LINACRE. 11 began to read the New Testament : on perusing the 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters of St. Matthew, containing Christ's sermon on the Mount, he threw the book from him with great violence, pas- sionately exclaiming, either this is not the Gospel^ or we are not Christians^ — a declaration, if rightly understood, equally honourable to the morals he found there inculcated, and severe upon those of the age in which he lived. It is, nevertheless, agreed on all hands, that the character of this eminent person, whether as an upright and humane physician, a steady and affectionate friend, or a munificent patron of let ters, was deserving of the highest applause. Were other testimonies wanting, it were sutE- cient, in justification of this eulogium, to mention, that he was the intimate friend of Erasmus. That great and worthy man frequently takes occasion to express his affection and esteem for his cha- racter and abilities, and in his letters calls him meum Linacrum, his dear friend, his preceptor, and patron." Writing to him from Paris, in 1506, after a visit he had made in England, Erasmus styles him his most learned and accomplished pre- ceptor, and then proceeds to relate to him the dis- asters of his own journey. He says, he had suffered much in his passage across to France, that he had been four days at sea, that he had caught cold, that his head ached, that the glands behind his ears were swollen, his temples were throbbing, and that he suffered much from a noise in his ears ; and he concludes this long catalogue of accumu- lated maladies, by lamenting that, in the mean time, " No Linacre is at hand, to restore him to
