He was a scholar, ripe and rare; no holiday trifler in the gardens of learning.

He spoke and wrote Latin like his native tongue.

He could compose poignant Greek epigrams.

He was so familiar with Hebrew, that he had rendered the Psalms of David out of the original into flowing Flemish verse, for the use of the reformed churches.

That he possessed the modern tongues of civilized Europe, Spanish, Italian, French, and German, was a matter of course.