JEROME AT PAVIA. 209 



The day before the crime was committed he redeemed his 

 father-in-law's pledges, and took not a part only, but the 

 whole of his wife's family into the house to live with 

 him 1 . 



For a few minutes we must change the scene to Pavia, 

 where Jerome was happily established in his professorship 

 with a salary of six hundred gold crowns, clipped money 

 indeed 2 , but the payment of congenial labour that at the 

 same time did not withdraw him wholly from his practice 

 as a popular physician. He had just resumed his lectures, 

 and if he was tempted into formal disputation he was 

 quite able to silence an antagonist. So he overwhelmed 

 at Pavia Branda Porro 3 , who omitted the word (e not" 

 from a citation. He was accused mildly but firmly of his 

 error by Cardan, who adhered to the accusation, "at the 

 same time expectorating freely," he says, " as was my 

 wont." Branda, who scorned the imputation of having 

 made so vital a mistake, called for the book from which he 

 had been quoting, and out of that he was convicted and 

 defeated. 



Now it happened that seven days before the commission 

 of the crime in Milan, Jerome s younger son, who was at 



1 Def. Filii mei, for the last sentence. 



2 Ibid. 



3 De Vita Propria, cap. xii. for this incident. The next resumes the 

 story from the chapter De Luctu. 



VOL. II. P 



