A letter despatched by Ulmis on the same day to another of his brethren in the faith, Conrad Pellican, craves his advice on behalf of Lady Jane with regard to the best means of acquiring Hebrew, a language she was anxious to study. She had written to consult Bullinger on the subject, but Bullinger was a busy man, and all the world knew how perfect was Pellican’s acquaintance with the subject. Pellican may argue that he might seem lacking in modesty should he address a young lady, the daughter of a nobleman, unknown to him personally. But he is besought by Ulmis to entertain no fears of the kind, and his correspondent will bear all the blame if he ever repents of the deed, or if Lady Jane does not most willingly acknowledge his courtesy. “In truth,” he adds, “I do not think that amongst the English nobility for many ages past there has arisen a single individual who, to the highest excellences of talent and judgment, has united so much diligence and assiduity in the cultivation of every liberal pursuit.... It is incredible how far she has advanced already, and to what perfection she will advance in a few years; for I well know that she will complete what she has begun, unless perhaps she be diverted from her pursuits by some calamity of the times.... If you write a letter to her, take care, I pray you, that it be first delivered to me.”[113]
The letter is dated from the house of the daughter of the Marquis. Her mother, it is true, seems to have been at home, though Dorset was in Scotland; but it is a curious fact that the grand-daughter of Henry VII., through whom Jane’s royal blood was transmitted to her, appears to have been by common consent tacitly passed over, as a person of no consequence in comparison with her daughter.[114]
Quite a budget of letters were entrusted to the courier who left Bradgate on May 29, and was the bearer of the missives addressed by Ulmis to his master and his friend. Both John Aylmer, tutor to Lord Dorset’s children and afterwards Bishop of London, and Haddon, the Marquis’s chaplain, had taken the opportunity of writing to Bullinger, doubtless stimulated to the effort by his young disciple.
The preceptor who compared so favourably in Lady Jane’s eyes with her parents, was a young Norfolk man, of about twenty-nine, and singularly well learned in the Latin and Greek tongues.[115] On James Haddon, Bishop Hooper, writing from prison when, three years later, the friends of the Reformation had fallen on evil days, pronounced a eulogy in a letter to Bullinger. Master James Haddon, he said, was not only a friend and very dear brother in Christ, but one he had always esteemed on account of his singular erudition and virtue. “I do not think,” he added, “that I have ever been acquainted with any one in England who is endued either with more sincere piety towards God or more removed from all desire of those perishing objects desired by foolish mortals.”[116] From Bishop Hooper the panegyric is evidence that Haddon belonged to the extreme party in theological matters, in which Aylmer was probably in full accord with him. On this particular day in May both these devoted and conscientious men were sending letters to the great director of souls in Zurich, that of Haddon being written to a man to whom he was personally unknown, and with the sole object of opening a correspondence and offering a tribute of respect.
Aylmer’s case was a different one. Though also a stranger, he wrote at some length, chiefly in the character of the preceptor entrusted with Lady Jane’s education, making due acknowledgments for the letters and advice which had been of so much use in keeping his patron and his patron’s family in the right path, and begging Bullinger to continue these good offices towards the pupil, just fourteen, concerning whom it is strange to find the young man entertaining certain fears and misgivings.
“At that age,” he observes, “as the comic poet tells us, all people are inclined to follow their own ways, and, by the attractiveness of the objects and the corruptions of nature, are more easily carried headlong in pleasure ... than induced to follow those studies that are attended with the praise of virtue.” The time teemed with many disorders; discreet physicians must therefore be sought, and to tender minds there should not be wanting the counsel of the aged nor the authority of grave and influential men. Aylmer accordingly entreats that Bullinger will minister, by letter and advice, to the improvement of his charge.
An epistle from Jane, dated July 1551, shows that the German theologian responded at once to the appeal, since in it she acknowledges the receipt of a most eloquent and weighty letter, and mentioning the loss she had sustained in the death of Bucer, who appears to have taken his part in her theological training, congratulates herself upon the possession of a friend so learned as Bullinger, so pious a divine, and so intrepid a champion of true religion. Bereaved of the “pious Bucer ... who unweariedly did not cease, day and night, and to the utmost of his ability, to supply me with all necessary instructions and directions for my conduct in life, and who by his excellent advice promoted and encouraged my progress and advancement in all virtue, godliness, and learning,” she proceeds to beg Bullinger to fill the vacant place, and to spur her on if she should loiter and be disposed to delay. By this means she will enjoy the same advantages granted to those women to whom St. Jerome imparted instruction, or to the elect lady to whom the epistle of St. John was addressed, or to the mother of Severus, taught by Origen. As Bullinger could be deemed inferior to none of these teachers, she entreats him to manifest a like kindness.[117] It is plain that Lady Jane, in addressing this “brightest ornament and support of the whole Church,” is determined not to be outdone in the art of pious flattery; and in her correspondence with men who both as scholars and divines held a foremost place in the estimation of those by whom she was surrounded, she indemnified herself for the mortifications inflicted upon her at home.
The reformers, for their part, were keeping an anxious watch upon the course of events in England; and to strengthen and maintain their influence over one who might have a prominent part to play in future years was of the first importance. A letter from Ascham, who was still abroad, dated some months later, supplies yet another example of the incense offered to the child of fourteen, and of fulsome adulation by which an older head might have been turned. Nothing, he told her, in his travels, had raised in him greater admiration than had been caused when, on his visit to Bradgate, he had found one so young and lovely—so divine a maid—engaged in the study of Plato whilst friends and relations were enjoying field sports. Let her proceed thus, to the honour of her country, the delight of her parents, her own glory, the praise of her preceptor, the comfort of her relations and acquaintances, and the admiration of all. O happy Aylmer, to have a like scholar!
From a photo by W. Mansell & Co. after a painting by G. Fliccius in the National Portrait Gallery.