Vives studied at the University of Paris from 1509 to 1512, and in 1519 was appointed professor of humanities at the University of Leuven. At the insistence of his friend Erasmus, he prepared an elaborate commentary on Augustine's "De Civitate Dei", which was published in 1522 with a dedication to Henry VIII of England. Soon afterwards, he was invited to England, and acted as tutor to the Princess Mary, for whose use he wrote "De ratione studii puerilis epistolae duae" (1523) and, ostensibly, "De Institutione Feminae Christianae", on the education of girls (a book he dedicated to the English queen Catherine of Aragon).