Pagina 84 van 310

Nevertheless, if any one should ask of me how comes it that the

Church has attained such greatness in temporal power, seeing that

from Alexander backwards the Italian potentates (not only those

who have been called potentates, but every baron and lord, though

the smallest) have valued the temporal power very slightly-yet

now a king of France trembles before it, and it has been able to

drive him from Italy, and to ruin the Venetians-although this may

be very manifest, it does not appear to me superfluous to recall

it in some measure to memory.