of my weak ability.  And, if sometimes even out of private enmities public delinquencies come to be exposed and corrected, and I have now, impelled by all possible reasons, prosecuted with most just invective, nor yet without proper result, not an adversary of my own merely, but one who is the common adversary of almost all, a nefarious man, a disgrace to the Reformed Religion and to the sacred order especially, a dishonour to learning, a most pernicious teacher of youth, an unclean ecclesiastic, it will be seen, I hope, by those who are chiefly interested in making an example of him (for why should I not so trust?), that herein I have performed an action neither displeasing to God, nor unwholesome to the Church, nor unuseful to the State.”

What a blast this to pursue poor Morus over the Continent!  It would seem as if, in expectation of it, he had put himself as far as he could out of hearing.  When Milton’s Pro Se Defensio appeared, Morus was no longer in France, but in Italy; and it was not till May, 1656, or nine months after, that he reappeared in Holland.  Then, as he had outrun by more than a year his formal leave of absence from his Amsterdam professorship, granted Dec, 20, 1654, there seem to have been strict inquiries as to the causes of his long absence.  It was explained that he had fallen ill at Florence; it also came out that he had had a very distinguished reception from the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and that the Venetian Senate had presented him with a chain of gold for a Latin poem he had written on a recent defeat of the Turks at sea by the Venetian navy; and, what was most to the point, it appeared, by addresses of his own at Amsterdam, and at a meeting of the Walloon Synod at Leyden, that he had found in Italy great opportunities “for advancing the glory of God by the preaching of the Gospel.”  We know independently that, while in Italy, he had made acquaintance with some of those wits and scholars among whom Milton had moved so delightfully in his visit of 1638-9, and among whom Heinsius had been back in 1652-3, to find that they still remembered Milton, and could talk about him (Vol.  IV. pp. 475-476); and it is even startling to have evidence from Moms himself that he exchanged especial compliments at Rome with Milton’s old friend Holstenius, the Vatican librarian, and became so very intimate at Florence with Milton’s beloved Carlo Dati as to receive from Dati the most affectionate attention and nursing through his illness.  And so, all seeming fully satisfied at Amsterdam, he resumed his duties in the Amsterdam School.  Not to be long at peace, however.  Hardly had he returned when, either on the old charges, now so terrifically reblazoned through Holland by Milton’s perseverance for his ruin, or on new charges arising from new incidents, he and the Walloon church-authorities were again at feud.  In this uncomfortable state we must leave him for the present.[1]