The Linacre Quarterly Volume 30 | Number 1 Article 7 February 1963 Thomas Linacre: Humanist, Physician, Priest: Part II Fred M. Taylor Follow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq Recommended Citation Taylor, Fred M. (1963) "Thomas Linacre: Humanist, Physician, Priest: Part II," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 30 : No. 1 , Article 7. Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol30/iss1/7 of its kind and published just be­ ligious vocation, was crowned fore his death, these two books King. He was eighteen. Tall and THOMAS LINACI E on Latin established Linacre as handsome, gifted and deeply re­ Europe's illustrious grammarian ligious, he would later earn for his and leading philologist for more zeal in theological controversy Humanist, than a century.47 with Luther, the papal title, De­ Young Prince Arthur, in con­ fender of the Faith. But insuffer­ Physician, trast to his robust brother, was ably unpredictable - doubtless a frail and sickly. In his fifteenth strain on the character of anyone Priest year, however, he was married to around him-he also had an im­ Catherine of Aragon, daughter of mensely passionate compulsion for M. M. ). 51 FRED TAYLOR, a powerful new monarchy, the having his own way. Indeed, six joint sovereigns of Spain, Ferdi­ weeks after his accession he pro­ It is in life as it is in Jl ,ys, ceeded forthwith to marry Cather­ the shortest way is com111 �,ly nand and Isabella. Although this the foulest, and surely the I rer famous marriage was also nego­ ine, 23 years old, the wife of his way is not much about. tiated by the scheming King Henry deceased brother, Arthur. Bacon, Advancemen. of VII for diplomatic good-will, as Meanwhile, Linacre spent in­ Learning. well as a huge cash dowery, there creased time on the preparation Book II. Chap. 23, Thomas Linacre pp. 45, 1605 was hope that it would "be for­ of his Latin grammars and trans­ 1460 - 1524 tunate and of good omen to Eng­ lations of classical works in medi­ land. "48 But it ended tragically cine. But he also entered the pri­ PART II four and a half months later when vate practice of medicine. Insati­ Prince Arthur died of the English able in both work and practice, his had printed sweat, or the sweating sickness, a skill as a physician became widely PHYSICIAN AND TUTOR Sphera • and in 1499 at Venice by Aldus R rnanus.ff devastating illness in "'1. ·ch, ac­ recognized, and King Henry VIII In 150 I, in his 40th year, Lin­ Linacre described Princc,s Mary cording to More, "deam always also appointed him Physician to 52 acre's role as Royal physician was as having not only a " •1arvelous comes, if it does come, on the the King. In London Linacre cast: he was appointed a court disposition to every virttw · · · but first day. "4o Catherine, however, lived on Knightrider Street not far to physician in charge of the health a noble and instinctive Jenius would recover and enter into a from the palace, nor far from the n. of King Henry VII, one of the learning. .."46 At ,eventee second marriage, which perhaps Cathedral of St. Paul where John the highest honors a doctor of medi­ however, in the interest of because of failure to bear a royal Colet, one of Linacre's closest _ . cine could at that time achieve. King's diplomatic foreign pohcy son, would end even more tragi­ friends and associates - and ap­ e But he also was entrusted with the· she would marry and becom cally than the first. parently the only person with re, health-care of Prince Arthur, the Queen Mary of France. Linac Eight years later, on April 22, whom he ever really quarrelled­ effort, young Prince of Wales, brother in an early grammatical 1509, King Henry VII, who had was the Dean.53 Linacre, enjoying Mary of Henry, future King Henry VIII, had prepared for Princess annually presided over the elabo­ the confidence and favor of royal and Princess Mary. the elder son which a Latin grammar in English rate ritual and ceremony of amenities. fared well; he attended and daughter of Henry VII and ous was the forerunner of a fam "Touching for the King's Evil,"50 the health of those in state and Elizabeth of York. In addition, he Gram­ publication, the Rudimenta died of "consumption" following Church, and developed a busy was app�inted their Royal tutor.44 r) matices (Rudiments of Gramma a course resembling tuberculosis. court and consulting practice. His It is of interest that Linacre had ­ ( 1570). Together with De Eme� The next day, "to the blast of position became one of influence, alreitdy translated for Arthur, Pro­ oms data Structura Latini Serm iaunpets," Henry VIII, who had and he promoted increasingly the clus' astronomical treatise, De of t e (On the Emended Structure � Jieen reared in an atmosphere of cause of science and the welfare . SIX Latin Language) ( 1524) • in "1ious study of language and of the public. Moreover he carried Part I of this account appeared in Vol. 29, st texts logy Nov. 1962. THE LJNACRE QUARTERLY. books. one of the profounde in preparation for a re- out his painstaking studies of hu- E QUARTERLY 26 LINACR ACJU: QUARTERLY 27 mane literature and completed Oxford for a study of the hu ani­ seeds of a more precise and ob­ but of its re-establishment in its ancient state and dignity.56 translations of some of Galen's ties. Thus, for a brief deca e of jective mode of thought. "�:; Greek medical works: De Sanitate time ( between 1509 and 15 �) a Although he translated accurately Linacre labored to establish Tuendo (On the Preservation of gratifying change in Englarn s in­ the actual texts of the classic au­ medicine in a state of dignity and Health) in six books, and Metho­ tellectual climate was noted. here thorities in medicine and philoso­ to increase the standards of medi­ dus Medendi (A Method of Heal­ prevailed hope and optimi n a­ phy in their original language, his cal care and learning. He also de­ ing), in Ii books, were published mong English scholars th the scholarly translations of Galen. sired to establish in England one in 1517 and 1519.54 Each was new humanism was actua ; re­ however worthwhile, opened no or more schools of medicine which dedicated to Henry VIII. empha­ placing medieval ways of ti 1king magic-like doors to the immediate would probably be patterned after sizing that Linacre sought "not and that it would pave the ay to advancement of medical science. the one at Padua. But caught in only to provide correct transla­ widen intellectual horizons 1d ul­ Nor was this even intended. If the inexorable binds of political tions of sound Greek text, but to timately revive objective t rnght. Linacre had anything at all to do hostility and ecclesiastical strife, clarify errors in interpretation Even Erasmus noted: " ... It is with it, even the later advance­ and in the violent changes coming based, in part, on an incorrect tex­ marvelous how widespre. and ment of medicine-and medicine, about in every area of social and tual tradition. "12 how abundant is the ha, �st of in order to advance, had to cut intellectual life, the fulfillment of many of Linacre's reform-aims in De Temperamentis, et De ln­ ancient learning which is ' ,urish­ itself free from the unquestioned medicine and medical education aequali Intempede (On the Tem­ ing in this country."•o authority of Galen-he broke the chains of Galen's ancient authority was deterred for centuries to come. peraments and on Unequal Tem­ But ignorance and secul ism. as All essential steps had been taken peraments) were dedicated to Pope an·d of intellectual infantilism pri­ well as deep-rooted, medir ti com­ which would bring about a reli­ Leo X. and printed at Cambridge marily through his attitude of ob­ placency, were commonp, ·e. De­ gious revolution. To make matters in 1521-Linacre's first transla­ jectivity, obviously the very core spite the eagerness of th, numan­ desperately worse, the country was tions to be published in England. of the scientific attitude. He point­ ists to reform ecclesiastic abuses beset with the dreadful ravages of His last three works of Galen also ed out errors and mistakes of by a sterner spirit of I ith and plague. appeared in England: De Natu­ tile past, but neither made nor reason, Martin Luther, < ,nvinc ed urged a complete break with the Sir Thomas More, an enlight­ ralibus Facultatibus (On the Natu­ nor neither of the value of ime past. ened health reformer himself, en­ ral Faculties) ( 1523); Depulsuum He put tradition-whether it the worth of peace, and ,ot fore­ visaging public-water supplies and Usu (On the Interpretation of the concerns medicine and art or re­ seeing the savage conseCl ences of Ugion and political science-in its drainage systems, established a Pulses) ( 1523); and De Sympto­ his actions, hammered h · Ninety• Proper perspective, and empha­ system of public-health adminis­ matibus De Symptomatum Differ­ All five Theses to the do, r of sized a fact, which eternally needs tration and quarantine laws to help entiis (On the Differences Between nber g. 5 Saints Church in Witte emphasizing, that new knowledge counter the spread of plague. 7 In Symptoms) ( 1528) ,54 swell of Germany. The ground - Deed neither destroy high ideals 1518 he ordered "the mayor of whic h EAGERNESS OF THE HUMANISTS . political and religious forays Dor bury what is right and good.