COLET, John (1466-1519) dean of St Paul’s, the eldest son of Sir Henry Colet, was born at London in 1466. His education commenced in St Anthony’s school in that city, from which, in 1483, he was sent to Magdalen College, Oxford. After seven years’ study of logic and philosophy, he took his degree in arts. About the year 1493 he went to Paris, and thence to Italy, in order to improve himself in the Greek and Latin languages, which at that time were imperfectly taught in our universities. During his residence abroad he became acquainted with Budaeus and Erasmus. On his return to England in 1497 he took orders, and settled at Oxford, where he read lectures, without fee, on the Epistles of St Paul. At this period he held the rectory of St Dennington in Suffolk, to which he had been instituted at the early age of nineteen; and he was also prebendary of York, and canon of St Martin’s le Grand, London. In 1502 he became prebendary of Sarum, in 1505 prebendary of St Paul’s, and immediately afterwards dean of that cathedral, having previously taken the degree of doctor of divinity. He was no sooner raised to this dignity than he introduced the practice of preaching and expounding the Scriptures; and he soon afterwards established a perpetual divinity lecture, on three days in each week, in St Paul’s Church,—an institution which helped to pave the way for the Reformation. About the year 1508 Dean Colet formed his plan for the foundation of St Paul’s school, which he completed in 1512, and endowed with estates of an annual value of £122 and upwards. The celebrated grammarian William Lilly was the first master, and the company of mercers were appointed trustees. The dean’s religious opinions were so much more liberal than those of the contemporary clergy, that ...