WARS AND POLITICS OF ITALY. 3S5 tion on her behalf with the haughty pontiff. The chapter latter, having taken this direction, went forward in . '^^"' it with his usual impetuosity. He planned a new coalition for the expulsion of the French, calling on the other allies to take part in it. Louis retaliated by summoning a council to inquire into the pope's conduct, and by marching his troops into the terri- tories of the church. ^^ The advance of the French, who had now got p^Xa^nd possession of Bologna, alarmed Ferdinand. He 1511. had secured the objects for which he had entered ^^^^ ^^' into the war, and was loath to be diverted from enterprises in which he was interested nearer home. " I know not," writes Peter Martyr, at this time, " on what the king will decide. He is intent on following up his African conquests. He feels natural reluctance at breaking with his French ally. But I do not well see how he can avoid supporting the pope and the church, not only as the cause of re- ligion, but of freedom. For if the French get possession of Rome, the liberties of all Italy and of every state in Europe are in peril." ^* The Catholic king viewed it in this light, and sent repeated and earnest remonstrances to Louis the Twelfth, against his aggressions on the church, beseeching him not to interrupt the peace of Chris- 13 Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, !■* Opus Epist., epist. 465.— Me- MS., cap. 221. — F leurange, Me- moires de Bayard, chap. 46. — moires, chap. 7. — Peter Martyr, Fleurange, Memoires, chap. 26. — Opus Epist., epist. 416. — Guic- Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., ciardini, Istoria, torn. iv. pp. 178, cap. 225. 179, 190, 191 ; torn. v. pp. 71, 82- 86. — Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, lib. 7, 9, 10.
