Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/357

331 WARS AND POLITICS OF ITALY. 331 the avowed purpose of the pontiff, to chase the chapter barbarians from Italy. It was his bold policy, 1_ however, to make use of them first for the aggran- dizement of the church, and then to trust to his augmented strength and more favorable opportuni- ^ ties for eradicating them altogether. Never was there a project more destitute of prin- ciple, or sound, policy. There was not one of the contracting parties, who was not at that very time in close alliance with the state, the dismemberment of which he was plotting. As a matter of policy, it went to break down the principal barrier, on which each of these powers could rely for keeping in check the overweening ambition of its neighbours, and maintaining the balance of Italy. ^ The alarm of Venice was quieted for a time by assurances from the courts of France and Spain, that the league was solely directed against the Turks, ac- companied by the most hypocritical professions of good-will, and amicable offers to the republic. ^ The preamble of the treaty declares, that, it being its origin. the intention of the allies to support the pope in a crusade against the infidel, they first proposed to recover from Venice the territories of which she had despoiled the church and other powers, to the mani- fest hindrance of these pious designs. The more flagitious the meditated enterprise, the deeper was 5 This argument, used by Ma- torn. i. pp. 66, 67. — Ulloa, Vita chiavelli against Louis's rupture di Carlo V., fol. 36, 37. Guicciar- with Venice, applies with more or dini, Istoria, torn. iv. p. 141. — less force to all the other allies. Bembo, Istoria Viniziana, tom. ii. Opere, II Principe, cap. 3. lib. 7. 6 Du Bos, Ligue de Cambray,