Note 840 — Chapter XII

Tiepolo, the Venetian minister at the court of Castile at this time, in his report made on his return, expressly acquits the French nobles of what had been often imputed to them, having a hand in these troubles. Their desire for reform only extended to certain crying abuses; but, in the words of his metaphor, the stream which they would have turned to the irrigation of the ground soon swelled to a terrible inundation.—"Contra l'opinion de'principali della lega, che volevano indur timore et non tanto danno.... Dico che questo fu perchè essi non hebbero mai intentione di ribellarsi dal suo sigre ma solamente con questi mezzi di timore impedir che non si introducesse in quei stati il tribunal dell'Inquisitione." Relatione di M. A. Tiepolo, 1567, MS.