Familiar Letters

nevertheless, I will not be lacking to myself. I will strive and make an effort so that, although he may surpass me in age, he may yet be surpassed by me in other things. Farewell. Rome, April 4.

Rubricated large initial L in red ink marking the start of a new letter.

Lucu a nickname or abbreviated name

TO LEONARD, Coluccio. I wrote to you before about the contentions into which I had fallen, having arrived here beyond my hope and will. Afterwards, these things followed. The Pope, because of the cause about which I wrote then, was ambivalent; by delaying and procrastinating, he seemed to neither clearly reject me nor receive me. The supporters of my adversary and competitor, by continuously suggesting many things to him, whispering, and annoyingly comparing us to one another, had rendered the Pope more uncertain day by day. Thus, almost an entire month was passed.

But at last, the contentions and disputes and the boasting of the adversaries, and those most annoying comparisons, had this outcome: that it was not only necessary to endure them briefly but it was even to be hoped and prayed that they had intervened against me. For when that struggle was burning most fiercely, and the adversaries were already held by the highest hope, letters came to the Pope from France, from the Bishop of Bourges Biturigensium of the people of Bourges. The matter being dealt with was most grave and most great; it was the very long and elaborate series of letters. When the Pope wished to reply to these more accurately, by the judgment of the cardinals he entrusted the business to me and my competitor, as if he were going to make a judgment of both of us in this.