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ERASMUS AT CAMBRIDGE IN 1506 591 known. The greater part of his time in England on the occasion of his second visit seems to have been spent in London. He can be traced there by his letters throughout January 1506 and perhaps before then. On I April he is chafing at the continued absence of his patron, Lord Mountjoy, on the King’s business, which obliged him to live in the capital at his own expense; and his expression seems to imply that he had not yet left it. But a manuscript* at Queens’ College, Cambridge, records his presence there with the following entry, ‘1505. Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus fuit pensionarius 21° Henrici sept.’; which implies that he must have been in Cambridge between 22 Aug. 1505 and 12 Apr. 1506, the date of Easter. That he should have arrived just in the interval between 2 April, the last date when he is found in London, and Easter is not improbable. Cambridge was then expecting a visit from the King, who was to pass through on his way to Walsingham. In the previous year the Lady Margaret Tudor, the King’s mother, had founded a new College, Christ’s, to be the home of the New Learning in the University. By the spring of 1506 the College was already at work in the old grammar-school known as God’s House, which served as its nucleus and round which new buildings were being added. At such a time the King’s coming might well be expected with interest. The Lady Margaret’s chief adviser in the foundation of her new College was Bishop Fisher, who at the time was Chancellor of the University and President of Queens’ College. The statutes drawn up by him for Christ’s show a markedly humanistic bias, and among the new subjects to be lectured on are included the classical poets and orators. In this Mullinger? traces with great probability the influence of Erasmus; and since Dr. Caius (1510-1573) states ® expressly that Erasmus was in Cambridge at Henry vir's coming in 1506, it may be presumed that in preparation for the King’s visit, which took place on April 22 and following days, Fisher brought him down, perhaps with other scholars‘, and lodged him in Queens’. Erasmus seems to have contemplated remaining at Cambridge ; for before Easter he applied to the University for admission to the Doctor's Degree, being evidently already Bachelor in Theology’. This appears from an entry in the University Grace-book®; ‘1505. Conceditur Des. Erasmo vt vnicum vel si exigantur duo responsa vna cum duobus sermonibus ad Clerum sermoneque examinatorio et lectura publica in Epistolam ad Romanos vel quaeuis alia sufficiant sibi ad incipiendum in Theologia, sic quod prius admittatur Baccalaureus in eadem et intret libros Sententiarum Bedellisque satisfaciat. The fact that Erasmus did not proceed with this Degree probably indicates that his residence in Cambridge was cut short; and the cause may be found in the opportunity offered, perhaps on this occasion, by a member of the royal household, which enabled him to carry out his long-cherished dream of visiting Italy. On arriving 1 Walker MS. f°. 135; quoted by 3 Hist. Cant. Acad. (1574), p. 127. W. G. Searle, Hist. of Queens’ College, * Cf. Ep. 228. 13 n. p.135 (Cambridge Antiq. Soc. ix. 1867). 5 Cf. Ep. 64 introd. 2 Hist. of Cambridge Univ., i. 453- CAT,
