went to Oxford after having completed his early education at
Canterbury, and was chosen Fellow of All Soul's College. Later on he
accompanied his old master to Italy, where he had an opportunity of
mastering the intricacies of Latin style from Politian, the tutor of
the children of Lorenzo de' Medici, and of Greek from Demetrius
Chalcondylas. He turned his attention to medicine and received a
degree both at Padua and Oxford. His position at the courts of Henry
VII. and Henry VIII. gave him an opportunity of enlisting the
sympathies of the leading ecclesiastical and lay scholars of his day
in favour of the literary revival. In his later years he was ordained
priest and held some important ecclesiastical offices. Other
distinguished scholars and patrons of the revival in England were
Grocyn, a companion of Linacre at Oxford and in Italy and afterwards
lecturer on Greek at Exeter College, Oxford; John Colet (1467-1519),
Dean of St. Paul's, the friend of Budaeus, Erasmus, Linacre, and
Grocyn, and founder of St. Paul's School; William Lilly, appointed by
Dean Colet as first master in this school; Fisher (1459-1535) Bishop
of Rochester; and Sir Thomas More (1480-1535).

The Humanist movement in England, unlike the corresponding movement in
Italy, was in no sense hostile to religion or to the Catholic Church.
Many of its leaders desired reform, but not a single one of the
prominent scholars of the period showed any sympathy with Luther's
revolt. The very founders of the revival in England, Selling, Hadley,
Linacre and Grocyn, were ecclesiastics whose faith was beyond
suspicion; Colet died as he had lived, thoroughly devoted to the
Church; while Fisher and Sir Thomas More sealed their loyalty to the
ancient faith with their blood.[18]

The revival in Spain owes much to the patronage of Queen Isabella and