They are fishers of men, who catch a credulous multitude, and devour them for their prey." This "Liber Epistolarum" includes some descriptions of the debaucheries of the churchmen, which are too scandalous for translation.

They are nevertheless curious relics of history.
In this year, Gherardo, the brother of our poet, retired, by his advice, to the Carthusian monastery of Montrieux, which they had both visited in the pilgrimage to Baume three years before.

Gherardo had been struck down with affliction by the death of a beautiful woman at Avignon, to whom he was devoted.

Her name and history are quite unknown, but it may be hoped, if not conjectured, that she was not married, and could be more liberal in her affections than the poet's Laura.
Amidst all the incidents of this period of his life, the attachment of Petrarch to Laura continued unabated.

It appears, too, that, since his return from Parma, she treated him with more than wonted complacency.