‘And why should not you help in this work, Ogier? There are manuscripts yet to be discovered, there are inscriptions yet to be copied, there are coins of which no specimen has been garnered. Then there is the great field of Nature before you; plants with rare virtues for healing sicknesses, fruits that are good for food, flowers with sweet scents and various hues. Why, again, should you not utilise the taste you have for observing the habits of the animal world? Depend upon it, these studies are intended by God for the improvement and advancement of the human race. Let monk and sectary fight it out as they will; do you be content to let in the light, and leave the rest to God.’
Such was the influence that presided over Comines during Busbecq’s earlier years; for the ideas of George Halluin were the ideas of Erasmus. We may be quite certain also that, under the same guide, Busbecq was not allowed to damp his ardour and stupefy his brains with too copious doses of Latin grammar, before he was made free of his Livy and his Virgil. As much as possible of the works of the ancients, and as little as possible of the cut and dried rules of the moderns—such would be George Halluin’s advice. If any one be curious as to the result of such a system, they have but to look at Busbecq’s Latin for the answer.
At the age of thirteen Busbecq became a student at Louvain, the celebrated University of Brabant, where Erasmus once taught. Here he spent five years, at the end of which he received a reward, which must have been more precious to him than any of his University laurels. In consideration of his merits as a student, and other good qualities, Charles V. issued a Patent,[61] removing the stain from his birth, and admitting him into the noble family of Busbecq.
According to the fashion of the times, the young man’s education was not completed at Louvain. He went the round of the great Universities of Europe, studying at Paris, Bologna, and Padua; at the last he became the pupil of the famous Baptista Egnatius, the friend and fellow-worker of Erasmus.
The ideas which he imbibed in the course of his education appear to be a sort of continuation or development of those of Erasmus. There is a striking resemblance between the views of Busbecq and those of his contemporary, Pierre de la Ramée. These views and theories consisted in making the results achieved by the ancients a new point of departure for the learning of modern times.[62] In medicine, for instance, the works of Galen and Hippocrates were to be taken for the foundation, and all later writers ignored; on this substratum the medical science of the future was to be built. That these ideas rested on a sound basis there can be no doubt. Immense results, in almost every field of human knowledge, had been achieved during the palmy days of Greece and Rome; with the downfall of the latter a flood of barbarism had poured over the civilised world. The human race had been struggling again towards the light, but struggling with slow and feeble step. In Busbecq’s days they had not nearly reached the point where Greece and Rome left off.
Compare, for instance, the writings of Philippe de Comines, one of the ablest men of his time, with those of Busbecq sixty years later. The former are stamped with the ideas of the middle ages, the latter are bright with the freshness of a modern writer. The difference is simply enormous, and it is to be attributed to the fact that Philippe de Comines, who was fully conscious of his loss, was ignorant of Latin, while Busbecq had kept company, as it were, with the brightest wits and most learned men of ancient times.
But it must not be supposed that the men of Ramée’s school had any idea of contenting themselves with the knowledge of the ancients; on the contrary, they made it the starting-point for the prosecution of further discoveries. Busbecq’s letters furnish us with an excellent instance of the practice of these ideas. With Pliny, Galen, Vopiscus at his fingers’ ends, he is ever seeking to verify, correct, or enlarge the store he has received. For him all knowledge is gain, and he seeks it in every quarter; inscriptions, coins, manuscripts; birds, beasts, and flowers; the homes, customs, and languages of mankind; the secrets of earth, air, and water—all alike are subjects of interest to him. One trait marks the man. On his journeys he made it a rule, as soon as he reached his halting-place for the night, to sally forth in search of some discovery. Occasionally an inscription, or some of his favourite coins, was the result; at other times it would be a strange plant, or even a quaint story; but whatever it was, it was duly garnered.
It seems probable that Busbecq, after the completion of his studies, returned to Flanders, and for a few years led that quiet life with his books and a few friends, which afterwards, amid the blaze and glare of a court, seemed to him the perfection of human happiness. We have no record of his life during these years, but it is easy to picture it. Many a quiet morning spent in reading at Bousbecque, or in a corner of the Halluin library at Comines, a chat with a chance student friend as to the last news from the Universities, a stroll to inspect Roman coins or pottery lately discovered at Wervicq, a search for some rare plant, a series of observations on the habits of some animal. Nor would his life be spent only in the country. At Lille there was the family mansion, and his aunt Marie Ghiselin to welcome him; there he could find a larger circle of literary friends, and ransack their libraries for books, which might be absent from the collections at Bousbecque and Comines.
It may seem strange that he was so thoroughly accepted in the family, but the explanation is not difficult. His address was singularly winning, and at the same time he inspired every one with confidence in his honesty;[63] he was remarkable for his tact[64] in dealing with the prejudices of his fellow-creatures, and when it was necessary to be firm[65] he could be firm without blustering. The qualities which made him so successful as a diplomatist were the qualities most calculated to endear him to his friends. The man who could ingratiate himself with Roostem was not likely to be unpopular among his own kith and kin.
We now come to the event which first introduced Busbecq into public life. On July 25, 1554, in Winchester Cathedral, Mary of England gave her hand to Philip of Spain. Among those who witnessed the ceremony was Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq.