There are many evidences of his good taste and love of beautiful things[179]. A long and complicated correspondence with his friend Stephen Vaughan about an iron chest of very curious workmanship, which he wanted for his house at Austin Friars, of such expense that Vaughan was almost afraid to buy it, is not without interest. There is record of his purchasing a globe, with a set of explanatory notes, and the only two ‘Cronica Cronicarum cum figuris’ that could be found in all Antwerp[180]. Especially great was his love of Italian things. His stay in Italy was of sufficient duration to steep him in the spirit of the Renaissance; he read and studied his Machiavelli, so that it was a guide to his future political career; we can well imagine him repeating to himself the sentence in chapter xviii of The Prince which begins ‘Ma è necessario questa natura saperla bene colorire, ed essere gran simulatore e dissimulatore[181],’ or the passage in chapter xvii of the same, ‘Deve pertanto un principe non si curare dell’infamia di crudele per tenere i sudditi suoi uniti ed in fede[182].’ He doubtless possessed many of the important Italian books in print at that time. In April, 1530, Edmund Bonner writes to him to remind him of his promise to lend him the Triumphs of Petrarch and the Cortigiano, and to make him a good Italian[183]. Of his social gifts and of his charm as a host there is no room to doubt. There are many proofs that he was a most magnificent entertainer, and that his personal attraction, when he wished to make himself agreeable, was such that no one could resist it. The letters of Chapuys inform us that even the most careful and experienced politicians were often completely put off their guard by Cromwell’s pleasing presence and address; and more than once were induced to say things which should not have escaped them.