years old he dy'd of a scandalous Disease the secret of Curing which being not then known He left but one Bastard to whom he wou'd not commit the care of his Burial he lov'd rather to contrive it himself and writ this Epitaph in which I shou'd find no Fault had another made it Quem non res hominum non omnis ceperat oetas Scribentem capit haec Coction urna brevis Laurentianus after having for a long while taught Philosophy and Physick at Pisa and Florence fell to Translating Hippocrates because Theodorus Gaza did not to his seeming express with sufficient force the Canonical stile of that Author afterwards he was minded to do the like with Gallen and he wrote with so much assiduity that it 's believ'd he wou'd have finisht it if he had not been whirl'd with a Crotchet to buy a House tho' he had not the third of the Money requisite to pay the Purchase The Man who sold it caus'd to be inferted in the Contract that in case Laurentianus did not furnish the whole Sum in six Months space he might enter upon his House again without being bound to repay what he had receiv'd and Laurentianus consented thereto as making account to have by that time wherewithall to clear the Bargain But the measures sail'd him he had taken and the term expir'd without his being in a Condition to perform the Clause of the Contract so that seeing the first Proprietor take Possession of the House again he laid it so to Heart that he tumbl'd himself head-long into the Well Antiochus Tibertus was brought from Cesene the place of his Birth into France by a Souldier that made him study at Paris He follow'd his Genius which inclin'd him to the study of Natural Magick tho' this Profession was them so dangerous that since two hundred years that Piero Daponno dy'd no Man had dar'd to be tampering that way He imagin'd that it had only been Contemtible by not having been hitherto plainly and ingenuously laid down and discover'd but that it wou'd be infallibly Courted by all Mankind when it shou'd be seen deckt with the Ornaments of other Sciences Upon this Principle he became a shrewd and learned Professor in Polite Learning in Natural Philosohy Physick and the Mathematicks and returning into his own Country where there needed no more for his living in security than to seduce some petty Prince this was the more easie for him to effect since during his abode in France he pass'd for a famous Wizzard among the Astrologers of that Kingdom He gave a reason for most of his Predictions which other Sooth-sayers nor the very Oracles themselves had not yet bethought themselves of doing and on this score was he consulted by Persons of all Qualities and Conditions from the Prince to the Cobler and at all times was there so great a Concourse of People at his Gate that very often a body must have waited there several hours to get to speak to him in one's turn He wrote very Curious Books of Chiromancy or Palmistry Phisiognomy and Pyromancy and viewing one day Guido de Bogni's Hand surnamed Guerra or War on the account of his Valour he assur'd him that the best of his Friends wou'd cause him to be Assassinated upon an ill grounded supposition to which there was so much the less likelihood that Bogni being the most determinate Souldier of his time and Courting hand over head the most dangerous occasions was in all probability like to perish fighting one time or other He likewise foretold by the same way Pandolfo Malatesta Soveraign of Remini the Richest Prince of Italy in ready Cash that he wou'd dye of Misery in the Hospital of Bologna In a word the fancy took him to Calculate his own Nativity and he found it his Fate to be Beheaded and thus all came to pass Malatesta was under a strict engagement with Bogni and trusted him with the Command of his Troops Bentivoglio his Father-in Law sent him word that he had committed the Sheep to the keeping of the Wolf and that Bogni had treated with the Pope for the remitting Remini under the Obedience of the Holy See There needed no more to dispose Malatesta to invite Bogni to a Feast at which Tibertus had Orders to attend Bogni was stabb'd while at Dinner and Tibertus popt into a Dungeon in the Cittadel his Hands garnish'd with Iron Ruffs and his Feet with Fetters till such time as they shou'd put him upon the Rack for the making him reveal the Accomplices of the pretended Conspiracy In the mean while Bogni's Innocence came to light and Bentivoglio thinking him still alive wrote to his Son in-Law that he had giv'n him a false Intelligence Malatesta repented his having been so hasty and was going to Tibertus his Dungeon to free him thence when he met with an account that this Wizzard had been caught making his escape And indeed Tibertus calling to mind his Horoscope and not knowing his Case to be in good terms he had so well cajol'd the Goaler's Daughter that she had let him down with a Rope into the Ditch where the jingling of his Fetters discover'd him to the Sentinel Malatesta coming in just in that nick fancy'd him to be Criminal seeing he had that way attempted to get out of Prison and without other form of Process had him Beheaded In a short time after the Duke de Valentinois surpriz'd Rimini and Malatesta by meer hazard making his escape wandred from Town to Town till being forsaken by his own very Children upon his having endeavour'd to set them at odds He found no other retreat than the Hospital of Bologna wherein he dy'd Filippo Beroalde acquir'd Fame by a whimsical way for whereas other Wits endeavour'd to imitate the Writers of Augustus his Age he imagin'd Quaint Latin to consist in obsolete Words and set about bringing them again into vogue and usance Having all good Books and his Memory being prodigious he enterpreted them to admiration and there being not a person breathing that made the like in any wise comparable Lessons he had his Auditory at Bologna so throng'd with all sorts of People principally Strangers as barr'd all access to it He has left in this stile a Commentary upon Apuleius his Golden Ass containing so much Learning that it wou'd be the best of all the works of that Nature without its Author 's â—â—range Prepossession for some ridiculous Opinion He dy'd at fifty years old and repented of his Barbarism ev'n at the very moment of his Death Filippo Beroalde neither follow'd the steps nor the Genius of his Uncle before mention'd He had a nice taste for Quaint Latin and set his Mind to Poetry His Odes are so pure and so well wrought that the Academy of Rome judg'd that no Man for this thousand years has come so near Horace and it was in virtue of this Testimony which it gave to Beroalde's Merit that Leo the 10th for the attracting him to Rome
dies young Lorenzo succeeds him and does not resemble him The French pass the Alpes The Pope's afraid and sends them an Agent who falls into the hands of the Spaniards and makes 'em jealous The Pope stops the Progresses of the Conquerours by his interview with Francis the First at Bologna where he paulmes upon the sincerity of that Prince He despoils the Duke of Urbin who recovers his State The Pope Debauches that Duke's principal Officers he prevents them and causes their Souldiers to punish them Leo tho' indebted for the Popedom to Cardinal Petrucci drives his House out of Sienna The Cardinal Conspires against him is discover'd and strangled in a Dungeon by an AEthiopian A strange Conference of Cardinal Cornetan with a Magician who tells him nothing but the Truth and yet deludes him The Sacred Colledge is animated against the Pope who out of spight creates one and thirty Cardinals in one day but the greatest Enemy of his House happens to be of the number He frames a League against the French and beyond all hopes drives them out of Italy but in the very moment he receives the Tydings Malespina poysons him with Pills The Rats eat off his Nose the Night following by having but one Servant left with him who falls asleep The Contents of the Seventh Book EVlogies of the Wits that were honour'd with Leo's Friendship or receiv'd Gratuities from him Which is the best writ History we have since those of the Ancients The Astrologer Tibertus foresees his own Death and the most extraordinary manner by which it was to happen without its being in his Pow'r to avoid it Cocles of the same Profession has the same Destiny and yet not mistaken in any of the Nativities he had Calculated of his Friends no not ev'n in those that were to happen after his Death Young Strozza ventures to Marry a Miss kept by the Duke of Ferrara His Master has him Assassinated Crimittus dies of a Shivering occasion'd by a Pail of Water thrown upon him by one of his Scholars out of meer jeast Cardinal Bibiana being above thirty years older than the Pope takes measures with Francis the First at Paris to procure his being Elected Pope at the first Conclave at Rome The Pope is inform'd of the Design stays him to Dinner and presents him with a Bit. Bibiana fancies it to be poyson'd and yet dares not dispense himself from swallowing it He returns home and takes a Counter-poison which does not hindâ— him from breathing his last three hours after Pompone Gauric vanishes in his travelling along the Po and is never more heard of thro' the Revenge of a Lady to whom he had presented a Declaration of Love in Verse Count Baltazar Castiglione in his Practice contradicts the Rules he had laid down for a perfect Courtier He is assur'd that he will dye at Mantoua He carefully avoids going thither but accepts of the Embassy of Spain not dreaming that Madrid is call'd Mantoua in Latin There he dies THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF MEDICIS IT is a surprizing thing that none of the Authors who have written the History of Florence have kept themselves within the bounds of Moderation when they speak of the House of Medicis before it was raised to the Soveraignty Those whom either Jealousie or â—ll-will have animated against that Family â—ave endeavoured to give it an Original so â—ow and little answearable to its present Greatness that it were more advantageous not to be known at all than after such a manner Others thought flattery justifiable in a Subject which those that wrote before them had handled so Satyrically and have represented the Condition of Old Cosmo de Medici his Ancestors so far above his fellow Citizens that we should hardly believe they had ever lived as Private Men if we were not informed so from other Hands Some there were towards the middle of the last Age who to make their Court the better with Katharine of Medicis would have perswaded her she was of French Extraction both by Father and Mother and that not above three hundred years before one Julian of Medicis went out of Poictou into Tuscany with a Troop of Horse which he carried into the Service of the Commonwealth of Florence For my own part as I have no other design than to collect those Truths which other Histories have either purposely or 〈◊〉 of Ignorance omitted I cannot chuse but say that the House of Medicis has always been accounted Noble since Florence purchased its freedom of the Emperour Rodolphus the First of which their Profession of Merchandize wherewith they are reproach'd is a Proof since all the Florentine Historians agree that almost all the Gentlemen of their Country were engaged in Commerce and that the most considerable Families had Factors in the best Towns of Europe It was by these means that Cosmo de Medici sirnam'd the Old came to be much richer than any Prince in Italy of his time for though some suppose that the famous Balthazar Cossa who was deposed from the Popedom discovered to him at his Death where he had hid his Treasure this good luck might perhaps lay the Foundation of his Fortune but did not raise it to that height to which it arrived ten years after when there was no part of the World from Persia to Andaluzia that was not subservient to his Traffick The difference of Religions hindred him not from treating with Infidels and the constant correspondence he kept with the Turkish Emperours then regnant caused those Princes to let his Factors settle themselves in the room of those of Genoa and Venice whom for Reasons of State they expelled out of the most trading places of Thrace and the lesser Asia The Emirs of Babylon and the Mamalukes of Egypt facilitated his Transportation of the Silks and most precious Commodities of the Mogols Countrey and he made so good a hand of the needy Condition to which the Paleologi Emperours of Constantinople were reduced that they sold him the best part of the Jewels and splendid Furniture the remainders of the Luxury of the Justinians and Porphyrogeniti at very low rates In a word he arrived at that Wealth and Power that his Countrey-men though used to the same immoderate gain grew Jealous of his Greatness The Government of Florence at that time was Popular in appearance but so temper'd that the Ancient Families which were the Strozzi Peruzzi Barbadori and Albizzi bore the principal sway They were not indeed very well united among themselves but yet agreed in their obedience to him that was eldest among them and perform'd his Commands with as much Zeal as if he had been their Soveraign Hence it came that their Head found it so easie to engage them in the ruine of Cosmo de Medici After they had resolved themselves to destroy him they assembled the People on the sudden and told them Cosmo was the sole author of the misery to which the Republick of Florence was then
Papers he had couzen'd some of his Moments by making a Will in which he bequeath'd to his Friends such considerable Legacies as if he had possess'd all the Riches of the House of Medici tho' universally known not to be worth a Penny this Gallantry only serv'd to Convert the Epitaph that was preparing for him into an Epigram Marcilus Tarcaniote came from Greece into Italy with a company of Cuirasseers and mingled all his life long the Pike with the Pen the Profession of Arms with that of Polite Letters His fondness for the Latin Tongue made him wed the Daughter of Bartolomeo Scula who understood and spoke it to an admirable Perfection She taught it him so accurately that Lorenzo de Medici found him capable of translating Plutarch's Moral Works and conjur'd him to do it by Letters still extant But he had so much averseness for that sort of Labour wherein a Man must said he render himself a Slave of anothers Sentiments that it was impossible for him to finish the first Page He lov'd much rather to compose Epigrams whereof there is a Collection still remaining wherein a body may see that it was solely his own fault he did not do much more He was drown'd in fording the River of Volterra swell'd extraordinarily by the Rains on the very day that the unfortunate Lodovico Sforza was confin'd to an Eternal Prison Demetrius Chalcondile had all the good Qualities of the Greeks and none of the bad He was Knowing and Laborious never weary of Studying or Teaching sincere and never boasting He came very aged to Florence where he must needs be dabbling in Matrimony The little disposition he had to meddle in Domestick concerns induc'd him to leave those Sollicitudes to his Wife and this freedom so extraordinary in Tuscany with that Ladies wonderful Fecondity serv'd for matter to a world of Verses disadvantageous to her Modesty After Argiropolis had quit the Greek Chair of Florence Politian obtain'd it and as he was an incomparable Wit using all the ways of making him successful in his Undertakings he so well brandish'd his Talent and so slily coax'd and flatter'd his Auditory that he wrought an Exclusion to all the Greeks who offer'd to dispute for it Chalcondile tho' very humble and little minding his own Glory cou'd not digest the affront that was done those of his Nation He made his Addresses to Lorenzo de Medici who had already pitch'd upon him to reach his Children the Greek Tongue and obtained Permission to teach in Concurrence and at the same time with Politian to see which of the two wou'd have most Followers But the harsh accent which Chalcondile cou'd never get rid of and the difficulty he had to pronounce some Latin words rendred him Contemptible in comparison of Politian whose agreeable tone of Voice and gallant Expressions ravish'd his whole Audience Lorenzo contriving by all means to keep Chalcondile at Florence was forc'd to procure him Auditors and endeavour'd to oblige Politian to live with him more civilly Lorenzo set about several times to reconcile them but he found by his own experience that it was more easie to procure Peace to Italy than make it between two Virtuoso's He hindred them however from letting their Resentment break out during his Life-time but incontinently after his Death Chalcondile being without support sided with Lodovico Sforza who gave him the principal Chair at Milan where he committed to the Press his Illustrations upon the Greek Tongue that have rendred him so famous There he dy'd when near a hundred years old and yet soon enough not to be informed of the shameful death of Theophilus the Eldest of his Children kill'd by Night in a bye street of Pavia where he was Professor Marc-Musurus a Native of Candia where he had already signaliz'd his parts by his Criticisme upon the Greek Authors and by the rare felicity of his Genius which almost equally accomplish'd all he undertook when that the Republick of Venice made him remove from his Island to the Terra-firma and gave him a Chair at Padoua The number of his Auditors was there so great that they were forced to enlarge the publick School and permit Musurus to teach Grammar in the morning and Poetry in the Afternoon to gratifie those who had a mind to hear him unfold those two liberal Arts. He continued to Profess till the War deserted his Auditory and compelled him himself to think of his Security He withdrew to Rome where he composed that wonderfull Poem in praise of Plato which is found at the beginning of that Philosophers Works Those who understood it and saw him could at first hardly believe Musurus to be the Author They were rather inclin'd to suspect he had found it in an ancient Manuscript and publisht it in his own Name Their Diffidence was grounded upon its not being possible for a Man of their time to compose a piece wherein the Character and Grace stroaks the Greek Poetry possess'd in Alexander's Age were restor'd in the highest point of their Perfection Musurus help'd on his side to confirm them in this thought when judging of the Beauty of his Poem by the Applauses it received from all Parties he would compile nothing more of that Nature for fear of diminishing by a feeble piece or less finish'd the high Reputation he had attain'd unexpectedly and on a sudden He contented himself with showing by explaining to the Romans the finest passages of Homer of Hesiod of Theocritus and of Anacreon that he was able to imitate their Quaintness and Excellencies since he knew so perfectly their Turn and Delicacy and by leading so regular a Life that People came insensibly to cease suspecting him of injustice He was at this pass when Leo the 10th was Elected Pope that is to say when the Golden Age of Polite Letters began Musurus received of his first Gratifications and was endow'd with the Archbishoprick of Ragusa But as Dignities expose more in view those by whom they are possess'd and by consequence their Imperfections are the better noted the Mitre only serv'd Musurus to manifest the Vice he had so long held conceal'd for as hitherto he had not been accounted Ambitious and they made this judgment of him that he had more Repute than he desir'd But no sooner was he Archbishop than that he fell a Caballing to be Cardinal He laid aside his Books to study intriguing and had such an ability that way that the Pope was amaz'd at this Change twitted him with it and some times railly'd him Yet did he not forbear continuing and took so many new measures with those he saw Favourites at Court that they Cock-sur'd him of a Cap at the first Promotion But the Pope delighted in frustrating their purposes for his greater Diversion at Musurus his future behaviour And indeed he did not neglect tricking up his House augmenting his Train nay and preparing the acknowledgment he pretended to make But the day of Promotion being come Musurus not finding
he had most Communication He never heard any thing with so much Indignation as the Praises of others he was equally envious of his Friends and of his Enemies No other Pen compos'd any thing to his liking he lov'd not to receive Correction tho' he did it importunately to all sorts of Persons It was sometimes seen that he acknowledged his Faults and that it was meerly out of Malice he resisted Truth Yet he never own'd to have blunder'd As to his way of living it was so corrupted that Modesty hinders me from speaking of it What I mean will be but too well divined by the Knowledge of his Death which I cannot steal from my Reader because it was too publick Yet after all this he had so marvellous a Genius that the World has not seen the like since Ovid. At twelve years old he compil'd such stately Verses that a body wou'd have said they were of Alexander's Age or of that of Augustus And when the fancy took him to surprize the Learned and make his own Productions pass for Fragments of Anacreon or of Catullus which he had just found by chance in some old Manuscripts of the Medici's Library those who best understood these matters were impos'd on in their belief His first famous piece was for Giuliano de Medici This young Lord had won the prize of a Turnament and lay questing after a Panegyrick not inseriour to Luca Pulsi's who had signaliz'd himself in the like occasion to the advantage of Lorenzo Politian undertook the Province and having perceiv'd that Pulsi's Poem was not all along of the same Force through the Authors having only couch'd in it things purely of his own Invention he fancy'd he needed only to avoid this inequality take a quite opposite Method He Book-padded the ancient Panegyricks of the noblest thoughts that suited with his Subject He travesty'd them after his own manner and enchasing them with such Passages of Poetry where he was not satisfy'd with his own Product he made so fine a piece that Pulsi after having read it wou'd have suppress'd his own out of shame and vexation The same Giuliano having been kill'd in the Pazzi's Conspiracy Politian lying perdue for an extraordinary occasion to shew he writ as well in Prose as in Verse drew up so Pathetick a Description of this Conspiracy that the Learned who assembled in the Library de Medici avow'd that Cicero cou'd have done nothing better After these two Essays the high opinion Politianus had of his Abilities made him fall to intriguing for the Profession of the Latin and Greek Eloquence At the same time he became the Concurrent of Demotrius Calchondile and top'd him by having a more pleasing Accent and by strewing his Discourse with Points and bloomy flourishing Expressions so to recreate his Auditory Above five hundred young Gentlemen of all Countries in Europe went to fetch him every morning in his own House to accompany him out of Honour to the very Hall where he taught and re-conducted him in like manner when he descended the Chair These Deferences gave him so whimsical an Opinion of his parts that he fancy'd to keep up so great a Reputation he must set about more solid Works than Verses or Relations or at least amuse the World with the expectation of some great Labour and yet do nothing all the while For this reason did he spend five whole years without giving the Publick ought else than Lessons But at length the itch of Writing prevailing over his first design he caus'd a Traduction of Herodian to be Printed which had not all the effect he pretended For tho' it was generally admir'd a rumour was buz'd about that Politian had found it among the Papers of the famous Gregorio de Citta di Castello which he had bought and this report was grounded on such Conjectures as were but faintly destroy'd Pope Leo who was then under Politian and heard all that was said Pro. and Con at his Fathers Table being desir'd twenty years after by the Academicks of Rome to tell them his Sentiments in the Case left the thing in suspence and undecided and agreed that the stile of that Translation had nothing like to that of Politian's other works and held more of the Paint and Artifice and Luxuriancy which Gregorio de Citta di Castello was wont to use in his Compositions He added however as if he had been afraid of having said too much that this Gregorio had done nothing comparable to this Version of Herodian Be it as it will the work is so finisht and compleat tho' in some places it 's too spruce and over abounds with finical trappings that none have yet dar'd to decide which is the best translated Polybius or Herodian Politian a Man extraordinary nice in matters of Honour spar'd nothing of what might hinder him from passing for a Plagiary He publish'd his Miscellanies and his Poetries and as he was happy and persuasive he wou'd perchance have effected it but for Death which lopt him off at forty two years of Age. The Criminal passion he had for one of his Scholars of high Quality not being to be satisfy'd it cast him into a burning Fever In the violence of the fit he made a Song for the Object wherewith he was Charm'd got out of Bed took a Lute with so tender and piteous an Air that he expir'd in finishing the second Couplet the same day that Charles the 8th past the Alps in his way to the Conquest of Naples I cannot better finish this Book than by the Eulogy of Giovanni Pico Soveraign Prince della Mirandola and of Concord This Prince sirnam'd the Phoenix of the Wits with so much justice that none have grutcht him that Title was born in his own state and the eldest of a Family that boasted being descended from Constantine the Great The Prodigies which appear'd in Heaven and upon the Earth at the moment of his Nativity testifie there never had been and perhaps wou'd never be such another Genius He study'd not any thing how difficult soever but conceiv'd it at first He found not any Author obscure enough to put him to one moments plunge He penetrated by his own lights into Euclid and the Algebra he found the secret to reconcile Aristotlé with Plato and Scotus with Saint Thomas At ten years old he study'd the Law at Bologne and Commented gradually as he study'd At eighteen years of Age he knew two and twenty Tongues And at three and twenty he sent over all the World his so celebrated Theses by which he undertook to establish such certain Principles and discuss the principal difficulties of all Sciences in general and of each in particular without using other terms than those that were proper to it He challeng'd to answer in the same Tongue he shou'd be question'd he invited the Poor to the Disputation as well as the Rich and offer'd to pay the Charges of their Journey He chose the City of Rome for the publick
he read Letters written with their own Hands which Convicted them to all Intents and demanded with a fierce and resolute tone that those who had no share in their Crimes shou'd do him Justice This Harangue produc'd such a hurly burly in the Souldiers minds that heard it that the Accomplices might have had time to escape if they had listed but as they were resolute Fellows instead of being seiz'd with Fear at the knowledge of their Plot 's being discover'd they made haste to execute this their enterprize they fell to uniting their Regiments into a Body and a surrounding the place where the Duke was mounted but they found themselves environ'd with the Cavalry they did not in the least distrust Federigo Bossolo a Prince of the House of Mantoua who Commanded this Horse had quitted the Pope's Service because Lorenzo de Medici had taken from him the General Lieutenancy of his Army which had been conferr'd on him by the Pope He fear'd falling into his hands as knowing Lorenzo's humour to be implacable when it had been once provok'd and this reason engag'd him to save the Duke d'Vrbino In a moment did he rally his Troops spurr'd and fired them with Honour animated them against the Criminals and persuaded them to stop ' em And the Spanish Infantry seeing they were not strong enough to defend their Colonels deliver'd them up and the Horse forthwith shot and put them to the Sword A Month after the Pope ran the same flanger the Duke d'Vrbino had avoided I have already noted Petrucci to have been expell'd Sienna tho' his Son the Cardinal had Contributed more than the rest to his Holinesses Election The Father supported his Exile with sufficient constancy but the Son being resolv'd at any rate to be reveng'd did for a long while carry a Dagger under his Robes with intent to kill the Pope in full Consistory whither he came without Guards as imagining it wou'd be easie for him to escape through the Corsi before they knew of the perpetration of the Fact But he since chang'd his Mind as to the place and whether his Heart fail'd him at the Execution or that he found more Obstacles in it than he had imagin'd he chose rather to dispatch the Pope when a Hunting where he sometimes wandred so far from Company that he expos'd his Person to the possibility of being stabb'd But there needed so many Circumstances to concur at the same time to produce this opportunity that it was neglected as soon as the former Cardinal Petrucci had contriv'd in the third place to form a Faction in the Sacred Colledge and the first he sifted was Cardinal Adrian de Corneto who fell under the delusion of the most amazing Prediction that has been heard of since Sooth-sayers were in the World This Prelate was born upon the shoar of the Tuscan Sea in the City whence he borrow'd his Name His Parents were so poor as constrain'd 'em to put him out to Service but he had the good luck of meeting with a Master that caus'd him to study and furnish'd him with the means to pass thro' all the Ecclesiastical Dignities without being otherwise indebted for his Fortune than to the Charity of the Author of his Education and to his own Merit Not long afore had he been to revisit the place of his Nativity where knowing a Magician to be in the Mountains of the Appenine he had the Curiosity to try whether there was any certainty in his Predictions To him went he in a disguised Garb and consulted him about some Persons of his Acquaintance whose adventures he was as well inform'd of as his own The Wizzard gave him such Pertinent answers as produc'd him the occasion of speaking of himself He shew'd him his Horoscope without telling him whose it was and askt him what wou'd become of the Person born under such a Constellation If it is a Man reply'd the Magician he will at least be Cardinal and if it is a Woman she will come very near the Throne if she does not ascend it The Cardinal Corneto desir'd to know no more upon his own Article and slily turning his Discourse engag'd the Magician to speak of the Pope The Magician did assure he wou'd dye young and of an unexpected Death Then the Cardinal was tempted to enquire after the Fate of his Successour And the Devil only waiting for this to punish him for his Curiosity told him thro' the Wizzard's Mouth That the Conclave that should be held after Pope Leo the 10th's Death shou'd be long and factious but that at last they wou'd Elect a Cardinal named Adrian that this Adrian shou'd be of very low Birth and wou'd gradually mount to all the Dignities of the Church without any Recommendation and thro' his own sufficiency that he wou'd be sixty years of Age at the Moment of his Exaltation and not provided with any Benefice It must needs be own'd that the Devil was never more ingenuous to deceive than in this occasion All these Circumstances suited admirably well with Cardinal Corneto and with him only in the Sacred Colledge He was of a much lower Birth than all the other Cardinals he had mounted thro' all the Degrees inferiour to that Dignity he had been Chaplain Canon Dean and Bishop without ever having had two Benefices at a time he past without Contradiction for the Learnedest Member of the Consistory he had never made his Court to any Man for Preferment no not so much as to his first Patron Fortune went to seek him in his Chamber and at his very Books Those who had done him good had had regard only to his Merit for as to outward advantages he was not possess'd of any In a word his Name was Adrian and this last Circumstance of the Sooth-sayers Prediction seem'd to point him out as well as that of his Age seeing he wanted but three Months of having accomplisht his sixty'th year He took leave of the Magician more satisfy'd than he went thither but was much more pleas'd when after his return to Rome Cardinal Petrucci sollicited him to enter into the Conspiracy He imagin'd that by this means it was that Destiny began to labour for his Exaltation and believ'd it so much the more strongly as that the time drew near that had been fore-told him and that he had the hint of the Pope's being to be dispatcht after an unexpected manner However as Cardinal Corneto was considerate and wary in all his Actions he wou'd enter into no positive Engagement nor give any Token that might serve to Convict him upon occasion He contented himself with assuring Cardinal Petrucci that he wou'd not reveal his Enterprize to any body nor wou'd he go about to cross it Cardinal Sauli who was afterwards wheedled to be an Accomplice took the like Course but out of another consideration he had promis'd his Suffrage to Bibiand for Cardinal de Medici upon the hopes Bibiana had giv'n him of the first vacant Benefice