He stood in the relation of preceptor or mentor to Alonso Carillo,
Bishop of Pamplona, and to Jorge da Costa, Archbishop of Braga, two
personages of rank, who did but follow the prevailing fashion that
decreed the presence of a humanist scholar to be an indispensable
appendage in the households of the great. He read and commented the
classics to his exalted patrons, was the arbiter of taste, their
friend, the companion of their cultured leisure, and their confidant.
Replying to the praises of his disciples, couched in extravagant
language, he administered a mild rebuke, recalling them to moderation
in the expression of their sentiments: "These are not the lessons you
received from me when I explained to you the satire of the divine
Juvenal; on the contrary, you have learned that nothing more shames a
free man than adulation."[7]

[Note 7: Epist. x. _Non hæc a me profecto, quam ambobus Juvenalis
aliguando divinam illam, quæ proxima est a secunda, satiram aperirem,
sed adulatione nihil esse ingenuo foedius dedicistis_.]

The year 1486 was signalised in Rome by the arrival of an embassy from
Ferdinand and Isabella to make the usual oath of obedience on behalf
of the Catholic sovereigns of Castille and Leon to their spiritual
over-lord, the Pope. Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, Count of Tendilla, a son
of the noble house of Mendoza, whose cardinal was termed throughout
Europe _tertius rex_, was the ambassador charged with this mission.[8]
Tendilla shone in a family in which intellectual brilliancy was a
heritage, the accomplishments of its members adding distinction to a
house of origin and descent exceptionally illustrious. Whether in the
house of his compatriot, the Bishop of Pamplona, or elsewhere, the
ambassador made the acquaintance of Peter Martyr and evidently fell
under the charm of his noble character and uncommon talents. The