t the empty house of your ears, as those
good masters of yours say, to foul whisperings going about, and,
with your ears, put your hand and pen too, for I know not what
wages, but certainly little honourable, at the disposal of other
people's malicious humour. Choose which you please. I pray God
Almighty to be merciful to you, and I beg Him also in my own behalf
that, as I proceed to the just defence of my reputation, He may
suggest to me a true and modest oration, utterly free from all
lying and obscenity,--that is, very unlike yours."

On the point of the authorship of the _Regii Sanguinis Clamor_
Morus is emphatic enough. He declares over and over again that
_he_ was not the author, and he declares that Milton knew this
perfectly well,--might have known it for two years, but had beyond
all doubt known it before he had published the _Defensio
Secunda_. We shall bring together the passages that refer to this
subject:--

I neither wrote it, nor ever pretended to have done so,--this I
here solemnly declare, and make God my witness,--nor did I
contribute anything to the writing of it.... The real author is
alive and well, unknown to me by face, but very well known to
several good men, on the strength of whose joint knowledge of the
fact I challenge with righteous detestation the public lie which
wriggles everywhere through your whole book.... Let the author
answer for himself: I neither take up his quarrel, nor thrust my
sickle into his corn.... But I wish the anonymous author would come
forth some time or other openly in his own name.... What then would
Milton think? He might have reason to fame and detest the light of
life, being manifestly convicted of lying before the world. He
might say, indeed, "I had not thought of it: I have been under a
mistake" ... But what if I prove by clear evidence that you knew
well enough already that the author of this book was another
person, not I? ... [Morus then goes on to say that Milton might
have learnt the fact in various ways, even from a comparison of the
style of the book with that of Morus's acknowledged writings; but
he lays stress chiefly on the information actually sent to Milton
in 1652 by Ulac, and on the subsequent communications to him,
through Durie and the Dutch Ambassador Nieuport, before the
_Defensio Secunda_ had left the press] ... Will you hear a
word of truth? You had certainly learnt the fact, and