PAUL V (Camillo Borghese, said). Letter signed... - Lot 27 - Osenat

PAUL V (Camillo Borghese, said). Letter signed at the top "Paulus Papa [quintu]s" (secretary), in Latin and Italian, addressed to the king of France HENRI IV. Frascati, October 13, 1609. 2/3 p. in-folio in Italian with a line in Latin, address on the back with red wax seal. FOLLOWING THE AFFAIR OF THE LETTER OF THE PASTOR DIODATI, THE POPE THANKS HENRY IV FOR HIS GESTURE IN FAVOR OF ROME AT THE EXPENSE OF VENICE. At the beginning of the century, a conflict opposed Rome to the Republic of Venice, whereas this last one had taken measures to control the ecclesiastical appointments on its territory, that a part of its Senate leaned for a tactical support to the reformed powers in Europe, and that Paul V had then struck of interdict the Serenissima. France was a traditional ally of Venice, and a strong Gallican current was in favor of "Venetianism" against Roman absolutism. The assassination attempt perpetrated in February 1609 on the person of Paolo Sarpi, Venetian figure of the opposition to Rome, had raised indignation in France. Henry IV, worried about a rapprochement of Venice with the Protestants against Rome that would put him in an awkward position, approached the Curia with a significant gesture. The Italian Calvinist theologian Giovanni Diodati had written in January 1609 to the Protestant Philippe Duplessis-Mornay to congratulate himself on the favorable prospects for the spread of the Reformation in Venice, but his letter had been intercepted by the French authorities: in August 1609, the king ordered that it be given to the Apostolic Nuncio in Paris, Roberto Ubaldini, and that a copy be sent to the Venetian Senate through the intermediary of the French ambassador Jean Bochard de Champigny. This action allowed the partisans of Rome to take again the majority in the Senate. "Char[issi]me in Christo fili n[oste]r, salutem et apost[olic]am benedictionem. Fossimo avvisati da Venetia degl'offitii che haveva passati con quella Repubblica il s[igno]re di Ciampigni, amb[assado]re di V[ostra] M[aes]tà per ordine suo, avvertendola in spetie della LETTERA PERNITIOSA DI GINEVRA IN MATERIA DI MUTATIONE DI RELIGIONE. Noi ce ne consolassimo sommamente et per l'opera in se et per l'avumento di merito et di gloria che ne riceve la M[aes]tà V[ostra]; et inviassimo ordine al nuntio di ringratiarnela in nostro nome ; ma non contenti in noi di questo solo off[iti]o, ne la ringratiamo affettuosamente anco per noi stessi, certificandola che havremo stimolo tanto magg[io]re di ringratiarnela, pure con gl'effeti alle occasioni, quanto che nella pia et veramente regia attione di V[ostra] M[aes]tà riconosciamo et consideriamo principalmente il serv[iti]o di Dio n[ostro] S[igno]re et della sua Chiesa S[an]ta . Et perche habbiamo commesso al sodetto nuntio che le dica in voce quel più che ci occorre in simili materie, ci riportiamo a lui, et alla M[aes]tà V[ostra] pregiamo felicità continua... "