Nicolaus Clenardus (1495-1542), writer and linguist entered the University of Louvain in 1512 and at the end of his studies became president and teacher of Greek and Hebrew at the Collège de Houterlé for ten years where he became convinced of the necessity of learning Arabic and studying Islamic litereature to convert the 'heathen'. He accompanied Hernando Columbus, son of Christopher, to Spain with this in view but was detained some years in Portugal by John III to give theological training to his brother Dom Henri, destined to become Archbishop of Braga, where Clenardus founded a humanist college. He was finally able to leave for Grenada, the principal Arab capital in Iberia, where he learnt Arabic and studied the Koran. In 1540 he returned via Gibraltar to Ceuta, in Portugal, but after other travels went back to Grenada where he died.