Editing William Lily (grammarian) (section)

==Life==
Lily was born c. 1468 at [[Odiham]], Hampshire, and he entered the [[University of Oxford]] in 1486.  After graduating in arts he went on a pilgrimage to [[Jerusalem]].  On his return journey he put in at [[Rhodes]], which was still occupied by the [[knights of St John]], under whose protection many Greeks had taken refuge after the capture of [[Constantinople]] by the [[Ottoman Empire|Turks]]. He then went on to Italy, where he attended the lectures of [[Angelo Sabino|Angelus Sabinus]],<ref>M. Audin, translated by Edward G. Kirwan Browne, ''The Life of Henry the Eighth and History of the Schism of England'' (London, 1852), p. 422 [https://books.google.com/books?id=XXlnAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Angiolo+Sabino%22&pg=PA422 online.]</ref> [[Sulpitius Verulanus]] and [[Pomponius Laetus]] at Rome, and of [[Egnazio|Egnatius]] at [[Venice]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

After his return he settled in London—where he became friends with [[Thomas More]]—as a private teacher of [[grammar]], and is believed to have been the first who taught Greek in that city. In 1510 [[John Colet]], dean of [[St Paul's Cathedral|St Paul's]], who was then founding the school which afterwards became famous, appointed Lily the first high master in 1512.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} Colet's correspondence with [[Erasmus]] shows he first offered the position to the Dutchman, who refused it, before considering Lily.  Ward and Waller ranked Lily "with [[William Grocyn|Grocyn]] and [[Thomas Linacre|Linacre]] as one of the most erudite students of Greek that England possessed". Lily's pupils included [[William Paget, 1st Baron Paget|William Paget]], [[John Leland (antiquary)|John Leland]], [[Antony Denny]], [[Thomas Wriothesley]] and [[Edward North, 1st Baron North]].<ref name=ODNB>Carley, "Leland, John (''c''.1503–1552)"</ref> The school became a paragon of classical scholarship.

He died of the plague in London on 25 February 1522 and was buried in the north churchyard of [[Old St Paul's Cathedral]]. His grave and monument were destroyed in the [[Great Fire of London]] in 1666. A modern monument in the crypt lists his as one of the important graves lost.