At Rome, in the type of the Reverend Apostolic Chamber,
1698.
[Pamphlet 16.]
Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord:
I omit further discussion with my Lord Advocate of the Fisc about the communication of his allegations, because the time is brief, and I have professed great reverence for him since my youth. Let me also pass over the claim that when one is arguing about death inflicted by a husband upon his wife, not in the act of taking her in adultery, but after an interval, mere suspicion, however strong, is not sufficient to redeem him from the ordinary penalty of the Cornelian law, but that the clearest proof of the adultery is required, as is claimed by our opponents. Yet we have proved the contrary in our former argument, § quamquam ad hoc. And Dondeus, Sanfelicius, and Muta, who were not cited there, hold that it is quite enough if the couple be found alone in some retreat; and No. 3 says especially if the wife be beautiful. [Citation.] See the word of Ovid: "Great is the strife of modesty with beauty, And man keeps eagerly craving it." [Heroides, Paris to Helen.] So in the present case, according to the same author: "By this young and passionate man is she supposed to have been returned still a virgin?" [Heroides, 5, 109.]
At present, we are dealing with a case not merely of clearest proof, but also of notorious fact; because we have a decree of this very Tribunal by which such adultery was declared. Although the words of this decree have been given in the present information, § Absque eo quod, yet I wish to repeat them here, because they are so clear: "Giuseppe Maria Caponsacchi, of Arezzo, for complicity in the flight of Francesca Comparini, and for criminal knowledge of the same, is banished for three years to Civita Vecchia."
But I cannot pass over what is still claimed—that this decree was revoked—because, as I have said in my information, the truth is quite the contrary; for we have only the fact that in the mandate for imprisoning the sinning Canon the repetition of the whole decree, as given above, was omitted, and it was said: "For the cause, concerning which in the suit." These words are so far from showing a revocation that they rather offer confirmation of the said decree, as we have affirmed in our information, § Nec verum est. The same should be said of the like words furnished by the notary in the bond which Francesca Pompilia executed to keep the home of her father as a prison. This was when she was brought there from the nunnery, where she had been staying securely, on the grounds of her supposed infirmity, but I may say more truly that it was because of her pregnancy, which she wished to hide by some evil deed.
[Our claim is all the more true] because this pretended revocation of the decree could not be made when the other side had not been heard, as I have said in my information, § Eoque magis.