Page:Lives of British Physicians.djvu/21

 LINACRE. 5 rence he proceeded to Rome, and there studied medicine and natural philosophy under Hermolaus Barbarus. He applied himself particularly to the study of Aristotle and Galen ; and the knowledge he had acquired in the classical capital of Tuscany enabled him to read these authors in their own language ; indeed, he is said to have been the first Englishman who made himself master of these writers by perusing them in the original Greek. Having previously graduated at Fadua, Linacre returned to England, was incorporated M. D. at Oxford, gave temporary lectures on physic, and taught the Greek language in that university*. This was before the foundation of a regular pro- fessor's chair at Oxford : for it was Cardinal Wolsey who first established a chair for teaching Greek in that university, — a novelty, which is said to have rent that celebrated seat of learning into violent factions, that frequently came to blows. Here, amidst the groves of the academy, the stu- dents divided themselves into parties, bearing the names of Greeks and Trojans, which sometimes fought with an animosity as great as was formerly exercised by those hostile nations themselves. In- deed, to such an absurd extreme was this contest carried, that a new and more correct method of pronouncing Greek having been introduced, the Grecians themselves were divided into parties ; and it was remarked that the Catholics favoured the former pronunciation, while the Protestants gave countenance to the new. Gardiner employed the authority of the king and council to suppress in- lege, which now forms part of Christ Church, was one of his pupils.
 * Sir Thomas More, then an undergraduate of Canterbury Col-