envoys, great ecclesiastics, and papal legates came
together with navigators and conquerors, cosmographers, colonial
officials, and returning explorers from antipodal regions--Spain's
empire builders. It was in such society he collected the mass of
first-hand information he sifted and chronicled in the Decades and the
_Opus Epistolarum_, which have proven such an inexhaustible mine for
students of Spanish and Spanish-American history. Truly of him may it
be said that nothing human was alien to his spirit. Intercourse with
him was prized as a privilege by the great men of his time, while he
converted his association with them to his own and posterity's profit.

Amongst the Flemish counsellors of Charles V., Adrian of Utrecht,
preceptor of the young prince prior to his accession, had arrived in
Spain in the year 1515 as representative of his interests at King
Ferdinand's court. Upon that monarch's death, Adrian, who had meantime
been made Bishop of Tortosa and created Cardinal, shared the regency
with Cardinal Ximenes. A man of gentle manners and scholastic
training, his participation in the regency was hardly more than
nominal. Ignorant alike of the Spanish tongue and the intricacies of
political life, he willingly effaced himself in the shadow of his
imperious and masterful colleague. Peter Martyr placed his services
entirely at the disposition of Adrian, piloting him amongst the
shoals and reefs that rendered perilous the mysterious sea of Spanish
politics. When Adrian was elected Pope in 1522, his former mentor
wrote felicitating him upon his elevation and reminding him of the
services he had formerly rendered him: _Fuistis a me de rebus quae
gerebantur moniti; nec parum commodi ad emergentia tunc negotia
significationes meas Caesaris rebus attulisse vestra Beatitudo
fatetur_. Although the newly elected Pontiff expressed an amiable wish
to see his old friend in Rome, he offered him no definite position in
Curia. The correspondence that ensued between them was inconclusive;
Martyr, always declaring that he sought no favour, still persisted in
soliciting a meeting which the Pope discouraged. Adrian accepted his
protests of disinterestedness literally, and their last meeting at
Logrono was unproductive of aught from the Pope, save expressions
of personal esteem and regard. Peter Martyr excused himself from
following His Holiness to Rome, on the plea of his advanced years and
failing health. If disappointed at receiving