t, quiet, and seclusion of the pleasant Devonshire retreat,
the "Ship" was translated in the year 1508, when he would be about
thirty-two, "by Alexander Barclay Preste; and at that tyme chaplen in the
sayde College," whence it may be inferred that he left Devon, either in
that year or the year following, when the "Ship" was published, probably
proceeding to London for the purpose of seeing it through the press.
Whether he returned to Devonshire we do not know; probably not, for his
patron and friend Cornish resigned the wardenship of St Mary Otery in 1511,
and in two years after died, so that Barclay's ties and hopes in the West
were at an end. At any rate we next hear of him in monastic orders, a monk
of the order of S. Benedict, in the famous monastery of Ely, where, as is
evident from internal proof, the Eclogues were written and where likewise,
as appears from the title, was translated "The mirrour of good maners," at
the desire of Syr Giles Alington, Knight.

It is about this period of his life, probably the period of the full bloom
of his popularity, that the quiet life of the poet and priest was
interrupted by the recognition of his eminence in the highest quarters, and
by a request for his aid in maintaining the honour of the country on an
occasion to which the eyes of all Europe were then directed. In a letter of
Sir Nicholas Vaux, busied with the preparations for the meeting of Henry
VIII., and Francis I., called the Field of the Cloth of Gold, to Wolsey, of
date 10th April 1520, he begs the cardinal to "send to them ... Maistre
Barkleye, the Black Monke and Poete, to devise histoires and convenient
raisons to florisshe the buildings and banquet house withal" (Rolls
Calendars of Letters and Papers, Henry VIII., III. pt. 1.). No doubt it was
also thought that this would be an excellent opportunity for the eulogist
of the Defender of the Faith to again take up the lyre to sing the glories
of his royal master, but no effort of his muse on the subject of this great
chivalric pageant has descended to us if any were ever penned.

Probably after this employment he did not return to Ely; with his position
or surroundings there he does not seem to have been altogether satisfied
("there many a thing is wrong," see p. lxix.); and afterwards, though in
the matter of date we are somewhat puzzled by the allusion of Bulleyn, an
Ely man, to his Franciscan habit, he assumed the habit of the Franciscans
at Canterbury, ('Bale MS.