Jacob Bording (15 July 1511 – 5 September 1560) was a Flemish medical doctor and personal physician. Life Jacob (Nikolaus) Bording was the son of the Antwerp merchant Nikolaus Bording (1449–1520). His mother, born Adriane d’Adriani, was a daughter of an influential family from Utrecht. Her uncle, Adriaen Floriszoon Boeiens, later became (briefly) Pope Hadrian VI, the first and till now last pope from what subsequently became known as The Netherlands. After concluding his schooling in Antwerp he moved on to study classical languages at Leuven/Louvain. In 1530 Bording moved on to Paris where he studied Aristotelian philosophy and medicine with the anatomist Jacques Dubois (1478–1555). After that he pursued his medical studies further at the University of Montpellier. While there he made the acquaintance of Jacopo Sadoleto, at this time the Bishop of Carpentras. Evidently the bishop was impressed. Through the bishop's mediation in 1537, Bording obtained a teaching post and relocated to Carpentras, a short distance to the east, becoming rector of the school, still aged only 26. In 1538 he married. His bride, Franzisca Negroni (1523–1582), was the daughter of a Genoese aristocrat. Soon after that he travelled to Antwerp for a family visit. On returning south, in 1540 Bording moved on to the University of Bologna, where he received his doctorate in medicine the same year. That concluded his formal education, and he embarked on a career in teaching. By 1541, however, he had read and been convinced by the writings of Philip Melanchthon, an intellectual heavyweight of the Lutheran reformation. As an adherent of the "new doctrines" he could no longer remain in France without putting his life in danger. He returned with his medical qualification to Antwerp where for the next five years was able to combine work as a physician with lecturing on anatomy and surgery. From the point of view of the young emperor, the growth of a popular alternative to the mainstream church represented a growing threat, and he became more stalwart in his defence of the true religion. In Antwerp Protestants were discouraged and persecuted, and Bording found it necessary to move on. By 1546 he had reached Hamburg where he settled for a few years, supporting himself as a city physician. Then, in 1549, he received an invitation from Henry V, Duke of Mecklenburg to accept a full professorship in medicine at Rostock. The professorship was to be combined