the
name. The cardinal founded in Oxford the first chair for teaching Greek;
and this novelty rent that university into violent factions, which
frequently came to blows. The students divided themselves into parties,
which bore the names of Greeks and Trojans, and sometimes fought with
as great animosity as was formerly exercised by those hostile nations.
A new and more correct method of pronouncing Greek being introduced, it
also divided the Grecians themselves into parties; and it was remarked
that the Catholics favored the former pronunciation, the Protestants
gave countenance to the new. Gardiner employed the authority of the king
and council to suppress innovations in this particular, and to preserve
the corrupt sound of the Greek alphabet. So little liberty was then
allowed of any kind!

* 21 Henry VIII. c. 12. 25 Henry VIII. c. 18. 3 and 4 Edward
VI. c. 20. 5 and 6 Edward VI. c. 24.

** 3 and 4 Edward VI. c. 20.

*** Strype, vol. i. p. 117.

The penalties inflicted upon the new pronunciation were no less than
whipping, degradation, and expulsion; and the bishop declared, that
rather than permit the liberty of innovating in the pronunciation of
the Greek alphabet, it were better that the language itself were totally
banished the universities. The introduction of the Greek language into
Oxford excited the emulation of Cambridge.[*] Wolsey intended to have
enriched the library of his college at Oxford with copies of all the
manuscripts that were in the Vatican.[**] The countenance given to
letters by this king and his ministers contributed to render learning
fashionable in England: Erasmus speaks with great satisfaction of the
general regard paid by the nobility and gentry to men of knowledge.[***]
It is needless to be particular in mentioning the writers of this reign
or of the preceding. There is no man of that age who has the least
pretension to be ranked among our classics. Sir Thomas More, though
he wrote in Latin, seems to come the nearest to the character of a
classical author.

* Wood's Hist. and Antiq. Oxon. lib. I p. 245.

** Wood's Hist. and Antiq. Oxon. lib. I p. 246.

*** Epist. ad Banisium. Also Epist. p. 668.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

[Illustration: 1-403-edward6.jpg EDWARD VI.]

EDWARD VI.

CONTEMPORARY MONARCHS.

{1547.} THE late king, by the regulations which he imposed on the
government of his infant son, as well as by the limitations of the
su