Page:Awful memorial of the state of Francis Spira (1).pdf/9

[9] a matter as the reciting of a little Schedule, which might be done in leſs ſpace than half an hour, he might both free himſelf from preſent danger, and preſerve many that depended on him; adding, moreover, that he could get no credit in relenting from that which he had already, for the moſt part, acknowledged before the Legate at Venice; and that in the perfect accompliſhing thereof, little or no diſcredit could ariſe, more than what by the former action he had already ſuſtained. On the other ſide, if he did not perform his promiſe to the Legate, he could neither diſcharge himſelf of the ſhame which he had already incurred, nor avoid far more heavy and inſupportable injuries, than probably he ſhould have endured, if he had perſiſted obſtinately in his former opinions.

This was the last blow of the battle, and Spira utterly overcome, goes to the Prætor, and makes offer to perform his promiſe made to the Legate; who, in the mean time, had taken order to have all things ready, and ſent the inſtrument of abjuration, ſigned by Spira, to the Prætor, by the hands of a certain prieſt.

All that night the miſerable man wore out with reſtleſs cares, without a minute of reſt,- The next morning being come, he got up, and being ready, deſperately enters into the public congregation, where Maſs being finiſhed, in the preſence of friends and enemies and of the whole aſſembly, being, by eſtimation, near two thouſand people; yea, and of Heaven itſelf! he recited that infamous abjuration, word for word, as it was written. It being done, he was fined of thirty pieces of gold, which he preſently paid: five whereof were given to the prieſt that brought the abjuration, the other five and twenty were