414 
PAUL. 
In order to advance it, king James difpatched fir Henry 
Wotton his ambaffador to Venice; and, hearing that 
Spain had declared for the pope, he declared for the Ve¬ 
netians; and acquainted Juftiniani, their ambaffador in 
England, that he would not only a (Tift them with all the 
forces of his kingdom, but engage all his allies in their 
defence. At Wotton’s arrival, the breach between the 
pope and the republic was brought very near a crifis; fo 
that a total feparation was expeCted not only from the 
court, but the church of Rome; which was fet on by the 
learned Padre Paolo, and the feven divines of the ftate, 
with much zeal, and conduced with much prudence. 
The ambaffador at his audience offered all poffible aflift- 
ance in his matter's name,.and accufed the pope and pa¬ 
pacy of being the chief authors of all the mifchiefs in 
Chriftendom. This was received with great deference 
and refpeCt to king James : and when the pope’s nuncio 
objected, that king James was not a Catholic, and fo 
was not to be relied upon, the doge took him up brifkly, 
and told him, “ that the king of England believed in 
Jefus Chrift, but he did not know in wdiom fome others 
believed.” King James had fent with Wotton his “Pre¬ 
monition to all Chriftian Princes and States,” tranttated 
into Latin, to be prefented to thefenate; which Padre 
Paulo and the other divines preffed might be done at the 
firft audience, telling him they were confident it would 
have a very good effect. The ambaffador could not be 
prevailed with, alleging that he had pofitive orders to 
wait till St. James’s day, which was not far off. This 
conceit of prefenting king James’s book upon St. James’s 
day fpoiled all; for, before that day came, the difference 
was made up, and that happy opportunity loft.” 
But, notwithftanding this reconciliation, in which 
Father Paul was comprehended, the court of Rome did 
not forget who were employed by the fenate in defending 
he authority and rights of the republic, and loft no op¬ 
portunity of wreaking its vengeance upon them, under 
various pretexts. Above all, it could not forgive our au¬ 
thor’s attacks on the pope’s authority ; and fome of its fa¬ 
natical adherents were perfuaded, that it would be a highly 
meritorious aCtion to make away with a man who had been 
accufed and condemned for herefy and a revolt againft 
the church. Father Paul received intimations from va¬ 
rious quarters, that defigns were formed either on his 
liberty or his life, and was ftrongly urged to be upon his 
guard againft them. Trufting, however, to the accom¬ 
modation which had taken place, and the reCtitude of 
liis own conduCt, he lived in a ftate of fecurity which 
gave his enemies favourable opportunities of carrying 
their plans into execution. Returning to his monaftery 
on the evening of the 5th of October, 1607, he was at¬ 
tacked by five affaflins armed with ftilettoes, who wound¬ 
ed him in fifteen places, and left him for dead upon the 
fpot. Very providentially, not one of thefe wounds 
proved mortal, though three of them were exceedingly 
dangerous: two of them through his neck; and the 
third made by the ftiletto’s entering his right ear and 
coining out between the nofe and right cheek, after 
being driven in with fuch force, that the affaffm W'as 
obliged to leave his w’eapon in the wound. As his efcape 
feemed almoft miraculous, it was thought proper to pre- 
ferve the bloody inftrument which was left in the cheek 
as a public monument; and it was therefore hung up at 
the foot of a crucifix in the church of the Servites, with 
this infcription, Deo Filio Liberatori. 
This defign againft Father Paul’s life was not the only 
one attempted by his enemies. One plot was laid by 
fome monks of his own order, to murder him at night 
in his apartment, to which they had procured falfekeys ; 
but it was accidentally difcovered, and the reality of it 
confirmed by the feizure of letters. Various other 
fchemes were alfo laid for cutting him off; and he was 
even cautioned to be upon the watch againft them by car- 
dinal Bellarmine himfelf, whofe efteem for fo great a man 
was not diminifhed by their difpute on the fubjeCt of the 
interdict, and who condemned the criminal intrigues 
againft his perfon. Thefe intrigues engaged the fenate to 
take all imaginable precautions for his fafety, and to pro¬ 
hibit all unknown perfons from having any admiftion to- 
him for the future ; and he himfelf was now aware of the 
neceffity of living more privately in his monaftery. In 
this retirement, the firft compofition on which he em¬ 
ployed his pen, was his “ Account of the Quarrel be¬ 
tween Paul V. and the Republic of Venice,” publifhed 
in 1608, and containing a relation of all the circumftances 
connected with that memorable affair, drawn up with 
equal ability and impartiality. His attention was di¬ 
rected in the next place, to the arrangement and comple¬ 
tion of his celebrated “ Hiftory of the Council of Trent,” 
for which he had long before collected ample materials. 
It was firft publilhed at London, in 1619, in folio, under 
the feigned name of Pietro Soave Polano which is an ana¬ 
gram of Paolo Sarpi, Venetiano, and dedicated to James 
I. by Anthony de Dominis, archbifhop of Spalatro, then 
a refident in England. It was afterwards publifhed in 
the original Italian, the French, and other languages; 
and, in 1736, Father Courayer publifhed at London a new 
French tranflation of it in 2 vols. folio, illuftrated with 
valuable critical, hiftorical, and theological, notes. Be¬ 
fore the appearance of this hiftory, the public in general 
poffeffed no knowledge of ’the proceedings of that fa¬ 
mous council, which for many fucceffive years had en¬ 
gaged the attention of all the courts in Europe, excepting 
what could be collected from its decrees. But Father 
Paul’s work is rendered highly interefting, by laying, 
open to view the fecret intrigues, the main fprings 
which directed all its movements. Such a publication 
could not but create the moft unfavourable impreffions 
of the policy of the papal court; and on this account it 
produced more bitter enmity againft the author at Rome, 
than even his mafterly defences of the rights of the re¬ 
public of Venice. Father Paul alfo, in the retirement of 
his monaftery, wrote “ A Treatife on Ecclefiaftical Bene¬ 
fices,” pointing out the means by which the church had 
acquired its immenfe revenues, and theabufes which had 
taken place in the difpofal of them ; “ A Treatife on the 
Inquifition,” containing a brief hiftory of the eftablifh- 
ment of that tribunal, and of the manner in which it 
had been introduced into Venice in the year 1289, toge¬ 
ther with a, comparative view of its reception in that re¬ 
public and other countries; “ De Jure Afylorum ;” a 
treatife “On the Manner of conducting the Government 
of a Republic, fo as to infure its Duration ;” and a con¬ 
tinuation of the Archbifhop of Zara’s Hiftory of the 
Ufcocchi, from the year 1602 to 1616. The articles al¬ 
ready enumerated, together with a volume of Letters, 
are all the productions of Father Paul’s pen which have 
been given to the public. The firft collection of them 
was publifhed at Venice, 1677, in 6 vols. umo. 
Father Paul’s conftitution, which, as we have feen, 
was always tender and delicate, became worn out at 
length by his inceflant labours ; and in the winter of 
1622, his growing weaknefs, occafioned by the attack 
of a violent flux accompanied with fever, convinced him 
that his end was approaching. To this event he looked 
forward with firmnefs and tranquillity, arifing from a 
confcioufnefs of the innocence of his life, and the purity 
of his intentions; and he fpent his laft days, with the 
exception of thofe hours which he could not refufe to 
the fervice of his country, in meditation and prayer, and 
pious difcourfe with his friends. On the evening of 
Jan. 14, 1623, being told by his phyfician that he would 
not furvive the night, he difcovered the moft placid fub- 
miflion to the will of God, and wiflied his friends to 
withdraw, that they might not have the pain of witnef- 
fing his laft ftruggle; but they would not quit his dying- 
bed, and heard him, as his powers of fpeech were failing, 
pronounce the words, EJio perpetua, which they inter¬ 
preted to be a prayer for the prefervation of the republic. 
He had reached the 72d year of his age. When the news 
