225 
Fra Paolo Sarpi. 
tree to hold another solemn meeting!: in a 
o 
different part of the field. 
And now we, too, must be going. 
Bidding farewell to this land of eternity. 
we must step across the boundaries into 
the region where time and locality gov¬ 
ern, and resume our trivial duties, tem¬ 
porarily abandoned, of guiding the Ship 
of State and making a living. 
Henry Oldys. 
FRA PAOLO SARPI. 
II. 
The Venetian Republic showed it¬ 
self duly grateful to Sarpi. The Sen¬ 
ate offered him splendid presents and 
entitled him “ Theologian of Venice.” 
The presents he refused, but the title 
with its duty, which was mainly to 
guard the Republic against the en¬ 
croachments of the Vatican, he accept¬ 
ed, and his life in the monastery of 
Santa Fosca went on quietly, simply, 
laboriously, as before. The hatred now 
felt for him at Rome was unbounded. 
It corresponded to the gratitude at 
Venice. Every one saw his danger, and 
he well knew it. Potentates were then 
wont to send assassins on long errands, 
and the arm of the Vatican was espe¬ 
cially far-reaching and merciless. It 
was the period when Pius V, the Pow 
whom the Church afterwards proclaimed 
a saint, commissioned an assassin to 
murder Queen Elizabeth.^ 
But there was in Father Pa^ a trust 
in Providence akin to fatali^. Again 
and again he was warne<^and among 
those who are said to hm^ advised him 
to be on his guard ageist papal assas¬ 
sins was no less a >^rsonage than his 
greatest controvei^al enemy, — Cardi¬ 
nal Bellarmine/ It was believed by 
Sarpi’s friend^hat Bellarmine’s Scotch 
^ This sta^ment formerly led to violent de¬ 
nials by upramontane champions ; but in 1870 
it was inftde by Lord Acton, a Roman Catholic, 
one o^ahe most learned of modern liistorians, 
and/vhen it was ang'rily denied, he quietly cited 
th^official life of Pope Pius in the Acta Sanc- 
voL. xciii. — NO. 556. 15 
ideas of duty to humanity prevailed oj^r 
his Roman ideas of fealty to the Vati¬ 
can, and we may rejoice in the ho^ that 
his nobler qualities did really assert 
themselves against the casuij^'y of his 
brother prelates which sancfnoned assas¬ 
sination. 
These warnings weiy^soon seen to be 
well founded. On jC pleasant evening 
in October, 1607,carefully laid trap 
was sprung. Reaming from his day’s 
work at the Du^al Palace, Father Paul, 
just as he crossed the little bridge 
of Santa F^ca before reaching his con¬ 
vent, wa^met by five assassins. Two 
of his ysual attendants had been drawn 
off bythe outburst of a fire in the neigh- 
boi^ood; the other two were old men 
no proved useless. The place was well 
'chosen. The descent from the bridge 
was so narrow that all three were obliged 
to march in single file, and just at this 
point these ruffians from Rome sprang 
upon him in the dusk, separated him 
from his companions, and gave him, in 
a moment, fifteen dagger thrusts, two 
in his throat and one — a fearful gash 
•— on the side of his head, and then, 
convinced that they had killed him, es¬ 
caped to their boats, only a few paces 
distant. 
The victim lingered long in the hos¬ 
pital, but his sound constitution and 
torum, published by the hifjhest church au¬ 
thority. This was final; denial ceased, and the 
statement is no longer questioned. For other 
proofs in the line of Lord Acton’s citation, see 
Bellarmine’s Selbstbiographie, cited in a pre¬ 
vious article, pp. 300, et seq. 
