[7] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. i. lib. 3, p. 147.
[8] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 119, 123.—Fleury, Histoire Ecclésiastique, contin. (Paris, 1722,) tom. xxiv. lib. 117, p. 545.—Peter Martyr, whose residence and rank at the Spanish court gave him access to the best sources of information as to the repute in which the new pontiff was held there, expresses himself in one of his letters to Cardinal Sforza, who had assisted at his election, in the following unequivocal language. "Sed hoc habeto, princeps illustrissime, non placuisse meis Regibus pontificatum ad Alexandrum, quamvis eorum ditionarium, pervenisse. Verentur namque ne illius cupiditas, ne ambitio, ne (quod gravius) mollities filialis Christianam religionem in praeceps trahat." Epist. 119.
[9] A remarkable example of this occurred in the middle of the fifteenth century, when the inundation of the Turks, which seemed ready to burst upon them, after overwhelming the Arabian and Greek empires, had no power to still the voice of faction, or to concentrate the attention of the Italian states, even for a moment.
[10] Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. i. lib. 1, p. 2.
[11] Brantôme, Vies des Hommes Illustres, Oeuvres Complètes, (Paris, 1822- 3,) tom. ii. disc. i. pp. 2, 20.
[12] Sismondi, Hist. des Français, tom. xv. p. 112.—Gaillard, Rivalité, tom. iv. pp. 2, 3.
[13] Daru, Histoire de la République de Venise, (Paris, 1821,) tom. iii. liv. 20.—See the deed of cession, in the memoir of M. de Foncemagne. (Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, tom. xvii. pp. 539-579.) This document, as well as some others which appeared on the eve of Charles's expedition, breathes a tone of Quixotic and religious enthusiasm that transports us back to the days of the crusades.
[14] The conflicting claims of Anjou and Aragon are stated at length by Gaillard, with more candor and impartiality than were to be expected from a French writer. (Histoire de François I., (Paris, 1769,) tom. i. pp. 71- 92.) They form the subject of a juvenile essay of Gibbon, in which we may discern the germs of many of the peculiarities which afterwards characterized the historian of the Decline and Fall. Miscellaneous Works, (London, 1814.) vol. iii. pp. 206-222.
[15] Essai sur les Moeurs, chap. 107.—His politic father, Louis XI., acted on this principle, for he made no attempt to maintain his pretensions to Naples; although Mably affects to doubt whether this were not the result of necessity rather than policy. "Il est douteux si cette modération fut l'ouvrage d'une connoissance approfondie de ses vrais intérêts, ou seulement de cette défiance qu'il avoit des grands de son royaume, et qu'il n'osoit perdre de vue." Observations sur l'Histoire de France, Oeuvres, (Paris, 1794-5,) liv. 6, chap. 4.
[16] Flassan, Histoire de la Diplomatic Française, (Paris, 1809,) tom. i. pp. 254-259.—Dumont, Corps Universel Diplomatique du Droit des Gens, (Amsterdam, 1726-31,) tom. iii. pp. 297-300.