parliament unable to read; but on the whole, the invention of printing, and the general ferment which was commencing all over the world, had produced marked effects in all classes.  Henry VIII. himself spoke four languages, and was well read in theology and history; and the high accomplishments of More and Sir T. Elliott, of Wyatt and Cromwell, were but the extreme expression of a temper which was rapidly spreading, and which gave occasion, among other things to the following reflection in Erasmus.  “Oh, strange vicissitudes of human things,” exclaims he.  “Heretofore the heart of learning was among such as professed religion.  Now, while they for the most part give themselves up, ventri luxui pecuniaeque, the love of learning is gone from them to secular princes, the court and the nobility.  May we not justly be ashamed of ourselves?  The feasts of priests and divines are drowned in wine, are filled with scurrilous jests, sound with intemperate noise and tumult, flow with spiteful slanders and defamation of others; while at princes’ tables modest disputations are held concerning things which make for learning and piety.”

A letter to Thomas Cromwell from his son’s tutor will not be without interest on this subject; Cromwell was likely to have been unusually careful in his children’s training, and we need not suppose that all boys were brought up as prudently.  Sir Peter Carew, for instance, being a boy at about the same time, and giving trouble at the High School at Exeter, was led home to his father’s house at Ottery, coupled between two foxhounds.[56] Yet the education of Gregory Cromwell is probably not far above what many young men of the middle and higher ranks were beginning to receive.  Henry Dowes was the tutor’s name, beyond which fact I know nothing of him.  His letter is as follows:—­

“After that it pleased your mastership to give me in charge, not only to give diligent attendance upon Master Gregory, but also to instruct him with good letters, honest manners, pastyme of instruments, and such other qualities as should be for him meet and convenient, pleaseth it you to understand that for the accomplishment thereof I have endeavoured myself by all ways possible to excogitate how I might most profit him.  In which behalf, through his diligence, the success is such as I trust shall be to your good contentation and pleasure, and to his no small profit.  But for cause the summer was spent in the service of the wild gods, [and] it is so much to be regarded after what fashion youth is brought up, in which time that that is learned for the most part will not be wholly forgotten in the older years, I think it my duty to acertain your mastership how he spendeth his time.  And first after he hath heard mass he taketh a lecture of a dialogue of Erasmus’ Colloquies, called Pietas Puerilis, wherein is described a very picture of one that should be virtuously brought up; and for cause it is so necessary for him, I do