At the age of fifteen, as he tells us in one of his poetical epistles, he was serving as a soldier against the Portuguese in Terceira;[205] but only a little later than this, we know that he filled some place about the person of Gerónimo Manrique, Bishop of Avila, to whose kindness he acknowledged himself to be much indebted, and in whose honor he wrote several eclogues, and inserted a long passage in his “Jerusalem.”[206] Under the patronage of Manrique, he was, probably, sent to the University of Alcalá, where he certainly studied some time, and not only took the degree of Bachelor, but was near submitting himself to the irrevocable tonsure of the priesthood.[207] [205] This curious passage is in the Epistle, or Metro Lyrico, to D. Luis de Haro, Obras Sueltas, Tom. IX. p. 379:-- Ni mi fortuna muda Ver en tres lustros de mi edad primera Con la espada desnuda Al bravo Portugues en la Tercera, Ni despues en las naves Españolas Del mar Ingles los puertos y las olas. I do not quite make out how this can have happened in 1577; but the assertion seems unequivocal. Schack (Geschichte der dramatischen Literatur in Spanien, Berlin, 1845, 8vo, Tom. II. p. 164) thinks the fifteen years here referred to are intended to embrace the fifteen years of Lope’s _life as a soldier_, which he extends from Lope’s eleventh year to his twenty-sixth,--1573 to 1588. But Schack’s ground for this is a mistake he had himself previously made in supposing the Dedication of the “Gatomachia” to be addressed to Lope _himself_; whereas it is addressed to his _son_, named _Lope_, who served, at the age of _fifteen_, under the Marquis of Santa Cruz, as we shall see hereafter. The “Cupid in arms,” therefore, referred to in this Dedication, fails to prove what Schack thought it proved; and leaves the “fifteen years” as dark a point as ever. See Schack pp. 157, etc. [206] These are the earliest works of Lope mentioned by his eulogists and biographers, (Obras Sueltas, Tom. XX. p. 30), and must be dated as early as 1582 or 1583. The “Pastoral de Jacinto” is in the Comedias, Tom. XVIII., but was not printed till 1623. [207] In the epistle to Doctor Gregorio de Ángulo, (Obras Sueltas, Tom. I. p. 420), he says: “Don Gerónimo Manrique brought me up. I studied in Alcalá, and took the degree of Bachelor; I was even on the point of becoming a priest; but I fell blindly in love, God forgive it; I am married now, and he that is so ill off fears nothing.” Elsewhere he speaks of his obligations to Manrique more warmly; for instance, in his Dedication of “Pobreza no es Vileza,” (Comedias, 4to, Tom. XX., Madrid, 1629), where his language is very strong.