Gilberti Cognati Nozereni aliquot epistolae

and all his other gifts: but it is something to follow him, even in a dream. Some friends have written to me what the foaming Thraso bellowed against me in a public banquet at Salins. That he called me an Erasmian and a Basilian can be laughed at, as if said by a drunkard. But that he said I had sprinkled German poison among many is a manifest lie. Among many other things, he blathered that I am a lykophilium wolf-friend. Thus, at their departure, evil spirits are accustomed to flee, leaving behind a stench: thus, serpents are accustomed to hide themselves after having poured out their venom. O customs, O wonderful madness. Does he want to be called and believed to be noble now? The famous name delights him, and boasting of domains: why does virtue not also please him, so that he might deservedly be noble? Let him first learn to curb his mind, to restrain blind affections, to be sober, to use reason, to avoid wicked things, to follow what is just, so that he may be able to approach the summit of virtue. Then he will be rightly and deservedly called noble. For this is true nobility, not lineage, not blood, not insignia and domains: to the names of which his affections and character clearly correspond. But what deeds of his own, or of his ancestors, will the sluggish and virtue-less man recount? None, certainly. For they have never done anything worthy of praise. Why, therefore, does he boast of having been born to illustrious parents? If he is of no account? If he is shameful? But let him repeat his ancestors from an ancient origin. He will