The Inquisition examined
and condemned the work. Its author was excommunicated by Innocent XI. in
1684. This sentence was subsequently removed, as we find our author
Provincial of the Dominican Order in 1706; but having subscribed his name
to the celebrated _Cas de Conscience_, together with forty other doctors
of the Sorbonne, he was banished to Chatelleraut and deprived of his
pension. He died in 1724.
Italian historians seem to have fared ill, and our next author, Peter
Giannone, was no exception to the rule. He was born in 1676, and resided
some time at Naples, following the profession of a lawyer. There he
published in 1723 four volumes of his illustrious work entitled _Dell'
Historia civile del Regno di Napoli, dopo l'origine sino ad re Carlo VI.,
da Messer P. Giannone (Napoli, Nicolo Naro_, 1723, in-4), which, on
account of certain strictures upon the temporal authority of the Pope,
involved him in many troubles.
This remarkable work occupied the writer twenty years, and contains the
result of much study and research, exposing with great boldness the
usurpations of the Pope and his cardinals, and other ecclesiastical
enormities, and revealing many obscure points with regard to the
constitution, laws, and customs of the kingdom of Naples. He was aware of
the great dangers which would threaten him, if he dared to publish this
immortal work; but he bravely faced the cruel fate which awaited him, and
verified the prophetic utterance of a friend, "You have placed on your
head a crown of thorns, and of very sharp ones.
Pages:
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102