Within 6 months of Donne's father's death, his mother remarried. During that time, it was not unusual for a widow with young children to remarry quickly in hopes of preventing government intervention. Her new husband, Dr.Symmings was a London medical practitioner who held degrees from Oxford and the University of Bologna, he also served twice as President of the Royal College of Physicians (Bloom 15). .
At a very young age John was privately taught by Jesuits, which accounted for his later ability to "draw geography, science, and platonic philosophy into his poems of happy relationships (The Metaphysical Poets [Motion Picture])."" In 1584, John, age twelve, and his brother Henry, age eleven, enrolled at Hart Hall, University of Oxford, where he stayed for three years. He spent the next three years at the University of Cambridge, but took no degree at either university because he could not take the Oath of Supremacy required at graduation (Halio "John Donne- 1998 ed.). This oath would force Donne to renounce his Catholism and embrace the Anglican faith. In 1591, both John and Henry enrolled into the Thavies Inn at London; this was a Prep Law School. In 1592, John was accepted at Lincolns Inn, a Law School, where continued his law studies for several years (Halio "John Donne- 1998 ed.).
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The year of 1593 may have been the most devastating year for young John Donne. His brother, Henry, was imprisoned for harboring a Catholic Priest and, while in jail, he developed a fever that was never treated; the fever turned out to be the plague that was spreading across the countryside, and he slowly succumbed to death (Jokinen "English Literature-). John was emotionally devastated and felt a sense of guilt because he thought himself a coward for not showing the same courage and honor that Henry had. John's brother's death would mark the beginning of the John Donne that society was familiar with, and the ending of a young man not yet hardened by life's trials.
