John Holte

, called by some Holtigena, was born in the County of Sussex, and from being Usher of the School joyning to the common gate of S. Mary Magdalen College, and Bachelaur of Arts, was elected Probationer of the said College in 1490. and within the compass of an year following was admitted true and perpetual Fellow thereof. Afterwards he took the Degree of Master of Arts, and carried on the profession of Pedagogy so zealous, that by his admirable way of teaching the Faculty of Grammar, many from his School were transplanted to several Colleges and Halls in this University, that were afterwards eminent in the Nation. Since which time, and that of King Henry 7. hath been a singular care of Royal Authority, and of worthy learned men to lay a solid Foundation of all kind of Learning, by producing a right Grammar-Institution. For tho before the said King’s time a great part of our English men had little leisure, and less care of good Arts, yet when the Houses of York and Lancaster were united by the Counsel of Dr. John Moreton, Bishon of Ely, and the times thereupon became more peaceable, our Author Holte made a Grammar, Entit.

Lac Puerorum, &c. Printed about the year 1497. and Dedicated to the said Moreton, then Archbishop of Canterbury. Which Grammar (Printed also with the Works of John Stanbridge) being the first of note, or most fit for use, that was ever Printed in England, was much used and taken into the hands of all sorts of Scholars. Afterwards the said Stanbridge, and his Scholar Robert Whittington, with others, did put forth divers Treaties of Grammar, but more especially Dr. John Colet, the learned Dean of S. Paul’s Cathedral, who compiled the Eight parts of Speech, and William Lilye, the first Master of S. Paul’s School, an English Syntax: whereunto Cardinal Thomas Wolsey did afterwards prefix an Epistle, and directions for teaching the eight Classes or Forms in Ipswich School. The learned Erasmus also, intreated (a)(a) See in the Preface of Tho. Hayne to his Gramm [••] Latinae compendium. Printed 1640. in octavo. From which Pref. one John Twell [•] a School-Master in, or near, Newarke, hath furnished himself with many materials for his Preface to his Grammatica Reformata,—Lond. 1883 [•] in octavo, but without any acknowledgment on his part. by Dr. Colet, to revise Lilyes Syntax, made a new Latin Syntax, in 1513. upon which Henry Pryme, a School-Master in a certain Monastery, and Leonard Cox of Carleon in Monmouthshire Commented; the former in 1539. and the other in 1540. But these things being spoken by the by, I shall only say that our Author Holte being esteemed the most eminent Grammarian of his time, there is no doubt but that he did Compose other things belonging to Grammar, which perhaps are now quite lost,Clar. 1511. and past recovery, as the time of his death, and place of burial is. One Holte, who was Master to Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England, did publish an Accedence and Grammar about the same time that Lac Puerorum was made extant. Which Holte is in the (*)(*) Printed at London in 1682 See there among the English Books in quarto, numb. 310. Auction Catalogue of Mr. Richard Smith, sometimes Secondary of the Poultry Compter, written Nich. Holt. Qu. whether not mistaken for John.