Grammarians' War

Quid me Scheltone fronte sic aperta
Carnis vipero potens veneo
Quid versus trutina meos iniqua
Libras. Dicere vera num livebit
Doctrina tibi dum parari famam
Et doctus fieri studes poeta:
Doctrinam nec habes nec es poeta.

—William Lily

With face so bold, and teeth so sharp
Of Viper's venome, why dost carp?
Why are my verses by thee weigh'd
In a false scale? May truth be said?
Whilst thou, to get the more esteeme,
A learned Poet fain wouldst seem;
Skelton, thou art, let all men know it,
Neither learned, nor a poet.

— English translation by bishop Thomas Fuller in 1662

The Grammarians' War (1519–1521) was a conflict between rival systems of teaching Latin. The two main antagonists were English grammarians and schoolmasters William Horman and Robert Whittington. The War involved Latin primers called Vulgaria, which were thus named because they contained "vulgar" (in the 16th century sense, i.e. everyday and common) sayings or phrases that schoolchildren were expected to use in normal life, such as "Sit away or I shall give thee a blow." and "Would God we might go play!".

The feud was started by Whittington. Horman had published his Vulgaria in 1519, and it was adopted by William Lily, the headmaster of St Paul's School, who had written several laudatory poems prefacing it. This replaced an earlier Vulgaria written by John Stanbridge, headmaster of St Mary Magdalen's School in Oxford. Stanbridge was Whittington's former tutor, and Whittington, in support of restoring the use of his former tutor's work in the school, attacked Horman's Vulgaria with satirical verse, which he printed and pinned to the door of St Paul's. He was critical of all aspects of Horman's work, including its size and its price, and also of Lily for his poor judgement. In riposte, Lily and Horman published Antibossicon in 1521. This was an attack on Whittington, mocking the airs and graces that he had assumed as "chief poet of England", and criticizing his abilities as a writer. Its title reflected Lily and Horman's characterization of Whittington as a bear. (The title page verso of the work contains an image of a bear being attacked by dogs.) This was a double-pronged reference, because in addition it parodied Whittington's pseudonym of "Bossus" ("" + "", the reasons for which are unknown), claiming that it was rather a reference to the "Bosse of Billingsgate" water tap, built in Billingsgate in London by Whittington's namesake, that Whittington had somehow fallen in love with. Whittington's response was entitled Antilycon ("against the wolf").

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