yage to France,
where Alesius left, and plodding his way along the northern coast,
visited Belgium, where he would meet with friendly Scots at Bruges, and
probably also at Antwerp. He then passed up the Rhine to Cologne,
where, as already suggested, he was favourably received by the
Archbishop, Hermann von Wied, who afterwards became a friend of the
Reformation, though at this time, like Alesius himself, not yet decided
altogether to break with the old church. It is no doubt to this visit he
refers in the following passage of the treatise from which I have
repeatedly quoted: "When lately at Cologne I conversed familiarly with
a certain man of the highest learning and authority, and perceived how
deeply he was grieved by the disturbed state of the church in Germany. I
began to exhort him to interpose his judgment in certain matters of
dispute, because I hoped that milder views might gain the ascendancy if
princes and people only had such monitors excelling in learning and
authority. When I had argued long in support of my opinion, heaving a
sigh, but making no formal reply to my arguments, he bade me listen to
an apologue: When the lion, worn out with old age, could no longer
obtain his prey by hunting, he fell on the device of inviting the beasts
to visit him in his den. There came to him a bear, a wolf, and a fox.
The bear entered first, and being affably received by the lion, and
conducted round the den, he was asked how he was pleased with the
amenity of the place. Being no courtier, the bear answered bluntly that
he could never stay in such a filthy hole, among heaps of decaying
carcasses. The lion, enraged, chid the bear for finding fault with the
amenity of the royal den, and tearing him up, cast away his carcass
among the others. The wolf, who had been standing by, seeing in what
danger he was, thought by artifice to soothe the haughty mind of the
lion. He accordingly approached, was led round the den, and was asked
whether the smell of the heap of carcasses was unpleasant to him. The
wolf replied, in a carefully considered speech, that he had never seen
anything more pleasant. This artifice, however, was of no avail to the
wolf. The lion meted out the same treatment to him as to the bear,
tearing him up for his impudent flattery. The fox, who had witnessed all
this, and how both the simplicity of the bear and the flattery of the
wolf had given equal offence to the lion, was in great perplexity what
to answer when