number of Greek manuscripts at Reading: two copies of Gaza's
Grammar, Isocrates _ad Demonicum_ and _ad Nicoclem_, several
commentators on Aristotle's Ethics, Chrysostom on St. Matthew, a
Psalter and the completion of the Corpus Suidas which his
fellow-countryman Emmanuel had begun. In one of his colophons (1494)
he specifies Reading Abbey as his place of abode; for the others he
merely says Reading. Possibly he was in the abbey the whole time; but
even a temporary visit, during which he wrote Gaza and Isocrates, is
an indication that one at least of the monastic houses was not hostile
to the revival of learning.

Not that any doubt is possible on this point, since the researches of
Abbot Gasquet into the life of William Selling, who was Prior of
Christchurch, Canterbury, 1472-95. After entering the monastery,
about 1448, Selling was sent to finish his studies at Canterbury
College, the home of the Benedictines in Oxford.[20] In 1464 he was
allowed to go with a companion, William Hadley, to Italy; where they
spent two or three years over taking degrees in Theology, and heard
lectures at Padua, Bologna, and Rome. Twice in later years Selling
went to Italy again; and he brought back with him to England
manuscripts of Homer and Euripides, and Livy, and Cicero's _de
Republica_. Some of these have survived and are to be found in
Cambridge libraries; others perished in the fire which broke out when
Henry VIII's Visitors came to Canterbury to dissolve Christchurch. But
Selling's interest in learning was not confined to the collection of
manuscripts. A translation of a sermon of Chrysostom made by him in
1488 is extant; and an antiquarian visitor to Canterbury copied into
his note-book 'certain Greek terminations, as taught by Dr. Sellinge
of Christchurch'.

[20] The Canterbury gate of Christ Church, Oxford, still marks its
site. A generation or so later Linacre and More were students there;
both having a connexion with Canterbury.

Another Churchman of this period who was interested in the revival of
learning has recently been revealed to us by his books, John Shirwood,
Bishop of Durham, 1483-93. He was an adherent of Neville whom we
mentioned as the patron of Emmanuel of Constantinople; and having
risen to prosperity as Neville rose, he did not desert his patron when
Fortune's wheel went round. It does not appear that he was educated in
Italy; but for a number of years he was in Rome, as a lawyer engaged
in the Papal cour