whereunto he is so neare a neighbour And what wonder can be made of it if he practise all the meanes he can to enlarge his jurisdidiction Hee hath three great charges upon him that of Religion that of the Ecclesiasticall affaires and the temporaltie of his Estate And the Fountaine from which all ill is derived is in this that his right is not well distinguisht from that of Princes There are also three kindes of Canons of spirituall things of temporall things and those that are mixt of both Of the first the care ought to be in the Ecclefiastiques of the second none can carry the exercise beyond their owne temporall estates and for the third it is as much the dutie of Princes to take care as of the Ecclesiastiques themselves if not more In all the life of the father there hath not happened in the most sereene dominion any dissention of opinion in the least tittle not in the first of these three heads because the republique was borne Catholique and hath alwaies continued so All the disturbance hath happened upon the second head whereof the Court hath made use to the augmentation of their jurisdiction and of their temporall dominion From the third that Prince is too ignorant and unworthy that suffers himselfe to be excluded And that the Court at this day more then ever doe their uttermost endeavour to enregister and authenticate the exclusion of Princes yet this is because Princes having in favour of their cause such cleere sentences from the new and old testament from Counsells and holy fathers besides the practise of all times doe not seeke to repaire themselves If at such times as the Nuntios and Ecclesiasticks apeare mask't with religion in pretence and the sacred Cannons abusing the second and third by the first and if those which governe and are instructed by divine precept would take notice what those Cannons were which concerne faith which the republicke inviolately observes with high reverence and those which concerne Ecclesiastique affaires of discipline and administration of goods of secular affaires and those which concerne neither faith nor religion but the greatnesse of the Court and that they understood and would maintaine in them the power which God hath given Princes they would quickly pull off the maske and make those blush that thought so to abuse the goodnesse and simplicitie of others and would vindicate themselves from that perpetuall injurie which is offered them as if they had offended religion by defending the power which God hath granted and the jurisdiction whereof a Prince ought not to suffer the least diminution without being guilty of this grievous sin Of this pious sence of his let that supreame reverence wherewith in all his consultations and writings he had alwaies honored the Sea Apostolicall and the Popes be an argument Although in the meane time he spared not to set forth the truth in that which concernes the legitimate of power which God hath given the Prince But unjustly doe these men complaine that would have church-men be without affections Erunt vitia donec homines or of Princes servants that seeke the advantage of their masters If church-men serve themselves of the pretence of religion to this purpose let the other complaine of none but themselves if they be not well enough instructed to reduce the opposites to this point to make them see that the zeale of religion is not weaker in any then in Church-men and so to goe no further These and other discourses he used inculcating alwaies the duty of every one for the defence and conservation of the Catholike religion and not to suffer themselves to yield to any abuse how great soever But the Court which hath knowne his picty and holy course of life which began from his childhood and continued without reprehension to his last breath in all those exercises of religion which belong not to a supersitious and passionate flatterer of the Court or a fautor of reformations but to a solide and sincere Catholicke and a man religious by profession have neverthelesse gone so far with their calumnies as to attribute that to him which God grant be not found in many of themselves an indeleble blemish of having no religion at all God forbid that by the conceipt of these men a blamelesse life and irreprehensible conversation in the view of so many severe enemies should be thought to be the effect of Atheisme and impiety and that the argument of this so great a censure should be drawne from the opinion of his learning The divine scripture which attributes Atheisme to ignorance to foolishnesse to an unbridlednesse in dissolutions and a being given over as a prey to their owne passions hath taught it far otherwise True it is that the foolish and ignorant vulgar seeing some eminent subjects in sciences not to comply with their foolish superstition which are onely tolerated by their owne guides and canonized because they are gainefull have beene accustomed to judge thus sinisterly But it is a judgement is onely worthy of those that formed it But if a profound knowledge of second causes doe induce us to a more tenacious reverence of the first as Saint Paul teacheth the matter is cleare enough Besides that those very Courtiers who having their eyes dazled at so great a light of goodnesse and science are growne so injurious to that rare vertue as to be frequent in such domesticall arguments as these that those that are fallen from the right hand and have banisht divinitie from their heart doe usually strike into one of these two extreames either of a totall dissolution or a violent superstition and perhaps never into the meane Thanks be to God that in despite of themselves they must confesse the contrary of our father in both these nor doe I believe that the most superstitious men will ever yeild him the commendation that either in word or actions he shewed any favour to their voluntarie worship or their other impostures And to say the truth how can any wise man comply with their opinions and superstitious actions which are the very quintessence of humane fooleries and of highest injury to the Creator The necessity of publique employment had brought him into the knowledge of the principall men of publique government whose vertues if I should commemorate with their Honors due unto them it would be necessary to engage a volume of praises Let it suffice that with all the Grandees of the republicke he was in the greatest conceipt that any private person could obtaine nay rather none shall ever obtaine the like till God and nature shall produce another father Paul who in that way of prudence which wee will call conversation hath not onely arrived at that excellent degree which the wisest have observed to have bin onely in Socrates but hath gone beyond it by conversing with and admitting to his conversation all sorts of persons and professions and of all ages and hath got the love of all who had nothing
other the excesse whereof had not only extended his compassion towards men but to all other sorts of creatures Insomuch as his nature could not endure that any thing should be grieved or molested And if it had been needfull to kill any of those creatures with his own hand which God had appointed for food and sustenance of life true it is that in the latter years of his life excepting a great necessity hee would rather have abstained and fasted But because he had formerly cut in peeces a number of living creatures with his own hands to make Anatomies whensoever he fell into the occasion of that discourse he seemed to resent it with a kinde of compassionate displeasure and reluctance And if in discourse or writing he seemed at any time more punctuall in matter of justice nothing being able to make him decline from the strict course blaming often the too great mildness of punitive justice as an occasion of much and many abuses yet withall if it had concerned himselfe to administer it I am very well assured that in all his governments and many years super-intendence of his province you would rather have discovered in him a defect of rigour than of mercy But in the administration of his owne charge what a reputation of integrity piety and prudence and of every vertue he had gain'd to himself it may be gathered from hence He was made provinciall of his order at the end of the twenty sixth yeare of his age which was never conferred upon any so young as he by any information that I could receive neither before nor since in 340. yeares that this order of the Servi had had a beginning In this year of 1579. there was held a generall Chapter of the whole order in Parma and because about tenne yeares before by many Statutes made at divers times and by the Popes themselves concerning Secular Friers as also by the Councell of Trent it was resolved to be necessary to make new constitutions and rules for the government of the whole order It was therefore decreed at that Chapter for the deferring no longer of so good a worke that three of the most learned pious and prudent men should be chosen out of all the order of that religion to execute a businesse of such importance as every one which well understands that knows what belongs to Government One of these was Padre Paolo who was but a youth in respect of the venerable and hoarie haires of the other two Upon this occasion hee tarried a good while at home where he made a discovery of his most rich Talent to the cardinall Alexander-Farnese Protector and to the other Santa Severina Vice Protector of the order The charge that was particularly layd upon him was to accōmodate that part which concern'd the sacred Cannons the reformations by the Councell of Trent which were but newly come forth and the formes of their judgments All the worke lay upon the three that were deputed but because he had a more exquisite knowledge of the Cannon and civill lawes and of the Conciliary determinations the businesse of that particular was wholly remitted to him and he alone gave forme to that whole part which treated of judgments in accommodation to the Claustrall state and that with so much brevity cleernesse and profundity that those judges that were so knowing and onely exercised in matter of judicature have admired it as the action of one that had consumed his age in nothing but study of the Iawes of that order And it is an argument to convince the errour of those that beleeve that they which give themselves most to the study of sciences are thereby rendred unable for government and policy It being an error every way as grosse as it is pernitious Whereof wee shall give a lively example in the following course of the life of father Paul But leaving at Rome by the occasion of this imployment a great fame of his knowledge and prudence not onely in the Courts of these two Cardinalls from whom by order exprest in the Apostolical Briefe of Gregory the thirteenth It was appointed that all statutes which were made should receive approbation For it was sometimes necessary to resort to and treate with the Pope himselfe From which burden being now discharged he returned to his owne government When he had ended this charge of Provinciallship and easing his shoulders of so great a weight he entred into some more quietnesse which he said was all the repose he enjoyed in the whole course of his life because nothing fell out in his government wherein the evills were not well discerned or else were growne tolerable without factions or discontentments And as a weary man relisheth his rest with more sweetnesse so for three whole yeares he gave himselfe to nothing but speculations of naturall things And his knowledge in them being growne to some perfection he past further to operations with his owne hand in the transmutation and distillation of all sorts of mettalls Not that he was ever toucht with the vanity of the possibility of making gold or that he thought a discreete man could any way engage himselfe in such an inquiry Of this it may be an argument that at that time for many monthes together there continued in Venice after he had travelled Italy and deluded so many Princes and Prelates That famous impostor Mamugna who was beleeved to make gold which exprest very well the sence of Diogenes when he said he did not segregate from the vulgar no not Kings themselves Because into that credence or rather into that Comedy the vulgar did not onely rush with such an excesse of confidence that they called all men miscreants that did not beleeve the making of gold Yea Cardinalls Princes the Pope himselfe Sixtus quintus so great a Prince and of such knowledge and experience had given out that he would question the state of Venice for giving protection to such an Impostor if his knavery were not discovered The father Paul made it alwaies a matter of Jest and to some of his friends that would have carried him to the experiment he alwaies answered that if he should do so they would not onely repute him inconstant but esteeme him for a very foole And among his intimate friends with whom he had conference concerning this Imposture were some gentlemen who relying upon the fathers judgment were the inventors of a Mascherada to expresse his opinion One clothing himselfe like the Mamugna in a boate with fire and coales and bellowes and and glasses and other chymicall tooles went about the citty crying Al Magmugna Atre lire il soldo del loro fino who buys a shillings worth of of fine pure gold for nine pence And one of these is at this day a most excellent Senator of Venice whose singular life vertue deserves a recomendation upon a better occasion The father used to mocke those that told him they had seene him make gold and would alwaies
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