Epistola Sebast. Curionis ad amplissimum Collegium Iurisconsult. Patavinae civitatis

which could be refuted even by a boy. But the truth is this: he did not think it could be proved to you that he is wicked and criminal unless he were an enemy to Augustino. In this matter, if it were to be contested with language, we would overcome, trusting in our innocence; if injuries were to be weighed, we would bring forward fairness, and you would be the judges. But when it is carried out with the onset of violence, deceit, and traps, we are overwhelmed. Therefore, when Augustino saw himself a stranger in our city, needy, stripped of relatives, fortified by no kinship, with no fear of weapons or tumult, against so many and such great traps, in the greatest fear of thieves and the most wicked gladiators, he could by no means persist any longer. He yielded for a time to their fury, from the city, but not from his dignity; unwilling and oppressed, with the greatest sense and pain of his own mind. He yielded, I say, to the audacity of evil men, who, although they could compete with virtue, preferred to circumvent him with deceits. For for four months, they have cared for nothing else, day and night, except that a most unworthy accusation should be concocted against him, and that his hands should be tied for demonstrating the injury to that needy man; that his mouth should be closed by prison to lament the calamity; that his mind should be oppressed to express the indignity of the matter. His enemies, and Robortello himself—the head of all evils and the fountain of all crimes—are asked as witnesses. Letters were sent all the way to Rome to inquire against him. Finally, they all speak testimony against Augustino who speak contradictory things, who are not credible even from the fact that they are inflamed by factions, or because there was never any conversation, usage, or association between them and Augustino. Who does not see that all these things pertain to branding him with a mark of infamy? In this manner, there were