and greater still the fruits of it. Equally great
is my desire that hereafter we treat each other in
every way like friends, with less formality and more
frankness than in your royal letters hitherto received;
because to say that the sun at your royal birth promised
you the whole world and its sovereignty, I believe
can only be the saying of someone who wishes to please
and flatter you with such a prophecy—which
is in no wise possible or practicable, for many reasons.
The first is that the very power which according to
your Grandeur’s statement is to give you that
dominion is unable to do it, since the sun is, just
like the sky, the earth and everything else created,
the work of our true God and therefore it can neither
promise nor fulfil such a promise. The sun has
no more life or power than what God gave it, and this
does not go to the extent of taking or giving away
kingdoms, which can only be done by God himself.
It is to this great God and Lord that thanks are due
for all our life and power; and it is He who has such
power, and not the sun or anything else which, as already
stated, is an object created by Him. From the
above-stated truth it must be inferred that it was
flattery and nothing practicable that those learned
men said. In this prophecy they have shown themselves
to be in the wrong; because, even if no other obstacles
were to be encountered, it would be impossible to
fulfil the prophecy when it is considered what a long
time it would require to do so, and how short our
life is, especially so when the greater part of it
is past. After this obstacle a greater one arises,
and that is that, even if so many and powerful kings
as the world holds were to be subjugated, my king
would suffice to overthrow all these prophecies.
And because it is right that I do so, and in order
that your Grandeur be not deceived by what is nothing
else than the false flattery of ignorant people, I
acquaint you with the fact that my king’s power
is such, and the kingdoms and countries under his
royal and Christian rule are so many, that his power
and greatness is beyond compare with that of many
kings and lords, though they be most powerful, each
by himself. His dominions here are but a corner,
and my king’s possessions cannot be judged by
his dominion here. Now, returning to what I was
saying, since our lord and king is so powerful as
he is, and only one of the many kings of this world,
it can be easily imagined that all the rest of them
will not obey one man alone, and that no human power
could control so much. Even were every one of
them to render you obedience, it is not to be thought
that either our king or his subjects would do it;
but on the contrary, were it not that our divine and
Christian laws prevent us from taking unjustly from
any one that which does not belong to us, and if affairs
were in accordance with power and strength, my king
only would be the one obeyed and acknowledged as such
ruler. In all other matters we put our trust not