This prophecy was not fulfilled. He became Fellow of Clare Hall in 1509, and took his master's degree in 1514. His classical studies being ended, he began to study divinity. Duns Scotus, Aquinas, and Hugo de Sancto Victore were his favourite authors. The practical side of things, however, engaged him more than the speculative; and he was more distinguished in Cambridge for his asceticism and enthusiasm than for his learning, He attached importance to the merest trifles. As the missal directs that water should be mingled with the sacramental wine, often while saying mass he would be troubled in his conscience for fear he had not put _sufficient water_.[474] This remorse never left him a moment's tranquillity during the service. In him, as in many others, attachment to puerile ordinances occupied in his heart the place of faith in the great truths. With him, the cause of the church was the cause of God, and he respected Thomas à Becket at least as much as St. Paul. "I was then," said he, "as obstinate a papist as any in England."[475] Luther said the same thing of himself. [474] He thought he had never sufficiently mingled his massing wine with water. Foxe, Acts, viii, p. 433. [475] Ibid. p. 334. [Sidenote: STAFFORD AND THE SOPHISTS.] The fervent Latimer soon observed that everybody around him was not equally zealous with himself for the ceremonies of the church. He watched with surprise certain young members of the university who, forsaking the doctors of the School, met daily to read and search into the Holy Scriptures. People sneered at them in Cambridge: "It is only the _sophists_," was the cry; but raillery was not enough for Latimer. One day he entered the room where these _sophists_ were assembled, and begged them to cease studying the Bible. All his entreaties were useless. Can we be astonished at it? said Latimer to himself. Don't we see even the tutors setting an example to these stray sheep? There is Master Stafford, the most illustrious professor in English universities, devoting his time _ad Biblia_, like Luther at Wittemberg, and explaining the Scriptures according to the Hebrew and Greek texts! and the delighted students celebrate in bad verse the doctor, _Qui Paulum explicuit rite et evangelium._[476] [476] Who has explained to us the true sense of St. Paul and of the Gospel. Strype's Mem. i, p. 74.