ading, all his declarations of innocence, all his
pathetic appeals, all his citations of the decisions in his favour in
the Bontia case by the Walloon Synod and the Supreme Court of
Holland, are simply trampled under foot, and the charges formerly
made against him are ruthlessly reiterated as true nevertheless.
There are even additional details, and fresh charges of the same
kind, derived from more recent information. The plan adopted by
Milton is to go over the _Fides Publica_, extracting phrases and
sentences from it, and commenting on each extract; but the general
effect of the book is that of the ruthless chasing round and round of
the poor ecclesiastic in a biographical ellipse, the two foci of
which are Geneva and Leyden.

Distinct evidence is produced that both at Geneva and in Holland the
_fama_ against Morus was still as strong as ever. The evidence
takes the form of extracts from two letters received by Milton since
the _Fides Publica_ had appeared;--

_From a Letter from Geneva, dated Oct. 14, 1654_ (i.e. from
that letter of Ezekiel Spanheim of which Milton had told Spanheim
that he meant to avail himself, though without mentioning the
writer's name: sec ante pp. 172-173). "Our people here cannot
sufficiently express their wonder that you are so thoroughly
acquainted with the private history of a man unknown to you
personally, and that you have painted him so in his native colours
that not even by those with whom he has been on the most familiar
terms could the whole play-acting career of the man (_tota,
hominis histrionia_) have been more accurately or happily set
forth; whence they are at a loss, and I with them, to understand
with what face, shameless though he is and impudent-mouthed, he is
on the point of daring again to appear in the public theatre. For
it is the consummation and completeness of your success in this
part of the business that you have not brought forward either
imagined or otherwise unknown charges against the man, but charges
of common repetition in the mouths of all his greatest friends
even, and which can be clearly corroborated by the authority and
vote of the whole assembly, and even by the accession of farther
criminations to the same effect... I would assure you that hardly
any one can now longer be found here, where for many years he
discharged a public-office, but greatly to the disgrace of this
Church, who would dare or undertake