Renowned King,

If I did not know Your Majesty, I should think no time less suitable than this to broach any literary matters with you or to send some book to you, a prince preoccupied with matters of great moment, whose concerns embrace the state and condition of all Europe. But because I know that your soul is of such loftiness that no burden of business could ever overwhelm you, nor so far preoccupy you as to leave you no free time to devote to your studies, as much so that thus revived and refreshed by them you may return to business a new man, as so that you may always draw out something from the commandments of wisdom that would be of use to you in the task and responsibility committed and entrusted to you by God; therefore I am sending Your Majesty the Epitome of the Adages of Erasmus, which I told you I had not found for sale in London, and which I have bought here, in particular because this work, overflowing as it is with little flowers gathered as though from the entire garden of literature, could give great pleasure to your mind, wearied by reading of more serious matters. And indeed I send you this for a book in the spirit of those ancient peasants, who, because they had no incense, performed the sacrifice with a grain of salt. The little work in which I respond to the Epistle of Luther, I have ready, so that it can be issued together with Your Majesty's little notes, as soon as you have sent them here to me, unless you would rather that everything was printed together in London. Whatever you decide about this, I shall follow Your Majesty's advice, as is only fair, and obey your instructions. We hear over here that the Most Reverend Lord Cardinal has set off for France. Would that he may so settle the affairs of the Christian world as to be worthy both of himself and of you: of you, the most humane, most erudite and above all pious of princes;