Kings & rulers > History of the reign of the Emperor Charles V. > Volume 1

A VIEW OF THE
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fchemes feemingly the moft extravagant. They
trufted, that if their temporal power was not fuf-
ficient to carry them through with fuccefs, the
refpett paid to their fpiritual dignity would ena¬
ble them to extricate themfelves with facility and
with honour d. But when popes came to take
part more frequently in the contefts among
princes, and to engage as principals or auxiliaries
in every war kindled in Europe, this veneration
for their facred charafter began to abate ; and
ilriking inltances will occur in the following hif-
tory of its being almoft totally extindf.
Of all the Italian powers, the republic of Ve¬
nice, next to the papal fee, was moft connected
with the reft of Europe. The rife of that com¬
monwealth, during the inroads of the Huns in
d The manner in which Louis XII. of France undertook
and carried on war againlt Julius II. remarkably illuftrates
this obfervation. Louis Iblemnly conl'ulted the clergy of
France, whether it was lawful to take arms againft a pope
who had wantonly kindled war in Europe, and whom neither
the faith of treaties, nor gratitude for favours received, nor
the decorum of his charadler, could reftrain from the molt
violent aftions to which the lull of power prompts ambitious
princes. Though his clergy authorized the war, yet Anne
of Bretagne, his queen, entertained fcruples with regard to
the lawfulnefs of it. The king himfelf, from fome fuper-
ftition of the fame kind, carried it on faintly ; and, upon
every (refh advantage, renewed his propofrtions of peace.
JVlezeray, Hill, de France, fol. edit. 1685. tom. i. 852. I
fhall produce another proof of this reverence for the papal
charadler, Hill more Ilriking. Guicciardini, the moll fuga¬
cious, peihaps, of all modern hillorians, and the boldell in
painting the vices and ambition of the popes, reprefents the
death of Migliau, a Spanilh officer, who was killed during
the fiege of Naples, as a punilhment inflidted on him by
heaven, on account of his having oppofed the fetting of Cle¬
ment VII. at liberty. Guic. Hiltoria dTtalia. Genev. 1645.
vol. ii, lib. 18. p. 467.
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