[The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 by David Masson]@TWC D-Link bookThe Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 CHAPTER II 109/279
"The man of highest quality needs another's testimonial the least; nor does any good man ever do anything merely to make himself known." Waiving that general question, however, one may _examine_ Morus's testimonials. This examination of the testimonials is begun in the first or main part of Milton's _Pro Se Defensio_; but, as Morus had only entered on his testimonials in the _Fides Publica_ as originally published, and presented most of them in his _Supplementum_ to that book, so Milton prolongs this branch of his criticism into an appendix entitled separately _Authoris ad Aleasandri Mori Supplementum Responsio_ ("The Author's Answer to Alexander More's Supplement.") Prom the first sentences of this Appendix we learn that the preceding part of Milton's book had been written two months before the _Supplementum_ had come into his hands. Morus's published Testimonials divide themselves chronologically, it may have been observed, into three sets--( 1) those given him at Geneva early in the year 1648, and brought by him into Holland on his removal thither, (2) those given him at Middleburg between Nov.
1649 and Aug.
1652, and (3) the three given him at Amsterdam in July 1654, after Milton's _Defensio Secunda_ had appeared, and in contradiction of statements made in that book .-- On the Genevese set of Testimonials, including that from the venerable Diodati, Milton's criticism, in substance, is that they were vitiated by their date. They had been given, or obtained by hard begging, not perhaps before the Pelletta scandal had been heard of, but before it had been sufficiently notorious, and while it still seemed credible to many that Morus was innocent, and others were good-naturedly willing to stop the investigation by speeding him off to another scene, Theodore Tronchin, pastor and Professor of Theology, and Mermilliod and Pittet, two other pastors, had been the first movers, among the Genevese clergy, for an inquiry into Morus's conduct; the elder Spanheim had, as Milton believed, been one of those that even then would have nothing to do with the Testimonials; the aged Diodati had then for some time ceased to attend the meetings of his brethren, and might not know all.
But, in any case, nearly a year had elapsed between the date of the last of those Genevese Testimonials which Morus had published and Morus's actual departure from Geneva.
During that interval there had been a progress of Genevese opinion on the subject of his character and conduct, and he had been furnished with fresh papers in the nature of farewell Testimonials.
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