Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 1.djvu/93

 confidence, and occupied a high position. His friend Lilly speaks of him as "conspicuous among the chief persons of the Court, in a purple robe and a hood of black silk." The King's palace being then at Bridewell, in the City of London, Linacre seated himself in the same neighbourhood, which was rendered all the more agreeable to him by its vicinity to the precincts of St. Paul's, where Colet, his friend and former companion at Oxford, was now residing as Dean, for at this time they were great allies, though, unhappily, they afterwards quarrelled. By Sir Thomas More, on whom the highest offices of State were about to devolve, he was still retained as preceptor; and More expresses himself, on one occasion, to Colet, as devoting his time to the society of Grocyn, Linacre, and Lilly; the first he calls the master of his life, the second the director of his studies, and the third the dear companion of his affairs. Linacre's reputation as a physician was now at its height, and amongst his patients were Sir Reginald Bray, K.G., the Lord High Treasurer, to whose will he was a subscribing witness in 1503, Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop Warham, and Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester. He appears to have kept up a connection with Cambridge, to which he afterwards became a benefactor, and it is probable that he visited it more frequently whilst his friend Erasmus was in residence there. In a letter from the latter to Andreas Ammonius (who was secretary to Henry VIII.), dated at Cambridge iij.Non. Oct. 151 1, he incidentally mentions Linacre as being with him at that time. He says that after mass he heard the tramp of horsemen, and being himself engaged in writing he begged Linacre to look out, and was told that Ammonius was leaving.

A strange story has been told of a doubt respecting the truths of Christianity which Linacre is said to have conceived in consequence of his theological studies. The earlier part of his life is reported to have been passed, in common with most of the laity,