JULIA G0NZA6A. 32^ 



of Parma and Placentia. He had a daughter named 

 Victoria. Both the duke and the pope demanded that* 

 fhe fhould be married to the young Vefpafiano, her 

 nephew. It was the advice of all her friends, not to 

 flight fo fplendid a propofal; but, as fhe was con- 

 vinced, that her nephew was not in a condition to pro- 

 vide for a niece of the pope and daughter of a duke, 

 in a manner fuitable to her rank, no arguments they 

 could ufe were able to obtain her confent. 



When Vefpafiano Gonzaga, her nephew, had ar- 

 rived at the age that capacitated him to affume the go- 

 vernment of his domains in Lombardy, Hie gave him 

 up to his own guidance, bid adieu to all worldly af- 

 fairs, and fhut herfelf clofer than ever m the nunnery 

 tit Naples ; that fhe might devote the reft: of her days 

 to repofe, and what was then called piety. She died 

 the 19th of April, in the year 1566. after having ap- 

 pointed her nephew fole heir of her property ; which, 

 after the payment of the various legacies, amounted to 

 a yearly revenue of 30,000 ducats. One thing is re- 

 markable, that, in her teftament, Hie commends, her 

 foul to God and our Saviour, without mentioning- the 

 mother of God and the faints ; and that, of all her nu- 

 merous legacies, there is not one that relates to monks 

 and mafTes. I fhall not conclude from hence that fhe 

 neither believed in mafic s nor in faints : but it agrees 

 perfectly with what Thuanus writes of her, that fhe 

 and Victoria Colonna were thought to be feeretly at- 

 tached to the proteflant religion. Ho relates, that 

 Pietro Carnefecchi, who in the year 1566. was at 

 Rome condemned to the flames, as a heretic, was ad- 

 judged to that miferable death becaufe he had con- 



y 3 tracked 



1 



