OBERT WAKEFIELD was the prime linguist
of his time, having obtained beyond the seas the Greek,
Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac tongues. In one thing he is to
be commended, and that is this, that he carefully preserved
divers books of Greek and Hebrew at the dissolution of
religious houses, and especially some of those in the
library of Ramsey abbey, composed by Laurence Holbecke, monk
of that place, in the reign of Henry IV. He died at London
8th October, 1537, leaving behind him the name of _Polypus_,
as Leland is pleased to style him, noting that he was of a
witty and crafty behaviour." Wood's _Hist. of Colleges and
Halls_, p. 429, Gutch's edit.]

PHIL. There is no occasion to be extremely laconic. The evening has
hardly yet given way to night. The horizon, I dare say, yet faintly
glows with the setting-sun-beams. But proceed as you will.

LYSAND. The commotions which ensued from the arbitrary measures of
Henry were great;[312] but such as were naturally to be expected. At
length Henry died, and a young and amiable prince reigned for a few
months. Mary next ascended the throne; and the storm took an opposite
direction. Then an attempt was made to restore chalices, crucifixes,
and missals. But the short period of her sovereignty making way for
the long and illustrious one of her sister Elizabeth, the Cecils and
Walsinghams[313] united their great talents with the equally vigorous
ones of the Queen and her favourite archbishop Parker, in establishing
that form of religion which, by partaking in a reasonable degree of
the solemnity of the Romish church, and by being tempered with great
simplicity and piety in its prayers, won its way to the hearts of the
generality of the people. Our _Great English Bibles_[314] were now
restored to their conspicuous situations; and the Bibliomania, in
consequence, began to spread more widely and effectively.

[Footnote 312: Fuller has devoted one sentence only, and
that not written with his usual force, to the havoc and
consternation which ensued on the devastation of the
monasteries. _Ch. Hist._, b. vi., p. 314. Burnet is a little
more moving: _Hist. of the Reformation_; vol. i., p. 223.
But, from the foregoing premises, the reader may probably be
disposed to admit the conclusion of a virulent Roman
Catholic writer, even in its fullest extent: namely, that
there were "subverted monasteri