With Bentley's reply it had ended. In spite
of public applause at Atterbury's wit, scholars throughout the
world acknowledged Bentley's victory: he was recognised as the
foremost classical scholar of his time; the mastership of Trinity,
which he accepted, and the Bristol bishopric, which he rejected,
were his formal reward.
Although, in his new position as head of the greatest college in
England, he went to extreme lengths on the orthodox side in
biblical theology, consenting even to support the doctrine that the
Hebrew punctuation was divinely inspired, this was as nothing
compared with the influence of the system of criticism which he
introduced into English studies of classical literature in
preparing the way for the application of a similar system to _all_
literature, whether called sacred or profane.
Up to that period there had really been no adequate criticism of
ancient literature. Whatever name had been attached to any ancient
writing was usually accepted as the name of the author: what texts
should be imputed to an author was settled generally on authority.
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