Budæus, whose friendship and scholarship were of marked service to Badius during his career, was one of the most noteworthy scholars of his generation and is to be ranked in the group with Erasmus, among the great scholars of Europe. He had studied Greek with Laskaris, whose lectures and whose Greek grammar had done so much to further the study in Italy of the language and literature of Greece. Three of the kings of France, Charles VIII., Louis XII., and Francis I., appreciating the distinction given to France by the scholarship and literary productions of a man like Budæus, had honoured him with their friendship and had bestowed upon him various marks of distinction. It was a time when learning was held to be an essential qualification for diplomacy and statesmanship, and Budæus was more than once called away from his study and from his lecture-room to take charge of important embassies. In 1520, he was in attendance upon Francis I. at the celebrated meeting between Francis and Henry VIII. on the Field of the Cloth of Gold. The subsequent interest taken by Francis in the work of the University and in the foundation of the Royal Library at Fontainebleau was doubtless due to the influence of Budæus, and it was in his power so to educate the King as to enable the latter to realise the value and importance to the kingdom of the work that was being done by the printer-publisher, and to be ready to further this work with the royal protection, with privileges, and at times with direct financial aid.