Spirit in which Colet returned to Oxford.
Be this as it may, whatever amount of obscurity may rest upon the history of the mental struggles through which Colet had passed before that result was attained, certain it is that he had returned to England with his mind fully made up, and with a character already formed and bent in a direction from which it never afterwards swerved. He had returned to England, not to enjoy the pleasures of fashionable life in London, not to pursue the chances of Court favour, not to follow his father’s mercantile calling, not even to press on at once towards the completion of his clerical course; but, unordained as he was, and without doctor’s degree, in all simplicity to begin the work which had now become the settled purpose of his life, by returning to Oxford and announcing this course of lectures on St. Paul’s Epistles.
IV. THOMAS MORE, ANOTHER OXFORD STUDENT (1492-6).
When Colet, catching the spirit of the new learning from Grocyn and Linacre, left Oxford for his visit to Paris and Italy, he left behind him at the university a boy of fifteen, no less devoted than himself to the study of the Greek language and philosophy.
This boy was Thomas More. He was the son of a successful lawyer, living in Milk Street, Cheapside.
His early history.
Cardinal Morton.
More’s genius.
Brought up in the very centre of London life, he had early entered into the spirit of the stirring times on which his young life was cast. He was but five years old when in April 1483 the news of Edward IV.’s death was told through London. But he was old enough to hear an eyewitness tell his father, that ‘one Pottyer, dwelling in Redcross Street, without Cripplegate,’ within half a mile of his father’s door, ‘on the very night of King Edward’s death, had exclaimed, “By my troth, man, then will my master the Duke of Glo’ster be king.”’[52] And followed as this was by Richard’s murder of the young Princes, he never forgot the incident. After some years’ study at St. Anthony’s School in Threadneedle Street, his father placed him in domestic service (as was usual in those times) with the Archbishop and Lord Chancellor Morton,[53] a man than whom no one knew the world better or was of greater influence in public affairs—the faithful friend of Edward IV., the feared but cautious enemy of Richard, the man to whose wisdom Henry VII. in great measure owed his crown. Morton was the Gamaliel at whose feet young More was brought up, drinking in his wisdom, storing up in memory his rich historic knowledge, learning the world’s ways and even something of the ways of kings, till a naturally sharp wit became unnaturally sharpened, and Morton recognised in the youth the promise of the future greatness of the man. He was but thirteen or fourteen at most, yet he would ‘at Christmas time suddenly sometimes step in among the players, making up an extempore part of his own;’ ... and the Lord Chancellor ‘would often say unto the nobles that divers times dined with him, “This child here waiting at table, whosoever shall live to see it, will prove a marvellous man.”’[54] It was Morton who had sent him to Oxford ‘for his better furtherance in learning.’[55]
Colet probably had known More from childhood. Their fathers were both too much of public men to be unknown to each other, and though Colet was twelve years older than young More when they most likely met at Oxford in 1492-3, their common studies under Grocyn and Linacre were likely to bring them into contact.[56] More’s ready wit, added to great natural power and versatility of mind, were such as to enable him to keep pace with others much older than himself, and to devote himself with equal zeal to the new learning.
His fascinating character.
Whether it was thus at Oxford that Colet had first formed his high opinion of More’s character and powers, we know not, but certain it is that he was long after wont to speak of him as the one genius of whom England could boast.[57] Moreover, along with great intellectual gifts was combined in the young student a gentle and loving disposition, which threw itself into the bosom of a friend with so guileless and pure an affection, that when men came under the power of its unconscious enchantment they literally fell in love with More. If Colet’s friendship with More dated back to this period, he must have found in his young acquaintance the germs of a character somewhat akin to his own. Along with so much of life and generous loveliness, there was a natural independence of mind which formed convictions for itself, and a strength and promptness of will whereby action was made as a matter of course to follow conviction. There was, in truth, in More’s character a singular union of conservative and radical tendencies of heart and thought.