14 0
ESSAYS ON LIBERTY
The same ideas pervaded the Sacred College under Gregory. There are letters of profuse congratulation by the Cardinals of Lorraine, Este, and Pellevé. Bourbon was an accomplice before the fact. Granvelle condemned not the act but the delay. Delfino and Santorio approved, The Cardinal of Alessandria had refused the King's gift at Blois, and had opposed his wishes at the conclave. Circumstances were now so much altered that the ring was offered to him again, and this time it was accepted. 1 The one dissentient from the chorus of applause is said to have been Montalto. His conduct when he became Pope makes it very improbable; and there is no good authority for the story. But Leti has it, who is so far from a panegyrist that it deserves mention. The theory which was framed to justify these practices has done more than plots and massacres to cast discredit on the Catholics. This theory was as follows: Con- firmed heretics must be rigorously punished whenever it can be done without the probability of greater evil to religion. Where that is feared, the penalty may be suspended or delayed for a season, provided it be inflicted whenever the danger is past. 2 Treaties made with heretics, and promises given to them must not be kept, because sinful promises do not bind, and no agreemen t is la \vfuI which may injure religion or ecclesiastical authority. No
mi sia parso di trovarlo pieno di tale humiltà, prudenza, spirito et core che arguiscono che questa sia inspiratione veramente piuttosto che temerità 0 legerezza, non cognoscendo tuttavia di potergliela cOllcedere l' ho persuaso a tornarsene nel suo covento raccommandarsi a Dio et attendere all' obbedienza delli suoi superiori finchè io attendessi dallo assenso 0 ripulsa del Papa che haverei interpellato per la sua santa beneditione, se questo spirito sia veramente da Dio donde si potrà conjetturare che sia venendo approvato da Sua Stà., e perciò sarà più sicuro da essere eseguito, . . . Resta hora che V, S, Illma mi favorisca di communicare a S, B. il caso, et scrivermene come la supplico quanto prima per duplicate et triplicate lettere la sua santa determinatione assicurandosi che per quanto sarà in me il negotio sarà trattato con la debita circumspetione (Sega, Desp, Paris, Jan, 23, 159 1 ; deciphered in Rome, March 26), 1 Ferralz to Charles IX" Nov. 18, Dec, 23, 1572.
- ! De Castro, De Justa Haeret, Punitione, 1547, p, 119. lure Divino obligantur
eos extirpare, si absque maiori incommodo possint (Lancelottus, Haereticum quare perCatholicumquia, 1615, p, 579)' Ubi quid indulgendum sit, ratio semper exacta habeatur, an Religioni Ecclesiae, et Reipublicae quid vice mutua accedat quod majoris sit momenti, et plus prod esse possit (Pamelius, De Relíg. diversis non admittendis, 1589, p, 159). Contagium istud sic grassatum est, ut corrupta massa non [erat antiquissimas leges, severitasque tantisper remittenda sit (Possevinu5. Allimadv. in Tlmanum; Zachariae, Iter Litterarium, p, 321),
