122 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2id S. No 85., Aug. 15. '57. 



In the above extracts I have transcribed from 

 S' Koger's vindication of himself all that seems to 

 bear directly upon the publication of the History 

 of the Council of Trent. I will now proceed to 

 transcribe from one of his Common-Place Books, 

 in the order in which they occur, the notes that 

 he has jotted down of the transactions connected 

 with that publication. The first entry is as fol- 

 lows : — 



" Neither will I heere omitt what Mr. ISTatha- 

 niell Brent*, Doctor of the cyvill Law, did tell 

 me y" 2 of October, 1627, meeting him in Xon- 

 don. That King James, having intelligence of 

 this History!, y* it was finished, hee y"" said Doc- 

 tor Brent was sent over to Venice for y'' copy : 

 where arryving hee was two monthes beefore hee 

 could gette acquaintance with P. Paulo ; though 

 he were well acquainted with Fulgentio, a fryer 

 of y^ same order and a kind of discyple of y" 

 forenamed Paulo, and likewise a merchant very 

 familiar with him ; both which told him he might 

 trust his book to y*" said Doctor ; yet the fryar 

 (knowing as it seems the worth of his own child, 

 and y'= hatred y^ Pope bare him) would not for all 

 doe any thing till (as M'^ D" Brent to me sayd) 

 hee had herd out of England from some friend 

 heere, that hee might safely trust him with it. 

 After hee knewe him throughly, hee found mar- 

 vylous much worth and courtsey in y® man, who 

 sufferd him to write out y'' History as hee did, 

 and sent it over to England in fourteen severall 

 pacquetts. Farther, speaking with him of y<= 

 truth, and y" Papists denying or 'confuting this 

 book, hee told me there was one alive could shew 

 it all in their owne Records, and, as longe as hee 

 lived, there was none of them durst deny any ma- 

 terial! thing in it. I think he ment by this man 

 Fulgentio aforenamed, who (as I have herd) suc- 

 ceeded in part of the trust y^ state had formerly 

 reposde in him. This D"" Brent had in a chamber 

 at Merton Colledg the pictures of both Paulo and 

 Fulgentio.J 



• " Hee translated 3"= story into English." 



t " By y<= Ambassador of Venice." 



j Fulgentio indeed relates, with regard to portraits of 

 Sarpi, that, though many sovereigns had asked him for 

 his picture, yet he never could be brought to sit, or suffer 

 it to be drawn : " Un particolare," says he, " anco si non 

 si pub tacere in tal proposito, cio e la ferma risolutione di 

 non lasciar cosa, b di sua mano, h d' altri, che lo facesse 

 nominare, come di lasciarsi mai ritrarre del naturale, con 

 tutto che e da Rb e da Principi grandi ne sia stato recer- 

 cato. E se bene vanno attorno suoi ritratti da naturale, 

 tutti sono copie d' uno, che si dice esser nella galeria d' un 

 gran Ee, che gli fu tolto centra sua voglia, e con bel stra- 

 tagema. Ma quanto k sb, se I' abborisse, nb fa fede ch' 

 havendolo ne gl' ultimi anni pregato 1' lUustrissimo e 

 Excellentissimo Domenico Molini, e fatto supplicare per 

 Maestro Fulgentio, mai potb ottenir di lasciare ch' un 

 pittore famoso che s'offeriva non occuparlopiu d'unhora, 

 lo ritrasse. E pure quel Signore, lo rlcerco in virtii dell' 

 amicitia, e con modi cotanto significanti, che per la re- 



" He told me likewise at another time, viz. 3^ of 

 October, 1630, beeing then S" Nathanyell Brent, 

 and oflfycyall to the Bishop of Canterbury at Can- 

 terbury, y* my lorde of Canterbury spake first to 

 him to get somebody to goe to Venice about a 

 specyall busynesse, but told him not what, and, 

 on his nomynating of divers which he mislyked, 

 y" Bishop asked him if he would not goe himself, 

 which, after some small excuse, he assented to 

 doe, and then the Bishop told him y" cause of 

 sending, and y* it would bee a thing y" King 

 would take very well. When he came to Venice, 

 Padre Paulo refused any treaty with him at all if 

 he lodged not in y*^ house, eyther one .... or one 

 .... which he at last obteyned. 



" Likewise another Dyvine* that had long lived 

 at Venice, told me he was General of y® Order of 

 y^ Servi ; y* Fulgentio (with whom he left all his 

 papers at his death) told him Cardinall Bellarmine 

 writ to him y® said Padre Paolo a letter (which 

 Fulgentio had) to know his opinyon of publishing 

 either all or some part of his Controversies, — y* 

 Padre Paulo would say of them, ' Opus est una 

 litura,' as not approeving them. That he well 

 knew Cardinall Bellarmine at Rome is manifest 

 by his Apologie| for Gerson against that Cardi- 

 nall, page 2. ; and Fulgentio, in his defence of 

 Padre Paulo's considerations upon y'= Bull of 



pulsa datagli piii di quindeci di continuati, che trattene il 

 pittore, venne in oflFesa col Padre, e stette alcuni mesi 

 senza parlargi." In Burnet's Life of Bedell, p. 194., is a 

 letter from Sir Henry Wotton to Dr. Collins, Regius Pro- 

 fessor of Divinity in Cambridge, in which there occurs 

 this passage : " And now, Sir, having a tit messenger, 

 and being not long after the time, when love-tokens use 

 to pass between freinds, let me be bold to send you for a 

 New Year's Gift a certain memorial not altogether un- 

 worthy of some entertainment under your Roof, namelj', 

 a true picture of Padre Paolo, the Servile, which was first 

 taken by a painter whom I sent unto him from my house, 

 then neighbouring his monastery. I have newly added 

 thereunto a Title of mine own conception (" Concil. Tri- 

 dent, eviscerator "), and had sent the frame withal, if it 

 were portable, which is but of plain Deal coloured black, 

 like the habit of his order." 



There were formerly at Roydon Hall portraits of both 

 Sarpi and Fulgentius, sent to Sir Roger from Venice by 

 his brother William, who, in the letter which accom- 

 panied them, declares them to be admirable likenesses ; 

 and he asserts, on the authority of Fulgentius himself, 

 that that of Sarpi was the best and most correct likeness 

 of his master which he had ever seen. 



Some thirty years ago or more, I consigned these tem- 

 porarily to the care of a young artist in London who was 

 residing in furnished lodgings. The landlord suffered an 

 execution in his house ; the officers of the sheriff carried 

 off these two pictures, and I did not hear of the event till 

 it was too late to recover them. From that hour to this 

 I have never been able to trace them. Perhaps this no- 

 tice of the circumstance in " N. & Q." may lead to their 

 discovery. Their value, in whosesoever hands they are, 

 must be greatly enhanced by this testimony of Fulgentius 

 to their merit. — L. B. L. 



* " Mr. Stj'les, chaplaine to S'' Isaak Wake at Venice." 



t "Printed at Venice, 1606." 



