صفحة 21 من 310

Thus King Louis lost Lombardy by not having followed any of the

conditions observed by those who have taken possession of

countries and wished to retain them. Nor is there any miracle in

this, but much that is reasonable and quite natural. And on these

matters I spoke at Nantes with Rouen, when Valentino, as Cesare

Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander, was usually called, occupied

the Romagna, and on Cardinal Rouen observing to me that the

Italians did not understand war, I replied to him that the French

did not understand statecraft, meaning that otherwise they would

not have allowed the Church to reach such greatness. And in fact

it has been seen that the greatness of the Church and of Spain in

Italy has been caused by France, and her ruin may be attributed

to them.