The
Apostle John, to whom the 'Secreta caelestia' were revealed; the
secretary of Porsenna, whom Mucius Scaevola mistook for the king;
Maecenas, who was private secretary to Augustus; the archbishops, who
in Germany were called chancellors, are all appealed to in turn. 'The
apostolic secretaries have the most weighty business of the world in
their hands. For who but they decide on matters of the Catholic faith,
who else combat heresy, re-establish peace, and mediate between great
monarchs; who but they write the statistical accounts of Christendom?
It is they who astonish kings, princes, and nations by what comes forth
from the Pope. They write commands and instructions for the legates,
and receive their orders only from the Pope, on whom they wait day and
night.' But the highest summit of glory was only attained by the two
famous secretaries and stylists of Leo X: Pietro Bembo and Jacopo
Sadoleto.
All the chanceries did not turn out equally elegant documents. A
leathern official style, in the impurest of Latin, was very common. In
the Milanese documents preserved by Corio there is a remarkable
contrast between this sort of composition and the few letters written
by members of the princely house, which must have been written, too, in
moments of critical importance. They are models of pure Latinity.
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