On the Bishops of Gubbio

You, who are regarded by the judgment of all as a most studious cultivator of letters, and likewise a most munificent patron. For this fame of You has long since spread: that from an early age You were so captured by a love for the best arts and liberal disciplines that, in acquiring them second only to God and Divine matters, You spent all Your vigils, cares, and thoughts; and later, when You had barely passed the years of adolescence and were dedicated to the service of the Apostolic See, and began to handle grave duties and the prefectures of illustrious cities and provinces, You became accustomed to allotting to those same studies as much time as remained from public business and the offices of piety. These were the hours of leisure You assigned to them; these were the solid days, if any happened to pass free from public cares; and these were the not insignificant parts of the nights snatched from sleep and peaceful rest. Did You assign them? Indeed, this same care resides in Your mind even now, especially by day and by night, even though You shine in the Vatican purple original: "Vaticana dibapha", literally "twice-dyed in the Vatican", referring to the scarlet robes of a Cardinal., and even though You have been elevated to that rank of dignity above which You have scarcely another superior on earth. Thus it happened that You achieved not just any knowledge of many things, or a semblance of erudition that might seem sufficient for the judgment of the people and the grasp of the crowd—which in a very busy man might suffice for praise—but a certain singular and excellent science and doctrine in every kind of discipline, which You judged worthy of Yourself, that is, of a most noble man and ecclesiastical prince. Nor did You do this alone perpetually.