LINACRE, THOMAS

English physician and priest, founder of the Royal College of Physicians in London; b. Canterbury, c. 1460;d. London, Oct. 20, 1524. He was educated at the Priory School in Canterbury under William of Selling (later prior), through whose influence he enrolled in All Souls College, Oxford. He studied also in Florence, Padua, and Rome. In 1488 Henry VII sent Prior Selling to Rome as ambassador to the pope, and Linacre accompanied him. In Florence he met Lorenzo de'Medici, who invited him to share in the instructions given by Angelo Poliziano and Demetrius Chalcondylos to the two young princes Piero and Giovanni de'Medici. Giovanni later became Pope leox. Linacre studied medicine in Padua, where he received his M.D. After years of practice on the Continent, he returned to England, where he became royal physician to henry viii and regular medical attendant to many of the highest nobility of the country. He used most of his fortune to found the Royal College of Physicians. The charter for the college was granted by Henry VIII on Sept. 23, 1518, upon the petition of Linacre, several other physicians, and especially Cardinal Wolsey. This charter gave the college the sole power to give medical licenses. His important contribution to medical science was his translation of galen's work from Greek into Latin. Linacre was highly esteemed by his contemporaries. He began to receive ecclesiastical preferments, even before he was ordained in 1520. After this he gave up his medical career in order to devote himself to priestly work. Johnson says that he seems to have had no enemies.

Bibliography: j. f. payne, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900, 63 v. (London 1885–1900) 11:1145–1150. j. n. johnson, The Life of T. Linacre, ed. r. graves (London 1835).

[m. a. stratman]