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their present jealousy. This is all that I can as yet discourse unto his Majesty touching the affections that are likely to ensue.

The friar is almost recovered of his hurts, which were not so dangerous nor painful as they are described ad pompam in the sentence, nor the stilet poisoned, as was thought, by being left in the wound: but surely altogether it may serve for a pattern of God's miraculous Providence, as we all hope that he hath determined in His invisible wisdom to work great effects upon it.'

And so humbly beseeching your Lordship to excuse this hasty dispatch in a confused and troubled time, I rest,

Your Lordship's always bound to
honour and serve you,

HENRY WOTTON.

112. TO THE EARL OF SALISBURY.

S. P. Ven., holograph, extract. The Pope and the attack on Sarpi.

From Venice, the 19th of October, 1607.

It is generally noted that the Pope hath been cast by this accident into an inevitable dilemma. If he complain of the State's proceeding criminally against the priest Viti (one of the complices) he shall breed some jealousy of his own approbation (at the least) of the fact. If he say nothing, he then alloweth the said proceeding, which was (as your Lordship knoweth) the principal member of the late controversy. All ears in this place are greedy and open to hear how he will wade between these difficulties, wherein it is thought that the present infirmity of his minister is fallen out to his advantage.

1 On Oct. 15 Wotton came to the College to congratulate on Sarpi's escape from assassination. A grave and noteworthy business,' he called it, wherein the Divine hand is clear to see; for it was as easy to slay Father Paul, as it was difficult to find his equal.' He was sure it originated with the Jesuits. This affair has made me consider the like events in our own kingdom, where iniquitous conspiracies have been formed to slay, not only ministers and councillors, but the King himself; and I am persuaded that all these are the result of the teaching of one school; a doctrine taught not in the pulpit or in books-that would be too impious-but whispered in private ears; a doctrine which teaches how to deal with all alike, from shaven heads to crowned (dalle teste rase fino alle coronate).' He then contradicted a report that the assassin Giovanni of Florence was really a Scot, and had visited his house before the attempt on Sarpi. Next he spoke of the current reports about his conferences with Sarpi. Although he lived near the Servite monastery, and delighted in the conversation of the learned, both for the pleasure of it and the knowledge he gained, yet he had never spoken to Sarpi save on one single occasion, when he had happened to meet him in the hall of the Ducal Palace, and had merely greeted him. And yet many, both in Venice and Rome, had affirmed that during the crisis Wotton and Sarpi had had long conferences together. Saying nothing, of course, of his continual communications with Sarpi by means of Bedell, Wotton added, with apparent candour, 'all this proves how difficult it is to know the truth in human affairs.' (Cal. S. P. Ven., xi, pp. 44, 45.)

113. TO THE EARL OF SALISBURY.

S. P. Ven., extract, holograph. The flight of the assassins.

From Venice, the first of November, 1607.

Style of the place.

For the course of things in this place, Maestro Paulo (whose case is yet the only subject of our speech) being now well near recovered,' it hath seemed good unto the Senate not to be behind the Council of Ten in publishing their care of him, as will appear unto your Lordship by the enclosed proclama. Of the assassinates that are fled, all the certainty we have hitherto is this, that Poma, the priest, and the Florentine were seen on the 15th of the last month in Ancona, and on the 21st in Rome, with harquebuses; which circumstance is much urged here, being weapons otherwise prohibited in the Pope's towns, and consequently a point of especial favour. As they went along they gave forth in every village that they were moved to this attempt immediately by the Holy Ghost, as it were meeting with a question which was likely to be asked, who had set them on work, whereof there hath been here likewise some hold taken. Unto their ambassador in Rome order is given to spare no money for the finding of the bottom of it.

114. TO THE EARL OF SALISBURY.

S. P. Ven., holograph, extract. Wotton sends another portrait of Sarpi. The 21st of December, 1607.

2

Your Lordship's of the 12th of November came yesterday into my hands very opportunely, being then ready to dispatch Captain Pinner towards his Majesty upon weighty and secret occasions, whom I have now retained a day or two, that he may bring with him the picture of P(adre) P(aolo), which his Majesty shall now,

3

1 Bedell wrote to Ward in an undated letter, but written about this time, of Sarpi, 'Now thanked be God he is perfectly recovered and abroad again, and I do hope this accident will awake him a little more, and put some more spirit in him, which is his only want; although to say truth it is rather judgement and discretion in him-considering this State how it stands-than weakness that makes him cautelous. I have no doubt but by little and little the Papacy will to wrack.' (Two Biog., p. 225.)

2 Captain Nicolas Pinner (ante, p. 365), who was now returning home in the hopes of obtaining a command in Ulster, where he had formerly served. 'One of your Majesty's honest and valiant subjects,' Wotton wrote of him to the King, 'that thought to have spent his blood in the late variance here.' (S. P. Ven., Jan. 11, 1607.) He also recommended him to Salisbury, 'in this narrow time for his profession, when princes are so wise that soldiers must be poor.' (Ibid.)

3 For this portrait see Appendix III, Sarpi.

through the miscarriage of the former, receive with the late addition of his scars. And I have this morning communicated with him those papers as from his Majesty, whose gracious remembrances1 he taketh very dearly and tenderly.

115. TO THE EARL OF SALISBURY.

S. P. Ven., holograph, extract. The powder merchant, Stephen Stock. From Venice, the 4th of January, 1607(8).

2

... I advertised his Majesty long since of one Stephen Stoake, English merchant, who hath of late concluded a contract with the Pope to furnish him with store of munition and artillery. Which bargain being advantageously made, he hopeth to perform by the help of some other man's credit (for without Rome he hath little of his own) and is come newly to Ferrara, where, and at Bologna, he was royally received by the Pope's officers. From thence he intendeth to pass into Fraunce, and so into England, where your Lordship may peradventure hear more of him from Mr. Ofeley, of London, to whom (I take it) he was some time servant. This trade of contracting for our munition with foreign princes is grown now so notorious that the Resident of the Great Duke here, among other justifications and defences of his master's late actions, allegeth that in all the three ships which he hath taken, part of the lading was munition for the Turk; which, though it cannot justify him, yet was it my duty not to conceal from his Majesty so pernicious an exhaustion of his own estates.

116. TO THE EARL OF SALISBURY.

S. P. Ven., holograph. A letter of introduction for the poet Hugh Holland. Venice, this (6) of January, 1607 (8). Style of the place.

RIGHT HONOURABLE AND MY VERY GOOD LORD,

This gentleman, Mr. Hugh Holland, came out with his Majesty's licence, wherewith he acquainted me at his first arrival here, as like1 In Salisbury's letter (wrongly endorsed Oct. 12) he writes that the King was 'much pleased in the constant and magnanimous proceeding of that State upon all occasions offered, and particularly in the carriage of the matter concerning il Padre Paolo, of whose escape from the foul assassinate, his Majesty is right glad, and he expressed himself to the Venetian ambassador here at his last audience, to whom he did also make known his particular good inclination towards il Padre Paolo, for his learning, modesty, and zeal in the defence of so good a cause'. (S. P. Ven.)

2 Robert Offly, a merchant trading to Venice. (Cal. S. P. Ven., x, p. 92.) In a letter of Sept. 5, 1608, Wotton mentions the death of Stephen Stock. (Stowe MS. 170, f. 155.)

3 Hugh Holland (d. 1633), author of Pancharis (1603), A Cypres Garland (1625). He was a member of the Mermaid Club, a friend of Ben Jonson, and probably of Shakespeare, and a sonnet of his was prefixed to the first Shakespeare folio. (D. N. B.)

wise he hath since in his travels held intelligence with me. And being now to return home, is desirous through your Lordship to render unto his Majesty an accompt of his loyal behaviour abroad, to which it seemed fit for me to give him by your favour this introduction. And the present being for no other purpose I humbly rest

Your Lordship's always bound to honour and serve you,
HENRY WOTTON.

117. TO HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES.

Harl. MS. 7007, f. 170, holograph. Wotton sends a New Year's gift to Prince Henry by Captain Pinner.

From Venice, this first of January, 1607,

in the old style (Jan. 11, 1608, N.S.).

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HIGHNESS,

Having had occasion for his Majesty's service (wherein your own is always included) to dispatch home this honest captain, I have presumed by him (with the remembrance of my hearty zeal) to present unto your Highness a poor New Year's gift.

Our Lord Jesus bless you with many happy years, and make your Highness a great defender of His truth, which is the chiefest of your hereditary titles. And so humbly kissing your sweet and princely hand, I rest,

Your Highness, his long devoted servant,
HENRY WOTTON.

118. TO THE EARL OF SALISBURY.

S. P. Ven., holograph, extract. Foreign news delayed by wintry weather.
Sentence on Angelo Badoero.

Death of a son of Sir Julius Caesar.
Venice, this 18th of January, 1607(8).
Style of the place

RIGHT HONOURABLE AND MY VERY GOOD LORD,

The last week we had the letters of Flanders very late, and this week none at all, the courier of Antwerp being (for aught we yet know) drowned on the way in the snows, which through Italy are increased, and in the nearer countries, beyond memory and almost example. Yet we have cleared ourselves of the vain conceit touching the surprise of Bolduc.1

1 Bois-le-Duc. On Jan. 11 Wotton wrote that all the couriers had been delayed by the wintry weather, adding 'only here runneth a voice (spread by the French ambassador out of his packet from the Court of Fraunce) that the States have surprised Bolduc, and that thereupon the treaty is dissolved'. (S. P. Ven.)

The Diet of Germany' is as cold as the weather, some princes refusing to send thither so much as their ambassadors, and few appearing personally, through a general distaste taken against the Emperor for making the Archduke Ferdinando his representant, a prince wholly in the power of Jesuits.

Here the case of the Cavalier Angelo Badoero hath been now published in the Grand Council in this form, that having passed determinately between him and the public minister of a prince here resident, with consent of two friars, in the cell of one of them, a secret conference from two hours before sunset till more than two hours of the night, without any notice thereof given by him to the State, either before or after; he hath therefore been sentenced by the Council of Ten to remain one whole year in prison; which term expired, to be afterwards for ever uncapable at home of entering into any of the secret councils, and abroad of receiving any annual benefit from any foreign prince, in which case he shall be understood guilty of rebellion; moreover that if ever he shall depart out of the Venetian dominion he shall be understood ex tunc definitely banished, and his goods confiscated. The two friars in twenty-four hours to depart the city, and in three days the dominion, upon pain of death; which hath been accordingly executed, notwithstanding the Nuncio his intercession against that point only of the sentence, with notorious simplicity and derision, being an interested party in the case, and (to make up the sport) he is said in College to have let fall these words, that the Pope should know of it, as it were by way of commination, at which they could scant even before him hold their countenances. Thus have I now once more troubled your Lordship with this gentleman's process, wherein I must add this farther, that he failed in the first ballotation, but two balls of losing his head on a public scaffold and the friars of being drowned. . . . For the conclusion of the present, I must advertise your Lordship of the disastrous end at Padua of Sir Julius Cesar3 his eldest son, who two

1 The Diet of Ratisbon, which was the most turbulent and stormy since the accession of the Emperor Rudolf. The recent aggressions of the Catholics and Imperial party, especially against Aix-la-Chapelle and Donauwörth, had enraged the Protestants, and the appointment of Ferdinand to preside over the Diet was regarded as an additional insult. (Coxe, ii, p. 84.)

2 Arrested in Dec., 1607, for having met the Papal Nuncio in the cell of Fra Vincenzo in the Monastery of the Frari. (S. P. Ven., Dec. 21, 1607, Jan. 11, 1608.) 3 Sir Julius Caesar, 1558-1636, son of Caesar Adelmare, physician to Queen Elizabeth, a native of Treviso, in the Venetian territory. Sir Julius Caesar was Chancellor of the Exchequer 1606, Master of the Rolls 1614. His third wife was a granddaughter of Sir Nicholas Bacon. (D. N. B.) He sent his eldest surviving son, Julius, on account of his 'excessive vivacity', to absorb learning and manners at the University of Padua. The young man was wounded by Brochetta in fencing; lay in wait for him with a pistol, fired at him and missed, and falling in drawing his sword, Brochetta ran him through and killed him.

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