Volume 1

Eminent doctors: their lives and their work / By G. T. Bettany.

  • Bettany, G. T. (George Thomas), 1850-1891.
Date:
[1885]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Eminent doctors: their lives and their work / By G. T. Bettany. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    LI NACRE'S CLERICAL PREFERMENTS. letters; and, in accordance with the practice of the age, on becoming convinced of the importance of Christian doctrines, he sought ordination. In October 1509 the Primate gave him the rectory of Merstham, in Kent, which he held only a month, receiving in December a prebendal stall in the cathedral of Wells, and in 1510 the cure of Hawkhnrst, in Kent, which he held till 1524. Still] higher preferment, however, awaited him, for he became canon and prebend of Westminster in 1517. Numerous other appointments followed, which we will not particularise. It does not appear certain that Linacre gained any conspicuous distinction in theology, but his preferments were rather acknowledgments of his general learning and merit, being the most con- venient form in which such recognition could at that time be given. Linacre’s intercourse with Erasmus continued, but was somewhat embarrassed by reason of the latter’s constant demand for pecuniary aid. We gain a glimpse of the prudence which Linacre had attained, from a letter of Erasmus in 1521, complaining of the unfavourable reception of his applications for money, mentioning that though his health was infirm, and though he possessed only six angels, he had been advised to curtail his expenses and bear his poverty with fortitude, rather than apply further to the Primate and Lord Mountjoy. We have now to recur to Linacre’s medical pursuits, which were not interrupted to any serious extent by his