IZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 93 



Sarpi), although he never formally left the Eomish 

 Church, is supposed to have been convinced of 

 the errors of Popery when Wotton was main- 

 taining the rights of Venice against the civil 

 authority of the Pope. 



The liberal-minded Father Fulgentio, who had 

 been a pupil of Father Paul, was enlightened by 

 Wotton on the subject of Popery. " I know," he 

 said to another friend, " this Church of England, as 

 I know it by your Liturgy, articles and canons, I 

 know not your practice, to be the most apostolical 

 Church in the whole world, and the Church of 

 Eome to be at this time the most impure." He 

 would not forsake his Church. ''A man," he 

 said, "may live in an infected city and not have 

 the plague." Again, "Live in it and die in it 

 I must, though it be the impurest of Christian 

 Churches." 



Without doubt Wotton was the most accom- 

 plished man of the age, " a man whose experience, 

 learning, wit, and cheerfulness made his company 

 to be esteemed one of the delights of mankind." 



" He did the utmost bounds of knowledge find." 



He had "an innate pleasure of angling," and 

 was, says Walton, "an excellent angler." He 

 intended to write a discourse on angling, but 

 never did so. His saying is well known that "An 

 Ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad 



