· Mihi respondes ad omnia, quare (si licet barbarè loqui) religio est tibi verbum ullum prætermittere meum, ut videtur, sine responso. Maluisti dicendo nihil dicere, quàm tacere. Addam etiam hoc-simplicius fortassè quàm velles, sed veriusgræcissat nimium tua loquacitas, linguæ Græcæ Professor: omnia, fide Græcâ, trahis ad calumniam: scriptis nostris sensum affingis gignendis verbis commodum, atque hoc Græcè. Tuorum verborum oblitus, interim debacchari' (verbum parùm honorificum) mihi adscribis; interim, sed paulò post, ita ais: "Ego verò me intra modestiæ fines continebo, neque unquam ita loquar, ut dominationi tuæ verbo displicuisse velle videar." Non satis Græcè; hoc cavisset enim Græcus suum mendacium oblivione prodere, ne tanquam sorex suo indicio periret. Egone verò in quenquam debacchari' solco, vir bone? Scripsisti seorsum, ad mcum sacellanum, te modestia fines conservâsse, ut quodam quasi præjudicio animi meum sensum obtunderes; ne virulentiæ tuæ venenum, eleganter (ut tu putes) concinno verborum apparatu tectum, persentiscerem. Ista scilicet sunt tuæ, quibus abundas, doctæ facetiæ, quibus me hominem stolidum et stupidum perstringis, sed ut tu vis urbanè tamen: cùm ego contrà te rusticè aggrediar verbis apertis et rudibus, fastum objiciens et arrogantiam ac impudentiam, atque adeò nunc etiam vanitatem Græcam.

Confiteor meam in verbis inopiam, Cheke; et vicissim agnosco copiam [tuam]. Res nudas pro mea facultatula profero; et, quod mea acutoritas tuetur, liberè et incunctanter quod sentio eloquor. Veritatem res ipsa confirmat: libertatem defendit mei muneris prærogativa, quam tu sine arrogantiâ

et fastu non ferendo imitari non queas, sed tan. quam parenti aut patrono eum honorem haberes, quem leges tum divinæ tum humanæ decreverunt ; hoc est, ut rem verbis temperares, et rei atrocitatem (si quam facti veritas suggereret) orationis modestia mitigares tamen. Hoc, si quid tibi est judicii, me tacente perspexisses, aut me admonente didicisses tandem, nec pari mecum jure contendere ausus esses: videlicet ut quæ mihi libertas in te competeret, eandem rursum in me tuo jure vendicares, et in dignitatis meæ nomen tam petulanter luderes. Quo sanè modo existimationem tuam sartam tectam jure concervâsses; cùm contrà nunc dum eam ruta mcæsam, accitis per inscitiam vocabulis, dicere voluisti.

The concluding Letter of the series, however, in answer to the renewed intercessions of the softened Professor, is in a somewhat milder and more courteous strain:

• Quod à me per literas tam vehementer efflagitas, Cheke, si ejusmodi esset in quo tibi aliquo tuo cum commodo sine omni existimationis meæ jacturá satisfacerem, facilè concederet precibus tuis ingenii mei indoles, in humanitatem et benignitatem semper propensa. Neque enim in vitá hominum jucundius quicquam benevolentia duco. Ac omnium, si fieri posset, animos et amores datâ ad hoc operá concil liaverim: adeò nec labores nec sumptus effugiam, curasve detrectem, quibus hominum in me studia flectere mihique adjungere posse sperem. Et utinam durum modò esset quod petis, ut meam benevolentiam non frustrà pericliteris. Sed dum tuo affec tui obsequeris, quid me fiat (ut ille inquit) negligis.

>

Quid tandem, obsecro, de me homines aut loquentur aut sentient, qui edictum in publicam studiorum utilitatem publicâ auctoritate atque adeò jurisdictionis perpetua causâ propositum in gratiam privati, precibus videlicet delinitus, abrogem atque rescindam? Si non est publicè utile id ut facerem, égone precibus darem locum, magistratus publicus? Sin est, haud potest honestè tibi concedi, quod publica utilitati fuit denegatum.'

-"Si non iis radicibus, firmis illis et robustis, et publicâ præterea utilitate tanquam pedamento niteretur edictum, evellissent id haud dubiè ex animo meo suavi verborum structurâ concinnata preces. Quam meam facilitatem utinam velis imitari. Et quod tibi præstare non integrum modò, sed etiam cum laude conjunctum sit, id precibus meis velis annuere. Quem enim olim præfractum et contumacem edicto pro auctoritate compescere visum fuit, eundem nunc mitiorem et modestiorem factum orare, obsecrare, et obtestari non gravabor, ut omissá contentione de sonis (re frivolâ et inutili) seriis studiis operam dare velis, et nominis tui famam solidioribus fundamentis exædificare. Nihil potest habere firmi, mihi crede, sonus, utqui nullâ unquam in linguâ idem potuit diu consistere. Et pereat, si vis, memoria eorum quæ scripsimus, unà cum sonorum controversia. Ego officium, quod offero, libenter amplector. Et ita te mihi putabo officiosissimum, si eandem mecum persuasionem indueris, non expedire in sonis ab aliis dissidere; non modò quia novum et invidiosum, sed etiam quia arrogans quiddam habet et contentiosum, usui et destinato studiorum fini apprimè inutile et impedi

mento futurum. De med humanitate cæterâ fac cùm voles periculum, nec te tentasse pænitebit. Vale.'

And thus ended the celebrated correspondence between these two memorable disputants; in which the advocate of error appears to have thought it entitled to continue, not from it's antiquity (for antiquity, it was the object of his antagonist to demonstrate, was wholly in favour of the opposite theory) but because it existed! A similar mode of argumentation, mutatis mutandis, he pursued in regard to a much more important Reformation; and he was encountered, by similar reasoning, with equal success. But he was less gentle, alas! in his enforcement of it, in the latter instance. Interest combined with passion and prejudice, when the abuses of his church were to be defended; and interest summoned Smithfield, though in vain, to her support.

393

CARDINAL POLE.*

[1500-1558.]

REGINALD POLE was a younger son of Sir Richard Pole Lord Montagu, K. G., and cousin to Henry VIII. by Margaret his mother, daughter of George Duke of Clarence younger brother to Edward IV. He was born at Stoverton-Castle in Staffordshire, in the year 1500; and about the age of twelve was sent to Magdalen College in Oxford, where an apartment was provided for him in the President's lodgings. The celebrated Linacre and William Latimer, two of the greatest masters of those times in the Greek and Latin tongues, were his principal preceptors; and his progress under them was proportional to their eminence, and their anticipations.

In 1517, he was made Prebendary of Roscomb, in the church of Salisbury; to which the deanery of Exeter, and other valuable preferments, were added about two years afterward. But he did not, as most writers have asserted, take orders.

At the age of nineteen, it was determined to send

* AUTHORITIES. Beccatelli's Life of Pole by Pye, Thuanus, Burnet's History of the Reformation, Phillips' Life of Pole, Ridley's Review of Phillips, Neve's Animadversions on Phillips, and British Biography.