This was in the 17th Century, around the time of the Glorious Revolution. In the Elizabethan era scholars still spoke in Latin and they were the primary source of literacy at the time. Though there was no standardized spelling whatsoever. It makes reading those works written as they were then a pain in the ass. It's why I don't even like reading Civil War source material because I hate it when the same word appears spelled five ways on the same page.