Page:English Law and the Renaissance.djvu/73

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Note 31
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mynd confermyd by the redyng of Marsilius, whome I take, though he were in style rude, yet to be of grete iugement, and wel to set out thys mater, both by the authoryte of scripture and good reysonys groundyd in phylosophy, and of thys I pray you send me your iugement.' (Starkey's England, Early Engl. Text Soc. 1878, p. xxv.) Chapuis (the imperial ambassador at Henry's court) to Charles V, 3 Jan. 1534 (Letters and Papers of Henry VIII., vol. VII., p. 6): ' The little pamphlet composed by the Council, which I lately sent to your Majesty, is only a preamble and prologue of others more important which are now being printed. One is called Defensorium Pacis, written in favour of the emperor Loys of Bavaria against apostolic authority. Formerly no one dared read it for fear of being burnt, but now it is translated into English so that all the people may see and understand it.' William Marshall to Thomas Cromwell (Ibid., p. 178): 'Whereas you promised to lend me £20 towards the printing of Defensor Pacis, which has been translated this twelve-month, but kept from the press for lack of money, in trust of your offer I have begun to print it. I have made an end of the Gift of Constantine and of Erasmus upon the Creed.' The 'Gift of Constantine' must be the famous treatise of Laurentius Valla. The translation of Marsilius appeared on 27 July, 1535 (Dict. Nat. Biog. s.n. William Marshall). In October twentyfour copies had been distributed among the Carthusians in London (Letters and Papers, vol. IX.,