Page:The battle of the books - Guthkelch - 1908.djvu/63

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INTRODUCTION
lv

In all probability the origin of the quarrel is to be sought at this time. Benjamin Hody, tutor of Wadham, had already been appointed chaplain to the Bishop of Worcester, Bentley's patron; in 1690 Bentley took orders, and was given a second chaplaincy by the Bishop. In 1691, when the edition of Malelas (see p. xx.) was nearly ready, Bentley was asked by Hody why he always referred to the author as Malelas instead of Malela, his usual designation hitherto. In answer to the challenge Bentley added to his Letter to Mill an examination of the whole question of the form assumed by Greek names when Latinised. Hody was completely answered, and was angry at his defeat.[1] As Monk remarked,[2] 'There is too much reason to believe, that the offence given by this trivial cause was never afterwards healed.'[3] The Oxford scholars felt bound to put down the presumptuous Cambridge man. Some other possible grounds of offence may be mentioned: Bentley was a Whig and his opponents

  1. See Jebb's Bentley, pp. 15-16.
  2. Life of Richard Bentley, second edition (1833), Vol. I, p. 30.
  3. See p. 300 of the Bibliography to this vol.