Page:The History of the Church & Manor of Wigan part 1.djvu/99

 clerical degrees; and that this may have been the kindness to which he alludes in the dedication of his translation of Galen's "De Temperamentis" in which he refers to some recent and striking proof of the Pontiff's munificence, shared by him in common with others, who had been also his school-fellows at Florence. But, as Dr. Payne says, "if there were any such dispensation, it is more likely that it was one enabling him to hold a benefice, while still a deacon, or perhaps even a layman, since we find that Linacre's first clerical preferment was given him in the year of Henry the Eighth's accession, which must have been that of Linacre's appointment as Court Physician, and it seems highly improbable that his ordination should have taken place almost simultaneously with this appointment." There is no authority for supposing that such a dispensation was given him; but there is nothing to make it improbable. It was enacted in the Parliament of 3 Hen. VI. (1425) that any one then holding a spiritual benefice should be made a priest within twelve months after the close of the said Parliament, failing which it should be lawful for the patron to make a new presentation, "notwithstondyng the plenerte of tyme be vi moneths ;" and for the future, any man, who should have any spiritual benefice, of any man's presentation, must become a priest within twelve months of the time of his induction, subject to the same penalty. This would seem to imply that it was not uncommon at that time for a spiritual benefice to be held by one who was not in priest's orders, and therefore Linacre may well have received a papal dispensation extending the time within which he must necessarily proceed to the order of the priesthood.

The following extract from the Register of Richard Fitz James, Bishop of London from 1506 to 1551, proves that he was ordained to priest's orders on 22nd December, 1520, to which his Rectory of Wigan gave him a title: "Et a MDXX. 22 Dec, ad dioces. Cov.