"It is certain that even _Erasmus_ himself did little understand _Greek_, when he came first into _England_, in 1497 (13 _Hen._ VII.), and that our Countryman _Linacer_ taught it him, being just returned from _Italy_ with great Skill in that Language: Which _Linacer_ and _William Grocyne_ were the two only Tutors that were able to teach it." Saml. Knight, Life of Dr John Colet, pp. 17, 18.
The age at which boys went up to the University seems to have varied greatly. When Oxford students were forbidden to play marbles they could not have been very old. But in "The Mirror of the Periods of Man's Life" (? ab. 1430 A.D.), in the Society's _Hymns to the Virgin and Christ_ of this year, we find the going-up age put at twenty:
Quod resou{ n}, in age of .XX. [gh]eer, Goo to oxenford, or lerne lawe[56].
This is confirmed by young Paston's being at Eton at nineteen (see below, p. lvi). In 1612, Brinsley (_Grammar Schoole_, p. 307) puts the age at fifteen, and says,
"such onely should be sent to the Vniuersities, who proue most ingenuous and towardly, and who, in a loue of learning, will begin to take paines of themselues, hauing attained in some sort the former parts of learning; being good Grammarians at least, able to vnderstand, write and speake Latine in good sort.
"Such as haue good discretion how to gouerne themselues there, and to moderate their expenses; which is seldome times before 15 yeeres of age; which is also the youngest age admitted by the statutes of the Vniuersity, as I take it."
[Headnote: FOREIGN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION.]
4. _Foreign University Education._ That some of our nobles sent their sons to be educated in the French universities (whence they sometimes imported foreign vices into England[57]) is witnessed by some verses in a Latin Poem "in MS. Digby, No. 4 (Bodleian Library) of the end of the 13th or beginning of the 14th century," printed by Mr Thomas Wright in his _Anecdota Literaria_, p. 38.
Filii nobilium, dum sunt juniores, Mittuntur in Franciam fieri doctores; Quos prece vel pretio domant corruptores, Sic prætaxatos referunt artaxata mores.
An English _nation_ or set of students of the Faculty of Arts at Paris existed in 1169; after 1430 the name was changed to the German nation. Besides the students from the French provinces subject to the English, as Poictou, Guienne, &c, it included the English, Scottish, Irish, Poles, Germans, &c. --_Encyc. Brit._ John of Salisbury (born 1110) says that he was twelve years studying at Paris on his own account. Thomas a Becket, as a young man, studied at Paris. Giraldus Cambrensis (born 1147) went to Paris for education; so did Alexander Neckham (died 1227). Henry says,