In July Cardan withdrew to Milan, where, to add to his other troubles, he was seized with an attack of fever. He was now thoroughly alarmed at the look of his affairs. Many of his fears may have been imaginary, but the burden of real trouble which he had to carry was one which might easily bring him to the ground, and, when once a man is down, the crowd has little pity or scruple in trampling him to death. He set about to review his position, and to spy out all possible sources of danger. He writes: "I called to mind all the books I had written, and, seeing that in them there were many obscure passages upon which an unfavourable meaning might be put by the malice of my enemies, I wrote to the Council, submitting all my writings to its judgment and will and pleasure. By this action I saved myself from grave danger and disgrace in the future."[210] The Council to which Cardan here refers was probably the Congregation of the Index appointed by the Council at Trent for the authoritative examination of all books before allowing them to be read by the faithful. Before the close of the Council (1563) these duties had been handed over to the Pope (Pius IV.), who published the revised and definite Roman Index in 1564. FOOTNOTES: [197] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxvii. p. 71. [198] "Quin etiam dominus ac Princeps alioquin generosus et humanus, cum ipsum ob invidiam meam et accusatorum multitudinem deseruisset, et ipse multis modis conflictatus est gravibus morbis, caede propriae neptis a conjuge suo, litibus gravibus: tum etiam subsecuta calamitas publica, Zotophagite insula amissa, classe regia dissipata."--_De Vita Propria_, ch. xli. p. 153. The island alluded to must have been _Lotophagites insula_, an island near the Syrtes Minor on the African coast, and the loss of the same probably refers to some disaster during the Imperialist wars against the Moors. [199] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xliii. p. 160. [200] Cardan rates it as his best work on an ethical subject.--_Opera_, tom i. p. 146. And on p. 115 he writes: "Utinam contigisset absolvere ante errorem filii; neque enim ille errasset, nec errandi causam aliquam habuisset: nec, etiamsi errasset, periisset." He also quotes a letter full of sound and loving counsels which he had sent to Gian Battista six months before he fell into the snare. [201] _Opera_, tom. x. p. 129. [202] Bartolomeo Sacco was evidently living at Pavia at this date. [203] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxx. p. 83. [204] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxx. p. 86. [205] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xvii. p. 55. [206] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xvii. p. 54. [207] _Ibid.,_ ch. xxx. p. 88. There is also a long account of this occurrence in _Opera_, tom. x. p. 459. [208] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxx. p. 89. [209] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxx. p. 90. [210] _Opera_, tom. x. p. 460. CHAPTER XI