He knows that he has little leisure for correspondence, admits his excuse, and hopes to be excused, in his turn, for not having written to Linacre. He has been extremely busy with matters very different to his former employments. Lupset has shewn him Linacre's specimen of Galen, of which Budé highly approves. He thinks the French Embassy will be in England at the time Linacre receives this letter; wishes Linacre to let them know that he is intimate with Budé; and commends to his notice Beraldus, in the suite of the Bishop of Paris.[1]
The college of physicians in which Linacre had taken such a lively interest was incorporated by charter of 23rd September, 1518, at the request of John Chamber, Thomas Linacre, and Fernand de Victoria, the King's physicians; Nicholas Halswell, John Francis, and Robert Yaxley, physicians; and Thomas Archbishop of York, chancellor. The college was permitted to acquire lands to the value of £12 yearly; and no person was to be allowed to practice in the medical profession within the city of London, or seven miles round, without the licence of the President and College.[2]
On 29th April, 1519, Linacre became precentor of York,[3] which he resigned in the following November to Dr. Richard Wyot , late Rector of Wigan, after having been himself admitted to the Rectory of Wigan on 10th October of that year.
Up to this time, however, he was not in priest's orders, and he must have held his previous appointments as a deacon, or possibly some of the earlier ones as a layman. It has been conjectured that he received from Pope Leo X., his old school companion and friend, a dispensation from the necessity of passing through the inferior
- ↑ Ibid., vol. ii. p. 1360, No. 4422. I have given the date of this letter from the Opera Budai (as furnished to me by Mr. Chancellor Christie), where it is given in full and dated postridie natalis diva Dei parentis. It probably alludes to a later present and letter of Linacre.
- ↑ Rymer, vol. xiii. p. 364. Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic, vol. ii. p. 1367, No. 4450.
- ↑ Le Neve's Fasti.
