Background
Grocyn was born in 1446 at Colerne, Wiltshire.
Grocyn was born in 1446 at Colerne, Wiltshire.
Intended by his parents for the church, he was sent to Winchester College, and in 1465 was elected to a scholarship at New College, Oxford.
About 1488 Grocyn left England for Italy, and before his return in 1491 he had visited Florence, Rome and Padua, and studied Greek and Latin under Demetrius Chalchondyles and Politian.
In 1479 h'e accepted the rectory of Newton Longville, in Buckinghamshire, but continued to reside at Oxford.
As reader in divinity in Magdalen College in 1481, he held a disputation with John Taylor, professor of divinity, in presence of King Richard III, and the king acknowledged his skill as a debater by the present of a buck and five marks.
In 1485 he became prebendary of Lincoln cathedral.
The Warden of New College, Thomas Chaundler, invited Cornelius Viteili, then on a visit to Oxford, to act as praelector.
He was chosen by his friend to deliver lectures in St Paul's; and in this connexion he gave a singular proof of his honesty.
He had at first denounced all who impugned the authenticity of the Hierarchia ecclesiastica ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, but, being led to modify his views by further investigation, he openly declared that he had been completely mistaken.
He held several preferments, but his generosity to his friends involved him in continual difficulties, and though in 1506 he was appointed on Archbishop Warham's recommendation master or warden of All Hallows College at Maidstone in Kent, he was still obliged to borrow from his friends, and even to pledge his plate as a security.
Linacre acted as Grocyn's executor, and spent the money he received on alms for the poor and the purchase of books for poor scholars.
He collected a remarkable Latin and Greek library, which reflects forward-looking humanist tastes as well as knowledge of medieval authorities.
Quotes from others about the person
By Erasmus he has been described as "A man of a most stern and moral life; most observant of the decrees of the Church almost to the point of superstition; learned to his very fingertips in scholastic theology; and also by nature of the keenest judgment; finally, exactly versed in every kind of learning".