Queens' College has many claims upon the gratitude of English scholars and English churchmen--it would have been sufficient that she had been the "nursing mother" of John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester--"vere Episcopus, vere Theologus"--under whose cautious supervision Cambridge first tasted of the fruits of the Renascence, who "sat here governor of the schools not only for his learning's sake, but for his divine life"--but she can lay no claim to greater honour than this, that within her walls three hundred years ago, these words were written--they form part of the noble "Paraclesis" of the _Novum Testamentum_ of Erasmus:-- "If the footprints of Christ are anywhere shown to us, we kneel down and adore. Why do we not rather venerate the living and breathing picture of him in these books? If the vesture of Christ be exhibited, where will we not go to kiss it? Yet were his whole wardrobe exhibited, nothing could exhibit Christ more vividly and truly than these Evangelical writings. Statues of wood and stone we decorate with gold and gems for the love of Christ. They only profess to give us the form of his body; these books present us with a living image of his most holy mind. Were we to have seen him with our own eyes, we should not have so intimate a knowledge as they give of Christ, speaking, healing, dying, rising again, as it were, in our actual presence. * * * * * "The sun itself is not more common and open to all than the teaching of Christ. For I utterly dissent from those who are unwilling that the Sacred Scriptures should be read by the unlearned translated into their vulgar tongue, as though Christ had taught such subtleties that they can scarcely be understood even by a few theologians, or as though the strength of the Christian Religion consisted in men's ignorance of it. The mysteries of kings it may be safer to conceal, but Christ wished his mysteries to be published as openly as possible. I wish that even the weakest woman should read the Gospel--should read the Epistles of Paul. And I wish these were translated into all languages, so that they might be read and understood, not only by Scots and Irishmen, but also by Turks and Saracens. To make them understood is surely the first step. It may be that they might be ridiculed by many, but some would take them to heart. I long that the husbandman should sing portions of them to himself as he follows the plough, that the weaver should hum them to the tune of his shuttle, that the traveller should beguile with their stories the tedium of his journey."[58] [Illustration: A Bit from Sidney Street] CHAPTER VIII TWO OF THE SMALLER HALLS