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entitled, Exemplum Literarum R. D. Gerardi Busdragi in Episcopatu Patavino Suffraganei. Ad Illustrissimum et Reverendissimum D.D. Franciscum Pisanum, In quibus agitur. Quanam ratione præservari possit Italia, ne Lutheranismo inficiatur. It is subscribed, Datum Paduæ die xv Decembris, Anno m.d.lviii. Gerardus Busdragus, Episcopvs Argolicensis. It may be seen likewise in Gerdesii Miscell. Groning. I. 319, &c. He was not aware of the original edition.
Now here a question of some importance arises. Most writers, all indeed, whom I have named, consider the Bolognese Consilium as a serious and real thing, and not as the fiction of Vergerio, like his Actiones and some other works. Clagett, in the preface to his translation, ingeniously enough observes, that the difference between the two Consilia seems to be this, that the Advisers in the first seemed to be serious, and were not; those in the latter were serious, and seemed not to be so. It must be acknowledged, that in the piece with which we are now concerned, there is every appearance of a highly finished parody or satire, such as would naturally flow from the pen of Erasmus or Vergerio. But it may be said with justice,
