GROCYN, WILLIAM, a distinguished classical scholar, was born at Bristol in 1442, and educated at Winchester School, and New College, Oxford. He was the friend of Dean Colet the tutor of Erasmus, and the godfather of Lilly the grammarian. A Latin epistle of his to Aldus Manutius is prefixed to Linnæ's translation of Proclus de Sphæra. It was Grocyn who first publicly taught Greek in Exeter College, Oxford, and introduced a better pronunciation of that language than had hitherto been known in England. By the introduction of this language alarming many as a most dangerous innovation, the university divided itself into two factions, distinguished as "Greeks and Trojans," who bore such decided hostility to each other that they proceeded to open hostilities. Thus was Grocyn situated when Erasmus came to Oxford and studied Greek under his tuition. After distinguishing himself as one of the most learned and able men of his day, Grocyn died at Maidstone in 1519. His will is printed in the appendix to Knight's Life of Erasmus.