Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/362

336 336 WARS AND POLITICS OF ITALY. PART tendom, and his own pious purpose, more particu- "" larly, of spreading the banners of the Cross over the infidel regions of Africa. The very sweet and fraternal tone of these communications filled the king of France, says Guicciardini, with much dis- trust of his royal brother; and he was heard to say, in allusion to the great preparations which the Spanish monarch was making by sea and land, " I am the Saracen against whom they are directed.'"' Investiture Xo securc Fcidinand more to his interests, the of Naples. ' pope granted him the investiture, so long withheld, of Naples, on the same easy terms on which it was formerly held by the Aragonese line. His Holiness further released him from the obligation of his mar- riage treaty, by which the moiety of Naples was to revert to the French crown, in case of Germaine's dying without issue. This dispensing power of the successors of St. Peter, so convenient for prin- ces in their good graces, is undoubtedly the severest tax ever levied by superstition on human reason. ^^ 15 Istoria, lib. 9, p. 135. — Car- unsuspicious authority, shows Fer- bajal, Anales, MS., aHo I51I. — dinand's sincere aversion to a rup- Bernaldez, Reyes Cat61icos, MS., ture with Louis at the present junc- cap. 225. — Peter Martyr, Opus ture ; and a subsequent passage of Epist., epist. 465. the same epistle shows him too Machiavelli's friend Vettori, in much in earnest in his dissuasives, one of his letters, speaks of the to be open to the charge of in- Catholic king as the principal au- sincerity. "Ut mitibus verbis ip- thor of the new coalition against sum, Reginam ejus uxorem, ut France, and notices three hundred consiliarios omncs Cabanillas ailo- lances which he furnished the pope quatur, ut agant apud regem suum in advance, for this purpose. (Ma- de pace, dat in frequentibus nianda- chiavelli, Opere, LetlereFamigliari, tis." Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., no. 8.) He does not seem to under- ubi supra. — See further, epist. 454. stand that these lances were part ^'^ Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., of the services due for the fief of no. 44L — Mariana, Hist, de Es- Naples. The letter above quoted pafia, tom. ii. lib. 29, cap. 24.^ of Martyr, a more competent and Giovio, Vitse lUust. Virorum, p