Cardinal Pole and the Ciceronian De Longueil shared as
students in those tasks and sports at Padua which were so vividly
described by the English churchman in his record of their life-long
friendship. Thomas Lilly, the master at St. Paul's, not only worked at
Florence but went to perfect his Greek in the Isle of Rhodes. Sir Thomas
More was the pupil of Grocyn, whom he seems to have excelled in
scholarship. His affection for books is known by his son-in-law's careful
biography. An anecdote cited by Dibdin preserves a record of the fate of
his library. When the Chancellor was arrested, the officers were expected
to listen to his talk with certain spies, on the chance that the prisoner
might be led into a treasonable conversation; but, as Mr. Palmer said in
his deposition, 'he was so busy trussing up Sir Thomas More's books in a
sack that he took no heed to their talk'; and Sir Richard Southwell on
the same occasion deposed, that 'being appointed only to look to the
conveyance of the books, he gave no ear unto them.' Erasmus praised More
as 'the most gentle soul ever framed by Nature.' He was astonished at his
learning, and indeed at the high standard that had already been attained
in England. 'It is incredible,' he said, 'what a thick crop of old books
spreads out on every side: there is so much erudition, not of any
ordinary kind, but recondite and accurate and antique, both in Greek and
Latin, that you need not go to Italy except for the pleasure of
travelling.
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