Oration on philosophy, held when conferring the degree of Master to some learned and honourable young men. Philip Melanchthon, 1536

I hope that my character is sufficiently familiar and well known to all of you so that I can easily convince you that I have not taken on the office of speaking again out of impudence, or confidence in my intellect or meddlesomeness of any kind. For it was because it was allotted to me by that excellent man, Jakob Milich, the dean of our college, who is most dear to me because of his outstanding virtue, and because of our fellowship in studying and many duties, that I was moved by the motive of duty to obey my friend's wish. I am not to such an extent a Suffenus, nor so ridiculously taken with myself as to be unaware that there are many in this university who are both more suitable by their personality, and better prepared for speaking with erudition than I am, and truly I give them plentiful praise for their intellect and erudition. However, I did not want to appear capricious, since a great friend solicits this duty from me. Indeed, I do not want to make excuses any longer, for I believe that my character is sufficiently approved of by you. And they are mainly of the kind where this little verse is appropriate: Tropos esth' ho peithōn tou legontos, ou logos, which means that the speaker's character, not his speech, convinces the audience [Menander, Fragment 407.7].