[Footnote 1: "Valete tria animalia Religionis servæ, et in servitutem
nata."]
Had your correspondent NOVUS, in his first communication, specified by name
the _Consilium Quorundam Episcoporum_ as the document whose fictitious
character he desired to notify, I should not have been betrayed into my
supererogatory vindication of the _Consilium Delectorum Cardinalium_; the
latter piece having lately been much before me, and its very extraordinary
frankness in acknowledging the existence of the gravest abuses, of which
the Reformers complained, giving it so much the air of satirical fiction.
The use of the other document, moreover, being chiefly in the hands of a
class of writers I am happy in not being able to boast a very extensive
acquaintance with, recent anti-papal controversialists, I certainly did
think that NOVUS had impugned the authenticity of the genuine _Consilium_.
R. G. is mistaken in supposing that I thought there were _nine Cardinals_
in the committee which drew up the genuine _Consilium_, as the full title
of this piece will show:--_Consilium novem Delectorum Cardinalium et
aliorum Prælatorum, de emendanda Ecclesia._