Learning, however, dwindled, as
colleges increased, under the clerical and reactionary rule of the
House of Lancaster.
CHAPTER III--THE RENAISSANCE AND THE REFORMATION
We have now arrived at a period in the history of Oxford which is
confused and unhappy, but for us full of interest, and perhaps of
instruction. The hundred years that passed by between the age of
Chaucer and the age of Erasmus were, in Southern Europe, years of the
most eager life. We hear very often--too often, perhaps--of what is
called the Renaissance. The energy of delight with which Italy
welcomed the new birth of art, of literature, of human freedom, has
been made familiar to every reader. It is not with Italy, but with
England and with Oxford, that we are concerned. How did the
University and the colleges prosper in that strenuous time when the
world ran after loveliness of form and colour, as, in other ages, it
has run after warlike renown, or the far-off rewards of the saintly
life? What was Oxford doing when Florence, Venice, and Rome were
striving towards no meaner goal than perfection?
It must be said that "the spring came slowly up this way." The
University merely reflected the very practical character of the
people. In contemplating the events of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, in their influence on English civilisation, we are
reminded once more of the futility of certain modern aspirations.
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