a great part of this University was
running mad with the infection of this not uncommon disease.

I declared that you were quite unknown to me, that I had not yet read
your books, and accordingly neither approved nor disapproved of anything
in them. I only warned them not to clamour before the populace in so
hateful a manner without having yet read your books: this matter was
_their_ concern, whose judgement should carry the greatest weight.
Further I begged them to consider also whether it were expedient to
traduce before a mixed multitude views which were more properly refuted
in books or discussed between educated persons, particularly as the
author's way of life was extolled by one and all. I failed miserably; up
to this day they continue to rave in their insinuating, nay, slanderous
disputations. How often have we agreed to make peace! How often have
they stirred up new commotions from some rashly conceived shred of
suspicion! And these men think themselves theologians! Theologians are
not liked in Court circles here; this too they put down to me. The
bishops all favour me greatly. These men put no trust in books, their
hope of victory is based on cunning alone. I disdain them, relying on my
knowledge that I am in the right. They are becoming a little milder
towards yourself. They fear my pen, because of their bad conscience; and
I would indeed paint them in their true colours, as they deserve, did
not Christ's teaching and example summon me elsewhere. Wild beasts can
be tamed by kindness, which makes these men wild.

There are persons in England, and they in the highest positions, who
think very well of your writings. Here, too, there are people, among
them the Bishop of Liege, who favour your followers. As for me, I keep
myself as far as possible neutral, the better to assist the new
flowering of good learning; and it seems to me that more can be done by
unassuming courteousness than by violence. It was thus that Christ
brought the world under His sway, and thus that Paul made away with the
Jewish Law, by interpreting all things allegorically. It is wiser to cry
out against those who abuse the Popes' authority than against the Popes
themselves: and I think that we should act in the same way with the
Kings. As for the schools, we should not so much reject them as recall
them to more reasonable studies. Where things are too generally accepted
to be suddenly eradicated from men's minds, we must argue with repeated