THE SPANIARDS MESSENGER FROM BOLOGNA. 263 



echoed this opinion, and Cardan, having seen his perse- 

 cutor thoroughly chidden, went away high in the favour of 

 the Spaniards, to whom he had furnished entertainment. 



In the mean time, Borromeo having recommended 

 kis friend to the senate of Bologna, there had been sent a 

 person from that town to Pavia 1 , who on arriving got 

 among evil counsellors, and wrote back, without having 

 attended one of the illustrious physician's lectures, or seen 

 any of his pupils, many bad things, and among them these : 

 " Of Hieronymus Cardanus I have understood that he is 

 a professor without a class, but only benches ; that he is 

 a man of ill manners, and disliked by all; one full of folly. 

 His behaviour is repulsive ; and he knows but little of the 

 art of medicine, expressing such sectarian opinions about 

 it, that he is rejected by all in his own city, and has no 

 patients/ 5 



This letter was read to the senate at Bologna in the 

 presence of Borromeo himself, who happened then to be 

 serving as pope's legate in the town. It was at first proposed 

 to put an end to the negotiation with Cardan, but upon 

 the text of that part of the letter which said that he had 

 no patients, there rose one of those present and said: 

 * ' Hui ! I know that to be false. I have seen the first 



1 The account of these negotiations is from the Liber de Vita Propria, 

 cap. xvii. The scraps of dialogue, like all others occurring in these 

 volumes, are translated literally from Cardan. 



