In 1524 Croke took his degree of Doctor of Divinity, and in that year Henry the Eighth, who had heard honourable mention of him, engaged him as tutor to the young Duke of Richmond. Being thus brought under Henry's immediate notice, Croke rose rapidly in royal favour, and was soon employed by the king in matters of the highest responsibility and importance. The

aliis ut discerent permiserunt. He then urges the necessity of Greek studies for the theologian, and seems to have no respect for the Vulgate above the original.

"Turpe sanè erit, cum mercator sermonem Gallicum, Illyricum, Hispanicum, Germanicum, vel solius lucri causa avide ediscat, vos studiosos Græcum in manus vobis traditum rejicere, quo et divitiæ et eloquentia et sapientia comparari possunt. Imo perpendite rogo viri Cantabrigienses, quo nunc in loco vestra res sitæ sunt. Oxonienses quos ante hæc in omni scientiarum genere vicistis, ad literas Græcas perfugere, vigilant, jejunant, sudant et algent ; nihil non faciunt ut eas occupent. Quod si contingat, actum est de fama vestra. Erigent enim de vobis tropæum nunquam succumbuturi. Habent duces præter cardinalem Cantuariensem, Wintoniensem, cæteros omnes Angliæ episcopos, excepto uno Roffensi, summo semper fautore vestro, et Eliensi, etc.

"Favet præterea ipsis sancta Grocini et theologo digna severitas, Linacri Toλvμaðeia et acre judicium, Tunstali non legibus magis quam utrique linguæ familiaris facundia, Stopleii triplex lingua, Mori candida et eloquentissima urbanitas, Pacei mores doctrina et ingenium, ab ipso Erasmo, optimo eruditionis censore, commendati; quem vos olim habuistis Græcarum literarum professorem, utinamque potuissetis retinere. Succedo in Erasmi locum ego, bone Deus, quam infra illum, et doctrinâ et famâ, quanquam me, ne omnino nihili fiam, principes viri, theologici doctores, jurium etiam et medicinæ, artium præterea professores innumeri, et præceptorem agnovere, et quod plus est, a scholis ad ædes, ab ædibus ad scholas honorificentissime comitati perduxere. Dii me perdant, viri Cantabrigienses, si ipsi Oxonienses stipendio multorum nobilium præter victum me non invitavere. Sed ego pro mea in hanc academiam et fide et observantia, etc.

"In his second oration, Croke exhorts the Cantabrigians not to give up the study of Greek. Si quisquam omnium sit qui vestræ reipublicæ bene consulere debeat, is ego sum, viri Cantabrigienses. Optime enim vobis esse cupio, et id nisi facerem, essem profecto longe ingratissimus. Ubi enim jacta literarum mearum fundamenta, quibus tantum tum apud nostrates, tum vero apud exteros quoque principes, favoris mihi comparatum est; quibus ea fortuna, ut licet jam olim consanguineorum iniquitate paterna hæreditate sim spoliatus, ita tamen adhuc vivam, ut quibusvis meorum majorum imaginibus videar non indignus. He was probably of the ancient family of Croke. Peter Mosellanus calls him, in a letter among those of Erasmus, juvenis cum imaginibus.

"Audio ego plerosque vos a literis Græcis dehortatos esse. Sed vos diligenter expendite, qui sint, et plane non alios fore comperitis, quam qui igitur linguam oderunt Græcam, quia Romanam non norunt. Cæterum jam deprehendo quid facturi sint, qui nostras literas odio prosequuntur, confugiunt videlicet ad religionem, cui uni dicent omnia postponenda. Sentio ego cum illis, sed unde quæso orta religio, nisi è Græcia ? quid enim novum testamentum, excepto Matthæo? quid enim vetus? nunquid Deo auspice a Septuaginta Græce reditum? Oxonia est colonia vestra; uti olim non sine summa laude a Cantabrigia deducta, ita non sine summo vestro nunc dedecore, si doctrina ab ipsis vos vinci patiamini. Fuerunt olim illi discipuli vestri, nunc erunt præceptores? Utinam quo animo hæc a me dicta sunt, eo vos dicta interpretemini ; crederetisque, quod est verissimum, si quoslibet alios, certe Cantabrigienses minime decere literarum Græcarum esse desertores."-Hallam.

question about the king's divorce from Queen Catherine was then in agitation, and Croke's ability, and also his reputation abroad, induced Henry to send him to the Italian universities to obtain opinions from them in favour of the divorce.

On Croke's return to England he received an earnest invitation from the University of Oxford to settle there as teacher of Greek. Croke went accordingly to Oxford in 1532, and that University was the fourth that was indebted to him for first diffusing generally among its students a knowledge of the Greek language. Croke was made by King Henry one of the twelve canons on Cardinal Wolsey's foundation at Oxford, and afterwards removed to Exeter College in that university. He died in London in 1558. Some of Croke's works were reprinted and published at Leipsic during the last century, with an introduction by Boemius, in which honourable mention is made of their author as the reviver of Greek literature. Croke's letter from Italy to Henry the Eighth on the subject of the divorce may be seen in Burnet's History of the Reformation, where there is also a full account of Croke's mission. (Chalmers' Biog. Dict.-Hallam's Hist. of Literature.)

ROBERT ALDRICH.

ROBERT ALDRICH, born at Burnham in Buckinghamshire, was an Eton boy during the first years of this century, and became a scholar of King's in 1507. He returned to Eton as Headmaster in 1515, and held that office till 1520. In 1531 he was made Archdeacon of Colchester; in 1534 Canon of Windsor and Registrar of the Garter. In 1535 he succeeded Dr. Lupton as Provost of Eton, and presided over our College till 1547, when he resigned the provostship. Two years after he was made Provost, he had been made Bishop of Carlisle; he died at Horncastle, in Lincolnshire, on the 5th of March, 1555.

Aldrich, like Croke, was a zealous promoter of the revival of classical learning in England; and, like Croke, he was in his youth a personal friend of Erasmus. While that learned foreigner was at Cambridge, Aldrich was his constant assistant in the task of collating manuscripts, and in abridging the contents of many of the old literary treasures which they discovered. In after life he was Erasmus's correspondent, who seems to have retained a high

esteem and affection for him, and, in writing to others, describes him as "blandæ eloquentiæ juvenem." Leland, the antiquarian, was another familiar friend of Aldrich's, and has written his panegyric in the "Illustrium Virorum Encomia."

Aldrich's reputation at the university is also proved by the fact, that in 1523 he was one of the Cambridge preachers, who at that time were sent out by the university to preach in different parts of England, and dispense sound doctrine, as the Judges are sent out on circuit to dispense sound law.

With an ample share in the ardour for classical studies which then prevailed in Europe, and with an unusual share of classical learning, Aldrich seems also to have participated in that peculiar taste for abusive controversy in which learned men of all ages and nations have so copiously indulged. His first writings were directed against Robert Whittington, a grammarian of the time, whom, according to approved custom, he scolded with all the offensive stores of the Latin language. Aldrich's command of Latin was ready, and his style strictly classical. There are some other works of his in that tongue, which he wrote when he became Registrar of the Order of the Garter. He then abridged and translated into Latin the "Registrum Chartaceum," which his predecessor had written in French. Aldrich added in the same language an account of the institution of the order, and he continued its Fasti till the time when he became Bishop of Carlisle. These treatises were printed and published during the last century. Some antiquarian critics have called in question the accuracy of Aldrich's facts, but all have concurred in admiring his Latinity. (Chalmers' Biog. Dict.-Biog. Dict. of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.)

The name of JOHN ANDREWS occurs in the list of the students who left Eton for King's in 1511; and there is an account affixed to his name in the Registrum Regale, which attracts notice, though by no means of a favourable nature. It reminds us that, on arriving at that year of our college annals, we have approached the period when the abuse which roused Luther's ire, and became the immediate cause of the Reformation, was at its height in Europe. The harbour and the works that protected the shore of Boston, in Lincolnshire, fell into great decay in the early part of this century. The persons who undertook the repairs procured from the Pope a grant of indulgence of absolution from sins for all who should aid

in this work of charitable utility and necessity. So far this case of abuse of papal power does not sound like a remarkably gross one; but, unfortunately, the documents which were the vouchers of papal absolution were looked on as a sort of negotiable instruments and marketable commodities. Andrews bought them up, and then retailed them at an advanced price: a speculation by which he is said to have realised an immense fortune.

A purer name, and more pleasing to record, is that of NICHOLAS HAWKINS, who left Eton for King's in 1514. Dr. Hawkins was Archbishop of Ely, and was employed abroad on state affairs as an ambassador in 1534, when, during his absence from this country, he was nominated Bishop of Ely. He died as he was returning to England to take possession of his see, and was by some supposed to have been poisoned. It is recorded of this good man that, during the time when he was Archdeacon of Ely, there was a grievous famine in the Isle of Ely and its neighbourhood; and that he caused all his plate and all his valuable goods to be sold, in order to buy food for his poor neighbours; and that, instead of the customary state in which he had been living, he was served on wooden dishes and earthen pots, restricting himself to the most cheap and spare diet, and to the least possibly costly apparel. (Registrum Regale.-Harwood's Alumni Etonenses.)

EDWARD HALL, whom some call the Chronicler, and some the Historian, was next to Hawkins in the school at Eton, and was afterwards his contemporary at King's. Hall, after leaving Cambridge, applied himself to the study of the common law, at Gray's Inn, by which society he was called to the bar. He was appointed Common Serjeant of the city of London, and a Judge in the Sheriff's Court. He died in 1547.

Hall's historical work was entitled by its author "The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke." It was dedicated to King Edward the Sixth. It commences with the reign of Henry the Fourth, and was completed by its author only as far as the twenty-fourth year of Henry the Eighth. Hall had left papers and notes for the remainder of his work, which he intended to bring down as far as the end of that king's reign. These were compiled and arranged by Grafton, who published the whole work. Opinions differ as to Hall's value as an historian, so far as regards the important points of care and accuracy. It is a great misfortune, especially so far as regards the earlier part of

his works, that he does not quote by name the authorities from whom he drew his materials. He frequently mentions the conflict of preceding writers, but does not specify who they were, or how far they were contemporaneous with the events which they recorded. He strives hard to rise above the meagre creeping gait of the old chroniclers, and the effects of a classic education are continually visible in his work. Stow says of him that he "writ in a lusty and flourishing style." But his efforts at fine writing

are by no means happy, and his most elaborate passages consist of harsh and ungainly imitations of Latin. The exordium of his history may serve as a specimen.

"What mis-chief hath insurged in realmes by intestine division, what depopulacion hath ensued in countries by civil dis-censions, what detestable murder hath been committed in citees by separate faccions, and what calamitee hath ensued in famous regions by domestical discords and unnatural controversy, Rome hath felt, Italy can testify, Fraunce can bear witness, Beame (Bohemia) can tell, Scotlande may write, Denmark can shewe, and especially this noble realme of Englande can apparently declare and make demonstration."

His character of our royal founder is a much more favourable sample of Hall's style, and deserves quotation for the sake of its subject matter.

"Kyng Henry was of stature goodly, of body slender, to which proportion all other members were correspondent: his face beautifull, in the which continually was resident the bountie of mynde with which he was inwardly endued. He did abhorre of his own nature all the vices as well of the bodye as of the sowle; and from his verie infancie he was of honest convers-ation and pure integritie; no knower of evill, and a keper of all goodness; a despiser of all thinges which be wonte to cause the myndes of mortal menne to slide, fall or appaire [grow degenerate]. Beside this pacience was so radicate in his harte, that of all the injuries to him committed (which were no small nombre) he never asked vengeance nor punishement; but for that, rendered to Almightie God his creator hartie thanks, thinking that by this trouble and adversitie his synnes were to him forgotten and forgiuen. What shall I saie that this good, this gentle, this meke, this sober and wise man did declare and affirme that those mis-chefes and miseries partly came to hym for his owne offence, and partly for