of the human intellect should court the congenial society of
lovers of learning; he made his house the resort for them; and he
placed at the disposal of the studious his library, which was the
best in Florence, now that Salutati's, after his death, had been
disposed of by his sons at auction.

Bracciolini was so struck by the attainments and captivated by the
character of this man, that an acquaintance casually formed
speedily ripened into an intimacy of the most confidential,
cordial and communicative kind. Bracciolini, during his stay in
Florence, was a guest in the house of Niccoli; and there, for
nearly a year, he resumed and pursued his studies with ardour amid
the rich stores of the large and select assortment of manuscripts,
amounting to not far from a thousand in number. He was thus adding
to the treasures of his lore with daily assiduity, when the news
reached Florence that Cardinal Cossa had (notwithstanding the
well-known virtues of Alexander V.) poisoned his predecessor, and
had been elected to the pontifical chair by the title of John XXIII.

Behold Bracciolini once more in the palace of the Pontiffs of
Rome; and now acting, in the capacity of Secretary, or, more
properly, writer of the Apostolic Letters, to a Pope who was a
poisoner. John XXIII. was even worse than that: he was a most
atrocious violator of laws, human and divine; and some crimes he
committed were so heinous that it would be indecent to place them
before the public. One can imagine how agreeable must have been
the occupation to that Pope of a military rather than an
ecclesiastic turn, and fonder of deeds of violence and bloodshed
than of acts of meekness and Christianity, when he was presiding
at Constance over that General Council, which sent to the stake