50 OF THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



he deserve th to be placed amongst the most learneci 

 princes : for there was not a greater admirer of learn- 

 ing or benefactor of learning ; a founder of famous 

 libraries, a perpetual advancer of learned men to office, 

 and a familiar converser with learned professors and 

 preceptors, who were noted to have then most credit 

 in court. On the other side, how much Trajan's 

 virtue and government was admired and renowned, 

 surely no testimony of grave and faithful history doth 

 more lively set forth, than that legend tale of Gregorius 

 Magnus, bishop of Rome, who was noted for the ex- 

 treme envy he bare towards all heathen excellency : 

 and yet he is reported, out of the love and estimation 

 of Trajan's moral virtues, to have made unto God 

 passionate and fervent prayers for the delivery of his 

 soul out of hell : and to have obtained it, with a caveat 

 that he should make no more such petitions. In this 

 prince's time also the persecutions against the Christians 

 received intermission, upon the certificate of Phnius 

 Secundus, a man of excellent learning and by Trajan 

 advanced. 



6. Adrian, his successor, was the most curious man 

 that lived, and the most universal inquirer ; insomuch 

 as it was noted for an error in his mind, that he desired 

 to comprehend all things, and not to reserve himself 

 for the worthiest things : falling into the like humour 

 that was long before noted in Philip of Macedon ; who, 

 when he would needs over-rule and put down an 

 excellent musician in an argument touching music, 

 was well answered by him again, ' God forbid, sir (saith 

 he), that your fortune should be so bad, as to know 

 these things better than I.' It pleased God likewise 

 to use the curiosity of this emperor as an inducement 

 to the peace of his Church in those days. For having 

 Christ in veneration, not as a God or Saviour but as 

 a wonder or novelty, and having his picture in his gallery, 

 matched with Apollonius (with whom in his vain 

 imagination he thought he had some conformity), yet 

 it served the turn to allay the bitter hatred of those 

 times against the Christian name, so as the Church had 



