Cardinal Carafa seems to have been the author of the above memorable dictum. Dr. John Prideaux thus alludes to the circumstance:
"Cardinalis (ut ferunt) quidam μετὰ πολλῆς φαντασίας Lutetiam aliquando ingrediens, cum instant importunius turbæ ut benedictionem impertiret: Quandoquidem (inquit) hic populus vult decipi, decipiatur in nomine Diaboli."—Lectiones Novem, p. 54.: Oxoniæ, 1625, 4to.
I must also quote from Dr. Jackson:
"Do all the learned of that religion in heart approve that commonly reported saying of Leo X., 'Quantum profuit nobis fabula Christi,' and yet resolve (as Cardinal Carafa did, Quoniam populus iste vult decipi, decipiatur) to puzzle the people in their credulity?"—Works, vol. i. p. 585.: Lond. 1673, fol.
The margin directs me to the following passage in Thuanus:
"Inde Carafa Lutetiam regni metropolim tanquam Pontificis legatus solita pompa ingreditur, ubi cum signum crucis, ut fit, ederet, verborum, quæ proferri mos est, loco, ferunt eum, ut erat securo de numine animo et summus religionis derisor, occursante passim populo et in genua ad ipsius conspectum procumbente, sæpius secreta murmuratione hæc verba ingeminasse: Quandoquidem populus iste vult decipi, decipiatur."—Histor., lib. xvii., ad ann. 1556, vol. i. p. 521.: Genevæ, 1626, fol.
Robert Gibbings.
LATIN—LATINER.
(Vol. vii., p. 423.)