may and ought to depriue the Prince his Vassall because the inuestiture of the fee is not granted for the peoples ruine but that they should bee gouerned with lustice wherefore if the feudatory vse iniustice and ill entreatment he falls from his Iurisdiction and the Soueraigne Prince may thereof depriue him and not doing it beeing able hee shall bee a wicked Prince and no lesse guiltie of the euill before God which he suffered his feudatory to doe then hee the feudatory himselfe is who acts it Now let your Maiestie apply this doctrine which is wholy conformable to reason and law to the Actions of your Ministers to the condition of your Subiects and to the right of other Princes ouer your Estates in Italy and you shall clearely see how your Ministers are damnable your Subiects miserable and how much other Princes are obliged to releeue them My words perhaps will seeme bitter but I beseech your Maiestie to consider if they be true and finding them so to take them in good part as bitter medicines fiery Canteries sharp lances vse to be gratefully receiued from the hands of Physitians Chirurgions to procure health be assured you shall find them most profitable because your Maiestie fully informed of the truth will correct your Ministers comfort your Subiects and ease other Princes of the necessitie to vse their supreame Iurisdiction The Cause of Subiects and of Ministers are together vnited because those are gouerned and these Gouernours whence as Correlatiues they goe paripasse I will then briefly represent to you Maiestie the Gouernment of your States in Italy so farre as is expedient to the present matter The State of Milun in the time of the Emperour Charles the sift began to bee ill intreated from whence that sad lamentable and despairefull Ambassage which they sent by Baptista Archinto to Nazan is recorded who onely because he did lament in the name of his afflicted Countrey was receiued with an ill eye sent back without remedy and by the Imperiall Ministers at his returne sharply reprehended which might haue occasioned the Rebellion of that people if they had found any better Prince who would haue receided them Hac vbi sub ipsum Caesaris à Nicea discessum ex legatione veâ—â—â—â— per vrbas Cisalpinae Galliae svulgate sunt Iouius Hist lib. 37. vsque adtò tamum ex vei indignitate odium Caesaricrâ—uit vt omnes ex rarum desperations fucise defect 〈◊〉 upoareret si mitior clemenotr qui dâ—dentes reeiperet Dominus offereretur immoderatis siâ—â—dem puoe bâ—llbque rributis upprossi nonn etiam tum mmstruae exactionis onerâ—â— periutâ—rant quae nunquam desitâ—aboni morâ—ales 〈◊〉 donoe vincret Câ—sar atque Italiae Imperis poteretur A feet also a second time when Strozzâ— Pallaâ—icino Visenti who made warre for the King of France approached to Millan all the Imperiall Ministers held that Citie as bad as loft onely because it did feele the yoake of Spanish Dominion too violent and heavy Assiduis at que intollerandis trubutis alienata Jouius lib. 45. parata credi poterat ad nouandas res vt inuictum pergraue Hispanici Regm ingum excuteret If from that time to this their grieuances are diminished or augmented your Maiestie best knowes To what termes that State is at this day reduced who doth not know let him consider this that already many and many year as it hath suffered great numbers of Spanish Souldiers lodged in the houses of poore particular men at discretion Discretion of Souldiers and Tyranny are one and the same thing who hath not proued it let him pray to God fust to die and hee shall die happier then euer to haue proued it And let him be content to beleeue for faith that vnder such discretion goods and honour are dispatched and hardly is life secure I passe ouer the burthen of new Tributes I leaue the Rapine of Ministers who like blood-suckers haue exhausted the veines of that plentifull bodie because in comparison of lodging Souldiers at discretion I esteeme all to bee nothing and he who is able to endure to see them eate the sustenance of his poore family and that which exceeds all other Tyranny to grow familiar with his wife daughters and Sisters it may be said that he is growne insensible of any iniury I remember to haue read in the warres which were so sharpe betweene the Venetians and Genoueses that these did take a Citie of their Enemies and held it the space of tenne yeares subiected to discretion whence it is credible that besides other matters they did dispose of their wiues according to their pleasures for which cause to this day though now two hundred and fifty yeares are ouerpast there cannot bee done a greater Inuiry to those people then to call them Genoueses Bastards and notwithstanding that staine with length of time and the continued peace of that Citie which neuer since felt the offence of Enemie hath beene oftentimes worne out and washed away yet vpon euery occasion they resent the onely memory of that ancient Iniury done to the honour of their women which seemes indelible and eternall If I then say that the greatest of all the Tyrannies which the State of Millan doth now suffer is to haue their wiues at the Souldiers discretion I shall not speak much wide of the purpose because it is a matter very likely that in times to come the Millaneses may bee called Spanish Bastards If this be tolerable let your Maiestie consider Wee proceed to Sicily Let it not be grieuous to your Maiestie that I speake this truth that if this day there were any other Prince as ready to solicit the destruction of Spanyards as there was once a Spanish King to procure that of the French sodainly and easily wee should see another Scicilian Vesper the causes are the same and are not newly begunne Let the Insurrection of Messina bee remembred then when the Vice King Don Iuan de Cardona Ioseph Bonfigl Hist Sicil. p. 1. lib. 10. would oppresse that Kingdome with intolerable Tributes And let it bee considered with what pride and with how great disdaine he vsed the Messinesi because they defended the libertie of their Kingdome For which cause iustly prouoked they did generously to his face vpbraid him that he acted another Phallaris another Dionisius Don Vgo de Moncada who would not start Bonfigl p. 2. lib. 1. onely to heare this name this was that impious man that sacked Rome was also Vice-Roy how can it bee thought that hee handled them Let vs obserue the words of the History Hee was by Nation a Catalonian by birth a Barcellonese a man most ambitious greedy of Riches and immoderately enclined to dishonest Luxury Hee gouerned Sicily with Crueltie Auarice and Impudent Iust Hee neglected so farre to punish the falsifiers of money vntill depriuing it of Commerce hee impouerished that Kingdome and that which more imported he made publike Mechandise of Graine insomuch that hee
inforce Catholiques to built them Churches That they extinguish wholly Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction depriuing the Catholiques of the publication of Indulgences and Iubilees and of Entrance into Orders taking away all their Goods and from the Pastorall Cure of their Bishop Not suffering any to obey him nor that he should come to visit or comfort them That they permit the Heretique Ministers openly to treade downe the Sacraments of the Catholique Church and if any oppose hee is suddainly and barbarously punished in life and goods That they exclude out of the Vally almost all the orders of Religion admitting on the other part indistinctly hereticall Ministers of all Nations That they erect Seminaries and lately hereticall Colledges assigning them the profits tithes Canonryes and Benefits taken from the Curates and Catholique Church Of all these there are passed Decrees Statutes and open Edicts And of Cases particular there are publique Acts whereof the memory is too fresh and renewed by most cruell death inflicted on Catholiques and Religious men in the most Infamous maner imaginable Now what else is this but to vse manifest Tyrannie ouer the soules of the Catholique Subiects to take from them those helpes wherewith they aduance their saluation and their way to Heauen and to enforce them to embrace a new Religion which leads them downe to Hell The cause too much declares it selfe there is no neede of greater exaggeration to make it manifest and to shew it more intollerable In the rest to demonstrate the wretched estate of the said Vally it shall suffice simply to represent the maner of Gouernment vsed many yeares past it shall be sufficient to say that it hath beene giuen onely to him that would offer most money without any the least Consideration of abilitie or other parts necessary to such a charge and that the Commissaries sent in apparance to remedy the forepast iniustice were of the same quality and sometimes wors Insomuch that both the one and the other had for their ayme and thereto onely did attend to get their charges and to heape vp by all imaginable meanes so much Gold that therewith they might returne to their owne houses enrich't for euer From hence it proceeded that the liues of poore Innocents were a thousand waies ensnared and often taken away with open iniustice at the instance of their Enemyes who with great summes of money bought them and soâ—â—â—imes after sharpe Imprisonment and other torments hardly were dismissed naked by the price of all their substance which remained openly to the Officers without any shame in so much security that the miserable oppressed both in life and goods durst not thereof lament By the same meanes the estate of the Subiect in Ciuill Causes was alwaies in great danger For the Magistrates being publiquely mercenary it often happened that some did loose by an vniust sentence dearely bought of the Aduersary and others to preserue them against Iniustice were forced to present a great part to the Iudge No Sentence although confirmed passed in Iudgement whether Ciuill or Criminall was euer secure because the Successor to dig out money did renew the trouble to the partty acquitted and for a new price did often racall without any respect that which of others though iustly had beene iudged Safe-Conducts were broken at their pleasure and publique faith with vaine pretences violated to depriue life that by such death they might enrich themselues Lawes and Statutes were not now with arts and Stratagems deluded but openly despised and trodden vnder foot as if all had beene freely giuen to them in prey Orphans and Widdows and others of that Condition so much recommended both by diuine and humane law to the protection of Princes and Magistrates as vnable to helpe themselues by infamous meanes did remaine wholly exposed to the auarice of rauening wolues to the extreame griefe and compassion of good men On the other part it often occurred that those wicked men which had offended others in life goods and honor being fallen into the hands of Iustice in stead of exemplary punishment were for great bribes sometimes by vniust Iudgement absolued sometimes vnder couler of feined escape let free out of prison to the great oppression and affliction of those whom they had wronged There were seene numbers of infamous persons gracious with the officers of Iustice and by them rewarded onely because they serued as Instrumets many and many wayes to betray the life and goods particularly of Catholiques From whence did often follow the destruction and ruine now of one now of another family alwayes of the most ancient and honorable of the Valley Lastly who shall well consider that which the Sicilians did for three yeares suffer in the Roman Common wealth vnder the gouernment of the infamous Verres shall find that the vnhappy Valtelines haue endured much more a longer time from the hands of so many worse then Verres and perhapps shall not find any other gouernment so infamous and which so well resembles that as this of the Grisons in the Vally which should more clearely be manifested if it were here necessary to represent all the Cases and their circumstances one by one as it was for Cicero handling his Cause for ends far different from ours That which makes our Case more full of compassioÌ„ is that when the miserable oppressed haue attempted the refuge of their Superiors for remedy against so many Tyrannies and Acts of Iniustice the officers themselues haue opposed with seuerest banishments and imprisonments those who for the publike good intermedled and when it hath happened that all Impediments vanquished the Procurators of of the Vally haue arriued at the Community of the Three-Leagues and haue informed particularly their many and excessiue grieuances in the end after hauing receiued in diuers places such affronts that scarcely Slaues could suffer they haue rested deluded without effect or any prouision These things without doubt are sufficient to take away all hope euer to find vnder that gouernment any case of so many miseries But there are other accidents thereunto added whereby the Subiects are brought into vtter desperation The Assembly in the towne of Tosana is already notorious which was applied to nothing else but the destruction of good and Catholique men as well Grisons as Valtelines In the Diett there called many banishments and many Capitall Condemnations were decreed amongst which was that against Nicolo Rusca Arch Priest of Sondrio a Priest of most innocent lise and a true Martyr of Christ tormented and put to death with all cruelty and possible infamy without any other fault then being a good Catholique a priest Now these Iniuries and Cruelties hauing necessitated some Catholique Communities to seeke redresse of so many cuillâ— vsing their vtmost force they obtained that these Sentences being reuiewed were as barbarous and most vniust reuoked But a little time the remedy lasted because those people stirred vp by the fury of their Ministers and which more imported moued by the practices
them had commanded in his holy Law when he said Goe and teach all Nations that onely intimation should be made to peaceful and quiet Infidels which had their proper Lands and if they did not presently receiue the Faith without other preaching or instruction and should not submit themselues to the dominion of that King whom they neuer saw nor heard whose messengers are so cruell so impious and so horrible Tyrants that they should lose for this onely Cause their goods lands liberty wiues children and life which is a thing vnreasonable absurd worthy of all reproach infamy it Hell selfe Thus wisely speaking of the same matter though vpon another occasion discourseth the Reuerend Bishop of Chiappa a principall Citie of New Spaine in the Indies called Fiyat Bartholmy dalle Case by Nation a Spanyard by birth a Siuilian but zealous of Iustice and a friend of truth in his books of the destruction of the Indies But returning to our Subiect The King Atabaliba was iustly scandalized and grieuously moued at this so learned preaching that answering to euery point amongst other things he said these words Obedecer al Papa no me esta bien Jgllescas vbi supra porque dene de ser loco paesdà lo que no es suyo y me manda dexar el Reyno que yè heredè de mi padre y quiere que yo le dè à qui en no conesco That is To obey the Pope is not good for mee because hee must needs be a foole seeing he giueth that to another which is none of his and commands me to leaue that Kingdome which I haue inherited from my father and would I should giue it to one that I know not what he is He could not certainly answer more wisely according to the Proposition which was also false Seeing the Pope was not so void of Iudgement to haue granted any such conquest to the Catholique King or any other especially by the way of warre as the holy Preacher with threats did affirme being in it selfe vniust and wicked And therefore the aforementioned Bishop of Chiappa carnestly defending the truth did send vpon this matter thirty propositions to the Royall Councell of India printed in Cinill in the yeare 1552. In the 23 whereof he thus speaketh Soiurgallos primero por guerra Vescoue di Chiappanelle 30. prepositions es ferma y uia centraria de la ley y yugo suaue y cargalegera y mansedumbre de Iesu Christo Esla propia que lleuè Mahoma y lleuaron los Romanos con que inquietaron y robaron el mondo Es la que tienen oy los Turcos y Meres y que comenca à tener el Xarife Y per tanto es iniquissima tirannica infamatiua del mellifluo nombre de Christo causatiua de infinitas nuebas blasfemias contra el verdadero Dios jeentra la religien Christiana Come tenemes longissima experientie que se hà eche y oy se haze en las Indias porque estimande Diet ser el mas cruel y mas iniusta y sin piedad que ay en los Dioses y per consiguiente es impeditiua de la Conuersion de qualesquiera Infielcs y que ha engendrade impossibilidad de que jamas sean Christianos en à quel orbe gentes infinitas That is To subdue them by warre is a forme and way contrary to the law to the sweet yoke to the easie burthen and to the meeknesse of Iesus Christ It is the same which Mahomet and the Romans did hold wherewith they did disturbe and violate the world it is the same which at this day the Turkes and Moores maintaine and the Verif doth beginne to practice and therfore it is most wicked tyrannicall infamous to the glorious name of Christ the cause of infinite and new Blasphemies against the true God and Christian Religion as we haue by long experience knowne to haue beene and yet vsed amongst the Indians For they haue an opinion of God that he is the most cruell the most vniust and merciless of all other gods And by Consequence it is the hinderance of the Conuersion of all sorts of Infidels and hath caused an impossibiltie that multitudes of People should euer become Christians In the last proposition whereof he concludes De todo lo susodiche en fuerça de consequentia necessaria se sigue que sin persuycio deltitulo y senerso soberano que à los Reys de Castilla pertenece sobrea quel orbe de las Indias todo lo que en ellas le hà echo ansi en lo de las insustas y tirannicas conqusstas como en lo de los repartimientos y en comiendas hà sido nulla y de ningun valor nefuerça de dereche That is From all the fore alleaged matters it is necessarily inferred that without preiudice of the title and Soueraigne Dominion which appertaines to the Kings of Castile in that world of India all that hath beene done as well concerning the vniust and Tyrannicall Conquest as the Diuisions and Commenda's is void of no value and vnlawfull And in the seuenth Rule of his Confessaries the same good Prelate vitereth these words Todas las cosas Vescouo di Chiappancl Consesstienario que se han echo en todas estas Indias assi cula entrada de los Espanoles en cada provincia dellas como en la suetion y seruidumbre en que pusieron estas gentes con todos los nudios y fines y todo lo demas que con ellas y cerca dellas se ha cohs ha sido contrà todo derecho natural y derecho de las gentes y tambien contra derecho diuino y por tanto es todo ininsto imque tirannico y digno di todo fuego insernal y por conseguiente mille enualido y sin algun valor ni momento de derecho That is All things which haue beene done in these Indies as well in the Entrance of the Spaniards to euery Prouince thereof as in the subiction and seruitude to which they haue reduced this People with all the meanes and ends and all that besides which therein or concerning them hath been done is against all Law of Nature and Nations and contrary to the Law of God and therefore it is wholly vniust wicked tyrannicall and worthy of Hell-fire and by consequence annihilated inualid of no force nor iuridicall power Certainly Sacred Maiestie The Assertions of this Prelate are such that they strike horror onely in hearing and almost resemble open Maledictions of a minde subdued to Passion But who shall diligently reade all his workes and shall consider distinctly euery circumstance shall clearly know that these are apprehensions of truth exprest with an holy zeale free from all passion or interest onely in the defence of right Friar Bartholomy dalle Case spent the most part of his life in India Forty nine continued yeares as himselfe affirmes hee saw that which therein was done and
this then I inuoke with all my spirits the attentiue mind of your Maiestie for when I shall haue demonstrated that all the Reasons of the Manifest are ill grounded and false and what the truth of the businesse is it shall together appeare that the Causes of said Manifest cannot bee other then those about specified The Reasons drawne to excuse the Rebellion of the Valtelines are reduced to two Heads Religion and Tyranny Vpon these are made great Amplifications but all is affirmed without proose A manifest signe that it is spoken without foundation Concerning Religion it is said that the Grisons vtterly haue taken from the Valtelines the libertie of Conscience and haue procured that all should be infected with Heresie shewing in euery occasion fauour to Heretiques and the contrary to Catholiques vpon some of whom they haue insâ—â—tod most cruell and infamous death onely in hatred of the Religion I repedre not euery particular It is sufficient to take this Mauiâ—â— to which all other matters are reduced and in the Manifest may be distinctly read Conterning Tyranny it goeth painting out a kind of gouernment of the Grisons in the Valteline like to that which hâ—â—fore Verres vsed in Sirtly and to speake more modernly like to some practised as well by the Ministers of your Maiestie as of your Predecessors in their States of Italys as by this discourse you shall fully vnderstand perhaps with some notable benefit to your poore Subiects who are waiting some ease from your Roy all hand But before wee discourse particularly in those two points it is fit to consider That the Grisons though diuided in two Religions Roman and Bâ—â—â—golique may it please the diume Maiestie that in time they may all agree in the vaine of the true Apostolique yet in all matters in respect of the publique good of the State thee haue constantly stood vnited in the politique Gouernment With which Concord they haue so many yeares maintained themselues free Princes vndependent of other and highly estemed of all For which cause wee know with how much diligence and charge many great Priaces haue sought their friendship But of late yeares in this part some Ministers of your Maiestie malignant to see them colleagued now with France now with Venice moued with an immoderate zeale of your seruice to which they supposed that such Confederations might bring some preiudice and iudging it most important to your Crowne that you onely should haue the free passage through the straighes of the Valreline into Germany and thâ—â— to all other Princes they should at your pleasure bee shot haue gone contriuing Inuentions and insiduous Artifices to diuide the Grisons as well in the politique gouernment as in Religion to the end they might easily stide into vtter ruins To this effect the late count de Fuentes Gouernour of Millan erected that Fort which to this day beares his name so preiudiciall as nothing more to the State of the Grisons Hauing first with money corrupted some of the chiefe of that Countrey to the end that if the Lords would oppose themselues they should with various Arts be disturbed as it came right to passe by the labor of lo Baptista Preuestâ— Pompeio Rodolfo Planta Nichole Rusea and others noted in the Manifest of the Grisons of the yeare 1618. Instantly after which Don Pedro de Toledo Gouernor of Millan in the yeare 1617. did attempt to make a perpetuall league with the Grisons vpon Articles molded by the Lord Alfonse Casale Ambassador of your Maiestie in that Republique after his owne fashion In which there was nothing inserted in the fauour of the Grisons but a delusory promise to demolish the fort of Fuentes where with it seemed to him that they should condiscend to all other things how contrary soeuer to their libettie The same men who did fauour the building of the Fort did not faile to aduance also this Confederacie perswading many that by al meanes it ought to be embraced but the crooked practises of these Patriots Enemies of their Countrey being to the Grisons discouered they would not accept these Capitulations but forming a Iuridicary and Capitall Processe against these Rebels they found so many Machinations treasons and other wicked Actions by them wrought that proceeding to Iustice it was requisite with Banishments and death to giue them deserued punishment Prom that time till now that they remained exiled aided with money by the Ministers of your Maiestie with which they proceeded maintayning fresh practices with their friends and adherents and corrupting many others they haue sollicited continually to sowe dissention among this people thereby to raise some insurrection as finally hath succeeded in the Valteline The truth of all this is clearly collected from the forealleaged Manifest of the Actions of the Grisons in the yeare 1618. to which Credit cannot bedenied as the Ministers of your Maiesty desire seeing the things therein related are matters of fact and iuridically approued where these affaires haue beene handled without passion or respect of persons as euery dispassionate mind by the reading thereof will iudge The intent then of your Maiesties Ministers was not to establish a Confederacy with the Grisons which had in bin so they would haue procured by lawfull wayes vpon Conditions reasonable as other Princes vsed and not by interuention of particular persons corrupted with gisâ—s and vpon Articles so vnsanory as among them are seene But then purpose was so cunningly to frame them that they should not be accepted because being promoued by the factious party of men corrupt and reiected by the sound part dis-interressed and louers of the publique good there might arâ—â—â— a discord sowed by this art to cast these people into Confusion so that from their diuision according to the Gospell the desolation of the State might follow For the Ministers of your Maiestie fomenting one part against the other did hope to oppresse both the one and the other and highly to merit of you by enlarging in what way soeuer your Empire This Artifice O Sacred Catholique Kingh to disunict Subiects from their Princes to send them into destruction is most proper and practised by the Ministers of your Crowne and who would here recount how often and in what maner they haue plotted disunion in the Kingdome of France should weaue a large Historie The French Lords doe well know it and it is a common opinion amongst them who best vnderst and the Affaires of State that if all the Hugonotts of France should bee reduced to the Catholique Religion the Spanish Ministers would therewith be grieuously displeased seeing that of them they make principall vse as of most deare friends to embroile that Kingdome whensoeuer they haue any doubt that the French may moue his forces to the dammage of Spaine And they doe glory not to seare at all the Armes of his most Christian Maiestie not because the are inualid but that they know the way to keepeth 〈◊〉 busied at their pleasure in his owne houseâ—
Which therefore being well considered might produce â—conorary effectâ—â— For if the most Christian King shall once resoluo himselfâ—â— to carry the warne abrond he shall rest most scoure and quâ—et within his owne Kingdome The gneâ—â— and warlike mindes of the French Nobilitio borne to Armes and Eliâ—tâ—â—pâ—isâ—â—â— cannot lie wasting in I dienesse While they haue not elsewhere to bee exercised it is no wonder that at hoâ—â— they may be easily excited to tumults But if they shall bee imployed in foraâ—â—â— Actions they will ronne greddyâ—â— victorins and glory of which they are most ambitiour And will desire like wise men that their owne Country should rost in peace to bee the more able with their Sword to subdue others not will they suffer themselues to bee disturbed by the treacherous maâ—hinations of them who affect thâ—â— ruine But this is spoken by the way by occasion of the like stratagom at present used among the Grisoms the which â—eeing it hath begunne to take effect in the Valteline the Gouernour of Millan is leapt into the field not with intent to sauour but to opprosse the party risen yet to giue another relish Proposing still this axioâ—â—e of Machianell that feined Roligion doth much aduantage the Actions of Princer he would make the world beleaue that he was moued with pittio to take the protection of the miserable Valtelines oppressed as saith the Manifest in Religion and politike life Of which two things it is now requisite distinctly to entreate The Grisons doe pretend that if God when hee ereued man loft him in the state of free will the Conscience ought to be free no man being able to take away that which is the gift of the Diuine Maiestie They esteeme their Condition to be most wretched and miserable who are violently forced to professe to beleeue that which their Conscience truely doth not beleeue and therefore they require libertie of Religion They are diuided into Roman and Euangelique euery one follower that part to which his Conscience â—â—olineth him Euery one doth beleeue hee beleeues well and sinnes mortally when he doth transgresse from that ancient Institution wherein he was borne and bred Violence is done to no man In the publike Gouernment aswell the one as the other doe participate without any Distinction Now the Ministers of your Maiestie say as may be need in the Manifect that the Professers of the Ramish Religion haue no more libertie to follow their true faith because the contrary faction doth tyrâ—â—nously oppresse them And hâ—â—â— they alleage many violent Actionâ— which if in case some are true certainly they are not happened but for grieuous Iniuries and offences first done by the Romanists to the Euangeliques but the truth is that the most part of them are false the effect to this day hath shewed it to be most false that euer the Euangeliques did attempt to oppresse the Romanists Vpon which for better illustration wee will with reason discourse a little in the fauour of truth These two Factions Roman and Euangelique either are equall or the one is superiour to the other If they are equall euery one doe persist in their own opinion it being certaine that in their Dâ—â—â—â— called by them Drituâ—â— the Ministers of the one and the other equally are assistant of necessitiâ— it must bee said that when any thing is handled which doth preiudine the one or the other there can noues be any agreement But seeing they doe accord as it appeares by the Diett of Tosana in the yeare 1618. in which so many Rebells as well Romans as Euangeliques without all respect were punished Then it must be concluded not to bee true that they practise one to preindice the other Then it is salse that the Euangeliques doe oppresse the Romanists But who shall say that the one is too strong and doth persecure the other How is it that in so many and so many yeares that part hath not vsurped the absolute dominion If the Roman preuaile how doe they consent that their Clergia men should bee chastised and as your Maiesties Ministem affirme in despight of Religion If the Euangelique be superiour how can it stand that putting to death the Arch Priest of Sondrie and exiling the Bishop of Coura for being of the Roman Religion afterward they admitted another Bishop and another Arch-Priest of the same Religion And why did they condemne only those two and not many other good and truely religious men of which in that State there are multitudes Let it bee then said not to be a truth that the Euangeliques doe persecute the Romanists And if the aforesaid Clergie-men haue suffered the trespasses by them committed in communem patriam did cause that with Common consent aswell of the Catholique Romans as of the Euangeliques they haue beene punished as it is notorious by the aforementioned writing of the yeare 1618. And that it was not done in the hatred of Religion may more clearely from this be discerned that amongst the accused and condemned there were many more Euangeliques then Romans Whence it is euident that with all integritie and without any respect those of the Euangelique faction haue onely aymed not sparing themselues at the administration of Iustice And Rodolfo Planta that then was banished as it knowne to all men was not onely an Heretique but a principall Head of the Heretiques With two things about this Subiect the World is greatly amazed and scandalized The one that the Ministers of your Maiestie in the Manifest printed by them for the Valtelines haue dared to giue the title of a true Martyr of Christ to the Arch priest of Sondrio a man blood-thirsty and a Traitor to his Prince whence it appeares that onely for being their fauourer he obtained the merit to be Canonised for a Saint The other is that they haue alwayes held so strict Intelligence with Rodelfo Planta and other principall Heretiques and haue fauoured and stipendiated them both before and after their Banishment and haue made vse and yet doe vse them continually in matters very indecent Neither doe they make at all scruple of Conscience thereof though they publikely proclaime themselues Protectors of the Religion and perperuall Enemies of all Heretiques If the wonder and Seâ—mdâ—ll bee iust I remit it to the Righteous Iudgement and prudent mind of your Maiestie I expect that connicted with the force of these reasons some should step forth and say That when notwithstanding the Euangeliques doe not leeke to oppresse the Romanists and doe suffer euery one to liue to himselfe yet by all meane it is requisite to extirpate the ill race of Heretiques Enemies to holy Church I vnwillingly enter into this particular but of force the matter requires that somewhat therein bee spoken I doe beleeue and I thinke am not deceiued that to punish Heretiques the Ecclesiasticall authoritie is necessary How then will the Ministers of your Maiestie intermeddle in that which to them appertaines not And who will not say that greedinesse
not vnderstand it This is that Potentate which was borne in the wombe of the Holy Catholique Reman Religion This is that Potentate that in twelue hundred yeares hath neuer embraced other faith other law then that of Christ This is that Potentate who since the Roman libertie was loft hath euer maintained libertie aliue in Italy This is that Potentate which alone with iust an honourable titles both by land and Sea hath largely and gloriously extended his Empire This is that Potentate who hath made with his blood a Counterscarfe to Italy and with his treasure so many ages hath and doth defend it from the Rapine of the Barbarous Enemies of holy faith This is that Potentate which hates and persecutes all Tyrants and loues and protects with all his power lawfull and iust Princes for which onely it seemes he is so much hated and persecuted by the Ministers of your Maiestie A glorious and renouned Potentate whose most noble Actions exalted to the Heauens with immortall praise of the histories of all Nations I doe not decline those of Spaine who dispassionately honor Vertue with Truth are abundantly known to your Maiesty From whence you may well comprehend that if your Ministers doe seck vnworthily to blemish that their glorie with defamations they doe it out of intestine hatred which by naturall instinct they beare to all who are not to them conformable in one thing onely iust vpright and sincere that they are no Accepters of Persons but without any partiality deale alike with all men And if the Pope the true Supporter vpon whom Christ our God hath founded his holy Church shall not to their will conforme they will say that hee is an Apostate and an Heretique and when yet htey dare not so much vnder other pretences they will call him vniust wicked Disturber of the publique peace they will esteeme him Enemy inuade his State sacke Rome beseige him in his Castle take him prisoner impose vpon him a grieuous ransome as if hee were Slaue and they Turkes They will by necessity force him to sell Chdlices and Grosses to redeeme himselfe and not there with content they will haue Cardinalls in hostage the Castle in their power Indulgences for the purse and yet more if more were to be found I durst not certainly say these things to your Maiestie if in times past they had not happened They did thus handle in the Reigne of Charles the fist much against the will of that Religious Emperour Clement the seuenth and would readily haue done the like vnder King Phillip the second Iglies lib. 2. C 26. Sect. 8. C. 30. Sect. 2. father of your Maiestie when they raiped warre against Paul the fourth and tooke from him Veletri Tiuoli and Ostia if the King of France truely most Christiun had not diuerted their fury and the Catholiks King apprehended a conueniencie suddenly to accommodate his differences Sacred Catholike Maiestie if these things are all true as surely they are reason â—bly it may be doubled that like actions will proceed from like persons wherefore to the end you easilie may as you earnestly desire vndeceâ—â— your selfe and free your name from scandall and other Prinees from calâ—moy and the vnworthy iniuries of your Ministers which are the three Aduertisements by me proposed it will not be one of the purpose to set before your eyes some particulars which vnder your Empire are done as lawfull which by all good Christians are held abominable I implore from a benigne Prince attention and in attention benignieâ—e so that my words may passe without molestation of your Royall mind that receiuing them with a righteous temper as they are by mee vttered with hearty affection I am assured they shall not end without some profit The Ancestors of your Maiestie haue established in the kingdome of Sicily a supreame Monarchy both in the temporall and spirituall so that your Vice-Royes dispense not onely Offices and Benefices but also Excommunications and Indulgences and who will then wonder that the Duke of Sessa doth publish Iubilies The great Cardmall Baronius hath fully written vpon this Subiect and with Euidences inuincible shewed the vniust possession of that Kingdome and that neither your Maiestie can hold nor the Pope grant it Baron To. 11. If your Ministers had found the least apparant reasons to answer and confute the doctrine of Baronius as they did of the passage of St. Iames into Galitia they willingly would haue done it An. Christ 1097. Vrb. 2.10 but failing therof they had recourse to the fire and caused the E euenth of the Baronian Annalls to be publiquely burnt did prohibite it vpon grieuous paines to all your subiects so dexterously working that your Maiestie beleeuing your selfe lawfull Lora or at lest possessor bana fidei might as you yet continue to vsurpe the spirituall iurisdiction in that Kingdome as if betwixt you and the Pope the Apostecique iurisdiction were equallie diuided What this action may be called let others iudge But proceeding further they haue also induced your Maiestie to arrogate not an equality but a Supremacy vpon the high Priest So that in the Censunes which his Holinesse or his Nuncio or others with his authoritie doe send against particular persons into Castile these men refuge to the Royall Conncell aggrauating the cause of violence and the Councell doth vsurpe cognition ouer such Censures and doe command defacte their suspension vntill the alleadged violence be determined and vnder this pretence oftentimes causeth an absolute Reuocation that in them there is no further proceeding In Spaine not many yeares since were publikely printed bookes of Lawyers that your Maiestie Hieron Cruelles Tract de Cognit per viam vielent in caus Eccl. in t person Eccl. your Royall Councell hath this authoritie and may iustly vse it Which doctrine hath greatly scandalized the world as well for the person that wrote it who professeth to bee Christian Dector as for your Maiestie which doth admit and serue your selfe by it and yet are the Gatholique King but much more in respect of the highest Bishop who sometime deceiued by sinifter Informations malignant suggestions of certaine wicked Hypocrits is seene to fulminate most heauy Censures to threaten horrible war against great Potentates who rightly vnderstood haue not at all offended his reputation nor his Ecclesiastique Iurisdiction Neuerthelesse hee doth at present beare these high iniuries with so much scandall of Christianitie and so great diminution of his authoritie Some iudge that this is not done without a mystery but let him declare it that vnderstands it I will diuine no more This sufferance of the Pope greedinesse of the Ministers of your Maiesty who presume to do alwayes absolutely wel when they amplifie in any sort perfas nefas the Roiall Iurisdiction hath caused that after hauing made you equall to his Holinesse in dispensing Ecclesiastique Affaires in the kingof Sicily and superiour in censuring the Pontisiciall Censures in that of