‘That book did, however, after all come into my hands first. I read it through before it was handed to the bishop.
‘I dare not express an opinion on this book. I am conscious of my own ignorance, and how blind I am in matters so mysterious, and in the works (opibus—operibus?) of so great a man. However, in reading it, the chief miracles seemed to me to lie more in the words than the things; for, according to him, Hebrew words seem to have no end of mystery in their characters and combinations.
Colet’s opinion on them.
‘O Erasmus! of books and of knowledge there is no end. There is no thing better for us in this short life than to live holily and purely, and to make it our daily care to be purified and enlightened, and really to practise what these “Pythagorica” and “Cabalistica” of Reuchlin promise; but, in my opinion, there is no other way for us to attain this than by the earnest love and imitation of Jesus. Wherefore leaving these wandering paths, let us go the short way to work. I long, to the best of my ability, to do so.[649] Farewell.—From London, 1517.’
VI. MORE PAYS A VISIT TO COVENTRY (1517?).
It chanced about this time that More had occasion to go to Coventry to see a sister of his there.
Coventry.
Monastic establishments at Coventry.
Coventry was a very nest of religious and monastic establishments. It contained, shut up in its narrow streets, some six thousand souls. On the high ground in the heart of the city the ancient Monastery and Cathedral Church of the monks of St. Benedict lifted their huge piles of masonry above surrounding roofs. By their side, and belonging to the same ancient order, rose into the air like a rocket the beautiful spire of St. Michael’s, lightly poised and supported by its four flying buttresses, whilst in the niches of the square tower, from which these were made to spring, stood the carved images of saints, worn and crumbled by a century’s storms and hot suns. There, too, almost within a stone’s throw of this older and nobler one, and as if faintly striving but failing to outvie it, rose the rival spires of Trinity Church, and the Church of the Grey Friars of St. Francis; while in the distance might be seen the square massive tower of the College of Babbelake, afterwards called the Church of St. John; the Monastery of the Carmelites or White Friars; and the Charterhouse, where Carthusian monks were supposed to keep strict vigils and fasts in lonely and separate cells. And beneath the shadow of the spire of St. Michael’s stood the Hall of St. Mary, chased over with carved work depicting the glory of the Virgin Mother, and covered within by tapestry representing her before the Great Throne of Heaven, the moon under her feet, and apostles and choirs of angels doing her homage. Other hospitals and religious houses which have left no trace behind them, were to be found within the walls of this old city. Far and wide had spread the fame of the annual processions and festivals, pageants and miracle plays, which even royal guests were sometimes known to witness. And from out the babble and confusion of tongues produced by the close proximity of so many rival monastic sects, rose ever and anon the cry for the martyrdom of honest Lollards, in the persecution of whom the Pharisees and Sadducees of Coventry found a temporary point of agreement. It would seem that, not many months after the time of More’s visit, seven poor gospellers were burned in Coventry for teaching their children the paternoster and ten commandments in their own English tongue.[650]
Fit of Mariolatry at Coventry.