Still less applicable are the other authorities, who were adduced to escape the order of the Constitution of Alexander. For although it is true that for this crime the penalty threatened by the same decree does not enter, unless these three matters are concurrently present, namely craft, the occasion of a lawsuit, and the fact that no provocation has arisen (as Farinacci holds [Citation]), yet in our case, all of the abovesaid concur. As to the craft, there can be little doubt, since by the very confession of the Defendants we have knowledge of the preceding discussion and deliberation for committing the murders. And Decian and others affirm the charge of craft may arise from such a discussion. [Citations.]
The presence of a lawsuit is likewise undoubted; because, on the representation of Pietro Comparini, suit was not only brought before Judge Tomati as to the dowry promised and the goods subject to entail, for the exclusion of the said Guido Franceschini and Francesca his wife, but also a sentence favourable to the said Franceschini has been handed down by the same judge.
But still further we may gather, from the confession of Franceschini himself, that the provocation whereby he was moved to kill his wife arose because of the pretended adultery; on this point the counsel for the defence have principally insisted. Nor can they deny that this same cause was introduced in the criminal prosecution in the presence of the judge by the same Franceschini. It is quite necessary, then, to acknowledge that this ought to justify the application of the penalty of the Alexandrian Bull; for this decree speaks in civil as well as criminal cases, as is evident in the fourth paragraph of the same Bull, where we read: "That successively in future times forever, each and all persons, ecclesiastical and secular, of whatever quality, dignity, state and grade of rank and prominence, in their own causes under benefit of clergy or secular, also in criminal and mixed cases, whether now before this Court or pending for the time, their adversaries, or those following or helping them, or the Advocates or Counsel of them." And also in the place where we read: "If mutilation of limb, or death (which God avert) follow, they incur ipso facto beside the loss of their right and case, the sentence for the outraged majesty of the Law."
We believe we have sufficiently canvassed these matters with galloping pen (there being but a brief three hours) to prove clearly that the foundations of the Fisc affirmed in our former writings still stand fast, in spite of what has been recently deduced by the opposition so fully and so learnedly, but without legitimate proof.
F. Gambi,
Procurator General of the Fisc and of the
Reverend Apostolic Chamber.
[[File-title of Pamphlet 13.]]
By the Most Illustrious and Most
Reverend Lord Governor of the
City in Criminal Cases:
ROMAN MURDER-CASE
with qualifying circumstance.
For the Fisc, against Count Guido Franceschini
and his Associates.