een sent, and was afterwards
suppressed by Salviati; and the French bishop, Spondanus, assigns the
reasons which induced Gregory XIII. to give way.[104] Others affirmed
that he had yielded when he learned that the marriage was a snare, so
that the massacre was the price of the dispensation.[105] The Cardinal
of Lorraine gave currency to the story. As he caused it to be understood
that he had been in the secret, it seemed probable that he had told the
Pope; for they had been old friends.[106] In the commemorative
inscription which he put up in the Church of St. Lewis he spoke of the
King's gratitude to the Holy See for its assistance and for its advice
in the matter--"consiliorum ad eam rem datorum." It is probable that he
inspired the narrative which has contributed most to sustain the
imputation.

Among the Italians of the French faction who made it their duty to
glorify the act of Charles IX., the Capilupi family was conspicuous.
They came from Mantua, and appear to have been connected with the French
interest through Lewis Gonzaga, who had become by marriage Duke of
Nevers, and one of the foremost personages in France. Hippolyto
Capilupi, Bishop of Fano, and formerly Nuncio at Venice, resided at
Rome, busy with French politics and Latin poetry. When Charles refused
to join the League, the Bishop of Fano vindicated his neutrality in a
letter to the Duke of Urbino.[107] When he slew the Huguenots, the
Bishop addressed him in verse,--

Fortunate puer, paret cui Gallica tellus,
Quique vafros ludis pervigil arte viros,
Ille tibi debet, toti qui praesidet Orbi,
Cui nihil est cordi religione prius....

Qui tibi saepe dolos struxit, qui vincla paravit,
Tu puer in laqueos induis arte senem....

Nunc florent, tolluntque caput tua lilia, et astris
Clarius hostili tincta cruore micant.[108]

Camillo Capilupi, a nephew of the Mantuan bard, held office about the
person of the Pope, and was employed on missions of consequence.[109] As
soon as the news from Paris reached Rome he drew up the account which
became so famous under the title of _Lo Stratagemma di Carlo IX_. The
dedication is dated the 18th of September 1572.[110] This tract was
suppressed, and was soon so rare that its existence was unknown in 1574
to the French translator of the second edition. Capilupi republished his
book with alterations, and a preface dated the 22nd of October. The
substance and purpose of the two editions is t