endured incredible torture, by the taking off his plaifters, and dilating the orifices; and the bone of his upper jaw being broken, occafion'd inflammations, which frequently threw him into Fevers till it was healed; yet for all this, he behaved with his ufual piety and conftancy, and was even merry fometimes in the extremity of his pain; of which Fulgentio gives us this fingular inftance, viz. That once when his wounds were dreffing, and no lefs than a dozen physicians and chirurgeons attending him, Aquapendente faid, the greatest wound was not yet cured; to which the Father reply'd immediately, Ay, but the world will have it that it was given STYLO ROMANÆ CURIÆ, which fet them all a laughing. And the fame night being in bed, and told that the dagger was in the room which the Ruffians left fticking in his head, he defired to fee it, and feeling it with his fingers, faid it was not filed. He that pulled the dagger out of his wound would fain have kept it as his due, but confented that it fhould be preferved as a public memorial of the divine goodness to the Father; and that therefore it should be hung at the feet of a crucifix in the church of the Servi, where it was accordingly placed with this infcription, DEI FILIO LIBERATORI.

'Tis remarkable, that the Father feem'd very much concern'd, for fear that the affaffins, when apprehended, fhould confefs fomething that might give fcandal to the world, and prejudice to religion.

'Tis farther obfervable; that the day after the Father was wounded, hearing of the death of M. de Maiffe, it fo much affected him, that he could not forbear expreffing himself on that occafion to Peter Affelineau after this manner: We have loft our dear Friend M. de Maiffe. This is a wound which admits no remedy s

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remedy; but in this frail ftate we must expect either to be Spectators, or a spectacle.

It is now high time to give an account how this villanous attempt upon the Father was refented by the most ferene the Doge and Senate of Venice.

The Senate being aflembled when the news came, immediately broke up in a mighty confternation, and the Council of Ten fitting at the fame time, there was that evening as great a concourfe of fenators in the convent of Servi, as if they had intended to have held the fenate there. They fent money to the monaftery to defray the charge of his cure, deputed perfons of note every day to vifit him, commanded the physicians to report his condition to them from time to time, and rewarded Signior Aquapendente in particular with the honour of knighthood, and a rich chain and medals, for conftantly attending his patient. At the fame time. every thing imaginable was done for the Father's future fecurity. The murtherers, who were prefently known, were fubjected to the fevereft decree of banishment that the fupreme Council ever pafs'd for the worft of crimes; and proclamations were printed, with ample rewards for all fuch as fhould discover any future confpiracies form'd against the Father's life, and the fame for killing or apprehending those who made the attempt. They also order'd an allowance, at the public charge, to maintain a guard for him, that fhould have the liberty of bearing arms of any kind, and appointed him a house at St. Mark's, where he might spend his days in fecurity. But the Father refolving never to quit his monaftic life, petition'd that he might be permitted to continue in his monaftery, where he had liv'd fo long, that he faid it was become his narural element, and that he could not tell how to live

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out of it. In this the government were pleas'd to gratify him, only they caus'd fome additions to be made to his apartment, from whence, by a fmall gallery and fteps, he had the conveniency to take boat; then paffing through Mercer's-ftreet he arriv'd at St. Mark's; and returning the fame way, as he fometimes did by night, from the public fervice to his monaftery, he avoided the blind alleys in which he was liable to be way-laid. And during the remaining fixteen years of his life, he feldom or never convers'd out of his chamber, except at Church, in the Refectory, or other public places.

He spent the refidue of his life in holy meditations, and in the moft ftudious application to the fervice of the State, or his neighbours; for in all forts of causes, even of the greateft difficulty, as teftaments, marriages, infeoffments, hereditaments, and arbitrations, they came to him for advice from all parts of the Republic; and he gave mild and folid answers to all, and with as much readiness as if he had been every man's advocate, and as if he had never ftudy'd any thing but the point in queftion; for tho' his anfwers and refolutions were furprizingly quick, yet they feem'd to be the effect of mature deliberation, and not capable of being render'd better. In ecclefiaftic controverfies especially he was efteem'd an oracle,, infomuch that when univerfitics and colleges were confulted, if the Father was of a different opinion, his had always the preference. And 'tis yet more admirable, that in the various and intricate affairs' of benefices, and other kinds of ecclefiaftical controverfies which came before him, even the Court of Rome could never find any thing in his judgmen s worthy of cenfure; and Fulgentio defies all that knew the Father, to prove that he ever err'd in his decifions;

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decifions; adding, that how hyperbolical foever it may feem to the reader, this, and even more than can poffibly be exprefs'd, is fact.

Tho' he took above ten times the pains that others of his faculty did, who got good eftates, yet he never took a fee or gratuity from any perfon whatfoever: What time he had to fpare from the fervice of God and the public, he apply'd to the mathematics, or employ'd it in reading the New Teftament and moral philofophy. Thus was his life composed of the active and the contemplative, always yielding to God what he could, and to his prince and country what he ought, and even more than he was oblig'd to by any law, besides that of charity.

But from the first to the last he was revil'd by many, for no other reason than to ingratiate themfelves with the Court of Rome. For this end they gave out that he oppofed the order of Priefthood, that he always declaimed against ecclesiastical jurifdiction, and exalted the power of fecular Princes more than was neceflary; tho' the contrary will evidently appear from his following treatife of the Rights of Sovereigns, and that he was a perpetual advocate for the jurifdiction and liberty of the Church, that Church which his friend Fulgentio calls "the true canonical and legal Church; not that

(fays he) which is now ufurp'd and employ'd to "the fubverfion of public government, and of religion itself; because the Father always affirm'd "that he was fure nothing fo much obftructed the progrefs of the (Roman) catholic religion, and "occafion'd fo deplorable a divifion among its profeffors, as the extending the ecclefiaftical liber"ties into license.

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On the other hand the Father has not spar'd, in many of his writings, to cenfure Princes for neglecting the preservation of the jurifdiction and power granted them by God; and he blames their ignorant zeal, in fuffering fo great a part of their power to be ufurp'd, and thereby putting themselves out of a capacity to rule the people committed to their charge, without altering the form of government; which negligence of princes, in this particular, Fulgentio himself afferts to have been pernicious to the Church of God and all the ecclefiaftical order.

Father Paul, far from fowing diffention in the Church, as his enemies objected, always bewail'd it as the true fource of all those mischiefs which have. brought into the Church the moft political worldly form of government that ever was, and which have interested the clergy in things not only different from, but contrary to the minifterial inftitution of Chrift, and fuch as keep chriftendom in perpetual difcord. He held, that the divifions of his day among chriftians were irrevocable by any other means than the almighty hand of God; and that they proceeded not fo much from obftinacy in diverfity of opinions and contrariety of doctrine, as from the ftrife about jurisdiction, which afterwards degenerating, and growing into factions, put on the mask of religion.

Mean time this hatred against Father Paul being daily nourish'd, grew up into another plot against his life, in the year 1609, which was laid and détected as follows. Bernardo, a frier of Perugia, having infinuated himself into the affection of Cardinal Bargbefe, by fome services that he did him formerly, which were very acceptable to the common guft of youth, went afterwards to Rome, where he was made much of by the Cardinal, and fent John Francefco