country. So by the time we reach the reign of Edward VI., we find Thomas
Hoby, a typical young gentleman of the period, making in his diary
entries such as these: "Removed to the middes of Italy, to have a better
knowledge of ye tongue and to see Tuscany." "Went to Sicily both to have
a sight of the country and also to absent myself for a while out of
Englishmenne's companie for the tung's sake."[33] Roger Ascham a year or
two later writes from Germany that one of the chief advantages of being
at a foreign court was the ease with which one learned German, French,
and Italian, whether he would or not. "I am almost an Italian myself and
never looks on it." He went so far as to say that such advantages were
worth ten fellowships at St John's.[34]

We have noted how Italy came to be the lode-stone of scholars, and how
courtiers sought the grace which France bestowed, but we have not yet
accounted for the attraction of Germany. Germany, as a centre of travel,
was especially popular in the reign of Edward the Sixth. France went
temporarily out of fashion with those men of whom we have most record.
For in Edward's reign the temper of the leading spirits in England was
notably at variance with the court of France. It was to Germany that
Edward's circle of Protestant politicians, schoolmasters, and chaplains
felt most drawn--to the country where the tides of the Reformation were
running high, and men were in a ferment over things of the spirit; to
the country of Sturm and Bucer, and Fagius and Ursinus--the
doctrinalists and educators so revered by Cambridge. Cranmer, who
gathered under his roof as many German savants as could survive in the
climate of England,[35] kept the current of understanding and sympathy
flowing between Cambridge and Germany, and since Cambridge, not Oxford,
dominated the scholarly and political world of Edward the Sixth, from
that time on Germany, in the minds of the St John's men, such as
Burleigh, Ascham and Hoby, was the place where one might meet the best