OF AN HOLY WAR. 121 



of fifty years, whereof I spake, there have been 

 three noble and memorable actions upon the infidels, 

 wherein the Christian hath been the invader : for 

 where it is upon the defensive, I reckon it a war of 

 nature, and not of piety. The first was, that famous 

 and fortunate war by sea, that ended in the victory 

 of Lepanto ; which hath put a hook into the nostrils 

 of the Ottomans to this day ; which was the work 

 chiefly of that excellent pope Pius Quintus, whom 

 I wonder his successors have not declared a saint. 

 The second was, the noble, though unfortunate, ex 

 pedition of Sebastian king of Portugal upon Africa, 

 which was atchieved by him alone ; so alone, as left 

 somewhat for others to excuse. The last was, the 

 the brave incursions of Sigismund the Transylvariian 

 prince, the thread of whose prosperity was cut off 

 by the Christians themselves, contrary to the worthy 

 and paternal monitories of pope Clement the eighth. 

 More than these, I do not remember. POLLIO. No ! 

 What say you to the extirpation of the Moors of 

 Valentia ? At which sudden question, Martius was 

 a little at a stop ; and Gamaliel prevented him, and 

 said : GAMALIEL. I think Martius did well in omit 

 ting that action, for I, for my part, never approved 

 it ; and it seems, God was not well pleased with 

 that deed ; for you see the king, in whose time it 

 passed, whom you catholics count a saint-like and 

 immaculate prince, was taken away in the flower of 

 his age : and the author, and great counsellor of 

 that rigour, whose fortunes seemed to be built upon 

 the rock, is ruined : and it is thought by some, that 



