52 AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CHARACTER 



ragement of letters, so splendidly illustrated by his patronage* of 

 Erasmus, and by his effectual persuasions to the " venerable Mar- 

 garet," as Gray styles hert, to found Christ and St. John's Colleges 

 at Cambridge, together with a professorship of divinity in each of 

 the universities, and other scholastic endowments. J As a further 

 proof of Fisher's literary tastes and predilections, it may be men- 

 tioned that, in his sixtieth year or upwards, according to Erasmus,§ 

 he entered upon the difficult study of the Greek language then re- 

 vived in England ; for we learn from venerable Bede that it had 

 been introduced into England, half a century before his own time, 

 by Theodore, whom Pope Vitalian had appointed archbishop over 

 the infant Anglo-Saxon churches. Fisher also, in his noble ardour 

 for the promotion of classical or ancient literature, sent down, in 

 his capacity of Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Richard 

 Croke, to become there the successor of Erasmus as instructor in 

 the Greek tongue ;|| while we have another instance of his natural 



• Erasmi Eplst., London, 1642., p. 363 ; and Butler's Life of Erasmus, pp. 

 65, 118. 



f See his Ode for Music. But Margaret was not only a zealous patroness 

 of literature, but an authoress herself. In Ballard's Memoirs of several La- 

 dies of Great Britain, who have been celebrated for their Writings^ the compo- 

 sitions of the mother of Henry are enumerated : while so great was her re- 

 ligious enthusiasm, that she declared if the princes of Christendom would 

 iniite together for the purpose of marching against their common enemy, the 

 Turks, she would willingly follow them in the humble capacity of laundress 

 to the camp See Camden's Remains, edit. 1665, p. 271. 



X " His whole study," observes Dodd, " was to put her upon such under- 

 takings as became her exalted station and his own character. By his per- 

 suasion, she founded the noble colleges of Christ and St. John, in Cambridge, 

 and Fisher greatly contributed to the expence of enlarging and completing 

 the latter. Accoi'ding to a statement, which is not so well known as it de- 

 serves to be, the Master and Fellows of the latter college transmitted to him 

 a letter in the darkest hour of his troubles ; which, regardless of its drawing 

 upon their heads the vengeance of Henry, attests, in the most undisguised 

 manner, the affection and reverence with which they still looked to this 

 single-hearted benefactor of letters. One passage in it reflects everlasting 

 honour upon that college, while it forcibly points out for our instruction, that 

 wealth well spent is sure, one way or other, to reap its due reward : — " Tu- 

 um est eritque quicquid possumus. Tui omnes scimus erimusque toti. Tu 

 nostrum es decus et presidium tu nostrum es caput ut necessario quiecun- 

 que te mala attingant ea nobis veluti membris subjectis acerbitatem infe- 

 rant."— //a/7. M.S., No. 7030, p. 230. 

 § Erasmi Episf., 522, 526. 



I) See Hallam's Introduction to the Literature of Europe, in the eighteenth} 

 sevenlcinlh, and sixteenth centtiries, p. 120. 



