therefore questonless, it is the most principal cause of her so
long continuance; It is there death without mercy for any
man to have the least attempt or thought of conspiring against
the Commonweal; and in severall other, Cases, as they
are collected and set forth by a Countriman of our own in
English
2. The second point of Treason is, in case any Senator betray
Counsels; for, there (faith he) it is an unpardonable Crime,
and such a mortall sin that draws on death without mercy.
This severity also was reteined in the Roman State, where
such as became guilty of this Crime, ant vivi exurebantur,
&c, were either burnt alive, or hang'd upon a Gibbet, vide
Paulum. I. C. de pœnis. Hereupon (faith Valerius Max.
lib. 2.) when any matter was deliver'd or debated, it was as
if no man had heard a syllable of what had been said among so
many. From whence it came to pass, that the decrees of their
Senate were called Tacita, that is to say, things concealed;
because never discover'd till they came to execution. And
for the avoiding of those Inconveniences that follow a discovery,
they have a speciall care in Venice to keep all those especially
from the Priests, as they did in Rome from women. The
former are Persons alwaies, and in all Places, of a distinct
Interest from the Civil; The latter, by the nature of their
Sex, not fit for such kinde of Communications,
3. It is Treason, and death without mercy for any senators
or other Officers of Venice, to recieve Gifts or Pensions from
any forein Prince or state, upon any Pretence whatsoever. It
was an old Proverb among the heathen, that the Gods themselves
might be taken with Gifts: And therefore the Consequence
must needs be very dangerous in the inferior Courts
of states and Princes; since nothing can be carried in this case,
according to native Interest and found Reason, but only by
pluralities of fore in dictates and Compliances. Hence it is,
that the Pope's Conclave have ever been more hot and tedious
in their debates and determinations, than any other Assembly
of men in the world; For, most Princes have ever held
them in Pension, some one way, and some another. But in