CENTURY X. 157 



remote parts, whether is there not some sense thereof 

 in the people whom it cpncerneth ; because of the great 

 joy or grief that many men are possessed with at once ? 

 Pius Quintus, at the very time when that memorable 

 victory was won by the Christians against the Turks, 

 at the naval battle of Lepanto, being then hearing of 

 causes in the consistory, brake off suddenly, and said to 

 those about him, It is now more time we should give 

 thanks to Grod for the great victory he has granted us 

 against the Turks : it is true that victory had a sym 

 pathy with his spirit; for it was merely his work to 

 conclude that league. 1 It may be that revelation was 

 divine : but what shall we say then to a number of ex 

 amples amongst the Grecians and Romans ? where the 

 people being in theatres at plays, have had news of 

 victories and overthrows, some few days befortf any 

 messenger could come. 



It is true that that may hold in these things, 

 which is the general root of superstition ; namely, 

 that men observe when things hit, and not when 

 they miss ; and commit to memory the one, and 

 forget and pass over the other. But touching 

 divination, and the misgiving of minds, we shall 

 speak more when we handle in general the nature 

 of minds, and souls, and spirits. 



989. We have given formerly some rules of imagi- 



1 This story rests upon better authority than most stories of the same 

 kind. Catena tells it in his Life of Pius V., published in 1586, only four 

 teen years after the battle. The Pope was not engaged in hearing causes, 

 but in transacting affairs of state with his minister Bussoti. See Catena, 

 Vita di Pio V. p. 195. Cardinal de Perron mentions it as a thing which 

 verybody at Rome knew to be true. 



