possibly have been more than twenty-two when elected full fellow of New College in 1467. Hence 1446 seems a more probable date of birth than 1442. While at New College Grocyn acted as tutor to William Warham, who afterwards, when archbishop of Canterbury, was liberal in gifts of preferment. In 1481 Grocyn resigned his fellowship, and was presented to the college living of Newnton, or Newton Longueville, near Bletchley, Buckinghamshire. Soon after 1481 he accepted the office of divinity reader at Magdalen College, Oxford, which he held with his living. In that capacity he took part with three others in a disputation before Richard III and Bishop Waynflete in 1483, when he received a buck and a gift of money from the king. In 1485 he became prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral. In 1488 he resigned his post at Magdalen, and spent two years in Italy. Returning to Oxford in 1491, he rented rooms in Exeter College until 1493. The date of his appointment to the benefice of Deepdene, Surrey, is not known, but he resigned it also in 1493.
The interest of Grocyn's career at Oxford lies in the circumstance that he was among the first—if not the first—to publicly teach Greek in the university. Erasmus (Epist. ccclxiii.) and George Lily, son of William Lily, Grocyn's godson, both assert that Grocyn taught Greek at Oxford before his visit to Italy in 1488. This statement has been disputed on the ground that Oxford provided no opportunities of instruction in Greek before 1490. But Professor Burrows has shown that Thomas Chaundler, warden of New College in Grocyn's day, was a man of singular enlightenment, and that Chaundler invited Cornelio Vitelli, an Italian visitor to Oxford, to act as prælector of the college about 1475. Vitelli was undoubtedly a Greek scholar, and from him Grocyn could readily have obtained tuition in Greek literature at an early date. While in Italy Grocyn spent much time at Florence studying under Politian and Chalcondyles. His friend Linacre went to Italy in 1485, and another friend, William Latimer, followed in 1489; the three often met in Italy, and studied together. Grocyn also made the acquaintance of the great Venetian printer Aldus Manutius. On returning to Oxford Grocyn gave daily lectures in Greek in public. The work was done voluntarily, but the chief students of the day attended. When Erasmus arrived on his first visit to Oxford in 1497, he found Grocyn closely associated with More, Colet, and Linacre in spreading the light of the new learning in the university. Grocyn and Erasmus quickly grew intimate, but Erasmus noted that Grocyn, although a devoted student of the Greek classical writers, still studied the mediæval schoolmen. His preference of Aristotle to Plato was frequent matter of comment, and in his religious views he seems to have been more inclined to conservatism than any of his scholarly friends. About 1499 Aldus, the Venetian printer, printed Linacre's ‘Procli Sphæra,’ to which he prefixed a preface by himself and a letter he had received from Grocyn. Aldus, when introducing Grocyn's letter, describes the writer as 'a man of exceeding skill and universal learning, even in Greek, not to say Latin.' In the letter itself Grocyn thanks Aldus for his kind treatment of their common friend Linacre, and congratulates Aldus on preparing an edition of Aristotle before approaching an edition of Plato. 'For my own part,' he says, 'I think the difference between these philosophers is simply that between πολυμαθή and πολυμυθή' (sic), i.e. a world of science and a world of myths. Encouraging congratulations on other of Aldus's projects conclude the letter, which is dated 'Ex urbe Londini, vi. Calend. Septembris.'
The date at which Grocyn finally removed from Oxford is uncertain. In 1496 he became rector of St. Lawrence Jewry, a living belonging to Balliol College, but the appointment had lapsed on this occasion to the Bishop of London. One 'master Bell' acted for a time as Grocyn's deputy in the parish, and he does not seem to have resided in London doubtedly became his favourite home. At Colet's request he often preached in St. Paul's Cathedral. Very early in Colet's tenure of office he gave a remarkable series of lectures on the book known as 'The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy of Dionysius.' This mystical account of primitive Christian doctrine had been generally assigned (by Colet among others) to Dionysius the Areopagite, St. Paul's convert. Grocyn boldly contested that theory of authorship, which later criticism has demolished [see under Colet, John]. Mr. Seebohm has treated Grocyn's attack on the old views of authorship of the Dionysian books as wholly original. He was, however, anticipated by Lorenzo Valla. Erasmus described Grocyn's addresses on the subject in his 'Declarationes,' published in 1532.
Linacre, Lily, Colet, More, and Erasmus (when he was in England) were Grocyn's intimate associates in London. More, writing to Colet in Colet's temporary absence about 1504, tells him that 'Grocyn is in your absence the master of my life.' Erasmus a year or so
