Leete, his sending to England the Praepositus of a Jesuit college at Milan, his renewed attempts to extricate poor Mr. Mole from the Inquisition, the deaths of two Doges, and the election of their successors, are all described in his letters and dispatches, and need no further mention here.1 A word should be said, however, in regard to one project which occupied a great deal of Wotton's attention, and which he regarded indeed as the main business of his embassy. It will be remembered that among the plans for the benefit of religious reform which Paolo Sarpi, by means of Francesco Biondi, had proposed to James I in 1609, one was for the foundation of a Protestant college or seminary on the borders of Italy, where Protestant missionaries might be trained.2 These missionaries were then to be sent all over Italy; the seminary being a Protestant counterpart of the Jesuit College at Rheims, whence Catholic missionaries were sent into England. Wotton believed that the time was now propitious for carrying out this plan. Among the French volunteers serving in the army of the Duke of Savoy, there were many Protestants; the Dutch and English in the Venetian service almost all belonged to the reformed religion, so that the Italians had become accustomed to the presence of Protestants among them. Wotton still hoped that the Venetians, coming to depend more and more on the help of the northern powers, would by degrees 'be led into a better light than they yet mean themselves'.3 These seminaries would, in any case, prepare the way for the acceptance of reform, and would also serve as a method of attacking the Pope in his own country. The Pope, being untroubled in Italy, had been able to send his spiritual armies abroad; the proper strategy for the Protestants, to counteract the successes of the Catholics, was, in Wotton's opinion, 'to imitate their arts though not their ends,' and by giving the Pope business at home, to force him to withdraw his emissaries from troubling of other kingdoms, to help himself in the bowels of Italy'. Wotton advocated, therefore, the foundation of a Protestant college at Sondrio, in the Valtelline, near the borders of the Milanese, whence the Protestant emissaries would find an easy entrance into the Catholic States of Italy. The seminary, like the first Jesuit seminary, might

1 ii, pp. 114-18, 126, 132-9, 144-5.

2 This plan had won the approval of Francis Bacon, who had suggested that in case the judges decided against the validity of Thomas Sutton's will, some of his estate might be used for the purpose of these Protestant seminaries. (Spedding, iv, p. 254.)

Rox. Club, p. 106.

WOTTON. I

4

ii, pp. 149, 178; S. P. Ven., July 18, 1621.

M

in time, he hoped, be the parent of others, becoming as he wrote 'that mustard seed wherein the birds of heaven did afterwards build their nests.'1 One quaint objection Wotton admitted he had found to the plan, after spending many thoughts on it; namely, that there was a kind of natural simplicity and security about the truth, on account of which it would be difficult to find such plenty of proper instruments, as the author of all untruth doth mould in his own colleges.' But the objection ought rather to 'awake our spirits than allay our hopes', it being ignominious, as he often insisted, that the instruments of darkness should be more diligent than those of truth'.2

James I 'fervently embraced' the project, instructing Wotton to lay it before the Protestant princes on his way home, and promising in the meantime to prepare the way with the Archbishop of Canterbury and 'some other good bishops', in order that collections might be made for the purpose.

Wotton negotiated with the Grison Republics (in whose dominion the Valtelline lay), and a small beginning was actually made, and two houses rented at Sondrio for this purpose. But in the summer of 1620 the Catholic inhabitants of the Valtelline rose and slaughtered the Protestants; the country was occupied by Spanish troops, and the little seminary seems to have disappeared amid the armies and battles and disasters which filled for years that unhappy valley. Wotton, on his return to Venice in 1621, could only console himself with the fact that the Pope had taken steps to 'oppose and countermine' the seminary; his fear and solicitude showing that this plan, when the times would bear it, was the true antidote.3

Wotton made his farewell speech to the new Doge, Antonio Priuli, on April 30, 1619. He would not, he said, call it farewell, as he hoped again to return to Venice, which he regarded as his second fatherland. But, wherever he might find himself, 'whether where rises or where sets the sun,' he would always remain the devoted subject of the Serene Republic; and he regretted that he could not, as he had hoped, remain at Venice three or four years longer. On May 5 he took his formal leave, and was presented with the customary chain of gold, and the Doge bade him farewell. We wish you a good journey, prosperity, and every highest satisfaction. As for us, the life of men lies in the hands of God; we pray that His will be done, His service 1 ii, p. 151.

1

2 ii, p. 149.

S. P. Ven., July 8, 1621.

fulfilled, and all accomplished that may be for the best of our Republic, which is our great concern. If your Lordship returns on some future occasion-which, you say, may happen-you will find either ourselves in this place, or others who will be glad to welcome you. And now we accompany you on your departure with our sincere affection.'1 Thus spoke the old Doge, with the dignified eloquence characteristic of these great Venetians; and the Senate, with equally characteristic suspiciousness, sent off at once to England to inquire why Wotton had been recalled, without notice being sent to them or a successor appointed. The ambassador remained eleven days longer, and then departed for Augsburg, leaving behind him his faithful Italian, Gregorio de' Monti, to supply the place of English newsagent in Venice.

Wotton's second embassy in Venice, although in some ways of less importance than his first, was on the whole successful, considering the circumstances and conditions of international politics. It was a time, as he wrote, 'to knit knots,' and James I had acted with unusual vigour and decision. By allowing English ships to enter the Venetian service, and by equipping a fleet himself, and making spirited remonstrances with Spain, he had helped to restore the balance of power in Italy, and to protect the Republic against the attacks of Spain. The ground had been prepared for better relations between Venice and the German Protestants, and a scheme devised for Protestant propaganda in Italy. The ambassador himself, being an older and more experienced man, had committed no indiscretions, and had taken the wise course of refusing the protection of his house to Venetian criminals. He was no more troubled by disputes as to trade and piracy; the English pirates seem to have been driven from the Adriatic; and either the trade between the two countries was regulated by better laws, or the appointment of an English consul at Venice had relieved the ambassador of the care of these matters.2 That, contrary to the reports of Lionello, he was held in estimation at home, is shown by the fact that

1A Lei preghiamo buon viaggio, prosperità, et ogni maggior sodisfattione. Quanto a noi, la vita degli huomini è in mano di Dio; lo preghiamo sia fatto la sua voluntà, il suo servitio, et quello che sia il meglio della nostra Republica, ch'è il nostro principal obietto. Se V. S. ritornerà, poichè lei monstra che così possa essere, con alcuna occasione, troverà in questo luogo, ò Noi, ò altri che la vederà sempre voluntieri; et hora l' accompagnamo nella partenza con l'affeto del nostro animo multo amorevole.' (Esp. Prin., May 5, 1619.)

* A consul was appointed by the English merchants of Venice in 1608, and he was succeeded in 1620 by Thomas Gunter, on the appointment of Wotton and Trinity House. (Cal. S. P. Ven., i, p. cli.)

not in

during the frequent changes of secretaries in England, he had once or twice been thought of for this post. And when early in 1619 James I decided to send an ambassador to mediate between the Bohemians and Ferdinand, he first chose Wotton for that mission, although the appointment was almost immediately cancelled in favour of Doncaster; Wotton himself welcoming the change, being fitted, as he modestly wrote to Naunton, 'for business of more simplicity.' 2

His letters and dispatches show evidence, however, of discouragement, and of some failure of good spirits. After two years in Venice he petitioned for leave to return home, if only for a visit. His health had failed, he was still embarrassed with debt; and realizing that in the public service he could never retrieve his fortunes, he began to contemplate another method customary at the time-that of marrying a rich widow, if he could find one who would take pity on him.3 And in writing to his old friend, Lord Zouche, and recalling those early days, the happiest of his life, when as a poor student at Altdorf he had made his acquaintance, he summed up the results of his career in a somewhat melancholy fashion :—

'Is then at least my fortune mended? Alas, my dear Lord, let me not think of that. For when I consider how all those of my rank have been dignified and benefited at home, while I have been gathering of cockles upon this lake, I am in good faith impatient, more of the shame, than of the sense of want. Yet this is my comfort, that my gracious Master (as it hath pleased him to let me know) doth love me. And for the rest, philosophy shall be my reward, which though it cannot keep me from need, yet it will teach me not to envy those that abound.' +

Wotton's dispatches, during this second embassy, were addressed to the King and the two Secretaries of State. James I had adopted the plan of appointing two secretaries, but the division that was made later between their provinces had not yet been arranged; and on account of the natural jealousy between the two officials, ambassadors found it wise, in writing to one, to send the other a duplicate of the dispatch. Until Winwood's death, however, in October, 1617, Wotton corresponded with him alone, but subsequently wrote to both Naunton and Lake, and after the

1 ii, pp. 122 n., 166. Although Wotton had as yet published nothing, he had won a certain literary reputation, and in the first draft of Edmund Bolton's Hypercritica (1617) he is mentioned with Ben Jonson as an admirable writer and as a possible candidate for James I's proposed literary academy. (Haslewood, Ancient Critical Essays, 1815, ii, p. 247.) 2 ii, p. 166.

3

ii, p. 130.

⚫ii, pp. 161-2.

WITH THE GERMAN PRINCES AT HEILBRONN 165 disgrace of Lake in February, 1619, to his successor, Sir George Calvert. Letters to Sir Dudley Carleton, then ambassador at the Hague, have been preserved; and two letters printed in the Reliquiae, though without address, seem almost certainly to have been sent to Buckingham, and to show that Wotton had already won the patronage of the new and almost omnipotent favourite of James I.1

Wotton left Venice on May 16, 1619,2 and on May 29 he arrived at Munich. With him travelled the young Duke Joachim Ernest of Holstein, who was a cousin of the lately deceased Queen of England, and who had been living for some time in Wotton's house in Venice. At Munich they were entertained by the able and sagacious Duke Maximilian, who was now cautiously watching the Bohemian Revolution, and who, until the Elector accepted the Bohemian crown, refused to give any help to Ferdinand, knowing that if the Bohemians only acted wisely, no help he could give would be of any avail.3 Being anxious to keep on good terms with both sides, until he saw his way to decided action, he treated the English ambassador with great honour and courtesy, and abounded in expressions of friendship for James I and the Elector Palatine. But Wotton, in spite of his noble language', could plainly enough perceive that there was not much sincerity in his professions. From Munich Wotton went to Augsburg, and then to Heilbronn, where the princes of the Protestant Union were assembled. To these princes the ambassador explained that he had come with two commissions-one sub fide tacita from the Republic of Venice, to prepare the way for terms of closer friendship; the other from James I, to ask for their co-operation in the establishment of

1 ii, pp. 130, 132. Among the Dropmore MSS. there is a letter from Wotton to Buckingham dated about Nov. 1617, in which Wotton asks for Buckingham's favour, now that his friend Winwood is dead. (Hist. MSS. Com., 1st Rept., pt. ii, p. 53.) As I have not had access to the Dropmore MSS. I have not been able to print this letter.

2 There is one memorial of Wotton's second embassy in Venice which deserves mentioning. In the library of Eton College is a manuscript volume of Latin poems, written in Wotton's honour by a young German, Johann Peter Lotich, who had partaken of his hospitality. The young man, who was a greatnephew of the more famous Peter Lotich or Lotichius of Hanau, seems to have come to Venice in the year 1618. In his Poemata (Frankfort, 1620) one of these poems, 'Ad Henricum Wottonium,' is printed (p. 134). He writes in the usual laudatory style of these compositions, but his description of Wotton's 'Mellifluis verba referta favis,

Et decus eloquii, placidumque ante omnia vultum' is perhaps worth quoting.

3

Gardiner, iii, pp. 318-19.

4

* ii, p. 175.