William Grocyn (1446? - 1519) was an English scholar, a friend of Erasmus.
He was born at
ColerneColerne, a medium sized village, lies midway between Bath and Chippenham in the county of Wiltshire, England. It has an elevated position and overlooks the Box Valley to the south...
,
WiltshireWiltshire is a ceremonial county in the south west of England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers 3,485 km²...
. Intended by his parents for the church, he was sent to
Winchester CollegeWinchester College is a famous boys' independent school, set in the city of Winchester in Hampshire, England, the ancient capital. Officially known as Collegium Sanctae Mariae prope Wintoniam , or St Mary's College near Winchester, the College is commonly referred to as "Win: Coll:" or just...
, and in 1465 was elected to a scholarship at
New College, OxfordNew College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Its official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always called "New College"...
. In 1467 he became a fellow, and among his pupils was
William WarhamWilliam Warham , Archbishop of Canterbury, belonged to a Hampshire family, and was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, afterwards practising and teaching law both in London and Oxford....
, afterwards
Archbishop of CanterburyAlso see Leaders of ChristianityThe Archbishop of Canterbury is the chief bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, the see that churches must be in communion with in order to be...
. In 1479 Grocyn accepted the rectory of
Newton LongvilleNewton Longville is a village and also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located about a mile away from Bletchley....
, in
BuckinghamshireBuckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury and the largest town in ceremonial Buckinghamshire is Milton Keynes....
, but continued to live at Oxford. As reader in divinity at
Magdalen CollegeMagdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million....
in 1481, he held a disputation with John Taylor, professor of divinity, in the presence of
King Richard IIIRichard III was King of England from 1483 until his death. He was the last king of the House of York and the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat at the Battle of Bosworth Field was the decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, and is sometimes regarded as the end of the Middle Ages in England...
; the king acknowledged his skill as a debater by the present of a deer and five marks. In 1485 Grocyn became prebendary of
Lincoln CathedralLincoln Cathedral is a historic Anglican cathedral in Lincoln in England and seat of the Bishop of Lincoln in the Church of England...
. In about 1488 he left England for
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, and before his return in 1491 he had visited
FlorenceFlorence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence...
,
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
and
PaduaPadua is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice , in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area, having a population of c...
, and studied
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
and
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
under
Demetrius ChalcondylesDemetricocondyles or Demetrios Chalcocondylis or Chalcocondylas or Chalcondyles , was a Greek humanist, scholar and Professor who taught the Greek language in Italy for over forty years; at Padua, Perugia, Milan and Florence...
and Politian. As lecturer at
Exeter College, OxfordExeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...
he helped indoctrinate his countrymen in the new Greek learning.
Erasmus says in one of his letters that Grocyn taught Greek at Oxford before his visit to Italy. The Warden of New College,
Thomas ChaundlerThomas Chaundler was an English playwright and illustrator.A manuscript at Trinity College, Cambridge depicts Chaundler presenting one of his plays to the Bishop of Bath, Thomas Beckynton, in 1460....
, invited Cornelius Vitelli, then on a visit to Oxford, to act as
praelector. This was about 1475, and as Vitelli was certainly familiar with Greek literature, Grocyn may have learned Greek from him. He seems to have lived in Oxford until 1499, but by the time his friend
John ColetJohn Colet was an English churchman and educational pioneer.Colet was an English scholar, Renaissance humanist, theologian, and Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London. Colet wanted people to see the scripture as their guide through life. Furthermore, he wanted to restore theology and rejuvenate...
became dean of
St Paul'sSt Paul's Cathedral is the Anglican cathedral on Ludgate Hill in the City of London and the seat of the Bishop of London. The present building dates from the 17th century and is generally reckoned to be London's fifth St Paul's Cathedral, not counting every major medieval reconstruction as a new...
in 1504 he was living in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
. He was chosen by Colet to deliver lectures in St Paul's. Having at first denounced those who impugned the authenticity of the
Hierarchia ecclesiastica ascribed to
Dionysius the AreopagitePseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, also known as Pseudo-Denys, is the anonymous theologian and philosopher of the late 5th to early 6th century whose Corpus Areopagiticum was pseudonymously ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, the Athenian convert of St. Paul mentioned in...
, he was led to modify his views by further investigation, and openly declared that he had been mistaken. He also counted
Thomas LinacreThomas Linacre was an English humanist and physician, after whom Linacre College, Oxford is named....
,
William LilyeWilliam Lilye, or Lily was an English classical grammarian and scholar. He was an author of the most widely used Latin grammar textbook in England and was the first headmaster of St Paul's School, London.-Life:...
,
William LatimerWilliam Latimer, , was an English clergyman and scholar of Ancient Greek.Latimer studied at Oxford University, attaining the degree of Bachelor of Arts before being admitted as a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford in 1489...
and
Thomas MoreSir Thomas More , also known as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, scholar, author, and statesman....
among his friends, and Erasmus writing in 1514 says that he was supported by Grocyn in London, and calls him "the friend and preceptor of us all."
He held several preferments, but his generosity to his friends involved him in continual difficulties, and though in 1506 he was appointed on Archbishop Warham's recommendation master or warden of All Hallows College at
MaidstoneMaidstone is the county town of Kent, England, south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town linking Maidstone to Rochester and the Thames Estuary. Historically, the river was a source and route for much of the town's trade. Maidstone was the centre of the agricultural...
in
KentKent , originally Cantia, is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the River Thames estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent...
, he was still obliged to borrow from his friends, and even to pledge his plate as a security. He died in 1519, and was buried in the collegiate church at Maidstone.
Linacre acted as his executor, and spent the money he received on alms for the poor and the purchase of books for poor scholars. With the exception of a few lines of
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
verse on a lady who snowballed him, and a letter to
Aldus ManutiusAldus Pius Manutius , the Latinized name of Teobaldo Mannucci, sometimes called Aldus Manutius, the Elder, to distinguish him from his grandson, Aldus Manutius, the Younger, was an Italian humanist who became a printer and publisher when he founded the Aldine Press at Venice.His publishing legacy...
at the head of Linacre's translation of
ProclusProclus Lycaeus , called "The Successor" or "Diadochos" , was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major Classical philosophers . He set forth one of the most elaborate and fully developed systems of Neoplatonism...
's
Sphaera (Venice, 1499), Grocyn left no literary proof of his scholarship. His proposal to translate
AristotleAristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.Together with Plato and Socrates , Aristotle is one of...
in company with Linacre and Latimer was never carried out.
Anthony WoodAnthony Wood or Anthony à Wood was an English antiquary.-Early life:He was the fourth son of Thomas Wood , B.C.L. of Oxford, where Anthony was born...
assigns some Latin works to Grocyn, but on insufficient authority. By Erasmus he has been described as "
vir severissimae castissimae vitae, ecclesiasticarum constitutionum observantissimus pene usque ad superstitionem, scholasticae theologiae ad unguem doctus ac natura etiam acerrimi judicii, demum in omni disciplinarum genere exacte versatus", "A man of a most stern and moral life; most observant of the decrees of the Church almost to the point of superstition; learned to his very fingertips in scholastic theology; and also by nature of the keenest judgment; finally, exactly versed in every kind of learning" (
Declarationes ad censures facultatis theoiogiae Parisianae, 1522).
An account of Grocyn by M. Burrows appeared in the
Oxford Historical SocietyThe Oxford Historical Society is a local history society concerned with the history of the city of Oxford and the surrounding area in the historical county of Oxfordshire in southern England.- History :...
's
Collectanea (1890).
Grocyn gives his name to the
University of OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
's chief lecturer on Classical languages. The current Grocyn Lecturer is Juliane Kerkhecker, a fellow and tutor of
Oriel CollegeOriel College, located in Oriel Square, Oxford, is the fifth oldest of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Oriel has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford, a title formerly claimed by University College, whose claim of being founded by King...
.