the last years of the fifteenth century, let alone
those who went and did not win fame. Langton who became Bishop of
Winchester, and, not content with Wykeham's foundation, started a
school in his own palace at Wolvesey; Grocin, Linacre and William
Latimer, who took part in Aldus' Greek Aristotle; Colet; Lily who went
further afield, to Rhodes and Jerusalem; Tunstall and Stokesley and
Pace--all these were Oxford men, and yet few of them returned to
settle in Oxford and teach. Of their later lives much is known, though
not so much as we could wish; but their connexion with this
University cannot be precisely dated, because the university registers
for just this period, 1471-1505, are missing. We cannot tell just when
they graduated; and we miss the chance of contemporary notes added
occasionally to names of distinction. We cannot even discover to what
colleges they belonged.

In the last half of the fifteenth century there had been a beginning
of Greek in Oxford. Thomas Chandler, Warden of New College, 1454-75,
had some knowledge of it; and under his auspices an Italian adventurer
of no merit, Cornelio Vitelli, came and taught here for a short time.
For about two years, 1491-3, Grocin returned to lecture on Greek, as
the result of his Italian studies. Colet was here about 1497-1505,
until he became Dean of St. Paul's; but his lectures, as we have said,
were on the Vulgate, not the Greek Testament. Of the rest that shadowy
and fugitive scholar, William Latimer, was the only one of this band
of Oxonians who definitely came back to live and work in the
University; and he perhaps did not cast in his lot here until 1513.
When he did return, he was not to be torn away again from his rooms at
All Souls, under the shadow of St. Mary's tower. In 1516 More and
Erasmus wished him to come and teach Greek to Fisher, Bishop of
Rochester; but could not prevail with him. It would seem strange
to-day for an Oxford scholar to be invited to become private tutor to
the Chancellor of the sister University: he would probably shrink, as
Latimer did, and find refuge in excuses. For eight or nine years,
Latimer said, his studies had led him elsewhere, and he had not
touched Latin and Greek. For the same reason he declared himself
unable to help Erasmus in preparing for the second edition of his New
Testament. What these studies were is nowhere told--Latimer's only
printed work is two letters, one a mere note to Aldus, the other a
long letter t