William Grocyn: The Father of the New Learning

William Grocyn, reputedly the first man to give public Greek lectures in England, and a friend of such other humanist worthies as Thomas Linacre, John Colet, Thomas More and Erasmus.

After ordination he was appointed, in 1481, to the living of Newton Longville in Buckinghamshire, a post which he held concurrently with a Readership in Divinity at Magdalen College, but then, in 1488, having additionally become a Prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral in 1485, he left England for Italy and spent the next two years travelling there, in particular studying Greek in Florence with two of the greatest scholars of the age, Demetrius Chalcondyles and Angelo Poliziano.

Returning to Oxford in 1491, Grocyn rented rooms in Exeter College, daily giving public lectures on the ‘new’ Greek learning, and remaining there probably until 1499 when, having been appointed Rector of St Lawrence Jewry some three years previously, he moved to London. The metropolis was by now the main hub in England of the ‘new learning’, and here Grocyn profited from his regular association with the other principal thinkers of the day, Linacre, Colet, More and Erasmus.

The historic architecture at the Front Quad at New College, University of Oxford — A corner of the Front Quad at New College, University of Oxford, still looking much as Grocyn would have known it.

Grocyn’s final preferment in the church, granted in 1506 by his sometime New College pupil, William Warham, also a Wykehamist and by then Archbishop of Canterbury, was as Master of All Hallows’ College, Maidstone, a post which he occupied at the same time as retaining the living of St. Lawrence Jewry. Eventually succumbing in 1518 to what was termed paralysis and was probably a stroke, he died the next year and was buried at Maidstone. He left virtually no writings at all; his legacy lies rather in the brilliance of those whose minds he helped to train, and in their lasting civilised influence across the ages – not least in his own school.

The stream of humane Wykehamist Greek scholars following in Grocyn’s footsteps (an article in The Wykehamist of July 1893 dubs him ‘father of the New Learning’) has been pretty constant ever since. Winchester has produced no fewer than four Oxford Regius Professors of Greek (more than any other school), easily the most illustrious being John Harmar, who was also by turns Headmaster and then Warden of Winchester, and who played a major role in the translation of the King James Bible; and there is also a distinguished succession of other professors, lecturers, college tutors and schoolmasters down through the centuries. In this roll-call I too have my own little part: after thirty-five years in the Classics department at Winchester, I now teach at New College, perhaps sometimes in the very same rooms where Grocyn took his first steps in Greek over five hundred years ago!

Grocyn’s lasting fame is assured: his bust looks down from Musā on today’s Wykehamists as they make their way up to books along Meads Path, he has a memorial brass plaque set up by New College in Newton Longville church, and the principal teacher of Greek and Latin language in the Oxford Classics Faculty bears the title Grocyn Lecturer.

This is no more than his due; and he would be pleased, too, I think, to see how the study of Classics still flourishes in his own old school, a bright beacon in a world where such learning isn’t always valued as it might be. In an age when even the national government thinks it proper to cancel at the stroke of a pen its support for Latin teaching in the maintained sector, long may this particular Wykehamical light continue to shine!

Stephen Anderson is sat in discussion with students in New College’s Red Room. There is a William of Wykeham painting behind him. — Stephen Anderson teaching Greek to a group of First Year students in New College’s Red Room. William of Wykeham looks on from behind.

I now teach at New College, perhaps sometimes in the very same rooms where Grocyn took his first steps in Greek over five hundred years ago.

A colour photograph showing ten Winchester College Dons from the year 2000. — The Classics Department in 2000. Standing l to r: Frank Garcia, Caroline Butler, Stephen Anderson, Coralie Ovenden, Claire Webster. Seated l to r: Andrew Leigh, Geoff Hewitson, James Sabben-Clare, Jock Macdonald, John Falconer.

A black and white photograph showing Winchester College Dons — Winchester College Dons, 1982. Stephen is second from the right on the back row.

Support us

Winchester College only exists as we know it today thanks to the generous support of those named over the next few pages, and the many generations of donors who have come before us, going right back to our Founder, William of Wykeham. Our pupils past, present and future cannot thank you enough.

Support Us