The Sword and the trowel . have been struck by the large proportion of eccle-siastical personages among the foot-passengers. There was advantage,either real or imaginary, in belonging to the clerical order, becausethey were answerable only to the canon law, which wras somewhat lessharsh than that to which ordinary people were subject. The century is chiefly interesting to us, however, as the age of theinvention of printing, before the advance of which the darkness andsuperstition of the mediaeval ages gave way, like unwholesome night-mists before the morning sun. While the printing-press, Gods
The Sword and the trowel . have been struck by the large proportion of eccle-siastical personages among the foot-passengers. There was advantage,either real or imaginary, in belonging to the clerical order, becausethey were answerable only to the canon law, which wras somewhat lessharsh than that to which ordinary people were subject. The century is chiefly interesting to us, however, as the age of theinvention of printing, before the advance of which the darkness andsuperstition of the mediaeval ages gave way, like unwholesome night-mists before the morning sun. While the printing-press, Gods modernmiracle and the churchs lever, as it has been called, certainly madethe rapid multiplication of books easier, we have to remember thatliterary treasures were not at all times so scarce as is usually historian says of four and five hundred years ago, respecting the * Cassells History of England. The Jubilee Edition. Vol. II. From the Warsof the Roses to the Great Rebellion. Cassell and Company. Price ENGLAND IN THE FIFTEENTH CENT UK Y. 605 friends of learning—who, in that age, were commonly also the friendsof religion:— Not the least meritorious benefactors of their country, next to thewriters and printers of books, were those who collected them intolibraries, and the most munificent patron and encourager of learning inthis manner was the unfortunate Duke Humphrey of Gloucester. Hegave to the university of Oxford a library of six hundred volumes in1440, valued at £1,000. Some of these very volumes yet remain indifferent collections. Duke Humphrey not only bought books, but heemployed men of science and learning to translate and transcribe. Hekept celebrated writers from France and Italy, as wTell as Englishmen,,to translate from the Greek, and other languages; and is said to havewritten himself on astronomy, a scheme of astronomical calculationsunder his name still remaining in the library of Gresham College. Thegreat Duke of Bedford, likewise, when
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