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10 BRITISH PHYSICIANS. their giving proofs of competency, to authorize them to practice medicine. A system has conse- quently been constructed for the public service, which has now been carried on for more than three centuries, by which the character and respectability of physicians, and through them of the whole medical profession, has been raised to a higher eminence, than in any other nation of Europe. Towards the latter part of his life, Linacre en- tered into holy orders, the motives to which step are not a little dubious. If, as some assert, the only benefice conferred upon him, was a chanter- ship in the cathedral of York, it would be most obvious to suppose that a devout regard for the clerical character was his chief inducement. But others mention his appointment to several church preferments besides — none of them, how- ever, very profitable ; and most of them resigned soon after his induction to them. From a passage in an epistle of his to Warham, archbishop of Can- terbury, it would seem that the acquisition of an easy and honourable retreat had been his princi- pal object. About this time, Linacre appears to have been exceedingly afflicted with that painful disease, the stone, of which he ultimately died, and v/liich must nov»^ have greatly incapacitated him from the active duties of his profession. Whatever the motive were which induced him to go into the church, it is said, that on the assumption of his new character, he applied himself to those studies which are more peculiarly connected with it ; and it is related of him, that a little before his death, when worn out with fatigue and sickness, he first