understanding is unsatiable such was the life of this father singularly composed of active and contemplative alwaies yielding to God what he could to his Prince what he ought and of that which belonged to his owne dominion more then he ought by any law but that of charity But yet neverthelesse this is so pious so holy an institute and order of his was not able to please the implacable as it happens with engines of many pieces and instruments that though the motion tooke beginning from some principall wheele neverthelesse that impression which it makes upon others doth not cease though the principall move no more nay rather that impression which is made upon the lesser Pieces drawes after it with violence that piece which gave motion from the beginning So in some governments the motion that tooke beginning from the Prince and was derived and after divided among many ministers followes and continues a motion in them although the Prince have abandonde it in like manner it happens concerning hatred and malevolence That the interest of Court advancements take deepe roote with many that perswade themselves they shall doe the Pope a verie great service and ti 's growne almost naturall for men to shew that they having an affection to that which at first they tooke from others being none of their owne but fained that they may arrive at some end of their owne and so in progresse of time forgetting themselves become really transported in their affection the like being also observable in the corporall affections of nature as in infirmities and diseases of fancy So there were many that from the beginning knowing neither why or wherfore but onely shewing a hatred to the innocent father and believing that in so doing they strucke into the humor of the Court and were thereby like to preferre themselves as many have done that have founded their fortunes upon that only foundation and since have really entred into affections of hatred and malevolence fomenting them by faining a false fame that the father was opposit to other priests that in consultations he went alwaies against Ecclesiastical jurisdiction and this is at this day the very center where all their lines doe collineate A meer falshood and well knowne to them that governe which they being able to carry no further must now testifie to the glory of God whether he served for a bridle or for a spurre according to the urgency of occasions the good offices which he continued to doe in favour of the Clergie and whether he were not a perpetuall advocate for the Jurisdiction and libertie of the Church I meane the true Canonicall and legitimate Church but not that which is now usurpt and employed to the subsersion of publique governments and of religion it selfe Because the father alwaies offirmed with a most intense zeale that nothing gave so great an impediment to the progresse of the Catholique religion as when they extended their libertie into license and that this alone had caused and maintained so deplorable a division in religion and some have been very injurious to calumniate him that either in consultation or in his writings he went about to beare downe the jurisdiction of the Church and to exalt more then was necessary the power of secular Princes It is true that with a frequent zeale of the conservation of holie Church and religion he was moved to blame Princes as guilty of a great sinne for not caring to preserve that jurisdiction and power that God had granted them upon which subject he hath written much and grounded it upon piety and irrefragable truth Because authoritie is given by God to Princes not for themselves but for the benefit of the people the Prince being but the depositary the Custos and executor not the Patrone of that authoritie to change or lessen it at his pleasure Wherefore t is a grosse ignorance and a most wretched sinne not to keepe up that which God hath confer'd upon them And Princes are not peradventure guilty of a great sin offence before God then out of an ignorant zeale to have suffered so great a part of their power to be usurped and that they are no longer able to rule the people committed to their charge without continuing a change of government The negligences of Princes in this particular hath beene pernitious to the Church of God and to all Ecclesiastique order And whosoever shall without passion consider how far the father was any way a breeder of controversies that have beene in the Church shall finde how he hath deplored them to be the true originall of all those mischiefes which have now brought into the Church the most politike mundane government that ever was and busied the Ecclesiastiques in things not onely different but also contrary to the instituted ministery of Christ keeping Christendome in perpetuall discord And the divisions at this day that are among Christians so irrevocable by any other meanes then the omnipotent and miraculous hand of God He held it for certaine that they were bred not so much by obstinacie in diversitie of opinions and contrariety of doctrine as from the strife about jurisdiction which after by degeneration and growing into factions hath taken up the maske of religion And as one well verst in histories hath observed that good Princes from time to time have beene they that have kept their jurisdiction most entire But effeminate ignorant vitious Princes are they that have lost a great part or by their insufficiency suffered others to usurpe it with such a deformation in the Church and for a proose of this it is not necessary to runne backe to the examples of the Constantines the Thesdosio's the Justinians whose Lawes Codexes whosoever will reade shall finde this to be verified but to those that are nearer our owne age and to those whom the Roman Church this day acknowledgeth to be even the basis of their temporall greatnesse Charles the fifth Philip the second and other catholique kings But this malevolence hath not beene unfruitfull to all sorts of men for as it hath beene helpfull to some so it hath beene hurtfull to others because in the fathers life and which is more to be wondered at after his death it hath befriended many religious men not onely of the order of the Servi but others to the obtaining of degrees and good offices alwaies giving the foile to their concurrents by saying no more but that they were affectionate or that they had but treated with the father and by this meanes they have supplanted those persons that never spoke with nor ever saw the father even so farr as to be laught at by those that have knowne the truth of particulars especially after his death as of Alberto Testoni whom wee named before who to obtaine a prelacy from Pope Vrbane by way of briefe which was against the law used this as a meanes That it having beene formerly collated at a Chapter it had belonged to a
singularities of his later times when was he a servant to the state of Venice but these and others have beene in him from his youth in such a perfection that he never had any publique correction as was usuall with others of religious orders He was never reprehended for speaking an undecent word nor doing an unbeseeming act It was a marvellous thing how in so young a man that had not exceeded the age of twenty two so many sciences in so high a degree should be united besides those that are ordinary in them that live in Cloisters are after literature of humanitie the logique Philosophy and Theologie But to those he had also joyned the knowledge of the lawes perfectly of the common law and more then meanely of the civill all the Mathematiques and medicine the knowledge of simples of Hearbes of or Plants of Mineralls with their transmutations a sufficient understanding of divers tongues beside the latine the Greek the Hebrew and the Caldean All which learning together would have had something of monstrous in it though it had been found in a maturer age but from the holinesse of his conversation he received such a splendour that even in that Spring of his yeares he did prognosticate what store and perfection of fruite might be expected from him if it should please God to reserve him for further times Although it be as true that the knowledge alone of all that which humane understanding can raise it selfe to makes not a man perfect though it may render him admired Nay the devills themselves are knowne for their great wisedome and have a name of mighty knowledge But goodnesse is that which gives the forme piety religion and the vertues of the minde are the soule of this body And the accumulation of sciences and probity made this religious young man so venerable and I may say so majesticall that as it is a custome in Venice among the noble and ingenuous youth that if any of them be not so decent in their habite or that they be of a lesse modesty in discourse or cariage then they ought to be yet when they appeare before the first Senator they are carefull to put themselves into their best habite and posture so in this order of the religion of Servi for even among the religious especially those of the younger sort are not alwaies under rule nor as wee say with their bowes bended yet at the appearance of Fra. Paolo they were all composed reducing themselvs to a more seriousnes of behaviour setting aside both sport and Joviality as if his onely presence had been the black rod whereupon it became a proverbe among them whensoever he was present or appeared Eâ—qua sposa la mutiamo proposito let us change our discourse here comes the bride Such power hath the presence of a man of knowne probity innocency even over the behaviour of others yet neverthelesse he was so pleasing so humble with all men that hitherto I have not knowne that man that could say except when he was in the publique imployment that he had received a sharpe word or seene a gesture from him expressing rigor to others although with himselfe he were most severe Being consecrated Priest at the age of 22. he seemed to encrease the strictnesse of his retirednesse and to be more intense upon the actions of piety and meditation During which age and a good while after he had never tasted wine except it were at the Celebration His foode was so sparing that for the most part he fed but upon bread fruite of flesh he had very little use till he was past 55. saying that he abstayned or tasted very little because his complexion would not beare it but make him sick and because it bred him much headach He went at that age to Millan and it happened in a time when Cardinall Borromeo at this day Saint Carlo was in the fervour of the reformation of that Church and in perticular reduced the confessours by a rigorous zeale to so smal a number which either was because he found them very ignorant or understood of great abuses committed in the administrations of penitence whereof he cleerly purged their Churches This great pastor had found the meanes to know the conditions the life and quality of the Cloisters as it appeared by so many that tooke their heeles tarried not for his judgment It may be well imagined what intelligence he held with Padre Paolo whom he sent for and against his inclination made him heare confessions making use of him not onely in the Church of his owne order but in others as it was needfull and tooke great affection in him being much pleased with his company He would alwaies be present at the most difficult discussions of cases of conscience other consultations upon divers accidents where the opinion of the most learned divines were had and would often make him stay to dine with him in his refectory because that Cardinall in imitation of those ancient holy pastors Ambrose and others did frequently make a common life and table with those of his clergie At that time and before his departure from the province of Mantua by that of Venice as it is an ordinary thing that how vertuous and innocent soever a man be he cannot be without trouble and emulation being complayned of to the holy office of inquisition by one Maestro Claudio Piacentino his contemporary but one that was unable to raise himselfe by his study and vertue to that credit which Padre Paolo had and therefore thought to equalize him by pulling him downe But it proved much to his owne disadvantage because howbeit the inquisitor received the accusation and formed the processe yet in fine the father would not answer but appealed to Rome about the formation of the processe whither the cause being called after many writings and receipts It was concluded that the Inquisitor should have a heavy reprehension with a taxation of ignorance And indeed it could not well be otherwise The accusation being that the father who well understood the Hebrew tongue had maintained that from the first chapter of Genesis the article of the most holy Trinity could not be deduced whereupon he opposed the Judge not onely because he agreed with his accuser but because he was not able to judge the cause as having no knowledge of the Hebrew Tongue And as soon as the cause was seen at Rome it was thrown out of the Court without so much as calling the Father to be examined but onely by giving a checque to the Inquisitor In this very time there was added to his naturall weaknesse two other infirmities which he hath endured for many years because living as wee have said with an extream slendernesse of diet and drinking nothing but water and many daies not at all and when thirst invited him hee went to the pit and drank onely once and thereupon fell into such a costivenesse that although it may seeme strange yet it
Because Lagrimino that was gone into Vmbria had beene imprisoned at Rome and being confronted had sustained the things mentioned And though after he were made recant by charging it upon the Generall and so set free yet neverthelesse he disappear'd and vanisht out of the world though not like Enoch By this time the Cardinall saw that it was not possible to create master Gabriel his Generall at a chapter that was then called at Rome but yet he was able to put him that was Generall under judgment and to that purpose kept him in the prison of Santa Maria in via particularly because Lagrimino had accused him to be suborned and by the Cardinalls order there were committed many exorbitances and violences in the order under certaine pretences both with cause and without cause employing the officers of the Inquisition so far that except to those that had seene them the things were beyond beliefe During these passages there being a provinciall chapter at Venice to be celebrated in Vicenza he created president by a writ from the Pope the Bishop of that Citty Michel Priuli a man of great sence and prudence who perceiving of one side the disposition of the Fryars and on the other side the Cardinalls commands knew not which side he should adhere to And seeing the spirits of the factions inflamed he was perswaded by those of the Cardinalls faction to consent to an innovation which was never tryed before and that was to move the Rectors to admit some sergeants and other officers into the Monastery to prevent disorder but really intended to intimidate if not use violence upon the other partie But this made things worse then formerly before making the parties more obstinate And prolonging the Chapter to eight daies length which had wont to be determined in a few houres And these serjeants seeing all things setled in quietnesse and about eight Friers without armes so much as their knives they laid downe their gunns and left their armes carelesly upon certaine tables that stood in the Cloisters and the souldiers without further thought of any thing either stood still or went into the cellars to drinke or into the storehouse or forth into the Mount to sport themselves In the meane time the Friers fretted and knaw'd the chaine to see such a company of idle fellowes without any imployment a thing never done before and so scandalous to religion to see them consume those provisions which ought to be the aliment of the convent And their spirits were the more imbittered by the provoking language of those that gave it out that they that did not render themselves shortly to the Cardinalls order should either be throwne in prison or sent to the gallies or be otherwise disposed of like dogges And the last stroke which was like to end the businesse was that one evening there came from Vicenza to this Monastery of the mount where the Chapter sate the Bishop with another briefe from his holinesse besides that of his Presidentship which was sent from Rome to Vicenza in lesse then fortie houres giving order that the president might have power to expell the Generall vicar out of the Chapter beside a most ample authority to suspend transfer or prolong the Chapter and whatsoever he should thinke fit Whereat some of the wiser sort rather laught then wondred to see that in a capitular action being a thing of so small moment there should be sent forth two apostolicall briefes And the Pope himselfe enter into the Comedy after so great a Cardinall with the authoritie of the two Saints Sanctorum Petri Pauli which was according to the adage Magno conatu nugas agere That faction to which so much favour was exprest was added into the Bishops traine entring into the monastery in a tumultuous way with much noise and to solemnize their triumph the more they caused to be carried two naked swords before them with certaine acclamations which had beene more convenient for plebeians then religious men This occasioned so great an alteration that immediately a crue of young fellowes brought that very night the dore being set open into the Fryers chambers with great silence a number of those brave Vicentines with whom they had intelligence and were resolved the next morning when the Bishop and the chapter were met which was alwaies in the refectory and serjeants having left their guns carelessly as they used to doe to fall upon them and take such a revenge as their anger and the memory of such injuries should suggest Yet they lingred a while till they could speake with one that might give notice of their designe to Padre Paulo But it is a very hard matter that a thing knowne to so many should be conceal'd wherefore he among others having had an inckling of the businesse it is most certaine that with much labour and waking a great part of the night by entreating some and commanding others and giving a cleare understanding to all of the danger they should bring upon themselves of the slight consequence of the things in question and the scandall that might arise But above any thing else the venerall esteeme that they had of his authority was potent meanes to suppresse the conspiracy Yet he saw well that it was a matter of necessity to put an end to those discords which were no longer to be contained within the confines of voting but would be sure to rise into higher termes And because that being once admitted for a president and so horrid a resolution setled it would be an incouragement to others to attempt the like There is not in matters of government a more secure restraint then to know what mighty mischiefes are possible to ensue wherefore the father was resolv'd to doe his uttermost endeavour to compose the divisions which he could not doe so well as by making a journey in person to Rome But the matter of the aforesaid letter in Cypher and that of his communication with heretiques was a great discouragement to his going Because although he might well discerne an insubsistence that the Cardinall Protector was not much incens't by any instances against him upon those accusations although he sent other causes of very light valew to the Inquisitors against Fryers and others as soone againe took them off as the matter of voting in the Chapter house was past which for the most part was one of the chiefe ends of those practises of his neverthelesse the father tooke into consideration what the displeasure of so great a man might doe that had the power of judgment in his hands as Santa Severina being head of the Congegation of the holy office had And that in Rome it was well knowne how neare he was after Clement in election to the Papacy and the question was not onely extinct whether that election of Clement were valid or not Wherefore Clement was willing to feed the Cardinals humour by giving him leave to doe what he lifted besides that he was
A short worke but which it shewes the lucidnesse of that minde and his felicity in explicating the most arduous things At the end of the said six yeares or not long after there were two occasions out of which it was believed there sprung another disturbance because upon the death of the Generall which was master Gabriel who was created 1603 being fifteene yeares later then the foundation of the designe of that creation was at first laid there was supplyed to that government a nephew of his by the name of Maestro Santo with onely the bare title of Definitor who having his uncles hopes though not his power and especially failing in that aptitude of his to serve the Court at all assaies which the General was allwaies wont to do to whom after his death therewere letters found that Cardinall Aldobrandino had writ with his owne hand and Borghese both nephewes to Popes wherein it was seene that at Venice he had beene a servant to the Court in things that might either have cost him his life or else advanc't him to a greater Prelacy Maestro Santo imitated his uncle in this opinion that if he would domineere over the province it was necessary to remove that mote out of his eye which was the veneration and honor wherewith the father was followed And to this purpose he attempted many exorbitant things among which there was one that was most ridiculous It is a custome when Chapters are called togegether that those that have votes make a scrutiny among themselves to legitimate their Capitular actions And that it might be without exception every one reserves himselfe a fredome to question or oppose whom or whatsoever he thinke good So Maestro Santo and Maestro Arcangelo stood up and to doe nothing with much diligence and with power to make a conspicuous buffonery they oppos'd three heads of exception or reproach against father Paul with the indignation and derision of all the Chapter and they were these That he wore a hat upon his head contrarie to a forme that had beene lately published under Gregory the fourteenth That he wore pantables that were hollowed in the soles of the French fashion alledging falsly that it had beene decreed otherwise upon paine of deprivation of their votes That at the end of Masse he did not use to repeate the Salve Regina Things that were no sooner heard then resolved by the Vicar generall the President and the Provinciall into nothing and exploded by all the assembly being rejected and kickt out And because his pantobles were taken off by order from the Judge and caried to the Tribunall it became a proverbe which is yet in use Esser il Padre Paolo cosi incolpabile integro ebe sivio le sue pianisse erano state canonizate The father Paul is so blameles and pure that his very pantobler were canoniz'd That his not reciting the Salve Regina arose not out of any indevotion It would be too long to deliver the ground or reason inducing him not to doe it True it is that he had reasons so well grounded that it was more lawfully omitted by him at that time then it was added by others against the rights of the masse and derogating by a particular decree of about 30 Friers from the universall order of the Church It was observed that in all that action of proposing examining and exploding those exceptions he never spake word nor shew'd the least signe of being affected with it but went on upon occasion of discourse and as he had used to doe with those his accusers and in specie with Maestro Santo who had forgotten his uncles documents which at his death he left with him viz. That he should never attempt any great thing in the province without the opinion of father Paul So not taking counsell where he should have done and being too confident of his uncles merits with the Court and lastly puft up with vaine hopes from a certaine Abbot who was an impostor and is yet living who sold him those hopes at the price of a good silver goblet He trust up his baggage and carried with him to Rome whatsoever he could get being about five hundred duckats which belong'd to the Monastery which he there spent in foure monthes And whereas he went thither full of great hopes he returned againe ful of maltalent and desperation which sent him into Candy to raise a fortune in merchandise where not long after he left his life having first lost and spent what he had By this time wee may say that the fathers quiet studies and his private life were come to their period and that from hence till the end of his life he entred upon another world or rather came into the world wherein it pleased God to call him into employments which he had never thought he should have applied himselfe to But man is not borne alone for himselfe but principally for his Countrey and for a common good That probleme whether a wise man ought to apply himselfe to government let others dispute This father of ours shall give us an example to refuse no paines nor peril for the service of God and of his Countrey And that an honest and wise man is far from that erroneous doctrine invented by a company of seditious coseners who never speake of secular policy but with disparagement although it were instituted of God and in which an honest man may serve his divine majestie with a vocation as pious as excellent and that no other employment can either exceede it or match it as well for the common good as in obedience to that supreme piety which may be exercised in the Church and whereunto God from time to time and since the very birth of the Church hath called even the greatest Heroes of all the ecclesiasticall order At this time was assum'd to the Pontificate the Cardinall Camillo Borghese of Sienna Paul the fifth about the end of the yeare 1605. either because he had beene Auditor della Camera and had taken a great habite of thundering out censures or perhaps being not well affected to the most severe Republique of Venice or else instigated by some religious men as I have it more certaine and by cleerer arguments who like vipers teare in pieces and poyson that brest of state that gave them breeding and nourishment the pretence of the difference being grounded upon some lawes of that common-wealth which were said to be against church priviledges So that things fell into a manifest dissention among them the Pope pretending that those lawes were not onely unjust but cancelled and abolish't on the contrary side the Repub lique maintained that they were just and good lawes and in no interpretation contrary to the lawfull liberties of the Church This businesse boyling betwixt those two great princes some of the primary Senators who had formerly beene the fathers familiars began to confer strictly with him about this controversie for it could not be concealed not onely in
those great infirmities which from his youth he had borne with an unconquered patience and under such a weaknesse of complexion he himselfe then being as healthfull as he could wish excepting onely that of the Procidentia the faling downe of his guts whereof he made no great matter having with his instrument found a meanes whereby it gave him no impediment at all And the retention of his urine troubled him no more untill the seaventieth yeare of his age for in this time that that wee speak of he was but 55. The fathers actions of this yeare would yield us matter of too long a discourse the piety wherewith the most excellent Senate did governe themselves after so great an offence and continued injuries towards our holie Catholike religion and towards the Pope himselfe who had done the injuries their prudence in government and charitie towards their subjects is partly seene in a particular relation which the father made by publique order for memories sake which after stole into the presse But sure it is that it went printed into France and there it was reprinted But to returne to our purpose wee finde in the memorialls that remaine in all histories the deplorable tragedies that have succeeded when Popes have proceeded to excommunicate Princes and publish interdicts and no lesse when with the like censur's this excellent Common-wealth was injur'd being paralelled with the successes of this which hath continued above sixteene monthes the father hath herein deserved eternall memory or rather to be canonized for one of the most pious holie well deserving and prudent religious men that ever serving Prince with uncorrupted faith did likewise serve the holy Church and the Popes themselves If that be true which writers of the Ecclesiasticke part have published in so many printed bookes that the fathers reputation was such that all his consultations were received and executed like oracles Because it was proceeded against those religious men who either for scruple of conscience which were very few or by way of faction and interest disobai'd the publique orders with so much favour that not any one of them was punisht with death for any offence and verie few deprived of libertie to goe where they listed A precedent seldome seene upon the like occurrents in other places wherein the most serene Common-weale made so little use of the power against offenders which God had given them to vindicate the injuries of malefactors And to say truth the nature of the father was so mercifull that it sorted well with the publique Clemency nor was he ever consulted concerning any grievous publique offence wherein he did not sweeten their deliberations as much as any living man could doe and excuse whatsoever was capable of an excuse To be short he never served as a spur to any thing but to meekenesse he never served as a bridle to the prudence of that government but onely in the restraint of some fiery spirits and particularly in the examination of things that were desired to be sent to the stampe In his owne writings all his care was to silence whatsoever might give offence not in what he could say in defence for the matter was very ample and the worke that lay upon him was more in defalcation then addition And they that have seen his originalls can make faith how much he desired to stand to the cause without suffering his pen to runne riot in any thing which by interpretation might be drawne into offence although the malitious subtilty of some flatterers hath made it appeare that there can be nothing so moderately spoken which is not subject to depraved expositions The faction of the Court had among other artifices to get a victory in this controversie made use of this to send divers men under various pretexts to seduce either by promises or threatnings or both those that served the republique particularly those religious men that made up the colledge of the seaven divines as it happened That two of them deviated from the dutie of their consciences And truly they did their offices with such violence so much of threatning as of promise that if the justice of the cause of Venice had not been exceeding cleer the infamy of deserting it so notorious after the Just of it examined understood and defended it had beene enough to have staggered a very solide braine But such was the conceipt of the very enemies of the fathers integritie that having attempted all others by all their engines whereby their fidelitie might be shaken they durst not so much as moue the father by a word And true it is that the Generall of the Servi Maestro Filippo Ferrari Alessandrino being an intrinsike friend of the fathers and going from Rome to Venice Pope Paul gave him a strict commission to remove from the service of the common-weale two of his order Frier Paul and Frier Fulgentio with ample promises of reward But the Generall made him answer that for father Paul he thought he was able to doe no good And going to the Cardinal de Ascoli with whom the father had had beene very intimate and communicating his thoughts to him of attempting that revolt The Cardinall told him that he had seene the Fathers writings and thereby knew that it was but a lost labour not to be attempted This great and learned Prelate understood the soliditie of the Venetian reasons the fathers incorruptibilitie and his minde that was impenetrable either by allurements of Court by ambitions by profits or terrors And when Don Prancesco de Castro came extraordinary Embassadour from the Catholique King to Venice to treate of an accommodation having in his company some religious persons of emenency there was not one of them that durst open his mouth to the father to any such purpose Onely one of them once set a net to have caught him but in vaine One Martino Asdrale Vallone one that was an excellent spie came to Venice pretending a satiety and ill satisfaction of the Court who having long addrest himselfe to haunt the shop of Sechim whereof you have heard No man had better intelligence of what past at Rome concerning that controversie then he None more free to condemne the fury of of the Pope then he He was of no absurd wit and with much practise he grew cunning enough to let them know that the Pope was of a vindicative spirit thereby laying a foundation to his designe which he had given him in charge and it might be true At the end of this yeare and the comming in of 1607. the accommodation was concluded for the King of France by the meanes of the Cardinall Perone and the mediator of it had beene the Cardinall of Joyeuse who by the interposition of Mounsieur de Fresnes Ambassador for the Christian king had used all diligence that the father he might meete together for conference alledging that besides that he was comprehended by way of accōmodation in the publique cause as a counsellor he had