Thomas Linacre or Lynaker ( LIN-ə-kər; c. 1460 – 20 October 1524) was an English humanist scholar, Catholic priest, and physician, after whom Linacre College, Oxford, and Linacre House, a boys' boarding house at The King's School, Canterbury, were named. Linacre was more of a scholar than a scientific investigator. It is difficult to judge his practical skill in his profession, but it was highly esteemed in his own day. He took no part in political or theological questions, but his career as a scholar was characteristic of the critical period in the history of learning through which he lived. He was one of the first Englishmen to study Greek in Italy, and brought back to England and the University of Oxford the lessons of the "New Learning." His teachers were some of the greatest scholars of the day. Among his pupils was one—Erasmus—whose name alone would suffice to preserve the memory of his instructor in Greek, and others of note in letters and politics, such as Sir Thomas More, Prince Arthur, and Queen Mary I of England. John Colet, William Grocyn, William Lilye, and other eminent scholars were his close friends, and he was esteemed by a still wider circle of literary correspondents in all parts of Europe.
Life Linacre was born at Brampton, Chesterfield, in Derbyshire, descended from an ancient family, recorded in the Domesday Book. He received his early education at the Canterbury Cathedral school, under the direction of William Tilly of Selling, who became prior of Canterbury in 1472. It was from Selling that Linacre must have received his first incentive to study Classics. Linacre entered Oxford in about 1480, and in 1484 was elected a fellow of All Souls College. Shortly afterwards he visited Italy in the train of Selling, who was sent by King Henry VII as an envoy to the papal court. Linacre accompanied his patron as far as Bologna. There he became the pupil of Angelo Poliziano, and shared the instruction that Poliziano imparted at Florence to the sons of Lorenzo de Medici. The younger of these princes became Pope Leo X and later remembered his old companionship with Linacre. Among his other teachers and friends in Italy were Demetrius Chalcondylas, Hermolaus Barbarus, Aldus Romanus the printer of Venice (of whose New Academy Linacre was a member), and Nicolaus Leonicenus of Vicenza. Linacre took the degree of doctor of medicine with great distinction at Padua. On his return to Oxford, full of learning and imbued with the spirit of the Italian Renaissance, he formed one of the brilliant circle of Oxford scholars, including John Colet, William Grocyn, and William Latimer, who are mentioned in the letters of Erasmus. Linacre does not appear to have practised or taught medicine in Oxford. In about 1501 he was called to court as tutor of the young Arthur, Prince of Wales. On the accession of Henry VIII in 1509, he was appointed as Physician to the King, an office at that time of considerable influence and importance, and practised medicine in London, having among his patients most of the great statesmen and prelates of the time, including Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop William Warham, and Bishop Fox.
After some years of professional activity, Linacre devoted himself to the study of theology and the duties of the priesthood. In around 1509, he received priest's orders as the rector of Merstham, Kent. Numerous ecclesiastical positions followed, and he finally obtained the rectorship of Wigan in 1520, which he held until his death in 1524. His clerical benefices included the Precentorship of York Minster. His ordination was connected with his retirement from active life. Literary labours and the cares of the foundation that owed its existence chiefly to him, the Royal College of Physicians, occupied Linacre's remaining years. The most important service Linacre conferred on his own profession and science was the foundation by royal charter of the College of Physicians in London, and he was the first President of the new college, which he further aided by bequeathing to it his own house and library. Shortly before his death, Linacre obtained from the king letters patent for the establishment of readerships in medicine at Oxford and Cambridge, and placed valuable estates in the hands of trustees for their endowment. Two readerships were founded at Merton College, Oxford, and a lectureship at St John's College, Cambridge. The Oxford foundation was revived by the university commissioners in 1856 in the form of the Linacre professorship of anatomy. At St John's College the funds are still in use today; since 1989 the college has hosted an annual "Linacre Lecture" on a subject in medicine, delivered by a leading research scientist in their field. A modern monument in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral in London lists Linacre's grave as one of the important lost in the Great Fire of London in 1666. His epitaph in Old St Paul's Cathedral was recorded by Paul Hentzner and translated by Robert Naunton as reading:
Virtue survives the funeral. To the memory of Thomas Linacre, an eminent physician, John Caius placed this monument. On the lower part of it is this inscription in gold letters:
Thomas Linacre, physician to King Henry VIII., a man learned in the Greek and Latin languages, and particularly skilful in physick, by which he restored many from a state of languishment and despair to life. He translated with extraordinary eloquence many of Galen's works into Latin; and published, a little before his death, at the request of his friends, a very valuable book on the correct structure of the Latin tongue. He founded in perpetuity in favour of students in physick, two public lectures at Oxford, and one at Cambridge. In this city he brought about, by his own industry, the establishing of a College of Physicians, of which he was elected the first president. He was a detester of all fraud and deceit, and faithful in his friendships; equally dear to men of all ranks: he went into orders a few years before his death, and quitted this life full of years, and much lamented, A.D. 1524, on the 29th of October.
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