e him good-will; he was still strong, and might live many years,
why should he cut them short?" The story may contain some elements of
truth. But the same evening, certainly, he was again in his cell; and
among the attempts to move him which can be authenticated, there was
one of a far different kind; a letter addressed to him by Pole to
bring him to a sense of his condition.

"Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ,"
so the legate addressed a prisoner in the expectation of {p.247}
death,[536] "hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ,
he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you and
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid
him God speed; for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his
evil deeds. There are some who tell me that, in obedience to this
command, I ought not to address you, or to have any dealings with you,
save the dealings of a judge with a criminal. But Christ came not to
judge only, but also to save; I call upon you, not to enter into your
house, for so I should make myself a partaker with you; my desire is
only to bring you back to the church which you have deserted.

[Footnote 536: _Epist._ Reg. Pol., vol. v. p. 248.
I am obliged to abridge and epitomise.]

"You have corrupted Scripture, you have broken through the communion
of saints, and now I tell you what you must do; I tell you, or rather
not I, but Christ and the church through me. Did I follow my own
impulse, or did I speak in my own name, I should hold other language;
to you I should not speak at all; I would address myself only to God;
I would pray him to let fall the fire of Heaven to consume you, and to
consume with you the house into which you have entered in abandoning
the church.[537]

[Footnote 537: Car se je n'ecourtois que les
mouvemens de la nature, se je ne vous parlois qu'en
mon nom, je vous tiendrois un autre langage au
plutot je ne vous dirois rien; je m'entretiendrois
avec Dieu seul at je lui demanderois de faire
tomber le feu du ciel pour vous consumer avec cette
maison ou vous avez passe en abandonnant l'Eglise.
The letter was only known to the editor of Pole's
remains in a French translation. I do not know