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111-399: The chapel was constructed between 1179 and 1184, replacing a much smaller chapel of the same name destroyed by fire, along with much of the rest of the choir, in 1174. Its predecessor was where Becket celebrated his first mass following his installation as Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1220, Becket's remains were translated from his first tomb to the finished chapel. As a result of this event,

222-409: A "passionate attachment" ( Latin : fervidos amores ), with a fellow canon, Servatius Rogerus, and wrote a series of love letters in which he called Rogerus "half my soul", writing that "it was not for the sake of reward or out of a desire for any favour that I have wooed you both unhappily and relentlessly. What is it then? Why, that you love him who loves you." This correspondence contrasts with

333-532: A Christian Knight , On Civility in Children , Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style and many other popular and pedagogical works. Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religious reformations . He developed a biblical humanistic theology in which he advocated the religious and civil necessity both of peaceable concord and of pastoral tolerance on matters of indifference . He remained

444-423: A common medieval form of apprenticeship for boys into knighthood or prestige appointments. The countess was married to Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence , the second surviving son of the king, Edward III , and the position brought the teenage Chaucer into the close court circle, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. He also worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and a civil servant, as well as working for

555-537: A copy in his library among other works of Chaucer), with G. K. Chesterton writing, "among the great canonical English authors, Chaucer and Dickens have the most in common." The large number of surviving manuscripts of Chaucer's works is testimony to the enduring interest in his poetry prior to the arrival of the printing press. There are 83 surviving manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales (in whole or part) alone, along with sixteen of Troilus and Criseyde , including

666-659: A deep aversion to exclusive or excessive Aristotelianism and Scholasticism and started finding work as a tutor/chaperone to visiting English and Scottish aristocrats. There is no record of him graduating. Patrons : William Blount  • William Warham  • John Fisher  • John Longland  • Margaret Beaufort  • Catherine of Aragon Erasmus stayed in England at least three times. In between he had periods studying in Paris, Orléans, Leuven and other cities. In 1499 he

777-495: A deposition in the case of Scrope v. Grosvenor . There is no further reference after this date to Philippa, Chaucer's wife. She is presumed to have died in 1387. He survived the political upheavals caused by the Lords Appellants , despite the fact that Chaucer knew some of the men executed over the affair quite well. On 12 July 1389, Chaucer was appointed the clerk of the king's works , a sort of foreman organising most of

888-411: A disagreement with the friars over rent that caused bad blood. He assisted his friend John Colet by authoring Greek textbooks and securing members of staff for the newly established St Paul's School and was in contact when Colet gave his notorious 1512 Convocation sermon which called for a reformation of ecclesiastical affairs. At Colet's instigation, Erasmus started work on De copia . In 1511,

999-494: A full purse from his generous friends, to allow him to complete his studies. However, he had been provided with bad legal advice by his friends: the English Customs officials confiscated all the gold and silver, leaving him with nothing except a night fever that lasted several months. Opponents : Noël Béda (or Bédier) Following his first trip to England, Erasmus returned first to poverty in Paris, where he started to compile

1110-584: A general historical trend towards the creation of a vernacular literature , after the example of Dante , in many parts of Europe. A parallel trend in Chaucer's lifetime was underway in Scotland through the work of his slightly earlier contemporary, John Barbour . Barbour's work was likely to have been even more general, as is evidenced by the example of the Pearl Poet in the north of England. Although Chaucer's language

1221-527: A given time as any other man he had ever met. In 1507, according to his letters, he studied advanced Greek in Padua with the Venetian natural philosopher, Giulio Camillo . He found employment tutoring and escorting Scottish nobleman Alexander Stewart , the 24-year old Archbishop of St Andrews, through Padua, Florence, and Siena Erasmus made it to Rome in 1509, visiting some notable libraries and cardinals, but having

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1332-577: A kind of conversion experience, and introduced him to Origen . In 1502, Erasmus went to Brabant, ultimately to the university at Louvain. In 1504 he was hired by the leaders of the Brabantian "Provincial States" to deliver one of his few public speeches, a very long formal panegyric for the Philip "the Fair" , Duke of Burgundy and later King of Castille: the first half being the conventional extravagant praise, but

1443-433: A lease on a residence within the close of Westminster Abbey on 24 December 1399. Henry IV renewed the grants assigned by Richard, but The Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse hints that the grants might not have been paid. The last mention of Chaucer is on 5 June 1400, when some debts owed to him were repaid. Chaucer died of unknown causes on 25 October 1400, although the only evidence for this date comes from

1554-454: A less active association with Italian scholars than might have been expected. In 1509, William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Mountjoy lured him back to England, now ruled by what was hoped would be a wise and benevolent king ( Henry VIII ) educated by humanists. Warham and Mountjoy sent Erasmus £10 to cover his expenses on the journey. On his trip over the Alps via Splügen Pass, and down

1665-564: A member of the Catholic Church all his life, remaining committed to reforming the church from within. He promoted the traditional doctrine of synergism , which some prominent reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin rejected in favor of the doctrine of monergism . His influential middle-road approach disappointed, and even angered, partisans in both camps. Erasmus's almost 70 years may be divided into quarters. Desiderius Erasmus

1776-511: A member of the royal court of Edward III as a valet de chambre , yeoman , or esquire on 20 June 1367, a position which could entail a wide variety of tasks. His wife also received a pension for court employment. He travelled abroad many times, at least some of them in his role as a valet. In 1368, he may have attended the wedding of Lionel of Antwerp to Violante Visconti , daughter of Galeazzo II Visconti , in Milan . Two other literary stars of

1887-483: A more ornate tomb, making him the first writer interred in the area now known as Poets' Corner . Chaucer was a close friend of John of Gaunt , the wealthy Duke of Lancaster and father of Henry IV, and he served under Lancaster's patronage. Near the end of their lives, Lancaster and Chaucer became brothers-in-law when Lancaster married Katherine Swynford (de Roet) in 1396; she was the sister of Philippa (de) Roet, whom Chaucer had married in 1366. Chaucer's The Book of

1998-687: A noyse gan they make That erthe & eyr & tre & euery lake So ful was that onethe was there space For me to stonde, so ful was al the place. "The language of England, upon which Chaucer was the first to confer celebrity, has amply justified the foresight which led him to disdain all others for its sake, and, in turn, has conferred an enduring celebrity upon him who trusted his reputation to it without reserve." —T. R. Lounsbury. The poet Thomas Hoccleve , who may have met Chaucer and considered him his role model, hailed Chaucer as "the firste fyndere of our fair langage". John Lydgate referred to Chaucer within his own text The Fall of Princes as

2109-522: A philosopher and astronomer , composing the scientific A Treatise on the Astrolabe for his 10-year-old son, Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat , courtier , diplomat, and member of parliament. Among Chaucer's many other works are The Book of the Duchess , The House of Fame , The Legend of Good Women , and Troilus and Criseyde . He is seen as crucial in legitimising

2220-729: A spontaneous, copious and natural Latin style. As a Catholic priest developing humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared pioneering new Latin and Greek scholarly editions of the New Testament and of the Church Fathers , with annotations and commentary that were immediately and vitally influential in both the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Reformation . He also wrote On Free Will , The Praise of Folly , The Complaint of Peace , Handbook of

2331-622: A stipend, Erasmus went on to study at the University of Paris in the Collège de Montaigu , a centre of reforming zeal, under the direction of the ascetic Jan Standonck , of whose rigors he complained. The university was then the chief seat of Scholastic learning but already coming under the influence of Renaissance humanism. For instance, Erasmus became an intimate friend of an Italian humanist Publio Fausto Andrelini , poet and "professor of humanity" in Paris. During this time, Erasmus developed

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2442-570: A style which had developed in English literature since around the 12th century as an alternative to the alliterative Anglo-Saxon metre . Chaucer is known for metrical innovation, inventing the rhyme royal , and he was one of the first English poets to use the five-stress line, a decasyllabic cousin to the iambic pentametre , in his work, with only a few anonymous short works using it before him. The arrangement of these five-stress lines into rhyming couplets , first seen in his The Legend of Good Women ,

2553-489: A superb gilded copper effigy beneath a tester depicting the Holy Trinity , with his heraldic achievements hung over the tester. The achievements have now been replaced by replicas, though the originals can still be seen nearby, and the tester was restored in 2006. Also buried in the chapel are King Henry IV and his second wife, Joan of Navarre, Queen of England . Henry's tomb is on the north side of Trinity Chapel, next to

2664-789: A tenant farmer in Agmondesham ( Amersham in Buckinghamshire ), was brought before John Chadworth , the Bishop of Lincoln , on charges of being a Lollard heretic; he confessed to owning a "boke of the Tales of Caunterburie" among other suspect volumes. Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( / ˌ d ɛ z ɪ ˈ d ɪər i ə s ɪ ˈ r æ z m ə s / DEZ -i- DEER -ee-əs irr- AZ -məs ; Dutch: [ˌdeːziˈdeːrijʏs eːˈrɑsmʏs] ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus ,

2775-478: A year staying at recently married Thomas More 's house, now a lawyer and Member of Parliament, honing his translation skills. Erasmus preferred to live the life of an independent scholar and made a conscious effort to avoid any actions or formal ties that might inhibit his individual freedom. In England Erasmus was approached with prominent offices but he declined them all, until the King himself offered his support. He

2886-509: A year. Eventually Erasmus moved to the same abbey as a postulant in or before 1487, around the age of 16 (or 19.) Poverty had forced the sickly, bookish, teenaged orphan Erasmus into the consecrated life, entering the novitiate in 1487 at the canonry at rural Stein , very near Gouda, South Holland : the Chapter of Sion community largely borrowed its rule from the larger monkish Congregation of Windesheim who had historical associations with

2997-401: Is a reference to Lancaster (also called "Loncastel" and "Longcastell"), "walles white" is thought to be an oblique reference to Blanche, "Seynt Johan" was John of Gaunt's name-saint, and "ryche hil" is a reference to Richmond. These references reveal the identity of the grieving black knight of the poem as John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and Earl of Richmond. "White" is the English translation of

3108-542: Is an accepted version of this page Geoffrey Chaucer ( / ˈ tʃ ɔː s ər / CHAW -sər ; c.  1343 – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales . He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner , in Westminster Abbey . Chaucer also gained fame as

3219-419: Is attested by the many poets who imitated or responded to his writing. John Lydgate was one of the earliest poets to write continuations of Chaucer's unfinished Tales . At the same time Robert Henryson 's Testament of Cresseid completes the story of Cressida left unfinished in his Troilus and Criseyde . Many of the manuscripts of Chaucer's works contain material from these poets, and later appreciations by

3330-459: Is believed that he started The Canterbury Tales in the 1380s. Chaucer also translated Boethius ' Consolation of Philosophy and The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris (extended by Jean de Meun). Eustache Deschamps called himself a "nettle in Chaucer's garden of poetry". In 1385, Thomas Usk made glowing mention of Chaucer, and John Gower also lauded him. Chaucer's Treatise on

3441-419: Is believed to be in Chaucer's Parlement of Foules (1382), a dream vision portraying a parliament for birds to choose their mates. Honouring the first anniversary of the engagement of fifteen-year-old King Richard II of England to fifteen-year-old Anne of Bohemia : For this was on seynt Volantynys day Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make Of euery kynde that men thinke may And that so heuge

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3552-702: Is derived from the French chaucier , once thought to mean 'shoemaker', but now known to mean a maker of hose or leggings . In 1324, his father, John Chaucer, was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of marrying the 12-year-old to her daughter in an attempt to keep the property in Ipswich. The aunt was imprisoned and fined £250, now equivalent to about £200,000, suggesting that the family was financially secure. John Chaucer married Agnes Copton, who inherited properties in 1349, including 24 shops in London, from her uncle Hamo de Copton, who

3663-525: Is described in a will dated 3 April 1354 and listed in the City Hustings Roll as "moneyer", said to be a moneyer at the Tower of London . In the City Hustings Roll 110, 5, Ric II, dated June 1380, Chaucer refers to himself as me Galfridum Chaucer, filium Johannis Chaucer, Vinetarii, Londonie , which translates as: "I, Geoffrey Chaucer, son of the vintner John Chaucer, London". While records concerning

3774-451: Is much closer to Modern English than the text of Beowulf , such that (unlike that of Beowulf ) a Modern English speaker with an extensive vocabulary of archaic words may understand it, it differs enough that most publications modernise his idiom. The following is a sample from the prologue of The Summoner's Tale that compares Chaucer's text to a modern translation: The first recorded association of Valentine's Day with romantic love

3885-597: Is reported to have been born in Rotterdam on 27 or 28 October ("the vigil of Simon and Jude") in the late 1460s. He was named after Erasmus of Formiae , whom Erasmus' father Gerard (Gerardus Helye) personally favored. Although associated closely with Rotterdam, he lived there for only four years, never to return afterwards. The year of Erasmus' birth is unclear: in later life he calculated his age as if born in 1466, but frequently his remembered age at major events actually implies 1469. (This article currently gives 1466 as

3996-493: Is uncertain how many children Chaucer and Philippa had, but three or four are most commonly cited. His son, Thomas Chaucer , had an illustrious career as chief butler to four kings, envoy to France, and Speaker of the House of Commons . Thomas's daughter, Alice , married the Duke of Suffolk . Thomas's great-grandson (Geoffrey's great-great-grandson), John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln , was

4107-460: Is uncertain, but he seems to have travelled in France, Spain, and Flanders , possibly as a messenger and perhaps even going on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela . Around 1366, Chaucer married Philippa (de) Roet . She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward III's queen, Philippa of Hainault , and a sister of Katherine Swynford , who later ( c.  1396 ) became the third wife of John of Gaunt . It

4218-421: Is where he began learning it. His education there ended when plague struck the city about 1483, and his mother, who had moved to provide a home for her sons, died from the infection; then his father. Following the death of his parents, as well as 20 fellow students at his school, he moved back to his patria (Rotterdam?) where he was supported by Berthe de Heyden, a compassionate widow. In 1484, around

4329-404: Is widely thought to have received its name from having been built to contain the relic of the crown of St. Thomas's head which was struck off during his murder. However, Robert Willis in his Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral (1845) rejected this idea, saying that the corona was a word applied to the eastern apses of many churches in the medieval period. In his account of a visit to

4440-741: The Adagio for his students, then to Orléans to escape the plague, and then to semi-monastic life, scholarly studies and writing in France, notably at the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Bertin at St Omer (1501,1502) where he wrote the initial version of the Enchiridion ( Handbook of the Christian Knight .) A particular influence was his encounter in 1501 with Jean (Jehan) Vitrier, a radical Franciscan who consolidated Erasmus' thoughts against excessive valorization of monasticism, ceremonialism and fasting in

4551-757: The Brethren of the Common Life , but also with the notable pastoral, mystical and anti-speculative post-scholastic theologians Jean Gerson and Gabriel Biel : positions associated also with Erasmus. In 1488–1490, the surrounding region was plundered badly by armies fighting the Squire Francis War of succession and then suffered a famine. Erasmus professed his vows as a Canon regular of St. Augustine there in late 1488 at age 19 (or 22). Historian Fr. Aiden Gasquet later wrote: "One thing, however, would seem to be quite clear; he could never have had any vocation for

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4662-610: The Middle English language from a combination of the Kentish and Midlands dialects. This is probably overstated; the influence of the court, chancery and bureaucracy – of which Chaucer was a part – remains a more probable influence on the development of Standard English . Modern English is somewhat distanced from the language of Chaucer's poems owing to the effect of the Great Vowel Shift sometime after his death. This change in

4773-471: The Romantic era poets were shaped by their failure to distinguish the later "additions" from the original Chaucer. Writers of the 17th and 18th centuries, such as John Dryden , admired Chaucer for his stories but not for his rhythm and rhyme, as few critics could then read Middle English and the text had been butchered by printers, leaving a somewhat unadmirable mess. It was not until the late 19th century that

4884-513: The University of Cambridge 's chancellor, John Fisher , arranged for Erasmus to be (or to study to prepare to be) the Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity , though whether he actually was accepted for it or took it up is contested by historians. He studied and taught Greek and researched and lectured on Jerome . Erasmus mainly stayed at Queens' College while lecturing at the university, between 1511 and 1515. Erasmus' rooms were located in

4995-534: The pronunciation of English, still not fully understood, makes the reading of Chaucer difficult for the modern audience. The status of the final -e in Chaucer's verse is uncertain: it seems likely that during the period of Chaucer's writing, the final -e was dropping out of colloquial English and that its use was somewhat irregular. It may have been a vestige of the Old English dative singular suffix -e attached to most nouns. Chaucer's versification suggests that

5106-454: The sweating sickness plague (to Orléans ), employment (to England ), searching libraries for manuscripts, writing ( Brabant ), royal counsel ( Cologne ), patronage, tutoring and chaperoning (North Italy ), networking ( Rome ), seeing books through printing in person ( Paris , Venice , Louvain , Basel ), and avoiding the persecution of religious fanatics (to Freiburg ). He enjoyed horseback riding. In 1495 with Bishop Henry's consent and

5217-437: The " I " staircase of Old Court. Despite a chronic shortage of money, he succeeded in mastering Greek by an intensive, day-and-night study of three years, taught by Thomas Linacre , continuously begging in letters that his friends send him books and money for teachers. Erasmus suffered from poor health and was especially concerned with heating, clean air, ventilation, draughts, fresh food and unspoiled wine: he complained about

5328-512: The "lodesterre (guiding principle) … off our language". Around two centuries later, Sir Philip Sidney greatly praised Troilus and Criseyde in his own Defence of Poesie . During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, Chaucer came to be viewed as a symbol of the nation's poetic heritage. In Charles Dickens ' 1850 novel David Copperfield , the Victorian era author echoed Chaucer's use of Luke 23:34 from Troilus and Criseyde (Dickens held

5439-572: The Astrolabe describes the form and use of the astrolabe in detail and is sometimes cited as the first example of technical writing in the English language. It indicates that Chaucer was versed in science in addition to his literary talents. The equatorie of the planetis is a scientific work similar to the Treatise and sometimes ascribed to Chaucer because of its language and handwriting, an identification which scholars no longer deem tenable. Chaucer wrote in continental accentual-syllabic metre ,

5550-554: The Duchess (also known as the Deeth of Blaunche the Duchesse ) was written to commemorate Blanche of Lancaster, John of Gaunt's first wife. The poem refers to John and Blanche in allegory as the narrator relates the tale of "A long castel with walles white/Be Seynt Johan, on a ryche hil" (1318–1319) who is mourning grievously after the death of his love, "And goode faire White she het/That was my lady name ryght" (948–949). The phrase "long castel"

5661-598: The French word "blanche", implying that the white lady was Blanche of Lancaster. Chaucer's short poem Fortune , believed to have been written in the 1390s, is also thought to refer to Lancaster. "Chaucer as narrator" openly defies Fortune , proclaiming that he has learned who his enemies are through her tyranny and deceit, and declares "my suffisaunce" (15) and that "over himself hath the maystrye" (14). Fortune , in turn, does not understand Chaucer's harsh words to her for she believes that she has been kind to him, claims that he does not know what she has in store for him in

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5772-448: The Gouda region. In 1505, Pope Julius II granted a dispensation from the vow of poverty to the extent of allowing Erasmus to hold certain benefices, and from the control and habit of his order , though he remained a priest and, formally, an Augustinian canon regular the rest his life. In 1517, Pope Leo X granted legal dispensations for Erasmus' defects of natality and confirmed

5883-542: The Greek language, which would enable him to study theology on a more profound level. Erasmus also became fast friends with Thomas More , a young law student considering becoming a monk, whose thought (e.g., on conscience and equity) had been influenced by 14th century French theologian Jean Gerson , and whose intellect had been developed by his powerful patron Cardinal John Morton (d. 1500) who had famously attempted reforms of English monasteries. Erasmus left London with

5994-603: The Rhine toward England, Erasmus began to compose The Praise of Folly . In 1510, Erasmus arrived at More's bustling house, was confined to bed to recover from his recurrent illness, and wrote The Praise of Folly , which was to be a best-seller. More was at that time the undersheriff of the City of London . After his glorious reception in Italy, Erasmus had returned broke and jobless, with strained relations with former friends and benefactors on

6105-699: The Stein house and take up the post of Latin Secretary to the ambitious Bishop of Cambrai , Henry of Bergen, on account of his great skill in Latin and his reputation as a man of letters. He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood either on 25 April 1492, or 25 April 1495, at age 25 (or 28.) Either way, he did not actively work as a choir priest for very long, though his many works on confession and penance suggests experience of dispensing them. From 1500, he avoided returning to

6216-609: The Visconti and Sir John Hawkwood , English condottiere (mercenary leader) in Milan. It has been speculated that it was Hawkwood on whom Chaucer based his character, the Knight, in the Canterbury Tales , for a description matches that of a 14th-century condottiere. A possible indication that his career as a writer was appreciated came when Edward III granted Chaucer "a gallon of wine daily for

6327-532: The age 14 (or 17), he and his brother went to a cheaper grammar school or seminary at 's-Hertogenbosch run by the Brethren of the Common Life : Erasmus' Epistle to Grunnius satirizes them as the "Collationary Brethren" who select and sort boys for monkhood. He was exposed there to the Devotio moderna movement and the Brethren's famous book The Imitation of Christ but resented the harsh rules and strict methods of

6438-553: The age of 6 (or 9), his family moved to Gouda and he started at the school of Pieter Winckel, who later became his guardian (and, perhaps, squandered Erasmus and Peter's inheritance.) Historians who date his birth in 1466 have Erasmus in Utrecht at the choir school at this period. In 1478, at the age of 9 (or 12), he and his older brother Peter were sent to one of the best Latin schools in the Netherlands, located at Deventer and owned by

6549-421: The birth year. To handle this disagreement, ages are given first based on 1469, then in parentheses based on 1466: e.g., "20 (or 23)".) Furthermore, many details of his early life must be gleaned from a fictionalized third-person account he wrote in 1516 (published in 1529) in a letter to a fictitious Papal secretary, Lambertus Grunnius ("Mr. Grunt"). His parents could not be legally married: his father, Gerard,

6660-412: The bubonic plague in 1483. His only sibling Peter might have been born in 1463, and some writers suggest Margaret was a widow and Peter was the half-brother of Erasmus; Erasmus on the other hand called him his brother. There were legal and social restrictions on the careers and opportunities open to the children of unwed parents. Erasmus' own story, in the possibly forged 1524 Compendium vitae Erasmi

6771-447: The canonry at Stein even insisting the diet and hours would kill him, though he did stay with other Augustinian communities and at monasteries of other orders in his travels. Rogerus, who became prior at Stein in 1504, and Erasmus corresponded over the years, with Rogerus demanding Erasmus return after his studies were complete. Nevertheless, the library of the canonry ended up with by far the largest collection of Erasmus' publications in

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6882-535: The cathedral, before the destruction of the shrine, Erasmus said that the saint's head was displayed in the crypt. Records of valuable gifts made there by pilgrims in the 13th century do, however, indicate that there were some relics of St Thomas Becket in the Corona. The shrines of St Odo and St Wilfred were also eventually placed there. 51°16′47″N 1°05′01″E  /  51.2797°N 1.0837°E  / 51.2797; 1.0837 Geoffrey Chaucer This

6993-549: The chapel became a major pilgrimage site, inspiring Geoffrey Chaucer to write The Canterbury Tales in 1387 and with routes (e.g. from Southwark (Chaucer's route) and the Pilgrim's Way to/from Winchester) converging on the cathedral. Becket's shrine stood until it was destroyed in 1540. This was done on orders from King Henry VIII as vengeance for his ancestor, Henry II . The king also destroyed Becket's bones and ordered that all mention of his name be obliterated. The pavement where

7104-509: The chapter clergy of the Lebuïnuskerk (St. Lebuin's Church). A notable previous student was Thomas à Kempis . Towards the end of his stay there the curriculum was renewed by the new principal of the school, Alexander Hegius , a correspondent of pioneering rhetorician Rudolphus Agricola . For the first time in Europe north of the Alps, Greek was taught at a lower level than a university and this

7215-408: The commissioners of peace for Kent at a time when French invasion was a possibility. He is thought to have started work on The Canterbury Tales in the early 1380s. He also became a member of parliament for Kent in 1386 and attended the ' Wonderful Parliament ' that year. He appears to have been present at most of the 71 days it sat, for which he was paid £24 9s. On 15 October that year, he gave

7326-495: The continent, and he regretted leaving Italy, despite being horrified by papal warfare. There is a gap in his usually voluminous correspondence: his so-called "two lost years", perhaps due to self-censorship of dangerous or disgruntled opinions; he shared lodgings with his friend Andrea Ammonio (Latin secretary to Mountjoy, and the next year, to Henry VIII) provided at the London Austin Friars ' compound, skipping out after

7437-522: The degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology ( Sacra Theologia ) from the University of Turin per saltum at age 37 (or 40.) Erasmus stayed tutoring in Bologna for a year; in the winter, Erasmus was present when Pope Julius II entered victorious into the conquered Bologna which he had besieged before. Erasmus travelled on to Venice, working on an expanded version of his Adagia at the Aldine Press of

7548-548: The draughtiness of English buildings. He complained that Queens' College could not supply him with enough decent wine (wine was the Renaissance medicine for gallstones, from which Erasmus suffered). As Queens' was an unusually humanist-leaning institution in the 16th century, Queens' College Old Library still houses many first editions of Erasmus's publications, many of which were acquired during that period by bequest or purchase, including Erasmus's New Testament translation, which

7659-403: The dukes of Lancaster, York , and Gloucester , and a portion of line 76 ("as three of you or tweyne") is thought to refer to the ordinance of 1390 which specified that no royal gift could be authorised without the consent of at least two of the three dukes. Most conspicuous in this short poem is the number of references to Chaucer's "beste frend". Fortune states three times in her response to

7770-567: The early 1340s (by some accounts, including his monument, he was born in 1343), though the precise date and location remain unknown. The Chaucer family offers an extraordinary example of upward mobility. His great-grandfather was a tavern keeper, his grandfather worked as a purveyor of wines, and his father, John Chaucer, rose to become an important wine merchant with a royal appointment. Several previous generations of Geoffrey Chaucer's family had been vintners and merchants in Ipswich . His family name

7881-515: The engraving on his tomb, which was erected more than 100 years after his death. There is some speculation that he was murdered by enemies of Richard II or even on the orders of his successor Henry IV, but the case is entirely circumstantial. Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey in London, as was his right owing to his status as a tenant of the Abbey's close. In 1556, his remains were transferred to

7992-565: The era were in attendance: Jean Froissart and Petrarch . Around this time, Chaucer is believed to have written The Book of the Duchess in honour of Blanche of Lancaster , the late wife of John of Gaunt, who died in 1369 of the plague. Chaucer travelled to Picardy the next year as part of a military expedition; in 1373, he visited Genoa and Florence . Numerous scholars such as Skeat, Boitani, and Rowland suggested that, on this Italian trip, he came into contact with Petrarch or Boccaccio . They introduced him to medieval Italian poetry ,

8103-441: The famous printer Aldus Manutius , advised him which manuscripts to publish, and was an honorary member of the graecophone Aldine "New Academy" ( Greek : Neakadêmia (Νεακαδημία) ). From Aldus he learned the in-person workflow that made him productive at Froben: making last-minute changes, and immediately checking and correcting printed page proofs as soon as the ink had dried. Aldus wrote that Erasmus could do twice as much work in

8214-533: The final -e is sometimes to be vocalised and sometimes to be silent; however, this remains a point on which there is disagreement. Most scholars pronounce it as a schwa when it is vocalised. Besides the irregular spelling, much of the vocabulary is recognisable to the modern reader. Chaucer is also recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary as the first author to use many common English words in his writings. These words were probably frequently used in

8325-565: The forms and stories of which he would use later. The purposes of a voyage in 1377 are mysterious, as details within the historical record conflict. Later documents suggest it was a mission, along with Jean Froissart, to arrange a marriage between the future King Richard II and a French princess, thereby ending the Hundred Years' War. If this was the purpose of their trip, they seem to have been unsuccessful, as no wedding occurred. In 1378, Richard II sent Chaucer as an envoy (secret dispatch) to

8436-464: The future, but most importantly, "And eek thou hast thy beste frend alyve" (32, 40, 48). Chaucer retorts, "My frend maystow nat reven, blind goddesse" (50) and orders her to take away those who merely pretend to be his friends. Fortune turns her attention to three princes whom she implores to relieve Chaucer of his pain and "Preyeth his beste frend of his noblesse/That to som beter estat he may atteyne" (78–79). The three princes are believed to represent

8547-419: The generally detached and much more restrained attitude he usually showed in his later life, though he had a capacity to form and maintain deep male friendships, such as with More , Colet, and Ammonio. No mentions or sexual accusations were ever made of Erasmus during his lifetime. His works notably praise moderate sexual desire in marriage between men and women. In 1493, his prior arranged for him to leave

8658-471: The heir to the throne designated by Richard III before he was deposed. Geoffrey's other children probably included Elizabeth Chaucy, a nun at Barking Abbey , Agnes, an attendant at Henry IV 's coronation; and another son, Lewis Chaucer. Chaucer's "Treatise on the Astrolabe" was written for Lewis. According to tradition, Chaucer studied law in the Inner Temple (an Inn of Court ) at this time. He became

8769-591: The king from 1389 to 1391 as Clerk of the King's Works. In 1359, in the early stages of the Hundred Years' War , Edward III invaded France, and Chaucer travelled with Lionel of Antwerp, Elizabeth's husband, as part of the English army . In 1360, he was captured during the siege of Rheims . Edward paid £16 for his ransom, a considerable sum equivalent to £14,557 in 2023, and Chaucer was released. After this, Chaucer's life

8880-468: The king's building projects. No major works were begun during his tenure, but he did conduct repairs on Westminster Palace , St. George's Chapel, Windsor , continued building the wharf at the Tower of London and built the stands for a tournament held in 1390. It may have been a difficult job, but it paid two shillings a day, more than three times his salary as a comptroller. Chaucer was also appointed keeper of

8991-417: The language at the time, but Chaucer was the earliest extant manuscript source with his ear for common speech. Acceptable , alkali , altercation , amble , angrily , annex , annoyance , approaching , arbitration , armless , army , arrogant , arsenic , arc , artillery and aspect are just some of almost two thousand English words first attested in Chaucer. Widespread knowledge of Chaucer's works

9102-453: The legend, the oil had then passed to Henry's maternal grandfather, Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster . Evidence of Henry's deliberate connexion to St Thomas lies in the structure of the tomb itself. The wooden panel at the western end of his tomb bears a painting of the martyrdom of Becket, and the tester, or wooden canopy, above the tomb is painted with Henry's personal motto, 'Soverayne', alternated by crowned golden eagles. Likewise,

9213-417: The liquid stipend until Richard II came to power, after which it was converted to a monetary grant on 18 April 1378. Chaucer obtained the very substantial job of comptroller of the customs for the port of London, which he began on 8 June 1374. He must have been suited for the role as he continued in it for twelve years, a long time in such a post at that time. His life goes undocumented for much of

9324-532: The literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin . Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as " the firste fyndere of our fair langage " (i.e., the first one capable of finding poetic matter in English). Almost two thousand English words are first attested to in Chaucerian manuscripts. Chaucer was born in London, most likely in

9435-554: The lives of his contemporaries William Langland and the Gawain Poet are practically non-existent, since Chaucer was a public servant, his official life is very well documented, with nearly five hundred written items testifying to his career. The first of the "Chaucer Life Records" appears in 1357, in the household accounts of Elizabeth de Burgh , the Countess of Ulster , when he became the noblewoman's page through his father's connections,

9546-578: The lodge at the King's Park in Feckenham Forest in Worcestershire , which was a largely honorary appointment. In September 1390, records say that Chaucer was robbed and possibly injured while conducting the business, and he stopped working in this capacity on 17 June 1391. He began as Deputy Forester in the royal forest of Petherton Park in North Petherton , Somerset on 22 June. This

9657-466: The martyred saint for reasons of political expediency, namely, the legitimation of his dynasty after seizing the throne from his cousin, Richard II . Significantly, at his coronation, he was anointed with holy oil which was said to have been given to Becket by the Virgin Mary shortly before his death in 1170; this oil was placed inside a distinct eagle-shaped container of gold. According to one version of

9768-542: The next ten years, but it is believed that he wrote (or began) most of his famous works during this period. Chaucer's "only surviving handwriting" dates from this period. This is a request for temporary leave from work presented to King Richard II, hitherto believed to be the work of one of his subordinates due to the low level of language. On 16 October 1379, Thomas Staundon filed a legal action against his former servant Cecily Chaumpaigne and Chaucer, accusing Chaucer of unlawfully employing Chaumpaigne before her term of service

9879-415: The official Chaucerian canon, accepted today, was decided upon, largely as a result of Walter William Skeat 's work. Roughly seventy-five years after Chaucer's death, The Canterbury Tales was selected by William Caxton as one of the first books to be printed in England. Chaucer is sometimes considered the source of the English vernacular tradition. His achievement for the language can be seen as part of

9990-647: The personal copy of Henry IV. Given the ravages of time, it is likely that these surviving manuscripts represent hundreds since lost. Chaucer's original audience was a courtly one and would have included women as well as men of the upper social classes. Yet even before his death in 1400, Chaucer's audience had begun to include members of the rising literate, middle and merchant classes. This included many Lollard sympathisers who may well have been inclined to read Chaucer as one of their own. Lollards were particularly attracted to Chaucer's satirical writings about friars, priests, and other church officials. In 1464, John Baron,

10101-631: The plaintiff, "And also, you still have your best friend alive" (32, 40, 48); she also refers to his "beste frend" in the envoy when appealing to his "noblesse" to help Chaucer to a higher estate. The narrator makes a fifth reference when he rails at Fortune that she shall not take his friend from him. Chaucer respected and admired Christians and was one himself, as he wrote in Canterbury Tales , "now I beg all those that listen to this little treatise, or read it, that if there be anything in it that pleases them, they thank our Lord Jesus Christ for it, from whom proceeds all understanding and goodness.", though he

10212-480: The previous dispensation, allowing the 48-(or 51-)year-old his independence but still, as a canon, capable of holding office as a prior or abbot. In 1525, Pope Clement VII granted, for health reasons, a dispensation to eat meat and dairy in Lent and on fast days. Erasmus traveled widely and regularly, for reasons of poverty, "escape" from his Stein canonry (to Cambrai ), education (to Paris , Turin ), escape from

10323-600: The religious brothers and educators. The two brothers made an agreement that they would resist the clergy but attend the university; Erasmus longed to study in Italy, the birthplace of Latin, and have a degree from an Italian university. Instead, Peter left for the Augustinian canonry in Stein , which left Erasmus feeling betrayed. Around this time he wrote forlornly to his friend Elizabeth de Heyden "Shipwrecked am I, and lost, 'mid waters chill'." He suffered Quartan fever for over

10434-913: The religious life. His whole subsequent history shows this unmistakably." But according to one Catholic biographer, Erasmus had a spiritual awakening at the monastery. Certain abuses in religious orders were among the chief objects of his later calls to reform the Western Church from within, particularly coerced or tricked recruitment of immature boys (the fictionalized account in the Letter to Grunnius calls them "victims of Dominic and Francis and Benedict"): Erasmus felt he had belonged to this class, joining "voluntarily but not freely" and so considered himself, if not morally bound by his vows, certainly legally, socially and honour- bound to keep them, yet to look for his true vocation. While at Stein, 18-(or 21-)year-old Erasmus fell in unrequited love, forming what he called

10545-453: The rest of his life" for some unspecified task. This was an unusual grant, but given on a day of celebration, St George's Day , 1374, when artistic endeavours were traditionally rewarded, it is assumed to have been for another early poetic work. It is not known which, if any, of Chaucer's extant works prompted the reward, but the suggestion of him as a poet to a king places him as a precursor to later poets laureate . Chaucer continued to collect

10656-402: The second half being a strong treatment of the miseries of war, the need for neutrality and concilliation (with the neighbours France and England), and the excellence of peaceful rulers: that real courage in a leader was not to wage war but to put a bridle on greed, etc. This was later published as Panegyricus . Erasmus then returned to Paris in 1504. For Erasmus' second visit, he spent over

10767-523: The shrine of St Thomas Becket . It was unusual for a King of England not to be buried at Westminster Abbey , but Becket's cult was then at its height, as evidenced in the Canterbury Tales , and Henry seemed particularly devoted to it, or at least keen to be associated with it. Reasons for his interment in Canterbury are debatable, but it is highly likely that Henry deliberately associated himself with

10878-550: The shrine stood in the chapel is today marked by a lighted candle. Modern day archbishops of Canterbury celebrate the Eucharist at this place to commemorate Becket's martyrdom and the translation of his body from his first burial place to this chapel. Over time other significant burials took place in this area such as Edward Plantagenet (the Black Prince ), who was interred on the south side of Becket's shrine. His tomb consists of

10989-425: The three large coats of arms that dominate the tester painting are surrounded by collars of SS, a golden eagle enclosed in each tiret. The presence of such eagle motifs most likely points directly to Henry's coronation oil and his ideological association with St Thomas. Sometime after the King's death, an imposing tomb was built for him and his queen, probably commissioned and paid for by Queen Joan herself. On top of

11100-466: The tomb chest lie detailed alabaster effigies of the King and Queen, crowned and dressed in their ceremonial robes. Henry's body was evidently well-embalmed, as an exhumation in 1832 established, allowing historians to state with reasonable certainty that the effigies are accurate portrait. The Corona Tower (sometimes known as "Beckets's Crown"), a circular structure at the east end of the Trinity chapel,

11211-433: Was a Catholic priest who may have spent up to six years in the 1450s or 60s in Italy as a scribe and scholar. His mother was Margaretha Rogerius (Latinized form of Dutch surname Rutgers), the daughter of a doctor from Zevenbergen . She may have been Gerard's housekeeper. Although he was born out of wedlock, Erasmus was cared for by his parents, with a loving household and the best education, until their early deaths from

11322-476: Was a Dutch Christian humanist , Catholic priest and theologian , educationalist , satirist , and philosopher . Through his vast number of translations, books, essays, prayers and letters, he is considered one of the most influential thinkers of the Northern Renaissance and one of the major figures of Dutch and Western culture. Erasmus was an important figure in classical scholarship who wrote in

11433-411: Was alive; many scholars dispute this account. In 1471 his father became the vice-curate of the small town of Woerden (where young Erasmus may have attended the local vernacular school to learn to read and write) and in 1476 was promoted to vice-curate of Gouda . Erasmus was given the highest education available to a young man of his day, in a series of monastic or semi-monastic schools. In 1476, at

11544-404: Was along the lines that his parents were engaged, with the formal marriage blocked by his relatives (presumably a young widow or unmarried mother with a child was not an advantageous match); his father went to Italy to study Latin and Greek, and the relatives misled Gerard that Margaretha had died, on which news grieving Gerard romantically took Holy Orders, only to find on his return that Margaretha

11655-506: Was aware that as in any place some people in the church were venal and corrupt. Chaucer's first major work was The Book of the Duchess , an elegy for Blanche of Lancaster, who died in 1368. Two other early works were Anelida and Arcite and The House of Fame . He wrote many of his major works in a prolific period when he worked as customs comptroller for London (1374 to 1386). His Parlement of Foules , The Legend of Good Women , and Troilus and Criseyde all date from this time. It

11766-741: Was completed, which violated the Statute of Labourers . Though eight court documents dated between October 1379 and July 1380 survive the action, the case was never prosecuted. No details survive about Chaumpaigne's service or how she came to leave Staundon's employ for Chaucer's. It is not known if Chaucer was in the City of London at the time of the Peasants' Revolt , but if he was, he would have seen its leaders pass almost directly under his apartment window at Aldgate . While still working as comptroller, Chaucer appears to have moved to Kent , being appointed as one of

11877-599: Was inclined, but eventually did not accept and longed for a stay in Italy. Opponents : Alberto Pío , Sepúlveda In 1506 he was able to accompany and tutor the sons of the personal physician of the English King through Italy to Bologna. His discovery en route of Lorenzo Valla 's New Testament Notes was a major event in his career and prompted Erasmus to study the New Testament using philology . In 1506 they passed through Turin and he arranged to be awarded

11988-409: Was invited to England by William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy , who offered to accompany him on his trip to England. His time in England was fruitful in the making of lifelong friendships with the leaders of English thought in the days of King Henry VIII . During his first visit to England in 1499, he studied or taught at the University of Oxford . There is no record of him gaining any degree. Erasmus

12099-407: Was no sinecure, with maintenance an essential part of the job, although there were many opportunities to derive profit. Richard II granted him an annual pension of 20 pounds in 1394 (equivalent to £22,034 in 2023), and Chaucer's name fades from the historical record not long after Richard's overthrow in 1399. The last few records of his life show his pension renewed by the new king and his taking

12210-607: Was particularly impressed by the Bible teaching of John Colet , who pursued a style more akin to the church fathers than the Scholastics . Through the influence of the humanist John Colet, his interests turned towards theology. Other distinctive features of Colet's thought that may have influenced Erasmus are his pacifism, reform-mindedness, anti-Scholasticism and pastoral esteem for the sacrament of Confession. This prompted him, upon his return from England to Paris, to intensively study

12321-513: Was used in much of his later work and became one of the standard poetic forms in English. His early influence as a satirist is also important, with the common humorous device, the funny accent of a regional dialect , apparently making its first appearance in The Reeve's Tale . The poetry of Chaucer, along with other writers of the era, is credited with helping to standardise the London Dialect of

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