CHAPTER XXIII.

ENGLISH SCHOLARS OF THE RENAISSANCE.--A.D. 1473 TO 1550.

Scholars of Magdalen College. Visit of Erasmus to England. His opinion of Oxford. Dean Colet. His character and his friends. His friendship with Erasmus. Foundation of St. Paul’s School. Court of Henry VIII. Its brilliancy and learned character. Reginald Pole. Progress of the Reformation. Controversy between Erasmus and Luther. The divorce. The king consults the foreign universities. The Humanist professors espouse his cause. Pole retires from England. His life in Italy. Effect of the Reformation on the English universities. Utter decay of Oxford under Edward VI. 672