But the intercourse between them at Oxford did not last long, for Colet, as already said, went off on his travels, leaving More buried in his Oxford studies under Linacre’s tuition.
More already destined for the Bar.
It was the father’s purpose that the son at Oxford should be preparing for his future profession. Jealous lest the temptations of college life should disqualify him for the severe discipline involved in those legal studies to which it was to be the preparatory step, he kept him in leading-strings as far as he possibly could, cutting down his pecuniary allowance to the smallest amount which would enable him to pay his way, even compelling him to refer to himself before purchasing the most necessary articles of clothing as his old ones wore out. He judged that by these means he should keep his son more closely to his books, and prevent his being allured from the rigid course of study which in his utilitarian view was best adapted to fit him for the bar.[58]
More leaves Oxford.
More enters Lincoln’s Inn.
So far as can be traced, this stern discipline did not fail of its end;[59] he worked on at Oxford, without getting into mischief, and certainly without neglecting his books. But there was another snare from which parental anxiety was not able wholly to preserve him. Before he had been two years at Oxford, the father found out that he had begun to show symptoms of fondness for the study of the Greek language and literature,[60] and might even be guilty of preferring the philosophy of the Greeks to that of the Schoolmen. This was treading on dangerous ground, and it seemed to the anxious parent high time that a stop should be put to new-fangled and fascinating studies, the use of which to a lawyer he could not discern. So, somewhat abruptly, he took young More away from the University, and had him at once entered as a student at New Inn.[61] After the usual course of legal studies at New Inn, he was admitted in February 1496,[62] just as Colet was returning from Italy, as a student of Lincoln’s Inn, for a few more years of hard legal study, preparatory to his call to the Bar.
V. COLET FIRST HEARS OF ERASMUS (1496).
One other circumstance must be mentioned in this chapter.
Whilst Colet was passing through Paris, on his return journey from Italy, he became acquainted with the French historian Gaguinus, whose work ‘De Origine et Gestis Francorum,’ had been published shortly before.[63] Colet was in the habit of reading every book of history which came in his way,[64] and no doubt this history of Gaguinus was no exception to the rule. Whilst he was at Paris, a letter was shown to him which the historian had received from a scholar and acquaintance of rising celebrity in Paris, in which the new history was reviewed and praised.[65] From the perusal of this letter, Colet formed a high estimate of the learning and wide range of knowledge of its accomplished writer.[66] But scholars were plentiful in Paris, and he was not personally introduced to this one in particular. He was not then, like Gaguinus, one of the lions of Paris, though he was destined to become one of the lions of History. Colet after reading his letter did not forget his name. Nor was it a name likely to be soon forgotten by posterity.
It was, ‘Erasmus.’