it of judging tried friends by this common
courtesy. It would be impudent of me to charge you with an omission
which you have an equal right to accuse me of in turn.... The heads of
the colleges are not doing anything new. They are afraid of their own
revenues suffering, this being the sole aim of most of them. You would
scarcely believe to what machinations they stooped at Louvain in their
efforts to prevent a trilingual college being established. I worked
strenuously in the matter, and have made myself accordingly very
unpopular. There was an attempt to set up a chair of languages at
Tournai, but the University of Louvain and the Franciscans at Tournai
did not rest until the project was abandoned. The house erected for this
purpose overlooked the Franciscans' garden--that was the cause of the
trouble....

I have had a long life, counting in years; but were I to calculate the
time spent in wrestling with fever, the stone and the gout, I have not
lived long. But we must patiently bear whatever the Lord has sent upon
us, Whose will no one can resist, and Who alone knows what is good for
us.... The glory [of an immortal name] moves me not at all, I am not
anxious over the applause of posterity. My one concern and desire is to
depart hence with Christ's favour.

Many French nobles have fled here for fear of the winter storm, after
having been recalled.[117] 'The lion shall roar, who shall not fear?'
says the Prophet.[118] A like terror has seized the English, from an
unlike cause. Certain monks have been beheaded and among them a monk of
the Order of St. Bridget[119] was dragged along the ground, then hanged,
and finally drawn and quartered. There is a firm and probable rumour
here that the news of the Bishop of Rochester having been co-opted by
Paul III as a cardinal caused the King to hasten his being dragged out
of prison and beheaded--his method of conferring the scarlet hat. It is
all too true that Thomas More has been long in prison and his fortune
confiscated. It was being said that he too had been executed, but I have
no certain news as yet.[120] Would that he had never embroiled himself
in this perilous business and had left the theological cause to the
theologians. The other friends who from time to time honoured me with
letters and gifts now send nothing and write nothing from fear, and
accept nothing from anyone, as if under every stone there slept a
scorpion.

It seems that the Pope is seriously thinking of