of a man of such eminent parts and said that if he could have beene reconcil'd to the service of the Church although they had given him but a dry flower to smell on for those were his very words conceiving that the father had formerly beene deeply distasted of the Court because Pope Clement had twice refused to give him a small Bishopricke the one of Melopotamo and the other of Nona in Dalmatia and he spoke it freely that he had alwaies desired to have him live at Rome because he had knowne him and practised him and knew very well how greate service hee was able to have done the Church The Signor Cardinall Forza beeing a Prince of such a sublimity of vertue and blood as t is well knowne might beleev'd to have had the basenesse of flatterers in abhorment who to feede the humour of the Court prostitute their tongues making them venale to lying and calumnies this Cardinall would often with much delight tempt another father Fra. Amante Buonvicino that was at Rome Parochian of Santa maria in via and went under the name of a Venetian and put him into discourse concerning Father Paul seeming to oppose him in it wherewith that Father finding himselfe to be too farre urged would enter into a narrative of the Fathers life of his Studies of the poverty wherein he lived with all the particularities in which he was both wise and cunning perceiving how much the Cardinall was pleased with it because when hee came to give demonstrations of his excellent piety he would answer him with a smile say that those perhaps were but hypocrisies to cosen the world but hee spoke it after such a manner that the Frier might well perceive it was spoken but in a way of upbraiding or giving the lie to such as thought so of him and thereupon he freely gave him the same reply which the Signior Villiers now Ambassadour to the most Christian King had done to two Nuntios Zachia at present and Ascoli that was before him who being often constrained in poynt of Argument by the too notorioues truth of the innocent and exemplarie life of the father would alwaies spit their venome by saying he was an Hypocrite whereunto the said Ambassadour Villers made them this reply That the Fathers course was quite contrary to that of Hypocrites because they make all their actions to appeare clothed with piety in publique as much as they can possibly although they can never goe so conceal'd but that they make a discovery of their ends to be but avarice ambition and temporall enjoyments insomuch that the skinne of the lambe could never quite cover nor conceale that of the wolfe But the Father never made any such shew to the publique but lived in an absolute retirednes He was never knowne to use any hypocriticall actions not to hold out crownes in his hand as he went through the streets not to kisse medailles not to affect stations and places at times of concourse not to speake with affected Spiritualities nor to use sordidnesse in his garments but onely a cleanlinesse of attire which though poore was yet condecent And if this bee called Hypocrisie it is an unknowne sort of hypocrisie which hath neither objectnor end nor so much as a circumstance of either The dialogue betweene the Nuntio Zachia and Villiers was occasioned in this manner Monsieur Villiers is a Gentleman of great sinceritie and of a most ingenious heart but not very capeable of the artificies especially of the Courtiers of Rome which are the most refined of the world Pietro Assileneo a frenchman was the Physitian to his house who was the very sincerity and goodnesse of nature and having beene a great friend to the father now by the space of forty yeares hee made it knowne to him how every time the Nuntios talked with the Ambassadour concerning the Father They spoke alwaies of him with such prefaces of honour as if they would make him to be one of the most wretched men in the world at this the Father laugh't and would sometimes say so it is fit and so it should be because I am the most divers and differing from their humour that 's possible And if they bee the most perfect and holy men then I am the most lewd and wretched man that can bee spoken of But he said yet further desiring to bee satisfied how the fathers life seem'd so scandalous to deserve such Elogies from Churchmen and that hee knew not what to doe to give satisfaction to those great prelates nor what to abstaine from to take away their sinister opinions onely he wisht that the next time the Nuntio spoke of him to the Ambassador he would interrupt him a little to know what was his reason to charge him with such hypocrisie His friend informed the Ambassador of this discourse who taking his opportunitie which happened to be the 16 of February 1621. when the Nuntio entred into his usuall custome of railing upon the father The Ambassador replied upon him that from all other men he had alwaies heard the father to be much commended for his goodnesse and integrity but withall said he would be very glad to know from him what ground he had for the contrary that he might the better know how to believe those that informed him otherwise The Nuntio was suddainly surprised with this demand of his and durst not deny what the Ambassador had said because it was too well knowne but desired to disengage himselfe by charging his good actions and his innocent life with hypocrifie But this foild him so much the more because the Ambassador prest him againe to know what end he had discovered in the father or what external action to prove him an hypocrite To this the Nuntio knew not what to say but was defirous to divert the discourse to some other subject But because all things tooke easie impression with the father especially things of weight the father after a little merriment and facetious discourse conjur'd an inward friend of his to deale plainely with him and to advise him of his defects and in particular if according to the rules of holy Evangelicall doctrine he found in him any arguments of hypocrifie acknowledging that a man is not better knowne to any nor yet more concealed from any then himselfe and that the nature of selfe flatry is not easily rooted out Such dialogismes as these past betwixt them a little after those times of the late cōmotions in Spaine also at the Court of the most Christian King betwixt the Ambassador Pietre Contarini and the Cardinall Vbaldini at that time Nuntio in that Court This Cardinall did allwaies use to infamize the father for his publisht writings with odious appellations Contarini on the other side a gentleman of singular candour of a placid nature sweete and nothing contentious but yet solide made him this answer that he himselfe was neither a divine nor yet a doctor of the lawes to maintaine a difference
other the excesse whereof had not only extended his compassion towards men but to all other sorts of creatures Insomuch as his nature could not endure that any thing should be grieved or molested And if it had been needfull to kill any of those creatures with his own hand which God had appointed for food and sustenance of life true it is that in the latter years of his life excepting a great necessity hee would rather have abstained and fasted But because he had formerly cut in peeces a number of living creatures with his own hands to make Anatomies whensoever he fell into the occasion of that discourse he seemed to resent it with a kinde of compassionate displeasure and reluctance And if in discourse or writing he seemed at any time more punctuall in matter of justice nothing being able to make him decline from the strict course blaming often the too great mildness of punitive justice as an occasion of much and many abuses yet withall if it had concerned himselfe to administer it I am very well assured that in all his governments and many years super-intendence of his province you would rather have discovered in him a defect of rigour than of mercy But in the administration of his owne charge what a reputation of integrity piety and prudence and of every vertue he had gain'd to himself it may be gathered from hence He was made provinciall of his order at the end of the twenty sixth yeare of his age which was never conferred upon any so young as he by any information that I could receive neither before nor since in 340. yeares that this order of the Servi had had a beginning In this year of 1579. there was held a generall Chapter of the whole order in Parma and because about tenne yeares before by many Statutes made at divers times and by the Popes themselves concerning Secular Friers as also by the Councell of Trent it was resolved to be necessary to make new constitutions and rules for the government of the whole order It was therefore decreed at that Chapter for the deferring no longer of so good a worke that three of the most learned pious and prudent men should be chosen out of all the order of that religion to execute a businesse of such importance as every one which well understands that knows what belongs to Government One of these was Padre Paolo who was but a youth in respect of the venerable and hoarie haires of the other two Upon this occasion hee tarried a good while at home where he made a discovery of his most rich Talent to the cardinall Alexander-Farnese Protector and to the other Santa Severina Vice Protector of the order The charge that was particularly layd upon him was to accōmodate that part which concern'd the sacred Cannons the reformations by the Councell of Trent which were but newly come forth and the formes of their judgments All the worke lay upon the three that were deputed but because he had a more exquisite knowledge of the Cannon and civill lawes and of the Conciliary determinations the businesse of that particular was wholly remitted to him and he alone gave forme to that whole part which treated of judgments in accommodation to the Claustrall state and that with so much brevity cleernesse and profundity that those judges that were so knowing and onely exercised in matter of judicature have admired it as the action of one that had consumed his age in nothing but study of the Iawes of that order And it is an argument to convince the errour of those that beleeve that they which give themselves most to the study of sciences are thereby rendred unable for government and policy It being an error every way as grosse as it is pernitious Whereof wee shall give a lively example in the following course of the life of father Paul But leaving at Rome by the occasion of this imployment a great fame of his knowledge and prudence not onely in the Courts of these two Cardinalls from whom by order exprest in the Apostolical Briefe of Gregory the thirteenth It was appointed that all statutes which were made should receive approbation For it was sometimes necessary to resort to and treate with the Pope himselfe From which burden being now discharged he returned to his owne government When he had ended this charge of Provinciallship and easing his shoulders of so great a weight he entred into some more quietnesse which he said was all the repose he enjoyed in the whole course of his life because nothing fell out in his government wherein the evills were not well discerned or else were growne tolerable without factions or discontentments And as a weary man relisheth his rest with more sweetnesse so for three whole yeares he gave himselfe to nothing but speculations of naturall things And his knowledge in them being growne to some perfection he past further to operations with his owne hand in the transmutation and distillation of all sorts of mettalls Not that he was ever toucht with the vanity of the possibility of making gold or that he thought a discreete man could any way engage himselfe in such an inquiry Of this it may be an argument that at that time for many monthes together there continued in Venice after he had travelled Italy and deluded so many Princes and Prelates That famous impostor Mamugna who was beleeved to make gold which exprest very well the sence of Diogenes when he said he did not segregate from the vulgar no not Kings themselves Because into that credence or rather into that Comedy the vulgar did not onely rush with such an excesse of confidence that they called all men miscreants that did not beleeve the making of gold Yea Cardinalls Princes the Pope himselfe Sixtus quintus so great a Prince and of such knowledge and experience had given out that he would question the state of Venice for giving protection to such an Impostor if his knavery were not discovered The father Paul made it alwaies a matter of Jest and to some of his friends that would have carried him to the experiment he alwaies answered that if he should do so they would not onely repute him inconstant but esteeme him for a very foole And among his intimate friends with whom he had conference concerning this Imposture were some gentlemen who relying upon the fathers judgment were the inventors of a Mascherada to expresse his opinion One clothing himselfe like the Mamugna in a boate with fire and coales and bellowes and and glasses and other chymicall tooles went about the citty crying Al Magmugna Atre lire il soldo del loro fino who buys a shillings worth of of fine pure gold for nine pence And one of these is at this day a most excellent Senator of Venice whose singular life vertue deserves a recomendation upon a better occasion The father used to mocke those that told him they had seene him make gold and would alwaies
countenance which tries the braines of the wiser sort vainely spends so much time in an an artificiall kind of lying that signifies nothing because it signifies so much but a civill and free confidence was onely there in use It was allowed every man to make his discourse of whatsoever pleased him best without restriction of passing from one subject to another provided it were alwaies of new matter and the end of their disputation was for nothing else but to finde out truth But the felicitie of our father was rare who upon any subject that was propounded did not onely discourse without premeditation but made no difference of sustaining or impugning any proposition in a scholastique way All which he did with so much facilitie that it raised a wonder in all men And afterwards in his riper age when he was put in minde of those exercises he would simile at them as at puerilities At this time the civil warrs in France flam'dout and the father was pleas'd to heare such as could discourse of them And that pleasure continued with him to his lives end to heare and understand any thing of the state of the world and how things were carried This was a generall Idaea with him wherein he seldome failed in his judgment if any newes that were spread abroad was either true or false that upon things present he would settle a judgment with so much prudence in relation to what succeeded that it made men wonder and seeke after his opinion as if it had beene a prognostication And for as much as at the golden ship in the merchants street there used to meete a sont of gallant and vertuous gentlemen to recount their Intelligences one with another among which the good Perrot a frenchman whom for his candour and civility besides his firmenesse in religion they called the true Israelite alluding to that Saying of our saviour Hic est verus Israelita in quo dolus non est thither also came Merchants that were strangers and such as had not onely beene over all Europe but in the east and west Indies and the father among others found meanes to be among them And as in that minde of his every little thing tooke impression so he had likewise an admirable dexterity to make other men enter into discourse Himselfe was in all his life time of very few words but pithy and sententious acute without scoffing ye he tooke great pleasure to make men speake and with a dexterity like Socrates delighted to make discovery of the abilities that were in others And this he called to make them deliver themselves or to helpe them to bring forth And the dexteritie arose not onely from being verst but consummate and made up in all sorts of learning because he was able to follow every one in his own element Physitians in medicine and Mathematicians in the Mathematiques and so in all other things And upon what subject the discourse fell he that knew him not very well went away perswaded that that subject was his principall profession and master piece And when he met with any person that was eminent in any art or science he would take occasion to aske him questions with an inexplicable mildenesse till he had drawne out of him what was possible to knowe without shewing any importunity or troublesome curiositie But his greatest pleasure was to discourse with those that had beene abroad would give him a true relation of countryes of customes of people of religions having himselfe also had an extreame desire of peregrination Signor Bernardo Sichini patron of the shop where they used to meete had among others a sonne that yet lives of a wit far above the profession that he followes both because he had studied at Lovaine and besides nature is not so malignant and partiall as she is accused to be but produceth many time in persons of meane fortune wits that are of a great eminence and capacity With this man the father entred a great familiaritie which continued betwixt them till death And in this he seldome failed when he met with any man that had knowledge or practise in forraine countryes to discourse at larg with him Thus much I observe by the way that the fathers acquaintance in this place began in 1586. about one and twenty yeares before the differences fell out betwixt the most excellent common-wealth of Venice and Paul V. after which there were invented so many calumnies and falsities which drew a prejudice to the Merchant in his trading And thereupon he begunne to withdraw himselfe from that company But Signor Alnise would never give his consent preferring the familiarity of the father before all or any detriment that could befall him This was the time wherein the father had the greatest happinesse and the most quiet enjoyments of his life Because although he had three great infirmities which were bred together in him and with which he made account to be accompanied to his grave The flux from his liver the falling downe of the straite gut and a periodicall or intermittent headach beside the trouble of the Hemorroyes all which were by him supported with so much cheerefullnesse and serenity of heart as if he had beene the soundest man in the whole world and he reputed them divine favours and naturall admonitions of the dislodging which he believed his soule must ere long make out of her earthly mansion for any thing else it may be said that he thought himselfe to be in a garden of delights and to tread upon roses Because for matter of want he knew none having no desire of an thing being most rich in his povertie without money without industry how to advance any without thoughtfullnesse having left al his cares to father Giulio without books except such as were daily supplyed him by his great friends which he had read all over and had made in his understanding the greatest library that any Prince in the world had beside the unfurnisht nakednesse of his chamber with the slendernesse of his diet which was sent him from the Monastery being to him most plentifull All his life was onely employed in three things the service of God the time which he spent in his study and in conversations In this course he was constant never failing to be present at divine officer To his studyafter his private devotions he dedicated the morning which he begun alwaies before sun rising but for the most part he prevented the morning untill the houre of common service The afternoone time was divided either into operations by his owne hand and transmutations and sublimations and such like or into conversations with his friends that were learned and other famous persons in Venice or else strangers that resorted thither The ordinary place of their meeting in Venice was at the shop of Sechim And in Padua whither they often transported themselves was the house of Vicenzo Pinelli which was the receptacle of the Muses and an Academy of
to the divine Majestie to his Prince and to the holy church were prepared by an higher hand for the tryall of his unconquered and constant piety and for proofe of an heroick patience The domestique turbulencies endured many yeares with an implacable ardour on both sides wherein the father had occasion enough to shew his moderation in restrayning the violence of his adherence his mildnesse in never giving offence to any body although himselfe offended the evennesse serenity of his soule that never lost himselfe upon any wretched successe nor tooke pride or too much confidence by any thing that fell prosperous as of necessity it happens with others after long contentions although they be but businesse of factions His singular prudence in redressing whatsoever was in his power for accommodation but above all the sweetnesse of an incomparable minde which was never seene to be angry nor ever to resent anger by any expression of words And yet with all this His vertue was not accompanied with fortune because he neither satisfied those of his owne side nor the Generall with whom he was united nor yet the Cardinall Protector Those of his part in the faction that carried themselves with more affection then prudence accused him of coldnesse and that he behav'd himselfe as if it concern'd him not to the quick as who should say that their levity should disturbe the quietnesse of his minde which was so well composed and so much Superior to their destructions The Generall who was ardent in his nature whensoever any new difficultie or controversie was set on foote used to make himselfe merry with it and was wont to say Mi chiamovo al mio givoco Now they call me to mine owne game But he could have wisht that the father had not stood so much upon the sole defensive part observing the advantages of the time and ever throwing out words that tended to pacification and setling the commotion They would have had him pursue all routs and engage himselfe into every cause by vehement affections and by resenting effects But the Cardinall who was secure that the Generalls overthrow would be the victory of his cause attributed all the directions and managings to proceede from the fathers counsels which his owne businesse would not give him leave to traverse This dissention continued till the yeare 1597 at which time though it were not quencht yet it had some abatement wherein the father alone obtayn'd his end though not entirely what he aymed at concerning the pacification of his province but by a diversion or sport of divine providence which is no lesse active in things that we valew least then in the greatest there appeared demonstration of the vanity of humane designes and therefore to that purpose this digression of ours may not seeme unnecessary A Fryer one Giovanni Battista perugino who was surnamed Il Lagrimino whether it were because he had teares at command but being a mixt and cunning man and flying from the punishment which the Generall was ready to inflict upon him for some delinquencies came to Venice where the largnesse of that Citty and the commodities of concealment make many of that sort bold to make their refuge But this fellow had no neede to hide himselfe because the very flying from the Generall was enough to bid him welcome to the Provinciall which was master Gabriel But to get a living and subsistance he procured a licence from the Nuntio and begun to play the exorcist as I have seene many of that run-away race who not able to live in obedience would give a leape into such a compendious way of life to enjoy their pleasure and suddenly to raise a present fortune Because though it be certaine that sometimes God permits to come upon humane creatures the vexations of evill spirits yet it stands as consonant to reason and to the harmony of our faith that he does it but seldome and upon very great causes But when those exorcists come upon the Piarras they are presently filled with the suddaine and violent motions of the matricall humours nay that all the infirmities which they have contracted either from a licentious life or by communication with their husbands that they proceede either from ill encounters or of witchcraft And of the other side the exorcists faile not to play their pranks who having given a blessing to their violent medicaments and by sleight of hand made some pretty shew of art cause their patients to throw out of their stomacks that which never came there nor could be contained therein But it is a pretty observation that to heale the greatest part of these diseases the true remedy is contrary to all other cures which is to drive away their Physitians whereas upon the appearance of any of these mountebancke Physitians there comes abroad a world of conceald unknowne infirmities which no body ever understood Our Lagrimino among other of his undertakings had the cure of a trades mans wife at the signe of the cocke in the Mercery whose name was Deffendi And as it happens very often that practise is prolonged beyond hope or expectation The Fryer besides his exorcismes in the Church came often home to her house to visit her the dance was not quite done before the husband began to take notice that many things in his shop were missing as such a quantity of Satten and some other stuffe of valew that he was almost ready to turne banckrupt Hereupon he caused his apprentice to be arrested who being examined confessed That the Frier with his wives knowledge had carried them out of the house and upon further examination confest that a great part was conveyed to Master Gabriel and no small part to the Court of the Popes Nuncio So the mystery was unfolded although the Generall had enough to doe to be believed That Lagrimino was an Apostata and fit to be imprisoned for neither the Provinciall nor the Nuncio would heare him but cried him downe for a persequtour The trades man that still lives considering no further but that he was a Frier of the Servi made his complaint to some other of that Fraternity telling them the businesse which after was so managed that a coppie of the processe was taken forth and sent to Rome to the Generall where it happened at the same time that master Gabriel was present The Generall carried the cause and the processe before the Governour of Rome who perceiving the knavery and ignorant how much favour Gabriel had then at Court without any further consideration committed him to prison I doe not believe that in his life time the Cardinal Sancta Severina ever shewed himselfe to be a man nor discovered so much passion and weaknesse for great ones are but men and subject to the same passions with those of the lowest people He stampt he cryed he curst he walkt betweene the Pope and the Governour and for all he could doe he could not enlarge the prisoner for many daies after
in his studies and a lover of a quiet life All which letters he had kept together as the titles of his obligation to his illustrious Lordship Hereupon the Cardinall gave great testimony of good satisfaction and replied that truly having taken notice of his deportments hee beleeved no otherwise and told him further that he would have him and Master Gabriel made friends as also by the Protectors power it was effected He returned to Venice to his beloved retirednesse and not without some grievance of his naturall indisposition imbittered by his voyage and other sufferings And though there might continue with him as we use to say a little of the old sea of his turbulent fortunes yet he moderated them all with an incomparable patience and prudence And it seemed that for a few yeares after his infirmities made their peace with him which the space of 25 yeares before had yeelded him but short and uncertaine truces of his Epaticke flux he remained cured without any other cause but that it had spent the Course Hee had from time to time used divers remedies aswell by the great knowledge which he had in medicine as also by the opinions of the most conspicuous and famous Physitians with whom he had great familiarity both in Venice and Padua and for the falling of the straight gutt which in time and with increase of age might render him unable for any action and fixe him if not to his bed at least to his chamber He had continually proved many remedies without profit after he gave himselfe to seeke out some instrument to keepe it up and having tried many he found one at last so proper and fit that with it alone he was able to carry his disease to the last day of his life without hindrance from any action more then if he had not had the disease and it is of so easie and ready a use that having imparted it to others it hath had the same effect with them by keeping them in ability of motion and action without which they must have remained in great paine and difficulty This quietnesse continued about sixe yeares more his life being all the while imployed in divine office wherin as t was said he spent all his time and in the conversation of virtuosos without the least hindrance From some notes that were found and are yet extant it appeares about that time that hee chang'd the quality of his studies and gave himselfe altogether besides the Ecclesiasticall and prophane stories to the studie of Morall Philosophie peradventure that which is written of Socrates is no singular act or rather voluntary but is as it were naturall to all those understandings that have any thing oftranscendent who after they have made a discovery at what they can arrive upon universalities they transport themselves totally to morality which studie as to inferiour things is the onely speculation of humanity This ariseth either from a defire made more intense to better it selfe or from some incomprehensibilitie that is met with or from a solid judgement of the vanitie even of Sciences and of the excellencies of vertue or the singularitie of that part of Metaphysick whose object is intelligence and the meanes thereof and of humane actions that either are internall or from others It is most certaine that Father Paul applyed himselfe to such kinde of studies having before that examined all the workes of Aristotle and of Plato with little notes of his owne extant from one part to another upon the one and from Dialogue to Dialogue on the other but so short and for the most part writing onely the first letter of a word that one may easily perceive that either he wrote to himselfe alone for rememoratives or else that in his age he designed matter from some further worke But I doe rather beleeve the first because he never promised himselfe a yeares life as hee would alwaies constantly affirme He had examined the Doctrine of all the antient Philosophers of all sorts so farre as there remaines any mention or memory disperst among writers and given his judgement upon them Hee had also examined the opinions of Schoolemen aswell of the reall as the nominall which he made much account of as appeares by some other short notes of his The Mathematiques of all sorts the medicinall the anatomicall the simples the minerals the mechaniques and of all the qualities upon which his notes as aforesaid yet remaine whereof that little that is intelligible is verypretious and shewes what rules were hidden in the Mine of that rare understanding There are yet letters of some very learned men of his time wherein it appeares that they sought to receive his opinion in some of the most arduous things of Sciences and particularly of the Mathematiques and when any of them had either observed or invented any new or strange thing they presently sought to have his judgement upon it Oh the great losse that we cannot see his answers I have seene a certaine discourse which was sent him from one Marioti who in many chapters treates of the ebbing and flowing which it seemes the father approved not of by a coppie of a letter of his owne wherein he tells him that he sends him what he understood and had observed about the motion of the waters I deplore the losse of his letters and the misfortune of men therein that from time to time there should be any losse of that which hath beene found out by great witts What a misfortune is it to us that in History it should bee necessary to begin from Herodotus and all that was before to bee nothing but fables and confusion In this account we ranck not the sacred story of the Bible which was Gods guift and no humane industry In Astrologie and Geographie to begin from Ptolomy in the Mathematiques from Euclide and all the remainder that is the worke of so rare and excellent spirits whose names are scarce in memory should be perished The losse of what the father wrote concerning the moving of the waters drawes from my pen the deploration of a misfortune which I perswade my selfe if it had beene extant had beene like foode to the mindes of so great understandings which have beene famish't without so much as hope of encountring any thing that might at least in appeareance give fat is faction upon that subject But in those following yeares whereof we speake He seemed to be wholy engaged to that sort of study which is onely verst in weeding out the vices of the minde and planting and cultivating it with vertues And upon this subject he hath written so many little treatises which he used to carry about him with sentences and documents aswell of the most ancient celebrated writers as of his owne that if ever they came to light it will shew a collection of precious jewels of inestimable value Three things I have only seene elaborate after the manner of Plutarkes little works On the medicine of the
how in such a subject a faithfull pious and catholique Prince ought to deport himselfe It is a great losse that among other writings of his concerning the publique which are many great volumes and of inestimable value in all matters of state this should not be found and he that kept under key all his life long even to the least bolletines and short notes that he made upon every word that concerned the publique which he had written during all his faithfull service and having searched for this with extraordinary diligence yet it could never be found but we have a certaine rudiment which seemes to have beene the first draught of the discourse which is full of solidity and christian piety Besides the writings and consultations whereof we neede to say no more but that the most excellent Senate having by publique decree commanded they should be copied out into bookes for future use in government Hee was constrained against his will and against what he had alwaies proposed to himself to publish some things that hee had written upon these occurents First it was thought necessary to give the world a short account of the state of the controversie which from those pens that were devoted to the Romane Court went so maskt and disguised that the people were extreamly abused as if the controversie had only concerned religion whereas there was nothing else in the question but of jurisdiction and so at the very beginning there came forth at Milan a long writing in print which was on purpose nail'd up in the night and fastened in the publique places at Bergamo and upon the Bergamasco which are lands that in the temporality are subject to the state of Venice and in the spiritualty are under the Arch-Bishop of Millan They contained things of much exorbitancy That their Sacraments could not be valide that their Matrimonies were concubinates their children illegitimate and divers other things directly contrary to the doctrine of the very Canonicall law This engaged a necessity of giving the world a short account of the truth And because the father never made profession of any language which he had not well studied but onely to serve to the explication of his owne sence he made a collection in writing into certaine heads of all that he thought fit to be spoken of And it was after given in charge to Gio Battista Leoni a man that was most vers't in the elegancies of the Italian tongue having spent his time in it when he was the Secretary of Cardinall Comendone and of other Prelates and had to his honour put divers things in print which were well approved of And after he had beene a whole day in the company of Leoni to informe him throughly being continually himselfe imployed in greater matters he required Fra. Fulgentio that had borne a great part in making that collection to looke to divers places in the authors themselves and to discusse the matters from pointe to pointe And before he would accept the publique charge for foure monthes together he studied the matter day and night to be first well resolved in his conscience of the justice of the Venetians cause and of the ground of it And while Leoni was busie in giving the stile the father called to minde a tractate in the matter of excommunication written by Gio Gerson a Parisian doctor and famous for having been Chancelor of the Sorbone at Paris who had taken great paines at the councell of Constance to remove a long schisme which had lasted seaven and thirty yeares in the Romane Church and was reputed a man of learning and piety living and dying with a same of perfect holinesse He caused some of the greate Senators to peruse it who finding that it seemed to be written as if it had beene directed against the businesse in agitation did by their authority make the father translate it into Italian and prefixing a short epistle in the front sent it to the presse Against which little worke Cardinall Bellarmine having written and given a particular encounter to the letter in the frontispice and charging the author with false interpretation and with doctrine contrary to that of the church and after fell to confute the little worke it selfe of Gerson The father being engaged into a necessitie of answering and withall of defending Gerson A booke was thereupon printed which is now in being and intituled the apologie of Iohn Gerson in which I am sure that learned pious Catholikes who prefer not ambition and flattery of Court before the cleare fountaines their owne consciences and the solide Catholique doctrine having not found any thing wanting either in the writers modestie nor for depth of learning nor in the sufficiency of the defence but the worke it selfe being publique let the learned and pious professors of the truth be the Judges Leoni also wrote who as in matter of elegancy and smooth language gave more satisfaction then needed so in that which concern'd soliditie and substance he came as far too short And truely it is impossible that he that of himselfe is not capable of a matter should be able to write substantially at another mans information and how much more he shall strive by quaintnes of expression to give it ornament by so much the worke will faile and be wanting in solide sence Nor yet did it give full content to those that reade it and because now in the meane time a number of little pamphlets flew abroade in printe which were full of petulancy and impudence and wherein either not touching the controversie they spent themselves in ill language against the Senate and seditious conceipts with the people either perverted the state of the cause by confuting their owne fantacies and blotting of paper in a vanitie of discourse and flattering declamations or by touching the difference with so much slightnesse diverted it to things that were impertinent It was thought necessary that father Paul himselfe should set pen to paper which he did and wrote a worke under the name and title of Considerationi sopre le censure Of the pietie and solidity whereof the wisest are onely fit to be judges and whether the confutations that were made against it be confutations or else confessions of a desperate cause And because against that as at a marke the multitude of writers shot all their arrowes with which kinde of men our age is furnisht abundantly who make their gaine the end of their writing and their honour more then the truth and among others find-that one father Bovie a Carmelite had written least foolishly the father was willing his booke should be answered by a booke that was called Le confirmationi under the name of Maestro Fulgentio which if it deserve commendations must be onely attributed to the father by whose directions and help it was composed His is also though cursorily written la aggimita e supplimento all Historia degli uscocchi beside the tediousnesse of the letter and documents of
he said he had done the Church very great service As for Poma as he was apprehended by a provost marshall he was shot above the him or so wounded that he died of it His sonne that was with him and he were sent to Civita Vecchia where he died in prison very miserably There was also seene some yeares after another sonne of Pomiani in Venice a young man of great stature and beautiful aspect but out of his wits and followed in the streete by a company of boyes ragged in clothes and begging his bread He was borne for an example of Gods punnishment which passeth from fathers to their children by a terrible visitation Of the other three I cannot tell the particular successes nor which of them was beheaded at the Castle of Perugia But true it is they came all to ill ends And because in Rome after they were secur'd and stipended for a time it came after to a resolution of casting them into prison or banishing them as effect made it appeare so the cause is in concealement as it ordinarily comes to passe in the resolution of great Princes It was imputed to their impatience because the promises were not performed it being reported that Poma was to receive 10000 crownes and the others very great summes which was the cause why they began to speake in derogation of the Cardinall Borghese and of the Pope himselfe in extravagant language discovering too cleerly that which was unperfectly executed could have no absolute praise nor due reward no not from those that could have given lustre to a thing that was done and had therefore beene better wrapt up in silence Then it was said or charged upon them that they held a conspiracy to kill both Borghese and the Pope Such is the faecunditie of finding out causes in Courts and especially in Italy That which I conceive more probable is that was told me by a Prelate now living that about the same time Ridolfo the Emperor being dead and his brother Matthias to succeede him the Pope sent the Cardinall Mellini as his legate into Germany to intervene in that action upon those ordinary pretensions which the Popes have had alawies in the creation of Emperors At his return to Rome he told them that the Catholiques of Germany tooke very great scandall that persons which were guilty of such accursed crimes should finde entertainement at Rome and that thereupon the Heretikes tooke occasion to publish odious writings against the person of the Pope and to the reproach of all the order of Cardinalls This discourse came to the Popes eares or was else fomented by the bold words which were spoken concerning the non-payment of the 10000 crownes which had beene promised and thereupon a just provocation given True it is that he gave order they should be put away from Rome although not without entertainments in other places This seemed to them a thing of so much sharpnesse that they began to lament that they were betraied and that those were not the promises which had beene made them and for which they had put themselves upon such evident dangers of dying upon gibbets and now to faile with them in matter of faith and in such manner as had beene infamous among the very Turkes but the provoking so much the mindes of those great men that are impatient of the least in jurie was the cause that the foresaid ill fortune fell so heavy upon them approving that old saying That no kinde of Traytors are pleasing to Princes and that divine justice though with a lame foote failes not to overtake the swiftest forerunners Now returning to our wounded father the first thing after his wounds were bound up and he tumbled upon his bed was to prepare himselfe in his soule to God to receive as he did the next morning the most holie communion in the greatest humility entreating all the other fathers that were present with many teares in their eyes to excuse him if by the impediment of his wounds he were not able to speake much as he desired to have done that he might by greater demonstrations of the sorrow for his sins have begged a pardon of God And as it is the order of that Government the Avogador being come to take his examen who was then Signor Girolamo Trivisano and at this time Generall in Candia the father told him that he had no enemy that he knew of nor had he knowne any Onely he praied the high Councell often that as he with all his heart did pardon him that offended him so they would make no other demonstration of it but what might serve to defend him better if God should be pleased to prolong his life any further expressing in his actions as a christian and sonne of the heavenly father his due obedience to the Gospell and as a Philosopher that he had eradicated out of his soule all spirit of revenge which is a kinde of savage Justice but deeply inserted into humane nature It was not a singular action of his upon this offence alone but observed by him formerly and after in the whole course of his life never to procure a revenge although the injurie were never so great and the most that was ever heard come forth of that blessed mouth of his case of his wrongs though most unsufferable in words or writings or actions was to say sometimes with a serene face Videat Dominus requirat The next morning the Generall Filippo Alessandrino hearing of the businesse came in all hast to visite him having beene intimate friends together and when he had heard how the businesse had been acted He fell into such an amazement that having communicated his commissions to Fra. Fulgentio he remained for a while speechlesse But observing his owne order in avoiding ostentation or unnecessary shewes of weaknesse it fell into consideration whether he should use the help of more then one for his infirmitie and so he was willing that Signor Alvise Ragâ—ra a young man but very discreete and in Chirurgerie of a light hand and no hard binding should giue attendance upon him But the condition of his person and the publique respects constrained him to give way that almost all the famous Physicians and Chirurgions in Venice should have a hand in his cure beside such as by publique order came thither from Padua among whom was Girolamo Fabritio Aquapendente anold friend an admirer of the fathers vertues And he was commanded not to stirre from the Convent being assisted by Adriano Spigelio who suceeded in the Anatomy Lecture at Padua untill it might be discerned whether the maladie would determine to life or death it being very long in doubt of judgment whether the one or the other Because beside that the wounds themselves were very grievous and much more by the complexion of that was wounded being so extenuated in nature that when at the best he seemed but a Skeleton so distinctly might his bones be numbered as also by so great a Iosse
with his most reverend Lordship but concerning the fathers writings he was well assured that they were neither so ignorant nor so impious as the Nuntio had made them which was easily by so great a commendation wherewith they were received in all the Catholique states by the most learned and pious professors of sciences but concerning his life and manners he was very certaine and knew it not onely by relation by experience that he was irreprehensible and that he lived an holy retind and exemplary life To which the Nuntio Vbaldini made answer that by so much he confirmed himselfe more in his opinion that he was a lewd fellow and an exquifite hypocrite from his irreprehenfible life But Maffeo Barbarino that was the Nuntio in France talkt in a higher straine against him and with more violence cried out with poeticall amplifications that he was worse then Luther or Calvin and contained not himselfe from saying that it was fit he should bee assessinated There he came to know that the father wrote to and received letters from some of those Lords that were councellors of Parliament and from the Sorbonists who were very orthodoxe and maintained the defence of the lawfull secular power opposing themselves against the usurpations of Rome and maintayning the libertie of the Gallicane Church And true it is that he did 〈◊〉 write to and receive letters from Monsieur Gillet Peschasier Servino Richer Buniello and some from Causabon after the fame was growne constant that he was turn'd Catholike The letters were alwaies consulted by the jurisdiction All men were heretiques with Barbarino to whom the father either wrote or they to him But they that knew not how to convince him either in his profession or in his life had that onely common place against him that he was an hypocrite A faire confrontation of the judgement of these prelates of the Romane Court with the doctrine of Christ and his Holy Apostles who taught us to know mens faith by their works and the tree by the fruit And if a life led with a marvelous evennesse and constancy from his childhood unto seaventie one yeares old which for his actions none could taxe and in whose words was never either obscaenitie nor so much as an oathe sworne nor any base thing but in his life a most exquisite povertie a perfect observance of lawes far from all ambition and above all he was an enemy to all delights nor ever shewed the least signe of avarice nor ambition of any degree or dignitie And if these be th arguments whereby Christ hath taught us to know Hypocrites let it be referred to the judgment of other men But neither God nor humanitie will permit innocency to have so ill a fortune nor vertue such a misadventure that fame and infamie should allwaies be at the disposition of great persons The just man is like a palme tree who raiseth himselfe under the burden of Calumnie God was never pleased that those verie tyrants that had a totall licence against the life of poore innocents should likewise have any power over their fame and memory And if this were but in humanitie it selfe without a mixture of any vertue it would lye under too great an injustice But because this marke whereat all their poisoned arrowes were shot could never be hit his contempt of money being so well knowne and that he had nothing but to suffice his pure necessities and those rather in defect then plenty much lesse delicates of every kinde whereof he was alwaies abhorring even so far that to the last breath of his life he hath constantly beene observed never to have any other gusto then that which tooke his originall and was terminated in his studies and in vertue and therefore his life was the most arduous the most toilesome and painefull that any religious man was able leade he being in his last seaventeene yeares like a recluse alwaies shut up in his chamber except it were when the publique seevice or his religious profession compelled him abroade and to live so sparing and so abstinently and according to pure necessity that the greatest part of his time was past with a little bread tosted upon hot coles and onely one sort of other foode to his bread which was both vile in quantity quality This was not â—one to advance his kindred for of those there were none left but this ambition and appetite of glory which among human affections is the last which is subdued and the wise man calls it the shirt which the wisest men ever put off last This is that putrid corruption whereupon all these flesh-flies fluttering up and downe the world doe at last settle themselves But against the assaults of this vice he had an impenetrable shield in so much as if ever man had totally subdued this affection of the appetite of glory it was this man of whom wee write And first for a certaine proofe that no advancement of fortune nor any credit in the world had moved him to any mutation of minde so far as could be concluded from externall effects continuing alwaies in the same and his owne tenor of life to which purpose he had alwaies this saying in his mouth si Spiritus dominantis super te ascenderit Locum tuum ne deseras and in a way of rest he was used to say That he that walks upon stilts or fits in an high place does not lessen his labour but goes in a greater danger Besides that constant purpose of never writing nor publishing any thing in any kinde of profession being in all things eminent and as I may say prodigiously perfect shewes whether he were far from any such desire and whether it could be done with any vaine glory or no. These few things which necessitie hath drawne from him can well witnesse He hath beene curious to conceale himselfe for being knowne to be the author of divers sort of inrstuments The two manners of Pulfiligio were of his invention the instrument of knowing the variation of heate and cold of that perspective which in Italy is called Galilean and form'd in Holland the artifice of it was discovered by him when one of them was first presented to the Signory of Venice with a demande of 1000 Checchines the charge was presently given to the father to make a triall what it would serve for and to deliver his judgment and being not allowed to open it to see how it was made up he imagined straight what it could be and conferred with the Gallilean who acknowledged that the father had found out the secret and so of divers others But it is a thing to be observed that so many instruments as have been invented by the authors of the Mathematiques and of Astronomy and described with so much solemnitie that it is a difficult thing to make them and much more to make use of them He making them with his owne hand and giving out modells to workmen reduced them to such a facility and fimplenesse
that one would have thought he had had both the heavens and earth in his head It hath beene a grat prejudice to those that are curious that in the probleme of the motion of the earth being ancient but renewed by Copernicus he had found the meanes Salvare tutti i Fenomeni with one onely motion and sought workmen to make him an instrument to put under ones eyes for the discerning of it I silence those secrets which were unknowne untill his age and he was ever well pleased that some of his friends should have the honor to publish them as if they had beene their owne which shewes a great moderation in this affection of his And of things of his that are in print what glory hath he sought by those having used such exquisite meanes to conceale his name One particular must not be past over which was a firme resolution of leaving nothing either of his own hand or other mens that might carry his name or preserve a memory as may appeare by this that he would never let his picture be drawn from the naturall notwithstanding that it were desired both by kings and great Princes And although many of his pictures goe abroad for originalls yet they are all but coppies of one which is said to be in the gallery of a great King which was taken against his will and by a stratagem But for himselfe this may give assurance that he did not endure to have his picture drawne because in the last yeares of his life being intreated by the most illustrious and excellent Dominico Molini and likewise of his confident Fra. Fulgentio being set on to beseech him yet it could not be obtained so much as to give a famous painter leave to take his picture although he were promised that he should not sit at it above an houre And yet he was solicited by this great Lord in the vertue of the friendship that had beene betwixt them and by such significant meanes that for the deniall which he gave him fifteene daies together whilest he entertained the painter in expectation he grew so angrie with the father that there past some monthes betwixt them without speaking to each other And yet the deportment of this Senator and the esteeme which the father had of him as of a subject in whom to be nobly borne was the least of his vertues merits because of that exquisite learning which he had in Histories ancient and moderne a politike prudence most singular grounded upon a marvelous understanding of the state of all the Princes in Europe both of the quality of their governments and their interests how they rule and who hath most power with them with all the notable particulars of their current businesse with all the series of their important affaires have rendred him conspicuous not onely in this Common-wealth but with all others besides a certaine ardour in him of the libertie and conservation of his Country and a totall dedication of himselfe to the publique service which had rendred him so intimate and familiar with the father that in seaventeene yeares there past but a few daies wherein they spent not a long time together and yet for all this he could not obtaine his request so far the father was from every thing that savoured of ambition which together with avarice are the 2 maine rocks that cannot be avoided by Hypocrrites But the abnorment which he had to live in Court which he shewed first in his youth when he left that Court of Mantua and in his virility that of Rome and having constantly refused to goe thither upon the invitation of so great persons and such opportunities shall easily convince the most pertinacious that at least they should not dare to contradict Christ so-openly in this saying of his that those which weare rich clothing are in Princes Courts and in these daies of ours it is well knowne where ambition hath her chiefest seate But in Churchmen it is certainely a thing most unseeming and scandalous to calumniate so rare a piety of Hypocrisie because to those ends which they propose to themselves to those apparances which are seene in them by that language which they ordinarily speake they shew well enough that they doe but mock the world and very little believe that there is a God while they pretend their lives should be esteemed either Apostolicall or Christian and in the mean time condemne the father of Hypocrisie But the eye of God makes a discovery of all hearts and in the interim this shall be received for an irrefragable testimony that these men which were so apt to make a sinister interpretation of all things being not able to oppose his actions were faine to passe to his intentions which are onely reserved and attributed to God by those that believe him to be judge of intention and the searcher of hearts This digression cannot be superfluous to them that will consider the diligence that hath beene used to trace the life of this innocent father and to finde imperfections in that faire soule for some further and hidden ends But it was not the father that gave them this offence it was his doctrine and in this matter the Ecclesiastiques were greatly guilty of offence before God and of scandall to the world by having given so great a cause to confirme those in their opinions who write that is Arcanum Curiae Romanae after it hath drawne to it selfe the authority of all Ecclesiasticke orders and a great part of that of Princes for the making good in religion of whatsoever turnes to their advantage to assume yet further to themselves what belongs to the whole Church by canonizing persons to canonize those doctrines and opinions of theirs that are profitable to their greatnesse And so likewise to reprove those doctrines which make not to their pretensions although they be both true and catholicke they have used from time to time the artificie of calumnitating the the persons that have written how holy and blamelesse soever they have beene I doe not deliver this opinion for true nor doe I consent to those examples for proofe but I speake honestly and doe attest before God That in the example of this father of ours not the Church but the miymons of the Court have used this stile and how much worse they make it by so much they increase the scandal and irritate Princes or else awaken them to make them see that to calumniate those persons that serve to defend their just actions is to condemne in obliquity the Princes themselves and a making the world believe that they can put a yoke of tyrany upon them at their pleasure by oppressing them in life and after death and consequently those that were their good and Catholike defendors In the publike service he was so daily an attendant so faithfull and with so much fervour to the good of his Prince that the most serence republique honored him with a thing that was never before granted to