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Therefore Louis made these five errors: he destroyed the minor

powers, he increased the strength of one of the greater powers in

Italy, he brought in a foreign power, he did not settle in the

country, he did not send colonies. Which errors, had he lived,

were not enough to injure him had he not made a sixth by taking

away their dominions from the Venetians; because, had he not

aggrandized the Church, nor brought Spain into Italy, it would

have been very reasonable and necessary to humble them; but

having first taken these steps, he ought never to have consented

to their ruin, for they, being powerful, would always have kept

off others from designs on Lombardy, to which the Venetians would

never have consented except to become masters themselves there;

also because the others would not wish to take Lombardy from

France in order to give it to the Venetians, and to run counter

to both they would not have had the courage.