authoritie of Princes He was visited by letters from the most learned that were in France Gillot Leschassier Salmario Richer Boviel Causabon many Princes have likewise honored him with their letters and by the visits of their sonnes sent into Italy and in what esteeme he was with them may be seene by their letters if it be not thought affection Onely I may add this that a great Prince sending his sonne into Italy put it into his instructions that he should not faile to visite Orbis terrarum ocellum giving that title to the father And when the Ambassadour of the Holland estates Signor Arseus came to Venice having used all meanes possibly to have a sight of him he was satisfied therein being brought into the Antisecret to heare the answer read that was given him by the most excellent Senate to his denialls as it is the course and having seene the father as he crost the chamber to goe to his place he said to that Senator that bare him company the illustrio Signor Guistimano that he was so well pleased to have seene that great man the most conspicuous of all Europe that he should be well satisfied to returne home againe to his Country although he had obtained none of his demands from the republique and thinke the labour and expense of his journey very well bestowed I have knowne further also by very good information that he was sought to and invited from two crowned heads if he would have accepted their service in things of greatest importance by relation had from their letters to the father delivered by their owne Ambassadors then resident at Venice But he with termes of acknowledgment due to so great Princes refused to depart from the service of his naturall soveraigne whereunto God had called him Of one of these meetings it is necessary to make a particular mention The Prince of Conde 1622 being the last yeare of the fathers life but one come to see Italy and desired by all meanes to have discourse with the father who would by no meanes condescend to be seene of him But the Prince did so besiege him in his Monastery that he was oft constrained to shut himselfe up in his Cell without so much as eating his dinner because he would not come abroade and all the while the Prince knew him to be within But at last breaking into some impatience and laments that it was a more difficult thing to see father Paul then to see the Pope himselfe One of the gentlemen of Venice that accōpanied the Prince remembred to advise him that the father as he was a consultor of state could not hold any congresse with Princes nor their ministers by the law without a publique knowledge and leave first obtained Whereupon the father had leave and was commanded to let the Prince see him To which he obeyed although with a very ill will onely he would have their meeting not to be in the Monastery but else where and in the pulique presence of some others as if he had foreseene what happened afterwards So the Prince visited him in the house of Signor Angelo Contarini a Cavalier who being lately returned from an Embassy into France was by publike order apointed to Court to attend that Prince In that meeting the father was nothing deceived of what he suspected that befides the Princes owne curiositie he should be environed with interrogatories at the instance of others All the discourse that followed betwixt them is found written with the very conceipts and words that were then spoken and remaines where it ought to be The substance of it was that the Prince as he was of great birth which is very well knowne so he was of a great vivacity and and an extraordinary spirit joyned with great store of learning and was continually upon a tempting way to sound the father concerning the sects of the time and chiefely concerning the reformed religion in France which he railed on as pernitious to government and then concerning superioritie betwixt a councell and the Pope as also of the libertie of the Gallicane Church and whether it be lawfull to make use of the service in armes of those that dissent from us in religion of the excommunicating of Princes and most of all who was the author of the history of the councell of Trent which the Prince more by the instigation of some other then of his owne Genius was defirous to know such power hath the contagion of those that practise with some religious men This flying discourse full of jumpes of provocations and interrogatories seemed like a floting of waves that were to breake themselves upon the rocks of rare of briefe and of onely necessitated answers His blaming of the Hugonets in France without touching upon the least pointe of their doctrine was by the father diverted with a singular dexteritie representing to his memory the valour and prudence of his father and grandfather whereof the Prince being very intelligent did quickly perceive what that signified Concerning the difference of superioritie betweene the Pope and Councells from that he disentangled himselfe by putting him in minde of the Sorbonne and the alteration and depravation of that state since the admission of the Jesuits into France and the difference which is betwixt the ancient and moderne Sorbonits without touching any thing of the superiority which the Prince had most desired And likewise the liberties of the Gallicane Church that he past over in generall termes saying that the Parliaments of France and the Sorbon it selfe have maintained these liberties as the naturall rights of all the churches but in France they have beene better defended then elsewhere from the usurpations of others As for the making use of the armes of those that differ from us in religion he said no more but that Pope Giulio the second served himselfe in Bolognia of Turkes and Paul the fourth of the Grisons at Rome calling them Angels sent from God to defend him and yet that they were but Heretiques More largely they continued their discourse of the excommunications of Princes and the father reduced the Prince to the history of Gregory the seaventh of this side the Alpes and particularly in France making him confesse that he had seene the private writings and also of the states upon the like subject where if the Popes had not pretended so far that Princes should not heare masse nor be present at other offices perhaps the controversies had not growne so hot But the point was whether Princes had a cause of complaint that under pretences of excommunications which are spirituall paines they should suffer their subjects to rebell against them and be disobliged of their fidelities and subjection which is due to them by lawes both naturall and divine and stirring up warres and seditions against them as far as to lay waite for their lives and take away their crownes and scepters To the point of the author of the councell of Trent the father told him that he
they placed the Popes being arived at this quint-essence of subtlety to maintaine in all their dominions a formidable faction which for the most part is defraied by the purse of those very states whose destruction and desolation they had in designe That their religion was the same which was contained in holy scripture in generall councels and in the holy fathers of the five first ages agreeing with the Church of Rome in all the old articles of faith onely their discord is in those that are of their late invention which if any man will examine one by one he shall finde that they make very little to the glory of God but to the gayning of riches and reputation and of mundane Jurisdiction to the Ecclesiasticke order They further insinuated that the Romane religion was insensibly abastarded and that nothing else was reduced to religion but that which makes for the interest and benefit of the Court They made a collection of the intollerable grievances of Princes who for the present make lamentable and continuall complaints They descended to the particulars of the serene republique which confining upon the Turks for above eight hundred miles and as much upon the house of Austria and with the Pope very few miles which were nothing but of sand and sea-shore yet they received more offence from that side and more trouble of jurisdiction in one moneth then from both the others in ten yeares besides other continuall troubles with their Nuncio's who where they come to treat with their Prince they doe it with so much insolencie and soveraignty as if he were not onely their subject but their slave carrying still before them the head of Medusa the pretence of Religion to fright the timerous And the greatest Politicians that ever were are not able to penetrate the profundity of the Arcana of the Papacie by his mischiefe which was meerely caused by the Ecclesiastiques themselves and was by them attributed afterwards to those eminent subjects in Venice that were the principall maintainers of the publick cause But still the Father was hee on whom the blame was laid He it was if we believe the Courtiers that excited Protestants to put forth bookes to illuminate the people He it was that counselled these great men to a necessity of a change of Religion under pretence that the Popes were growne to such a greatnesse that nothing could serve their turnes but the servitude of all Italy But if ever any thing were false and calumnious it is this and although the Father seem'd not much to regard their defamations yet so farre as it concern'd the declaring of himself touching the provisions that were to be made from time to time with the Senators he gave his opinion counsel viva vece and vehemently upon all occurrents and oft in writing upon innumerable counsels having alwaies taught and inculcated that not only for truth and conscience sake but even for necessity and reason of good government every faithfull man but most of all Princes ought to invigilate to the maintenance and conservation of Religion Hee affirm'd that to this end God had constituted Princes as his Lieutenants in those states wherein the Church was planted and conferr'd their greatnesse upon them to make them Protectors Defendors Conservators and Nurses of holy Church as sacred Scriptures make mention in which calling the greatest of them can never give a sufficient discharge of himself except it be by a continuall and vigilant care in matters of Religion That God by hissingular grace had placed them in this Catholique Apostolick Romane Holy Church for which they were bound to acknowledge his divine favour and render him continuall thanks No greater misfortune being able to befall them from Heaven then that they should abandon or forsake it And howbeit there be many abuses yet that is not to bee imputed to the fault of Religion but of them that abuse it And all this being most true and undeniable no man ought to suffer himselfe to bee shaken in his confidence nor the Prince to give way that a chang or alteration should be so much as spoken of That perfection and absolute purity is the very Terminus whereunto the Church and every faithfull man ought to pretend though it be not the path wherein alwayes they tread Those Churches which were founded by the Apostles themselves and where they preach't and resided were not exempt from imperfections whereof the Epistle to the Galathians gives a clear testimony but more clearely that to the Corinths That as for their charity some adhered to Peter others to Paul others held of Apollo with schisme and express division from Christ As for opinions there were some that denied the Resurrection As for concord they drew their pleadings and differences to the Tribunals of Infidels As for manners they had fornication among them such as was unheard of among the Idolaters As for customes the supper of the Lord was converted into banquets where some were drunke and others hungry And yet all this while the Apostle acknowledgeth them to be a true Church and a body of Christ How much more ought we then to stand firme in the Church where God by his singular grace hath setled us although in the Government thereof there be imperfections and abuses which are also since converted into intollerable grievances But if at this day those evils have gotten grouth the fault will be found to bee in the Princes themselves who having little regard to the divine Precept which so straightly obliges to take knowledge of Gods most holy Law and of Religion but have altogether neglected this duty as if Religion were a thing that did not concerne them and as if they were not to render an account to God neither for themselves nor their subjects by neglecting the care and defence of it against the divine precepts of Gods Word the doctrine of holy Councels and Fathers and the use of pious Princes contenting themselves with a Religion without knowing what it is nor how it should bee kept from corruption tolerating for their owne interests their adulation and connivancies the cosenage of the people with continuall alterations under colour of devotion and piety with a dayly license not onely to religious men but to all sorts of persons to invent new orders to their owne gaine and greatnesse without considering that every custome carries his credit along with it and so Religion becomes changeable and accommodated to the advancements of them that manage it And these ordinary alterations being received the Princes themselves have tolerated them and so they have agreed with posterity for approbation by an authority which time and custome had put upon them A thing that happens in the greatest part of humane affaires but most in Religion where the vulgar are the inventers of superstition The Pope beside that he is the head of Religion is also a Prince and one that from above 500 yeares to this day hath aspired to the Monarchy of Italy
Others are yet living give witnesse of the felicity of the wit and abilities of father Paul of whom wee now write who by the diligence of a master being his uncle became in short time so great a proficient that he was capable of the more solid arts and greater sciences of Logique and philosophy And the priest Ambrosio having discovered in his nephew a conjuncture which is seldome seen of a great memory with a profound judgment thought fit to cherish the one and the other because exercise either improves or disposes for actions and discovers or otherwise takes away those impediments which hinder the expression of activity And if mans wit seemed to that old Philosopher to be Campi Animati spirited fieldes fit for divers seeds and of unequall secundity or barrennesse The Priest was no lesse carefull to apply his wit to a right cultivation Wherefore he daily exercised his judgement by keeping him to continuall composings holding him to more strictnesse then was convenient for his childhood specially being of so weake a complexion And exercised his memory not only by forcing him to repeate many things by heart but some particulars upon the first hearing The fathers of the convent observing in him a rare inclination to learning reported strange things of his memory But he told them seriously that in that way of exercise his uncle had never made him exceede the repetition of a matter of thirty verses together out of Virgil or some author after a running kinde of reading once over His carriage of himselfe even at that age gave a true presage of his future deportment which wee will rather call naturall inclinations the better sort whereof he hath since raised to a great perfection having corrected the rest which were more imperfect by vertue being in himselfe a meere retirednesse and of a semblant or meane alwaies thoughtfull and rather melancholique then serious of a continued silence even with those of his owne age alwaies in quiet without being addicted to any of those excercises wherewith children are by nature most pleased though but in a gentle motion and only for preservation of health A notable thing and never observed in any other And since then he hath kept himselfe so in the whole course of his life being used to say upon occasion that he could never understand the delight of a gamester except it were out of affection to Avarice He knew not the pleasures of the palate he never long'd for any meate but nourished himselfe with so little foode that it was a wonder how hee could live which course he hath constantly observed all his life long and was never used to drinke wine till he was above thirty yeares of age There dwelt at that time in the Convent of the order of Servi one Father Iohn Maria Cappella of Cremona Doctor and Theologist esteemed one of the most consummate perfect men of his time in Religion and a particular follower of Scotus in whose doctrine hee had the fame to have had but few equalls The neerenesse of their habitations bred an acquaintance betwixt Ambrosio and this Father who upon this occasion finding the pregnant witt of Peter began to reade Logique to him And because as some soiles are so fruitfull that upon every little tillage they exceede not onely the hopes but also the wishes of the labourer so it happened in a very short space that he made the like progression passing on to the studies of Philosophy and Theologie running before all expectation and the Master confest himselfe that hee could teach him no longer because it happened many times that the Scholler apprehending a different sence from his Master was able to maintaine it with so much subtilty of reason that he made him change his opinion Whereof among the notes that are come to my hands there are many particulars which I spare to relate He began likewise in his childhood to learne the Mathematiques according to the manner of the wise men of old times tongues with the Greeke and Hebrew by the opportunity of eminent Masters that lived at that time in Venice But by continuall conversation and study amongst them he became desirous to receive the habit of that order of the Servi either because it seemed to him c. life of more conformity to his inclination which was retir'd and contemplative or otherwise being allured thereto by his Master It is the property of mans minde in all things that are come to effect to seek no further than to the next causes and particularly in those wherein it is neereliest concerned so setling ajudgement upon those alone without regard to an investigable number of other foregoing causes in a longer tract resolves thereupon to ground the cause of his fortune But the Divine providence which orders all things by a connexion of causes and effects guides us to higher considerations The effects following leave us no place to doubt that it was a Divine compulsion and a Divine vocation of Peter to render himselfe religious because his Mother and his Vncle Ambrosio the Priest having opposed themselves against him out of a desire to make him a Priest of their Church having already put him into the habit yet he could not be removed from his first resolution neither by exhortation nor by constraint whereof he suffered very much and at last in the yeare 1566. the 24. of November he was received into the habit of the Religion of Servi And to what height of learning he was growne in his youth may be argued from hence That the day following there being held an annuall and solemne disputation in the Church of the Father Minors of St. Francis called Sancta Maria de' frati he was sent to dispute against the Theses that were then given in where he put the company into admiration of his great and solid spirit and at the beginning of the disputations gave them a prettie occasion to be merry having forgot himselfe that he had changed his habit the day before he did in those actions of curtesie that are common among disputants thinking to put off his hat pull off his hood and held it hanging in his hand he continued his Novitiat in that Convent and his studies under the same Master And the Father Benedetto Ferro yet living and of his owne age who lived with him in his Novitiat relates of him That in his childhood he was of great retirednesse silence and quietnesse and that hee was wont to withdraw himselfe from every childish sport And they spoke it of him as a common by word All we are for trifles and pamphlets but Fryer Paul is for Bookes And being now entred into the 17. yeere of his age and setled in a state of profession but yet silently according to those times wherein the decree of the Councell of Trent to that purpose was not yet put in execution for all the regular orders continued with professions as yet unexprest the Councell then intending to provide in
I may say from that garden of spirituall delights into a thorny field of toile and wearinesse of spirit and body and at a generall Chapter he was by common consent created Procurator of the Court called Proctor generall This is the supreame dignity of that order under the Generall and in those times that religion flourished with learned men none were assumed into that order except men of exquisite prudence because the charge beares with it a necessity to defend all the variances and controversies at Rome that are promoted in all the religion besides the necessities of appearing in all courts and congregations to maintaine the causes that are brought to the court and of singular learning to be able to pray before the Pope upon daies that are design'd to that order And because the Proctors of Court are much imployed by the Popes in the congregations as in reading a publique lecture upon wisdome In these three yeares that he dwelt in Rome beside that incomparable prudence wherwith he treated of matters of religion there was knowne to be in him a great aptnesse to greater things and by order from the Pope himselfe he entred into divers congregations where there was occasion to discourse in occurrent actions upon important difficulties of doctrine At which meetings he came to know and take intimate acquaintance with father Bellarmine who was often present and was afterwards a Cardinall whose friendship continued even to the end of his life He knew there likewise the Doctor Navarro who was then at Rome about that famous cause of the Arch-Bishop of Toledo and he was wont to tell with a great deale of delight that he had many times had discourse with one of the ten compagnons of father Ignatius who then lived And I believe it was father Bobadiglia wherein I should be sorry to be mistaken Onely it is remembred that he found him often doing his exercise in certaine remote places and that he seemed to be full of holy simplicity and that he told him freely at one time that it was never the minde of the father Ignatius that his company should be reduced to what they were now and if he returned into the world he should not know them being become a quite other thing and so much changed from what he left them How he behaved himselfe towards the Cardinall Santa Severina protector appears in this that he alone among so many that were imployed went away in his good grace and favour which was no small matter with a Prelate of his disposition who was used to call those that went according to his by as without contradiction poore spirited fellows and flatterers and those that made lively opposition against him spake their minde undauntedly them he hated for being too free and insolent But above all he was entred so far into the grace of Cardinal Castagna who was after Pope by the name of Vrban the seaventh and succeeded Sixtus V. that he was infinitely pleased with him And t' is very like that this Prelate being of a more then humane meekenesse of life most innocent and for his carriage irreprehensible the similitude of their dispositions might be the cause of uniting their affections The father never visited him but by the cheerefullnesse of his face he might discerne that his visite was so much the more accepted by how much it was more frequent And after his going from home he alwaies continued to be his servant The short time that he lived in the Pontificate which was onely thirteene dayes gave no assurance how his favour would have continued to the Father after his assumption to that Throne for this very opinion that he had of the Father to bee a subject of so incomparable learning and ability I have this testimony from one that was present when the newes was brought him of his death that he said without any shew of alteration Ideo raptus est ne malitia mutaret intellectum ejus He had once occasion to goe to Naples to sit President as Vicar Generall at the Chapters and to make the Visitation where hee grew acquainted with that famous witt Gio. Battista Porta who in some worke of his that came to light makes honorable mention of Padre Paolo as of no ordinary personage and particularly of his specular perspective The time of his Office of Proctor Generall in Court happened to be at the beginning of the Pontificate of Sixtus the sift who as it is beleeved having been a Fryer knew much of the worth of those religious persons that were remarkable and among others having had information of the quality of the Father gave him imployment in congregations and other manages more frequently then was usuall He was present at the discussion of that matter Whether the Duke de Ioyeuse being a Capuchin were dispensable and to that purpose were spoken by those that would flatter such exhorbitances of the untimely power or rather the pontificall omnipotency that Father Bellarmine being present told the Father in his eare These are the things that have made Germany revolt and will produce as much in France and other Kingdomes Upon a time the Pope being in the street in his Litter called the Father unto him holding him a good while in discourse which was nothing else but of certaine memorials that were come to his hands against the Generall of that time This unwonted passage and observ'd by the Court that used to make observations upon all things was presently divulged abroad how much the Father was in the Popes favour what would you have more The vanity had already made him a Cardinall But this favour which was neither sought nor desired by him cast him into a most troublesome persecution At his going from Venice he had left his friends at the Councell and directions of master Gabriell Collison with whom hee had formerly joyned in the taking away certaine ill customes and grievances which some superiours had imposed upon others that were weaker then themselves and were detested under the odious name of Tyranny But as it often happens that what we detest in others we are ready to justifie in our selves and the nature of Gabriel being as it was afterwards discerned to bee onely a friend and lover of his owne interest In those three yeares of the Fathers absence from the Province hee had gotten an absolute Dominion whereto he had attain'd and maintained himselfe by very great extortions one onely impediment was a mighty traverse to him that the Father was shortly to returne to Venice to whom he knew such practises would bee no waies pleasing and he was out of hope of inclining him to those courses of his because he had had experience of his integrity that he was not to be corrupted He conceived his onely remedy was to make him a proposition against which the wisest men can hardly make a defence which was the way of Honours and therefore to remaine at home And began seriously to perswade him
thing to be admired how as if he had understood nothing but the Mechaniques he would presently comprehend the designe and give judgment whether it would serve for the thing it was intended for or not with the meanes how to better it how to facilitate and make another like it with what oppositions or defects But they say more of him those that brought him instruments to see with what facility he told them what they were made for saying This instrument is to take a scituation or to measure a voyage or to lift a great weight or to know how to returne to unknowne places by the same way they came The particulars would make a volume Signor Alfonso Antomini a Cavaglier of the most sublime vertues morall civill politique and military that can any way render a gentleman amiable after he had beene in Germany and Flanders to see the warres and so likewise with observation in others as with exercise of his owne person and especially of his wit in observing all things was raised to such a degree of military knowledge as very few have arrived to and was called back by the most serene Republique of Venice to doe them some service concerning the commotions that were then in Italy But those being fallen into a condition which might rather be called rumors of warre then open warr and not obtayning a libertie to depart to any place of reall wares gave himself to a remeditation of what he had formerly observed especially the orders of the Prince Maurice of Oranges and withal to se what Plobyus some other authors wherein he might know the orders of the ancient Romane militia and of other people and upon this occasion wrote a booke how a present militia might be managed But having conceived in his minde the inventions of many instruments and military engines he was desirous to goe to Venice to have conference with the father and to impart his thoughts and and receive his judgment therein and being accidentally fallen upon the subject of glasses and perspectives in which study Antonini had lately employed his witts the father did not onely discourse with him ex improviso upon the fabrick of many sorts of glasses and of their effects which seemed to to have some thing miraculous but presently taking pen and paper gave him the figures in forme with their demonstrative reasons as if he had come newly from studying Halazen or Vitellio and others of that profession although he was able to give a true account that it was above fortie yeares fince he had beene verst in any of those authors But to returne to my discourse he being come from Rome to his rest and to his studies returned also to his vertuous conversations and all the time that he could spare from divine offices wherein he was alwayes constant when not hindred by publique imployment and never omitting his private devotions he spent at his booke About that time he wrote some of his owne conceipts naturall physicall and Mathematicall which when he tooke a review of afterwards he made no account of and was wont to say Oh what childish things past through my minde And I am very certaine that if they had beene seene by learned men they would not have deem'd them childish His quietnesse then begun to be a little distracted by an accident that happened in religion It was a common expectation in the religion that a Milanese who was thought to deserve well should be made generall But the great Duke of Toscany opposed it and by his power at Rome caused a Bolognise borne at Budri to be created Generall who was a reader in Pisa of the Mathematiques This was a man of great learning and goodnesse but not able so for government as was needfull to sustaine such a charge in times of so great factions and discontent And very shortly after there flew such memorialls and advertisements to Rome concerning his simplicity and the crime of his companions which were all laid to his charge that favour failing him by the death of the great Duke Francesco which happened 1587. Sixtus V. and the Cardinall Santa Severina Protector concurring both in one minde which was not to favour that man in his office of Generall because he was inclined another way resolved that his cause should come to examination And after a long time of striving about the deputation of Judges by the Cardinal Santa Severina because the religion was then in factions and what one man proposed another refused at last the Pope who had taken knowledge of Padre Paolo undertooke to determine the controversie and commanded him to goe thither to understand the businesse So he was appointed to goe to Bologna where he continued many monthes in the treaty of that troublesome cause Because the Generall having obtained that advertisement of the proceedings should be given from time to the Auditor of del Torrone there being also before him at that time some Crimininall causes of of importance and it was in the publique prison they sate whe rethey fell often into differences of what was fit to be done For satisfaction whereof it had beene necessary to write and to expect resolutions from Rome And it was well worth observing that in all the controverted Points the opinion of the father was ever approved of notwithstanding the Auditors themselves use to be the most consummate and and absolute men in matters of judicature But the processe and the cause were both determined by the death of the Generall although some sentences which the father had given against some of the Fryers stood unrepealed The father being come back to Venice resumed the course of his former studies and of his retirednesse from bufinesse frequenting his accustomed vertuous conversations and the resort that was to the house of fignor Andrea Moresim whom we name before being growne very numerous and frequent because there came thither a great part of such as profest learning and not onely of the nobility whereof some subjects are since risen to be great Senators and like starres in the firmament of the most serene Common-wealth for goodnesse Religion learning and civill prudence but there were likewise admitted into that meeting all sorts of virtuosi as well seculars as religious beside the most eminent persons of learning that were then met at Venice or in Italy or of any other nation that did not faile to be present in that place as in one of the most celebrated conventions that had ever beene consecrate to the Muses In my life I have not seene more vertuous exercises and I wish it had pleased God that as the vertues of those two Andria and Nicolo the uncles which discended by inheritance unto their nephews so there might have beene in Venice such another meeting where there were met at sometimes five and twentie or thirtie men of rare endowments At this meeting the ceremony which is a thing so much affected in our times and so superfluous had no
master Gabriel had used to supply his bribes at Rome became presently united in interest with the Generall And although it were his chiefe desire either to have have sweetned the bitternesse or reduc't things to civill termes which in order of Religion are said to be done by votes suffrages yet he could never bring that to passe For now master Gabriel resolved to accuse him of criminalities making it a matter against him in the Inquisition at Rome that he had held commerce with the Hebrewes and to foment the quarrell the more he drew out the letter which wee told you of before with the counter cypher and stirred up a nephew of his at Venice to doe as much against him there as was done at Rome making this his ground that they being on a time upon discourse of compounding differences the nephew should make answer that he believed the faction of his uncles part was much the superiour because at their Chapter they had an expectation to be inspired by the holy Ghost and that thereupon the father should replie that it was fitter to operate by humane meanes upon this Maestro Santo for so was he called accused him to the holy office at Venice that he had denied the assistance of the holy ghost But that Tribunall having examined testimonies that were present at the treaty thought it no Justice so much as to call the father to his answer but extinguisht the action without speaking a word more of it But at Rome that point of the letter with the Cypher brought the father into a very ill opinion that he was an enemy to their greatnesse but in secret they neither durst nor could tell how to frame any thing against him upon judgment of religion I have heard some say at sundry times I know not whether I should cal him ignorant or malignant that represented it as an irrefragable argument against the integrity of the father that he had beene thrice denounced to the holy office of the Inquisition in his youth by Master Claudio da Piacenza and in his riper age by master Gabriel for that letter in Cypher against the Court and this last time by Maestro Santo his nephew as if to be denounced were so great a marke upon him And truly if the doctrine of faith or religion had beene in question it had beene capable of no excuse But to this opposition and to these men that consider not so much the end of judgment as the beginning of a trouble Let them take their answer from Padre Maffeo a Jesuit who tells us in the life of Father Ignatius now canonized for a saint that he was nine times put into the inquisition if I erre not in the number but with this difference that the Saint was called examined and absolved and this father of ours three onely times but never called nor examined And then let 'em tell me what strength is in that argument of theirs that it should follow either that the father was not right or that the Magistrate was not just in receiving such accusations But concerning his communication with heretiques although nothing was proved yet it tooke a very great impression in Clement the eight who remembred it against him a good while after In so much that the father being proposed to the Bishopricke of Nova although the Pope confest him to be a man of learning and of great capacity yet he added that he deserved no preferment from the Church for the practises that he had held with heretiques All which had no other foundation but this that the Citty of Venice being so great that it drew from all parts of the world no tonely by reason of the businesse of Merchandice but also such men as have any relish of things that are curious and fit for admiration And the father being there at that time in a reputation of one of the most learned men in the world the professors of sciences that came not onely from Italy but from other regions and chiefely the greater personages that esteemed it a thing worthy of their travell to see and hold discourse in matter of learning with one that in all professions was not only able to give them satisfaction but to send them away with wonder he that knew not onely termes of humanity and civility but the most strict Canonicall rules oblige not to avoid the company of any except he be by name and individually condemned by the Church He without any further scruple thought all sorts of strangers worthy of his vertuous conversation Sometimes he came into company by command as when Mounsieur D'eureux afterward Cardinall Peron came to Ro. where he had the first time unsuccesfully treated the reconciliation of Henry the fourth and Perron passing by Venice there were deputed to beare him company the most illustrious Linigi Lollino after Bishop Bellano Peerlesse in humanity and the Greeke tongue and the father also spent many dayes with him and almost alwaies in discourse either of state matters or of learning And this great braine of whom it is reported that he should say that in Italy it is well knowne that in Padova in the house of Vincenzo Pinelli and upon other occasions he found few persons of notable learning he celebrated the father for a transcendent wit And it was upon the same occasion that Lollino and the father falling into commendation of the great knowledge of that Prelate and his extreame wisdome in disputing and confounding those whom he disputed with especially in religion he told them againe in modest language that he had not onely found the Hugonets in France without learning or knowledge especially in the old fathers in councels and Historians but he had likewise found them Cholericke and impatient whereupon besides matter of doctrine whensoever he disputed with any of them his chiefe ayme was by some picquant words or argutenesse to put them into choler and that being done he was assured to carry the victory And truly that elevated spirit of his had that naturall aptitude and inclination observing alwaies in his disputations about religions tenents that are in print an argute manner of disputing and extreamely provocative Occasions of this kinde were very frequent But passion and ignorance which in this age have rendred Religion like the Dye of factions and the desire of envious people to give intelligence at Rome thereby to appeare more zealous then other men So soone as they saw any man appeare to visite the father that was uttred all Oltramontana like a German or a Frenchman immediatly they concluded him to be an heretique like a fellow that denounc't his preacher to the holy office because forsooth having cited the prophet Habacuc he said he knew him to be a Lutheran because of pronouncing the best syllable cuch But divine providence by such gradations as these began to inure her servant to the injurious calumnis of that government which in the progresse of his life for being a faithfull servant
truly a great personage and very active and able to bring any businesse to what end he pleas'd as it is an eafie matter for great men to serve themselves upon any pretence to justifie every thing after it is done So he consulted with his intimate friends upon that point whose opinion was that he could receive no great damage especially since by a great number of the Cardinals letters which are yet in being and I have seene them when I intended to make this life like an epistolary history and to have prduced the letters for a confirmation of what I had written if the length and multitude had not disswaded me it appeard that he had a great opinion of the fathers integrity and prudence and that he had desired to see him at Rome and to have interessed him in that Court But the father facetiously remembred the fable how the prudent Fox when the Lyon made proclamation for all horned beasts to come in hid himselfe saying what if the lyon would have his eares to be hornes who should be able to defend him yet notwithstanding he was resolved to goe But as it was his manner to be as confident in the divine providence as if second causes had not beene considerable yet omitting no fit meanes where second causes might be the producers of their effects And first of all he got good letters from his friends to the Ambassadors of Venice at Rome and to divers great Prelates at Court Then by letters he made knowne the whole businesse to the Cardinall of Ascoli for he was likewise of the congregation of the holy office with whom he had alwaies continued his servitude by a commerce of letters and from him he was advised to come At Rome there was a generall Chapter celebrated wherein the Cardinall not being able to make master Gabriel his Genenerall he called from Florence a father that had beene fifteene yeares shut up in his chamber in a holy life but yet with him neither he was not very well pleased be cause whether for zeale of conscience or for any other respect I know not but he also extreamely abhor'd to consent that Gabriel should succeed him and loved and honored the father as much as was possible although against the orders which he said had beene given him and offended the Cardinall in a very high degree by writing him a very long letter in an apologetique way blaming him for all his mischiefes that had happened in religion and for using such violent waies to make a wicked wretch his Generall touching without any respect upon the briberies and guifts that were brought to his Court by the sale of al preferments and graces and by the pillage and robbing of Convents But that which cut him to the quicke was that he affirmed that he had written unto him not onely after a long consideration but with particular inspiration of the Holy Ghost At the reading whereof the Cardinall broke out into passion and cried out Tu menti santarieto Cacamienda for he had alwayes kept a tang of the Neapolitan Dialect But this poore Generall was called to Rome where in a very short time he ended his life It was said to be of a heate which he gave himselfe by walking about the seaven Churches and there are some that said it was by some cost that was bestowed upon him But his death gave a great scandall to all religion because as t is already said he had lived fifteene yeares shut up in his cell at a holy life where by pontificall indulgence he celebrated the masse and every wednesday expounded upon his altar the holy sacrament before which he continued praying til the friday following without tasting any foode and his diet was alwaies lenten fare and for the most part bread and fruite and water In which life he continued for matter of abstinence after his coming to his charge he was esteemed a Santo and as of such a one is his life written and printed His very enemies reported him to be a man of holy intentions though not so able for government But the blame which fell upon the Cardinall for putting him under censure cannot be exprest The father treated with the Cardinall and sought alwaies to please him because that being done all other things were determined And it fell out extraordinary well for him because they had no speech of any other matter but onely these two The one that he had adhaered to and fomented the late tumults or rather stir'd up the Generall the other that he would not be friends with Master Gabriel To which he answered that he would remit the whole businesse to his Lordship was desired to be reconcil'd to him To the particulars he answered more at length That by his Lordships power and favour he had seene Master Laeliâ— made Proctor Generall and after that vicar generall Apostolicall and subsequently Generall and that he had desired the friendship of Laelio as of one of his Lordships creatures and had corresponded with him in all things which he thought might concerne the service of God and religion And that it was his dutie to honor that man whom he saw raised above others without any curious investigations of the reasons why it was done That if things grew after to be changed he conceived that to be an accident of a fortune And thereupon he put him in minde of letter which when Laelio was created Generall his Lordship had written with his owne hand whereby he recommended him unto him that by his vote and the votes of friends he might be preferred before any other of his concurrents so that he could not interpret such a recommendation for lesse then a command For of such a nature he said were the requests of persons that were eminent And as to that of having stirred up the Generall his eminency having by his publique letters to all the Religion directed to the Chapters of Provinces made great complaint of the impetuous and violent nature of Lelio he was sure his Lordship had not that conceipt against him of himselfe but by the suggestion and false relation of some others whereto hee would at all times be ready to make answer in his owne excuse onely referr'd it to his prudence which was able to penetrate that and greater matters nor was it like that seeing a coach runne swiftly by he would make it a doubt whether the coach drew the horses or they it He insinuated moreover that foure yeares before that 1593 in the vacancy of the Bishopricke of Milopotamo his Lordship had begg'd it for him of his Holinesse and in a letter written to him thereupon and exhorting him to dispose himselfe to receive it when it should be conferred upon him He added that in a second place he had named him to another in event of his not accepting that because he was not sure of his intentions being so retired a man and alienate from every thing else but a totall immersion
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
knew well that he himselfe was the man that had divulged it in France to be his and had also told asmuch to the Ambassador of Venice then resident with his Christian Majesty whereupon the Ambassador was constrained to write of it to the publique and further he did not answer him but onely this That at Rome it was well enough knowne who was the author and after this with all his windings and turnings he could get no more out of him He that shall consider throughly of these pointes and that knowes the father and knowes the Prince well though of an elevated spirit will give his judgment upon the report that was after divulged I believe rather from others then from the Prince himselfe who gave it out that he had confounded the father and reduced him to such a streightnesse that he knew not what to say But as there is nothing in the world without his contrary nor any thing so holy that is not subject to a sinister interpretation after the father was in publike employment and that his actions begunne to be more observed and commented upon it behooved him to restraine himselfe from such vertuous commerces wherein he was formerly frequent although the occasions were lesse frequent Because those that were ill affected to him made it a conclusion that he had no sincere sence in the Romane religion because he treated with such indifferency and moderation not enquiring into occult things that pertained not to him and that he was now growne more sensible of such defamations then he had been formerly did arise from this consideration he spake itopenly because heretofore he had onely treated of things of his owne interest but that being now a servant of the Republique it was fit he should deny himself the pleasure of those learned conversation with this reason that those impostures which were put upon him as a minister of state might not redound to the publike prejudice But his constancy in the purity of religion hath no neede of a defence nor is it needfull to make a digression upon that Onely I shall touch this particular whereof so many men yet living are able to make faith and which whosoever goes about to deny shall finde too many adversaries to contend with One notable inconvenience from the imprudence of those writers that favoured the Ecclesiasticall cause in the the yeare 1606 was this That the cause being pure and meerely temporall and matter of Jurisdiction they procured by all their cunning to represent it as a point of religion thinking that to be their absolute advantage not seeing how they could otherwise defend it or at least insinuate it to be defensible either at Court or among the people In the zeale of this course they did so far surpasse the streight line of veritie and conscience that they grew to publish in conference in their pulpits and in printe that at Venice they were resolved to change religion having begunne by the denying of obedience to the Bishop of Rome and by a manifest schisme it is not much to be wondred at that this course tooke beginning from a swarme of hungry ambitious libellers that were meerly ignorant of former passages But it is more to be admir'd that so wise and learned a Cardinall should enter into this dance as Bellarmine Baronius and Collonna that had reason to know what prejudice such a fame though false and now disperst abroad might bring to the Ecclesiastiques In all Aristocracies equalitie is by the necessity of humane condition most unequall as to the abilitie of the optimates there having never yet beene a colledge or society so well chosen that had had not their dreggs among them otherwise Aristocracies would consist of so many Kings and the vulgar part of it would be onely among the Optimates For this reason although for the defence of their libertie there were in all their bodies and counsells at Venice a singular concord yet there were allwaies some subjects of more valour and eminency then others that served as guides to the rest Comparisons are not to be admitted in common weales wherefore it will not be fit to name any particulars But speaking of things in generall it was a grace and providence of almighty God that those which were the most resolute and disposed to this Common defence were the greatest not onely in nobility honors experience hability and activity but even for piety and religion A part of them are yet alive most eminent Senators and for puritie and reale of holy religion knowne above all others The rest of them are past away from hence by a most religious death to the glory of the blessed The said Ecclesiastike shot all their cursed darts especially against these men as the most high and conspicuous objects taxing them for innovators of religion charging them with a designe of making the common weale revolt to the protestant religion The Oltramontanes that were most attentive to the successe of these passages and to the setling of so famous a controversie did greedily reade and receive whatsoever came abroade believing all to be true that came from the Ecclesiasticks with such asseverations that the serene republique was about to deny obedience to the Pope and ready to change religion because those that were the chiefe in government had the same designe And those that were the greatest zelots among them assured with hopes of enlarging their religion and having observed that upon all those occasions which the Church of Rome had taken to excommunicate Princes and interdict states there ever followed some notable revolts thought fit it should be fomented with a hope which they had already conceived of a change and the Princes of Italy failed not to procure a strikt intelligence with the republique who when they saw the King of Spaine declare himselfe protector of the Ecclesiasticke partie were constrained for reason of good government to heare all and adhere onely to those whose interest was conjoyned with their owne And divers private Doctors were not wanting to send out pamphlets which for any diligence that could be used in such a confusion were impossible to be so supprest but that they were also received at Venice The scope whereof was to give collour and credit to that change which the Ecclesiastiques gave out to be in hand The heads of all were to propose that the Pope excercised an intollerable tyrany over the soules and bodies of those that were subject to him and to shew the great happinesse that those estates enjoyed that had quit their obedience and might enjoy the goods and lands which were left by pious Christians to pious uses which were either imployed to a right use or else enjoyed by the people of the countrey to a common benefit whereas in those states that are under the papacy there was seene an abhominable usurpation a venality and publique theevery and which was more those goods conferred upon seditious men and enemies to those very states where