INTRODUCTION.

followed by a long roll of English and Scottish students the names and escutcheons of some of whom may still be seen in the gallery of the University quadrangle.

Though Linacre is said to have taken the degree of Doctor of Medicine with great distinction, there is no foundation for the assertion that he was ever Professor of Medicine in the University. The story rests on an obvious confusion of the titles of Doctor and Professor which were then and long afterwards equivalent and interchangeable in the European Universities.

The tradition of Linacre's successful disputation at Padua is preserved in a dialogue by Richard Pacey (quoted in Johnson's life) where Grammar and Rhetoric are made to dispute as to the respective merits of Theodore Gaza and Thomas Linacre. Grammar first claims Linacre as her own, Rhetoric contends that he was by right her son, and that Grammar was only the occupation of his leisure moments. On one occasion (says Rhetoric) he condescended to dispute with some Grammarian on certain minutiæ connected with the vocative case, but gained a more brilliant victory when he defended his theses for graduation at Padua, "For when in the gymnasium of Padua, the insignia of the medical profession were being given to him (as is the custom now), he disputed publicly with the greatest praise, and refuted the opposing arguments of the senior physicians most accurately" 3.

Linacre's route after leaving Padua, may, Dr Johnson tells us, be accurately and precisely traced through Vicenza, Verona, Brescia, Bergamo and Milan; but the authority for this statement is not given. It may however be permissible to delay for a moment at Vicenza, since it is pretty certain that Linacre did pass there, and highly probable that his stay had some influence on his literary life. This city was