269. STOICUM] used to denote a morose fellow. The Stoics were a school of Greek philosophers, founded by Zeno in the third century B.C. They practised great austerity of life.
275. PATER] Sir Henry Colet, Kt., was Lord Mayor of London in 1486 and again in 1495.
285. SCHOLASTICAE] of the 'schoolmen', Scotus, Aquinas, &c., who taught philosophy in the mediaeval universities.
287. SEPTEM ARTIUM] A course of education introduced in the sixth century. It was divided into the trivium, grammar, logic, and rhetoric; and the quadrivium, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.
290. Plotinus (died 262 A.D.) was the Founder of Neo-Platonism; which he taught in Rome.
296. DIONYSIO] The reference here is to some philosophical writings, which in the Middle Ages were regarded as the work of Dionysius the Areopagite, who is mentioned in Acts 17. 34 as a pupil of St. Paul. They are now attributed to an unknown writer in the fifth century A.D.
303. Dante (1265-1321) and Petrarch (1304-1374) are evidently mentioned here as masters of Italian poetry, not for their work as forerunners of the Renaissance. Mr. Lupton conjectures with probability that Gower (c. 1325-1408) and Chaucer (c. 1340-1400) are the English poets intended.
309. ENARRAVIT] 'lectured on'.
316. CODICIBUS] manuscripts or printed copies of the Epistles to refer to.
319. DOCTORIS TITULUS] Cf. X. 23 n.