awakened, and attention was sometimes so alert, as to induce him to correct himself, as if he had made a mistake. Frequently, too, what appeared to them the oddity of the sounds excited laughter. His audience soon began to suspect, that these frequent mistakes could not be the effect of accident; and on some of his friends communicating their suspicions to the lecturer, he frankly acknowledged that he had really a considerable change in contemplation, though it was not yet sufficiently matured for the public. They were eager for an explicit communication, which he promised: only requesting them to suspend their final decision, till their ears had become accustomed in some degree to the new sounds. He now proceeded to lecture in his own college upon Homer's Odyssey,' using the new pronunciation without restraint. Cheke did the same in his college; and, in a short time, the proposed improvement appeared so reasonable to the more learned and judicious part of the university, that it was eagerly adopted; and the study of the Greek became daily an object of greater attention, and of more ardent pursuit.

The Catholics, however, who at that period hated the very name of innovation, were greatly disturbed about this new way of pronouncing Greek, and opposed it's introduction with obstinate perverseness. Unable to prevail, they complained to Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, and Chancellor of the University, who immediately issued an edict, dated May 14, 1542, prohibiting all persons from using the new method, under the following penalties: "If the offender were a regent, he was to be expelled the senate; if he stood for a degree, he was not to be admitted to it; if a scholar, he was to lose his 2 в

VOL. I.

scholarship; and the younger students were to be privately chastised.'

This controversy, to which some allusion has been already made in the Life of Gardiner, was conducted between that prelate and Cheke in seven Latin epistles; of which the originals were left in the hands of Coelius Secundus Curio, a learned man of Basle, by Cheke himself on his journey to Italy, in the beginning ́of Queen Mary's reign: and by him they were published in 1555, without the knowledge of the author, under the following title: Johannis Cheki Angli de Pronuntiatione Græcæ potissimùm Linguæ Disputationes cum Stephano Wintoniensi Episcopo septem, contrariis Epistolis comprehensæ, magná quádam et elegantiâ et eruditione refertæ.*

To prevent incorrectness in the Latin language arising from a violation of quantity, he proposed, that the Greek should be substituted for the long vowel o, as in uxorem, liberas; that the long i should be written with two points over it, as in divinitus; and that the long e, and particularly the diphthong a (which had been, commonly, written as the ordinary e) should have a comma after it as in le,tor.

In the changes, which he was desirous of introducing into the English orthography, he was less successful, and perhaps less rational. Here his leading idea was (to the utter confusion, in many instances, of the etymologist) to reject the final e, and other letters not sounded; and to distinguish by double letters the vowels a, e, i, and o, when sounded long or broad, and the u by a stroke over it; e. g. giv, faut, daar, liif, weer, loov, præsum (presume), &c.

* This is, now, a scarce book.

A more promising attempt to improve the English language was, his resolution to admit no terms into his diction, which had not an English, or rather a Saxon original. But in respect of this scheme it might be observed, that the purity of our language had, even in his time, been too deeply corrupted by the admixture of exotic terms and phrases, to admit it's being carried into complete effect. Yet from his disapprobation of such terms and phrases, as employed in the existing translation of the Scriptures, he resolved on the Herculean labour of a new version; and actually proceeded through St. Matthew's gospel, and the beginning of that of St. Luke.*

The points of view, in which we are perhaps most indebted to Sir John Cheke for the improvement of our language, are the following: He recommended and practised a more minute attention to the meaning of words and phrases, and adopted a more skilful arrangement of them in composition. Before him, the clauses were usually long, and frequently involved: He introduced short sentences; and has thus the merit of having generated precision of language, as well as added greatly to it's perspicuity and it's force.

In the arrangement and flow of words, there is often a considerable similarity between the English language and the Greek. Cheke was accustomed to read off his Greek lectures from the original into English; and, hence, he was probably led to the adoption of the improvements in question.†

* These are now preserved in the library of Bene't College, Cambridge.

† It is not unworthy of remark, that the scholars of this age were particularly attentive to the writing of a fine hand. Thus

6

His only English work extant, with the exception of some Letters published by Strype, and a few others in Harrington's Nuga Antiquæ, is his tract entitled, The Hurt of Sedition, how griev ous it is to a Commonwealth;' written in 1549, on occasion of the formidable insurrections which broke out during that year, particularly in Devonshire and Norfolk the western rebels insisting on the restora tion of Popery, and the others under Ket demanding a reform in the government. To each of these classes of malcontents Sir John respectively addressed himself; to the first, as follows:

"Ye rise for religion. What religion taught you that? If ye were offered persecution for religion, ye ought to flee. So Christ teacheth you; and yet ye intend to fight. If ye would stand in the truth, ye ought to suffer like martyrs; and ye would slay like tyrants. Thus, for religion, ye keep no religion; and neither will follow the council of Christ, nor the constancy of martyrs. Why rise ye for religion? Have ye any thing contrary to God's book? Yea, have ye not all things agreeable to God's word? But 'the new is different from the old; and therefore ye will have the old.' If ye measure the old by truth, ye have the oldest. If ye measure the old by fancy, then it is hard, because men's fancies change, to give that is old. Ye will have the old stile: will ye have any older than that as Christ left, and his Apostle's taught, and the first church did use? Ye will have that the canons do establish: why that is a great deal younger than that ye have, of later time, and

Sir John Cheke, Roger Ascham, and others, were not only the first scholars, but also the finest mechanical penmen, of the

newlier invented; yet that is it, that ye desire. And do ye prefer the bishops of Rome before Christ? men's inventions afore God's law? the newer sort of worship before the older? Ye seek no religion: ye be deceived; ye seek traditions. They, that teach you, blind you; they, that so instruct you, deceive you. If ye seek what the old doctors say, yet look what Christ, the oldest of all, saith. For he saith, Before Abraham was made, I am. If ye seek the truest way, he is the very truth: if ye seek the readiest way, he is the very way: if ye seek everlasting life, he is the very life. What religion would ye have other how than his religion? You would have the Bibles in again. It is no marvel; your blind guides should lead you blind still.

But why should ye not like that which God's word establisheth, the primitive church hath authorised, the greatest learned men of this realm have drawn the whole consent of, the parliament hath confirmed, the king's majesty hath set forth? Is it not truly set out? Can ye devise any truer than Christ's Apostles used? Ye think, it is not learnedly done. Dare ye, commons, take upon you more learning, than the chosen bishops and clerks of this realm have?

*

*

· Learn, learn to know this one point of religion, that God will be worshipped as he hath prescribed, and not as we have devised. And that his will is wholly in the Scriptures, which be full of God's spirit, and profitable to teach the truth,' &c.

The political insurgents he addresses thus:

'Ye pretend to a commonwealth. How amend ye it by killing of gentlemen, by spoiling of gentle