96. Tostatus.
The works of this voluminous commentator had a luckier resurrection from the deep than even Frith's Treatises. Cardinal Ximenes, or rather Cisneros (as he should more properly be called) sent the manuscript to Venice to be printed; the ship in which they were embarked, encountered a violent storm in the Gulph of Lyons; all the lading was thrown overboard to lighten her, and the bishop's works among the rest. The passengers with great difficulty got to shore; and the next day they saw the chest which contained these papers come floating safely to the beach. The fact was proved at Rome by the deposition of sixteen eye-witnesses, and their legal attestations are probably at this time to be seen at Salamanca. It is not to be wondered at, that the Catholics were disposed to believe this circumstance miraculous, considering the specific gravity of the contents of the chest.
Nicholas Antonio relates this fact as well as Gil Gonzalez, who has recorded it in their different works. This useful historian was never weary of praising Tostado, hecause all his praises redounded to the honour and glory of Avila, the bishop's see, and the historians birth place. No mention of this singular circumstance is made by Hernando de Pulgar, his earliest biographer but this does not invalidate the story, because that author probably died before it occurred.
Gil Gonzalez in his His. del Rey. D. Henrique 3, has preserved the bishop's epitaph.
Aqui yaze sepultado
quien virgen vivio y murio;
en ciencias mas esmerado,
el nuestro Obispo Tostado,
que nuestro nation honró.
Es mui cierto que escrivio
para cada dia tres pliegos
de los dias que vivio:
su dotrina assi alumbro,
que haze ver a los ciegos.