He apparently left the university before he finished his studies, although he was popularly credited with being a master of arts.
It is probable that he became jester in the household of the Duke of Norfolk before Henry VIII's death; in Elizabeth's reign he was transferred to the court.
That a man of education like Pace should have voluntarily assumed "the fool's coat" often excited hostile comment.
To such criticism Pace's friend, John Heywood, the epigrammatist, once answered that it was better for the common weal for wise men to "go in fools' coats" than for fools to "go in wise men's gowns".
Pace, meeting one day with M. Juel [i.e. John Jewel, bishop of Salisbury], saluted his lordship courtly, and said, "Now, my Lord, you may be at rest with these felowes, for you are quit by proclamation."'