Note 63 — II. The Necessity for Dissolution.

On the other hand classical learning became more esteemed. It is impossible not to see in the florid verses of Whethamstede and in his prose (loaded with classical allusion and metaphor) an early appearance of the Renaissance spirit in England. Verse and prose are alike worthless, but show a striving after something better than mediaeval monastic writing. The tendency becomes more marked in his work after his visit to Italy in 1423, where he was certainly influenced by the early Humanist movement.