Apology Against the Calumnies of the Louvain Theologians

Some of their calumnies are of such a nature that they could move even an exalted mind from its tranquility, and against which I cannot, nor indeed should I, be indifferent. If, therefore, in this apology I speak a little more freely against the evil, and if there is some bitterness, I believe I do so by my own right, and I judge that it is permitted to me to defend myself against their calumnies, detractions, and insults, openly and by the command of the Caesar, since I have published my name, whereas they, without authority, keeping their names silent, have allowed themselves to attack me secretly, behind my back, and treacherously. Certainly, I was not unaware from the beginning of my declamation that I would receive the envy of erudition as a reward, and that the ferocity of the gymnasiarchae schoolmasters/principals of academies, the cunning of the sophists, the snares of the scholastics, the fury of our masters, the deceits of the false monks, and all these things were going to meet me, and I had beautifully predicted it all for myself. But I thought that they, in the manner of learned and upright men, would either write a counter-declamation or write against my work, or declare a public disputation, and not that they would attack me with so many instruments of false tongues, or seek my life before the Caesar with so many lying calumnies. If they had written or disputed, I do not boast of what I might have been worth then. Certainly, I did not fear their erudition, but it was necessary to be afraid of their violence.