France and Spain; and alfo for divers weighty reafons, to enter into an alliance with the ftate of Venice, and to that end to fend ambassadors to thofe feveral places, did propofe the choice of these employments to Sir Henry Wotton; who confidering the fmallnefs of his own eftate (which he never took care to augment), and knowing the courts of great princes to be fumptuous, and neceffarily expenfive, inclined moft to that of Venice, as being a place of more retireinent, and beft fuiting with his genius, who did ever love to join with bufinefs, ftudy, and a trial of natural experiments for both which, fruitful Italy, that darling of Nature, and cherisher of all arts, is fo juftly famed in all parts of the Chriftian world. Sir Henry having after fome fhort time and confideration refolved upon Venice, and a large allowance being appointed by the King for his voyage thither, and a fettled maintenance during his ftay there, he left England', nobly accompanied through France. to Venice by gentlemen of the best families and breeding that this nation afforded: they were too many to name, but these two, for the following reafons, may not be omitted. Sir Albertus Morton his nephew, who went his fecretary; and William Bedel, a man of choice learning, and fan&ified wisdom, who went his chaplain. And though his dear friend Dr. Donne (then a private gentleman) was not one of the number that did perfonally accompany him in this voyage, yet the reading of the following letter fent by him to Sir Henry Wotton, the morning before he left England, may teftify he wanted not his friend's beft wishes to attend him. LETTER. "into England, that of the lyon expreffing true fortitude having been my dicton before: But I "am not ashamed of this addition; for King Solomon was a figure of Chrift, in that, that "he was a King of Peace. The greatest gift that our Saviour gave his apoftles immediately "before his afcenfion was, that he left his peace with them, he himself having prayed for his "perfecutors and forgiven his own death, as the proverb is." (King James's Works, p. 590.) • In 1604. LETTER. SIR, AFTER thofe reverend papers, whose foul is Our good and great King's lov'd hand and fear'd name: By which to you he derives much of his, And how he may makes you almost the fame; A taper of his torch; a copy writ From his original, and a fair beam Of the fame warm and dazzling fun, though it After those learned papers which your hand After thofe loving papers which friends fend Admit this honeft paper; and allow It fuch an audience as yourself would afk; And has for nature what you have for task. To fwear much love; nor to be chang'd before Honour alone will to your fortune fit; But The foul-bell was tolled before the departure of a perfon out of life, as a fignal for good men to offer up their prayers for the dying. Hence the abufe commenced of praying for the "Aliquo moriente campanæ debent pulfari, ut populus hoc audiens oret pro illo." (Durandi Rationale.) dead. But 'tis an easier load (though both opprefs) To want, than govern greatnefs; for we are. In this, we must for others' vices care.. 'Tis therefore well your spirits now are plac'd In their laft furnace, in activity, Which fits them: fchools, and courts, and wars o'er-paft For me! (if there be fuch a thing as I) Fortune (if there be fuch a thing as fhe) Finds that I bear fo well her tyranny, That the thinks nothing else so fit for me".. But though the part us, to hear my oft prayers. J. DONNE. Sir Henry Wotton was received by the State of Venice with much honour and gladness, both for that he delivered his Ambaffage moft elegantly in the Italian language, and came alfo in fuch a juncture of time, as his mafter's friendship feemed useful for that republic. The time of his coming thither was about the year 1604. Leonardo Donato being then Duke, a wife and refolved man, and to all purposes fuch (Sir Henry Wotton would often say it) as the State of Venice could not then have wanted, there having been formerly in the time of Pope Clement VIII. fome contefts about the privileges of churchmen, and the power of the civil magiftrate; of which, for the information of common readers, I fhall say a little, because it may give light to fome paffages that follow. A a " The author of thefe lines was then struggling with poverty and domestic distress... About About the year 1603, the republic of Venice made feveral injunctions against lay perfons giving lands or goods to the church, without licence from the civil magiftrate"; and in that inhibition, they expreffed their reafons to be, "For that when any goods or land once came into the hands "of the ecclefiatics, it was not fubject to alienation, by reafon whereof "(the lay people being at their death charitable even to excefs) the clergy grew every day more numerous, and pretended an exemption from all public fervice and taxes, and from all fecular judgment; fo that the bur"den grew thereby too heavy to be borne by the laity." Another occafion of difference was, that about this time complaints were justly made by the Venetians against two clergymen, the Abbot of Nervesa, and a Canon of Vicenza, for committing fuch fins, as I think not fit to name: Nor are these mentioned with an intent to fix a scandal upon any calling. For holinefs is not tied to ecclefiaftical orders, and Italy is obferved to breed the moft virtuous and moft vicious men of any nation.These two having been long complained of at Rome, in the name of the State of Venice, and no fatisfaction being given to the Venetians, they seized the perfons of this abbot and canon, and committed them to prison. The juftice or injustice of such, or the like power then used by the Venetians, had formerly had fome calm debates betwixt the former Pope Clement VIII. and that republic: I fay calm, for he did not excommunicate them; confidering, as I conceive, that in the late council of Trent it was at They also made injunctions Against the unneceffary increase of new churches, convents, "and other religious buildings within their dominions." * Clement VIII. the admirer of Mr. Richard Hooker's vaft erudition was a munificent patron of learning, having promoted to the purple, Bellarmine, Baronius, and many other eminent fcholars. Sir Henry Wotton in a letter to Lord Zouch, from Florence, July 25, 1592, gives us the following anecdote of this Pope. "The Pope (Clement VIII.) in this last general examina"tion of the clergy in St. John Lateran hath depofed four canonifts of that church, the one for "having Plutarch's Lives' found on his table, the reft for failing in declining of nouns and "verbs." He has drawn his character in another letter to the fame nobleman, Florence, May 2,159 and in a letter from Florence, July 27, 1592, he declares, that Clement had "la "fantita at laft (after many politic difturbances and delays, and endeavours to preferve the Pope's prefent power) in order to a general reformation of those many errors, which were in time crept into the church, declared by the council, "That though difcipline, and efpecial excommunication, be one "of the chief finews of church-government, and intended to keep men in "obedience to it; for which end it was declared to be very profitable: "Yet it was alfo declared, and advised to be ufed with great fobriety and 66 care; because experience had informed them, that when it was pronounced unadvifedly or rafhly, it became more.contemned than feared'." And, though this was the advice of that council at the conclufion of it, which was not many years before this quarrel with the Venetians, yet this prudent patient Pope Clement dying, Pope Paul V. who fucceeded him (though not inmediately, yet in the fame year), being a man of a much hotter temper, brought this difference with the Venetians to a much higher contention; objecting thofe late acts of that State, to be a diminution of his juft power, and limited a ime of twenty-four days for their revocation; threatening, if he were at obeyed, to proceed to the excommunication of the republe, who ftili offered to fhew both reafon and ancient custom to warrant the race a But this Pope, contrary to his predeceffor's moderation, required iute obedience without difputes.. Thus i continued for about a year: the Pope ftill threatening excommunication, and the Venetians ftill anfwering him with fair fpeeches, and no compliance; till at laft the Pope's zeal to the Apoftolic fee did make him to excommunicate the Duke, the whole fenate, and all their dominiA a 2 ons: "fantita di Pio quarto, la prudentia di Gregorii KIII. et la feverita di Sifto V."-Leo XI. the immediate fucceffor of Clement VIII. died on the 29th day of his pontificate. Upon his death, Paul V. was advanced to the Papal dignity, mrence to two learned Antagonists, Bellarmine and Baronius--a pontiff of a haughty, vindictive, and violent fpirit, who, as hath already been obferved, difgraced his chara ter by an exprefs approbation of the doctrine of SUAREZ the Jefuit, in defence of "The Murder of Kings." "When it is denounced rafhly for a fmall caufe." (Hiflory of the Council of Trent, tranflated by Sir Nathaniel Brent, p. 754.) But fee Father Courayer's remark on this paflage in his elegant French verfion. |