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 protestantism as well as learning, advising scholars to decide all questions by an appeal to the scriptures alone. In 1530 Nicholas Metcalfe, master of St. John's, George Day, and Cheke were appointed the college proxies to appear })efore the king's commissioners in the matter of the oaths of the succession and supremacy. Baker charges Day and Cheke with ingratitude towards Metcalfe, 'to whom they owed their rise and beginning,' and who was worriwl into abdicating the government of the college in 1587 {Hist. of St, John's, pp. 104, 105 ;, Scholemaster, ed. Mayor, 1863, p. 161). Cheke appears to have been the last 'master of the glomery' in the university (1539-40), the precise duties of which office antiquaries have been unable to ascertain (, Manuscripts, xlix. 26). Among Cheke's pupils at St. John's were William Cecil [q. v.], afterwards Lord Burghley (who in 1541 married Cheke's sister Mary), Roger Ascham [q. v.], and William Bill [q. v.]

He became Greek lecturer of the university and discharged the duties of that office without salary, but on the foundation of the regius professorships in 1640 he was nominated to the Greek chair, with an annual stipend of 40l., and he continued to occupy it till October 1551. In his lectures he went over Sophocles twice, all Homer, all Euripides, and part of Herodotus (, Life of Cheke). At this period Greek was little known in England, and the few scholars who had acquired a knowledge of the language pronounced it in a manner resembling that in vogue nowadays in the continental universities, which Cheke believed to be corrupt. Accordingly he and Thomas (afterwards Sir Thomas) Smith endeavoured to find out the true pronunciation; 'which at length they did, partly by considering the power of the letters themselves, and partly by consulting with Greek authors, Aristophanes and others ; in some whereof they founa footsteps to direct them how the ancient Greeks pronounced' (, Life of Cheke, ed. 1821, p. 14). Cheke publicly taught the new mode of pronunciation, which was not unlike that now adopted in England, and this mode was vehemently opposed by a strong party in the university, who sent a complaint to Gardiner, bishop of Winchester and chancellor of the university. Gardiner on 1 June 1542 issued a solemn decree confirming the old pronunciation. Those who did not obey this decree were, if regents, to be expelled from the senate; if scholars, to lose their scholarships ; and the younger sort were to be chastised (, Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. i. chap. i. Append. No. cxvi.;, Annals of Cambridge, 1. 401-3). Seven letters which passed between Gardiner and Cheke on the subject were given by Cheke to Coelius Secundus Curio, of Basle, who printed them in 1555. Cheke reluctantly submitted to the chancellor's decree, but the new pronunciation of Greek ultimately prevailed in this country (, Treatise of Religion and Learning, p. 92 ;, The English, Dionysian, and Hellenic Pronunciations of Greek, p. 6).

In or about 1544 Cheke was elected public orator of the university. On 10 July in that year Henry VIII summoned him to court and appointed him to succeed Richard Cox, afterwards bishop of Ely, as tutor to Prince Edward. He accordingly left the university and gave up the office of public orator, in which he was succeeded by Ascham, who in his 'Toxophilus' laments the great loss suffered by the university by his friend's withdrawal from it. Sir Antnony Cooke was associated with Cheke in the education of the young prince, who lived chiefly at Hertford. Cheke continued his course of instruction after his pupil's accession to the throne, being 'always at his elbow, both in his closet and in his chapel, and wherever else he went, to inform and teach him' (, Cheke, p. 22). He read to the king Cicero's philosophical works and Aristotle's ethics, and also instructed him in the history, laws, and constitution of England. At his suggestion Edward wrote the journal of public events preserved in the Cottonian Library and printed by Burnet and by Nichols. Occasionally Cheke acted as tutor to the king's sister. Princess Elizabeth. About the time of his appointment as tutor to the prince he was made a canon of King's College (now Christ Church), Oxford, and was incorporated M.A. in that university. From his preferment to a canonry Strype infers that he had been admitted to holy orders, but this is extremely doubtful. When, in 1545, Henry VIII dissolved the new college and converted it into a cathedral, Cheke obtained, as a compensation for the loss of his canonry, an annual pension of 26l. 13s. 4d. In or about 1547 he married Mary, daughter and heiress of Richard Hill, who had been Serjeant of the wine-cellar to Henry VIII (, Survey, ed. Strype, vol. ii. Append, p. 70).

Shortly after the accession of Edward VI, he received considerable grants of lands and lordships which had become vested in the crown by the dissolution of religious houses, colleges, and chantries. Thus he became owner of the house and site of the priory of Spalding, Lincolnshire ; and he acquired by purchase from the king the college of St. John Baptist de Stoke juxta Clare, Suffolk. This latter bargain Strype thinks was 'no