The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21). Volume III. Renascence and Reformation. I. Englishmen and the Classical Renascence. § 8. William Lily. His correspondence with Erasmus shows what time and thought Colet spent on the selection of the first teachers in his school. He finally made choice of William Lily, “the grammarian,” for head-master, and John Ritwyse (Rightwise) for sur-master. Lily ranked with Grocyn and Linacre as one of the most erudite students of Greek that England possessed. After graduating in arts at Oxford, he went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, spent some time with the Knights of St. John at Rhodes, and returning home by Italy studied there under Sulpitius and Pomponius Laeto. He became an intimate friend of Thomas More, and, in conjunction with him, published Progymnasmata, a series of translations from the Greek anthology into Latin elegiacs. For many generations the masters in St. Paul’s school maintained its reputation as the home of classical learning. It became the Deventer or Schlettstadt of England.   25