COLET
COLET
separated from that of Ottery St. Mary, the home of
his family, where his father had built for hmi a house
and school. Here, with most congenial work, he was
in close connexion with tho.se to whom he was already
bound by a singular atfection. His doubts as to his
Colet, John, Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral and
founder of St. Paul's School, London; b. in London,
1467; d. there 18 Sept., 1519. He was the eldest son
of Sir Henry Colet, twice Lord Mayor of London.
Having finished his schooling in London, he was sent
reUgiouB position continued, however, to grow, and to Oxford, but no particulars of his hfe there have
earlv in 1S52 he determined that he could no longer been preser\'ed, not even the name of his college,
remain in the Anglican Communion. While at Oxford he determined to become a priest
On Quinquagesima Sunday (February 22) he bade and even before ordination obtained through family farewell to Alphington, and in April, after a retreat at influence much preferment, including the livings of Claphani under the Redemptorist Fathers, he was re- St. Mary Dennington, Suffolk, St. Dunstan, Stepney, ceived into the Catholic Church. Detennined to be and benefices in the counties of Huntingdon, North- a priest, he proceeded in the following September to ampton, York, and Norfolk. In 1493 he began a tour Rome and entered the Accademia dei Nobili, where through France and Italy, studjnng as he went and ac- he had for companions several of his old Oxford friend.s, quiring that love of the new learning which marked and others, including the future Cardinals Manning his after-life. Returning to England in 1496, he pre and Vaughan. He was ordained in 1856 and six months later took the de- gree of D.D. In the sum- mer of 1857 he returned to England, and on the 7th of September entered the Jesuit novitiate, which was then at Beaumont Lodge, Old Windsor, his novice master being Father Thomas Tracy Clarke, for whom to the end of liis life he entertained the highest admiration and esteem. In 1859 he was sent to the Theological College of St. Beuno's, North Wales, as professor of Scripture, and remained there until, in 1865, he was called to London to become the first Jesuit editor of "The Month", a magazine started under other man- agement in the previous year. Then commenced a course of indefatigable hterary labour by which he is best known. Besides the editorship of "The Month", to which, after the death of Father Wil- liam Maher, in 1877, lie added that of "The Mes- senger", and for which
he was one of the mo.st prolific writers. Father Coleridge projected and carried on the well known Quarterly Series to which he himself largely con- tributed, both with his great work "The Public Life of Our Lord" and others, such as "The Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier" and "The Life and Letters of St. Teresa". W^orthy of mention also is his Hannony of the Gospels, "Vita Vitte Nostrae", a favourite book for meditation, published also in an English version. Studies based on the New Testa- ment were his work of predilection, a taste which seems
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pared for ordination, and
became deacon on 17 Dec,
1497, and priest on 25
March, 1497-8. He lec-
tured at Oxford on St.
Paul's Epistles, introduc-
ing a new treatment by
abandoning the purely
textual commentary then
usual, in favour of a study
of the personaUty of St.
Paul and of the text as a
whole. In 1498 he met
Erasmus at Oxford, with
whom he immediatel}' be-
came intimate, arousing in
him especially a distrust of
thelaterschoolmen. Colet's
lectures on the New Testa-
ment continued for five
years, until in 1504 he was,
made Dean of St. Paul's,,
proceechng D.D. before he-
left Oxford. In London,
he became the intimate
friend and spiritual adviser
of Sir Thomas More. At
the death of his father in
1505 he inherited a for-
tune, which he devoted to
public purposes. His ad-
ministration of the cathe-
dral was vigorous, and in
1509 he began the founda-
tion of the great school with
which his name will ever
be associated. The cost of the buildings and en-
domiients is estimated at forty thousand pounds
in present value. The object was to provide a
sound Christian education. Greek was to be at
least of equal importance with Latin. William Lillj'
was the first head master, but Colet exercised a
close personal supervision over the school, even
composing some of the textbooks. In 1512 he was
accused of advanced views and was in difficulties with
his bishop, but on the trial Archbishop Warham dis-
n>issed the charges as frivolous. It may well be that
to have been acquire(J, at least in part, from his old Colet, irritated liy olixious abuses and not seeing how
Oxford tutor, Isaac Williams. For a time he was also far the reaction would go, used language on certain
superior of his religious brethren in Fanii Street, Lon-
don. In 1881 faiUng health obUged him to resign
"The Month" to another Oxonian, Father Richard
F. Clarke, but he continued to labour on "The Life
of Our Lord", which he earnestly desired to finish.
In 1890 a paralytic seizure compelled him to withdraw
to the novitiate at Roehampton, where, wth indom-
itable spirit, he succeeded in completing his magnum
opus before passing away.
The chief sourcea fcir lii.f life are articles in The Month, June 1893, by his friend Jamks r.\TTEii80N, Bishop of Emiimus, and Fathkk RlCHAHu F. Clarke. S. J.
John Gehard.
points which in the liglit of after-events is regrettable,
but there can be no doubt as to his own orthodoxy and
devotion. In 1518 he completed the revised statutes
of his school. At his death the following year he was
buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. His school remained
on its original site until 18S4, when it was removed to ,
Hammersmith.
Colet's works are: "Convocation Sermon of 1512";; "A righte fruitfull admonition concerning the order of a good Christian man's hfe" (1534); "Joannia Coleti Theologi olim Decani T>\v\ Pauli ^ditio" (1527, and often reprinted), the original of almost
