protected by the ^'iSiig, he escaped that degradation and martyr- dom, which with a less powerful patron he would pnbafaly have suffered. About nis fiftieth year, he fimned a resolution to withdraw from active Ufe, and spend the rest of his days in retirement ; bat he was prevented by death : for being seized with the sweating sickness, he retired tu his lodgings in the monastery of the Carthusians, at Shwn, near Richmond, where he died on the 16th of September, 1619. He was bnried in the cathedral church of St. Paul's, with a hnmble monument, that he hod several years beiine prepared, with only this inscription : — " JoANNBS CoLETVs." Such was Colet, a man who, amid the darkness of the age, shone as a light in a benighted land ; and who deserves to be ranked among those who were essentially serviceable in the spread of scriptural knowledge; a honour to his country; and a blessing to posterity.

WiUiam lily, or Lilye, was a celebrated grammarian, and a successful teacher of the kamed lang^ges. His principal work, or at least that by which he is best known is Brevit- «MM IiutUatio, MM ratio jfranimoHcti eogno- tctmdm, Londtm, 1613; commonly called Lily's Liim grammar. The English rudiments of it were written by Dean Colet; the preface by Cardinal Wolsey ; the syntax chiefly by Eras- mus, and the other parts by other hands; so that, although it bears Lily's name, he probably bad not the largest share in the work; and therefore during his life, modestly refused the honour of having it ascribed to him. William Lily was born at Oldham, in Hampshire, about 1466, and studied at Oxford. He travelled to Jerusalem, and on his return visited the isle of Rhodes for the purpose of studying Greek under the learned men wno had fled thither for pro- tection, after the taking of Constantinople. From thence he went to Rome, where he furtiier improved himself in the, Latin and Greek languages. On his return to England, in 1609, he settled in London, and taught grammar, poetry, and rhetoric, with good suc- cess, and IS said to have been the first who taught Greek in that city. Dean Colet ap- pointed him head master of his school, and lor twelve years he continued in that laborious and

useful situation, when he was seized with the plague, of which he died. He left two sons, George and Peter, who were both learned men. The eldest of them published Xhtfirtt exact map that was ever drawn of this island. Mr. Lily had also one daughter named Dionysia, who was married to John Ritwyse, usher, and after- wards successor to him in the mastership of St. Paul's school. Lily died, Feb. 26, 1523.

William Grocyn was born at Bristol, in the year 1442; and received his education first at Winchester, and afterwards at New College, Oxford, of which he was made perpetual fellow in 1467; and in about two years afterwards was presented bv the warden and fellows of that college to the rectory of Newton-Longville, in Buckinghamshire; and became divinity reader of Magdelan College, of the same university. By the low state of learning in England, he was induced to visit Italy, to perfect himself in the Greek and Latin languages. He returned to England in 1491, and took the degree of bachelor of divinity, and was appointed public teacher of Greek at Oxford, ana obtained the friendship of Erasmus, who was then resident in that university ; and in several of his episUes speaks of him in a manner that proves he cherished the most sincere regard for him. He died at Maidstone College, in Kent, of which he was master, in the beginning of the year 1522, aged eighty, of a stroke of the palsy ; and was buried in the choir of the church at Maidstone. To William Lily, the grammarian, his godson, he bequeathed by his will, a legacy of fire ihillingt.

William Latimer was considered by Erasmus, as a man of more than virgin modesty, under whjch was veiled the greatest worth; and as one of the greatest men of that age ; a master of all sacred and profane learning. Leland celebrates also his eloquence, judgment, piety and generosity. Litde is known of this eminent scholar; he was fellow of All Souls College, at Oxford, in the year 1489. Afterwards he tra- velled into Italy, and setded for a time at Padua, where he improved himself, particularly in the Greek tongue. On his return to bis native land he settied at Oxford as a teacher, and had for his pupil Reginald Pole, who was afterwards the celebrated cardinal and archbishop, and by whose interest Latimer obtained the rectories of Saintbury and Weston-under-Edge, in Glouces- tershire, and a prebendary of Salisbury. ■ He died very aged, and was buried at Saintbury.

The following anecdote will serve as a curious specimen of the despotism and simplicity of an age not literary, in discovering the author of a Jibel, and which took place about this period. A great jealously existed between the Londoners and those foreigners who traded to this country. The foreigners probably, observes Mr. Lodge, in his Illuttrationt of English History, worked cheaper, and were more industrious. There was a libel aiffixed on the door of St. Paul's, which reflected on the king and these foreigners, who were accused of buying up the wool witii the

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