It is the contention of this book that even where injurious charges have been freely made and there is little positive testimony to set against them, we are not justified in assuming that there must have been real foundation for the abuse with which the Pope were assailed. In earlier ages it was almost always the extravagant which by preference claimed attention.A humdrum life of ordinary decent conduct made no mark. Any spicy gossip of misdemeanours or irregularity in high places was apt to be put on record by the chronicler, even when he himself believed it. It was something to enliven hiss narrative, and he had no reason to be afraid of a prosecution for libel.