[PAMPHLET 10.]
The property of Pietro Comparini did not amount to more than the sum
of 10,000 or 12,000 scudi, subject to a reversionary interest, coupled
likewise with the obligation to compound a good percentage of the
income. He, therefore, had to live sparingly to avoid being reduced to
a state of destitution, there being a bar against his use of the
capital and of a part of the income. He was also too indulgent to his
stomach and was given to laziness, and furthermore had taken a wife
with a very small dowry. Then lawsuits came upon him, the income of
his bonds was reduced, and other misfortunes befell him, so that he
was brought down to a state poor and miserable enough. So much so that
he was several times arrested for debt and, after making a statement
of his property, received from the Papal Palace secret alms each
month.
When he found himself in such straits, he decided to marry off
Francesca Pompilia, his daughter, to some person who would undertake
the burden of supporting him together with his wife, Violante Peruzzi,
who was a very shrewd woman and of great loquacity. It was with her
advice that he had undertaken the affair, and the marriage with Count
Guido Franceschini was considered suitable. For when the latter had
conducted his new wife and her parents back to Arezzo, his own
country, he might be able to find some opportune remedy for their
necessities, by the assistance in Rome of Abate Paolo Franceschini his
brother, an active and diligent man; thereby putting in order the
patrimony of Pietro which had been sequestered and tied up by his
creditors. Therefore, when the dowry had been set at twenty-six bonds,
with added hope of future succession to the rest of his property by
virtue of the reversionary interest to which the wife was entitled,
the bargain was accepted. This bargain was advantageous to Pietro and
his wife in freeing them from the straits in which they found
themselves. And it was likewise advantageous to the Franceschini, as
the diligence of the Abate, and some temporary expenditure by their
house well attests. For they might well believe that they would gain
in time the aforesaid property either entire, or little decreased.
Such from the beginning were the mutual purposes of that unhappy
marriage. From this fact one may see how slight a pretext there is for
saying that Count Guido, while making the arrangements, had tricked
Pietro and his wife by giving an inventory of property with an annual
income of 1700 scudi, which income was later proved to be much less,
because the primary end for which the marriage was concluded might
very well have been obtained by showing a much smaller income. For it
is known that when this inventory was shown by Violante to Pietro
Comparini, he said on seeing it: "Ho, ho, it would have been enough
for me if it had been only half as much." And indeed it would have
been the greatest stupidity in Pietro to have given his daughter a
husband, upon the simple inventory of a foreigner and without finding
out if this were true, so that the real impelling cause of the
marriage had been the resources represented in the said inventory. Not
even on the mere grounds of propriety and civility may Guido be
reproved; because when the said inventory was produced by Pietro in
the trial, the Abate Paolo Franceschini was very much surprised at it,
so that he took his brother to task about it by letter, and Guido
replied that he had done it at the instigation of Violante. For she
desired the completion of the marriage, and, seeing Pietro irresolute,
she induced Guido to give the abovesaid inventory, with some
modifications, for the purpose of stimulating her husband thereto.
The marriage was finally effected, and they all went back together to
the city of Arezzo. Nor were the Comparini mistreated there, as they
tried to prove by the unauthoritative deposition of a servant, who had
left the house in anger. One mere reading of this deposition is enough
to assure one that she did this with a bad motive and at the
instigation of others, as she herself has declared to various persons.
This deposition shows sickeningly the distasteful prejudice with which
it was conceived, and especially where she says that a little sucking
lamb was made to serve as food for seven or eight persons throughout
an entire week. And there are other matters alike unfit for belief.
[The Comparini] were indeed treated with all consideration and
decorum, as Monsignor the Bishop and the Governor of the city attest;
and they are persons much better qualified to judge and much more
worthy of belief than a malign and suborned servant. But you may also
have the attestation of one who was serving in that household for
thirteen months, during the time when the abovesaid Pietro and
Violante were there, and he is able to tell many particulars of the
good treatment which they received at the hands of the Franceschini.
It is quite true that disturbances of considerable importance arose in
that household; but they were occasioned by the bitter tongue of
Pietro and the haughtiness of Violante, his wife. For they laughed at
all the proceedings of the Franceschini, and thrusting themselves
forward, with pretence of superiority, they brought upon the mother of
the Franceschini, and upon the rest of the family, bitter vexations,
which were hidden at the time, to avoid violating the laws of
hospitality. And notwithstanding all this, when Pietro and his wife
decided to return to Rome, as soon as they expressed their wish, they
were provided with money for the journey, and in Rome with furniture
to put in order the house they had left.
As soon as Pietro and Violante arrived in Rome, a judicial notice was
dispatched at the instance of Pietro, in which he declared that
Francesca Pompilia was not really his daughter, and that therefore he
was not bound to discharge his promise of dowry. To prove this fact,
he brought the attestation of his wife Violante. In substance, she
declared that for the purpose of keeping her husband's creditors from
their rights, by virtue of the reversionary interest, and also for the
purpose of enjoying the income of the bonds, she had feigned that she
was pregnant, and then, with the aid of a midwife, that she had
brought forth a daughter. This was Francesca Pompilia, who had come of
a most vile parentage.
From this blameworthy act made public so suddenly throughout the
entire Court, there necessarily arose in the Franceschini an intense
hatred toward the authors of it. But they were able to restrain
themselves from the due resentment in the hope that if Francesca
Pompilia were not indeed the daughter of Pietro and Violante, as was
supposed at the time of the espousal, the marriage might be annulled
and they might thus purge themselves of such a blot on their
reputation. Witnesses of this feeling of theirs are found in the many
authorities and experts who were requested by the Franceschini to give
thought to that point and to express their opinion of it. But as these
did not agree, the Franceschini were unwilling then to commit
themselves to so doubtful an undertaking, in the prosecution of which
they would necessarily be obliged to presuppose and confess that she
was not the child of the Comparini. But by such a confession they
would be prejudiced in their interest in the dowry. And therefore they
thought well then to pass the matter by that they might avoid exposing
themselves to the danger both of losing the dowry and of being unable
to nullify the marriage.
Nevertheless they opposed the notice, and obtained for Francesca
Pompilia the continuance in quasi-possession of her daughtership and a
decree for the transfer of the dowry bonds. But Pietro appealed from
the decree, and the case was continued in the _Segnatura di
Giustizia_. This was followed by the copious distribution of pamphlets
throughout Rome, which had been printed by Pietro to the very grave
injury of the honour of the Franceschini, not to say to their infamy.
But the latter were able to restrain the just resentment of their
irritated minds by cherishing the hope of making the court acknowledge
(as did follow), no less the falsehood of their adversaries than their
own truth. Supported by this hope, they subsequently bore with all
patience the many insults planned against them by various cliques, and
the twists and turns for hindering the transfer of the dowry bonds,
the Comparini having trumped up various creditors, whether real or
pretended. On account of this opposition, the Franceschini were made
to feel the inconvenience and expense of that transfer. Nor have they
had any benefit of the income; of which they have been able to obtain
not even a two months' payment.
To such a pitch had the affairs of the two parties come, when Guido,
waking up one morning, found that his wife was not in bed. As soon as
he arose, he found that his jewel-box had been rifled and his wife had
fled. Nor was the suspicion lacking that she had given an opiate to
Guido and the entire household the preceding evening; and it was
thought that this had happened at the suggestion of Pietro and
Violante, as he had more than once heard threats of it. He travelled
quickly along the way to Rome, and after a headlong journey he
overtook his fugitive wife, in company with Canon Caponsacchi of
Arezzo, at the inn of Castelnuovo. And as he was alone and unarmed,
and they were armed and resolute, he saw that he was unequal to
avenging that excess. He therefore thought it well to have them
arrested by applying to the authorities of the said place. The court
had both of the fugitives captured by the police. They were consigned
to the jurisdiction of Monsignor the Governor of Rome, and were then
conducted to the New Prisons.
The Fisc, indeed, makes much out of the particular that Franceschini
should have avenged his insults in the act of overtaking them; but, as
an adequate response, one should think of the impossibility of his
carrying out his revenge because of their precaution in the matter of
arms, for Franceschini had heard along the way that the fugitives were
travelling armed. In proof of this, also, when his wife saw her
husband she had the hardihood to thrust at his life with bare sword.
For this reason it was prudent moderation to check their flight then
by arresting them. And this was all the more true because the adultery
of his wife had not then been proved, and possibly he had a repugnance
against imbuing his hands with the blood of her whom he had often held
in his arms, as long as any hope was left alive of regaining his
reputation in any other way than by her murder.
But afterward there were found the mutual love-letters of the same
fugitives, barefaced and immodest and preparatory to flight. And from
the cross-examination of the driver it became evident that during
their journey in the carriage they had done nothing else than kiss
each other impurely. And from the deposition of the host at
Castelnuovo, Guido found out that both of them had slept in the same
chamber. Finally, from the sentence or decree of the court in
condemnation of the Canon Caponsacchi to banishment to Civita Vecchia
for three years, for "having carnally known Francesca," the notoriety
and publicity of this adultery followed. Let any one who has the sense
of honour consider in what straits and perturbations of mind poor
Guido found himself, since even the very reasonless animals detest and
abominate the contamination of their conjugal tie, with all the
ferocity that natural instinct can suggest. They not only avenge the
immodesty of their companions by the death of the adulterer, but they
also avenge the outrages and injuries done to the reputation of their
masters. For Elian in his Natural History tells of an elephant which
avenged adultery for its master by the death of the wife and the
adulterer found together in the act of adultery. And there are other
examples also, as Tiraquelli cites. [Citation.]
But returning to the series of events, it must be stated that, after
the imprisonment of the fugitives, Guido also came on to Rome and was
deeply affected and, as it were, delirious because of the excesses of
his wife. He was comforted by his good friends with the hope that this
attempt at flight, taken along with the lack of decent parentage of
Francesca (under supposition of which he had contracted the marriage)
would facilitate the dissolution of that marriage, and in that way
all the blots upon his reputation would be cancelled. Hence, with this
hope he returned to his own country, leaving the management of the
affair to the Abate, his brother. The Secretary of Sacred Assembly of
the Council may be a witness of this; for Abate Paolo presented the
matter to him and entreated him to propose, in that sacred assembly,
this point of law as to the validity of the marriage then--that is,
after a criminal sentence in the Tribunal of Monsignor the Governor,
had been obtained.
In the meanwhile the same Abate attended to the plan of petitioning
the conclusion of the said criminal cause. When Pompilia, to avoid
conviction by the love-letters, had recourse to the falsehood that she
did not know how to write, it was easy for the Abate to convict her of
that lie by showing the marriage agreement signed with her own hand,
as well as by a Cardinal now dead, by means of the recognition of the
handwriting. But in spite of this, when the merits of the case had
been made known everywhere, the same Abate perceived that instead of
his being pitied, little by little every one began to laugh at him and
to deride him, as he has told several persons. Perchance the attempt
was being made to introduce into Rome the power of sinning against the
laws of God with impunity, along with the doctrine of Molinos and
philosophic sin, which has been checked by the authority of the Holy
Office. So many persons would desire to blot out from the minds of men
their esteem of honour and of reputation in order that they might sin
with impunity against the laws of men and might give opportunity to
adulterers without any check from disgrace or shame.
And it is certain that the Abate, seeing the cause unduly protracted,
had just grounds for placing it at the feet of our Lord [the Pope],
with a memorial in which he declared that he could no longer endure
such important and such various litigation and vexation arising from
that luckless marriage, and he prayed that a special sitting be
appointed for all the cases--that is the ones concerning her
daughtership, her flight, her adultery, the dowry, and others growing
out of the marriage as well as the one concerning its annulling. But
he had no other reply than: "The matter rests with the Judges." So,
with devout resignation to His Holiness, he awaited the outcome of the
said criminal trial, from which he hoped to regain, at least in part,
the reputation of his house.
In the meantime, Pietro Comparini was supplied with plenty of money
by the generosity of some unknown person, possibly a lover of the
young girl. He vaunted his triumph boldly in the throngs and the
shops, places of his accustomed resort, and he praised the resolution
and spirit of his daughter for having known how to trick the
Franceschini with a disgraceful flight and with the thievery of such
precious things, and for having found an expedient to give to the
judge in the trial such good replies with all details thereof. He also
boasted that in a little while she would return to his home despite
the Franceschini. For he would bring so many lawsuits and scandals
upon them that they would be forced to be silent and to let matters
run on. For these statements we can have the attestations of many
persons, in case they are needed. Therefore, because of such stinging
boasts and such irritations, the mind of Guido was ever more
embittered in spite of all the power he could master for restraining
the impetus of his anger which had been provoked by such injuries.
Francesca Pompilia had been previously transferred from the prisons
into the Refuge called _della Scalette_, where she stayed for some
months. Then it was discovered that she was pregnant, and many
attempts were made to secure an abortion. For this purpose, powders
and other drugs were given several times by the mother. As this proved
useless, she was remanded to the home of Pietro and Violante on the
pretext of an obstruction and the necessity of relieving herself.
There, at the approach of the physicians, her pregnancy was
discovered. The truth is, that when her womb began to grow, the nuns
did not wish for her confinement to take place within their walls, and
therefore a pretext was found for removing her on the grounds of the
said obstruction and the necessity of removing it.
Now at this point the Abate found it necessary to break the bonds of
his forbearance: for although it was indirectly that he was offended,
that is, in the person and honour of his brother, nevertheless it
seemed to him that every man's face had become a looking-glass, in
which was mirrored the image of the ridicule of his house. Therefore,
being humiliated, though he was strong and constant in other matters,
he often burst into bitterest tears, until he felt very much inclined
to throw himself into the river, as he indeed declared to all his
friends. And to free himself from such imminent danger, he decided to
abandon Rome, the Court, his hopes and possessions, his affectionate
and powerful patrons, and whatever property he had accumulated during
thirty years in the same City. Any one may imagine with what pain he
parted from these and went to a strange and unknown clime, where he
would not meet the fierceness of his scorners, who had been merited
neither by himself nor his household.
But the injury of Guido, arising from a sharper and severer wound,
within his very vitals as a husband, had the power to arouse his anger
even to the extreme. Nor did he consider it sufficient redress to
punish himself with voluntary exile for the crimes of others; for such
a resolution might be considered by the world as a plain proof of his
weakness and cowardice. He soon had sure information that, during the
month of December, Pompilia had given birth to a boy in the home of
the Comparini, which child had been intrusted secretly to a nurse. He
also heard that the infamy of the friendship with the said Canon had
been continued, inasmuch as he was received as a guest into the said
home (as was said). For like a vulture, Caponsacchi wheeled round and
round those walls, that he might put beak and talons into the desired
flesh for the increase of Guido's disgrace. Guido accordingly felt the
wildest commotion in his blood, which urged him to find refuge for
himself even in the most desperate of determinations.
In the meantime he turned over again and again, as in delirium, his
sinister thoughts, reflecting that he was abhorred by his friends,
avoided by his relatives, and pointed at with the finger of scorn by
every one in his own country. And the word went abroad that in Rome
they were selling his reputation at an infamous market. (This matter
has moved the treasurer of the Convertites, since the death of
Pompilia, to begin proceedings and to take possession of her
property.) Added to the above were the continual rebukes which he
received because of his lost honour, so that he became utterly drunk
with fury. He left Arezzo with desperate thoughts, and when he had
reached Rome he went to that home which was the asylum of his
disgraces. Nor could he have any doubt how much the very name of the
adulterer was respected; for when Guido made pretence of delivering a
letter of his sending, the doors were immediately thrown open; and so,
scarcely had he set his foot upon the threshold, before he saw his
dishonour proving itself before his very face; of which dishonour he
had heretofore had only a distant impression in his imagination. Then
bold and triumphant, he no longer feared to upbraid her with unmasked
face for all the insults which had been inflicted upon his honour in
that household; and as he looked all around at those walls incrusted
with his heaviest insults, and with his infamy, the dams of his
reason gave way and he fell headlong into that miserable ruin of
plunging himself with deadly catastrophe into the blood of the
oppressors of his reputation.
There is no doubt that Franceschini has committed the crime of a
desperate man, and that his mind, when it was so furious, was totally
destitute of reason. As he had lost his property, his wife, and his
honour, there was nothing else for him to lose unless it were his
miserable life. For, as Paolo Zacchia, the learned philosopher and
jurist, says in speaking of anger in man: "Such and so great is its
force that it does not differ at all from insanity and fury." Galenus
very clearly affirms this, adding that when in law it is known that
crimes are committed in such a state, they are punished with a smaller
penalty, even though it has to do with the very atrocious crime of
parricide. Calder [Citation] also gives many other matters on our
point in No. 27 and the following numbers. And these theoretic
propositions are verified in actual practice in Guido; for he was so
utterly mad and void of reason that he entered upon so great an
undertaking even at an hour of the night when many people were around.
And after that he took no precaution, such as any other person of
sound mind would have taken in governing his actions. He set out by
the high road on his journey of about seventy miles from the outskirts
of the city without providing any vehicles, as if he were merely a
traveller leaving Rome. These circumstances are plain evidences of an
offended and delirious mind. [Citations.] St. Jerome writes in his
letters:
"Where honour is absent, there is contempt; and where contempt is,
there is recurring insult; and where insult, there indignation; and
where indignation, there is no quiet; and where quiet is wanting,
there the mind is often thrown from its balance."
Nor in this case does the legal distinction enter as to whether the
one driven by anger committed the crime in the first impulse of anger,
or after an interval of time. For this distinction might have a place
when the anger arose from an insult in some transitory deed, and one
that was not permanent. But in the case we are treating, the insult
provocative of anger consisted of frequent and reiterated acts; that
is, not so much in the passing of the wife from the nunnery to the
home of Pietro under an empty and ridiculous pretence, but still more
from her staying in the said home with the aggravating circumstance of
his own infamy (as has been said above). Accordingly, as the injury is
permanent because of the continual affronts which the injured one
received, so the vengeance is understood to be taken immediately and
without any interval. This the defenders of the cause have
sufficiently proved in their no less erudite than learned writings
with their very strong arguments and their unsurpassable learning.
Nor does it amount to anything for one to say that the crime was
aggravated, first, by the kind of arms used; for Virgil [A. I. 150]
says: _Furor arma ministrat_; nor, secondly, by the company of four,
or let us say the conventicle; nor, thirdly, by the place, the excess,
or the other circumstances considered by the Fisc. For in a madman,
everything is excusable, as it is axiomatic and a very sure principle
that nature then arises in such a way that it drives a man from
himself, in whatever manner is possible, etc. In conformity therewith,
Fracosto speaks as follows: "And in truth an ingenuous mind, and one
that knows the value of its own honour and reputation, is very
painfully offended in a part so sensitive and so delicate; and at such
a time reaches the limit of madness and of desperation; for it has
lost the light of reason, and in delirium and frenzy cannot be
satisfied even if it succeed in turning upside down, if that were
possible, the very hinges of the Universe, for the purpose of
annihilating not merely the authors but the places and the memory of
its insults and shames." For "the rage and fury of a man does not spare
in the day of vengeance, nor does it grant the prayers of any, nor
does it accept in requital many gifts," as the Holy Spirit speaks on
this point, through the mouth of Solomon, in the sixth chapter of
Proverbs, at the end. With this very well agrees what St. Bernard has
very learnedly written in his letter to his nephew Robert at the
beginning: "Anger indeed does not deliberate very much, nor has it a
sense of shame, nor does it follow reason, nor fear the loss of
dignity, nor obey the law, nor acquiesce in its judgment, and ignores
all method and order."
There is no doubt that Samson reached this pitch when he fell into the
power of his enemies. He suffered with an intrepid mind the loss of
his eyes and other grievous disasters, but when he saw that he was
destined to serve as a pastime in public places, and when he there
heard the jeers and derision of the people, the anger in his breast
was inflamed, so that, all madness and fury, he cried out: "Let me die
along with the Philistines." And giving a shake to the columns which
sustained the palace he reduced it to ruin: "And he killed many more
in his death than he had killed while alive," as the Holy Scripture
testifies. And Christ himself, although he was very mild, and had the
greatest patience while receiving opprobrium and insults without ever
complaining, yet answered, when he knew that his honour was touched,
"My honour I will give to no one." And it is certain that any one who
cares for honour and reputation would rather die an honoured man
beneath _mannaia_ than live for many ages in the face of the world
with shame and dishonour.
This argument, strong as it is, has succeeded in weakening one wise
and earnest adherent of the Fisc. And this is why the very learned pen
of Monsignor of the Fisc has uttered the following period, which says:
"But because the Comparini claimed that the furnishing of food to
Francesca while in prison was the duty of Franceschini, and the latter
declared that it belonged to the Comparini, the Most Illustrious and
Reverend Lord Governor, after having the consent of Abate Paolo, own
brother of Guido, and his representative in the case, assigned the
home of the same Comparini to Francesca as a safe and secure prison
under security." But this fact can be clearly explained so that it
will not form an objection.
When Francesca Pompilia was about to be taken from the prison to the
nunnery, Abate Franceschini was asked to provide the food, with the
statement that if he refused there would appear a third and unknown
person who would assume the burden of it to their dishonour. Therefore
the Abate wished once for all to put an end to any chance of receiving
new insults; and to avoid every charge of preserving even the
slightest sign of relation with this disgraceful sister-in-law,
accepted a middle way proposed to him, namely, that Lamparelli, as
Procurator of Charity, should make provision for it by the
disbursement of his own funds and should pay it back again by what
reasonably belonged to the Franceschini; for he reimbursed himself for
it with the money which had been found upon the fugitives, and which
had been stolen from the husband; at her capture, this money was
placed on deposit in the office, where there remained so much of it
still that, after all was over, the balance of it was consigned to the
same Abate.
And as when the said Francesca was transferred from the nunnery to the
home of Violante, all the preceding and succeeding circumstances made
it very improbable that the Abate gave his consent, and as this
consent is not found registered among those acts, it seems very clear
that it was not given at all. Nor could he legally give it, for he was
not the representative of his brother in that matter; for his
authorisation confined him solely to the power of receiving back the
money and other things which were deposited in the office. This is
proved by his acts and by the story which the Abate then gave to his
friends and relatives; and it utterly destroys the assertion of the
Fisc, since Abate Paolo says that he was indeed notified that the
young woman was obliged to find relief in an indisposition, certified
by a physician, and that she was obliged to leave the nunnery and to
go back to her father's home. To this, as it seemed a mere pretence,
he replied that he could easily undertake to purge the wife in the
nunnery without exposing her to such evident danger of greater shame.
He also said that he wondered very much that the affection of a father
had so suddenly returned in Pietro Comparini for Pompilia, whom he and
his wife had so often denied as their daughter. He wondered how they
could both be, and not be, the parents of the said woman, according to
their own desires to the injury of the house of Franceschini.
And if the solicitor, for the purpose of giving colour to the honour
of the said lady, has falsely urged many justifications, it is to be
noted that in substance all that he says on that point is founded on
what with her own mouth she has said in her own favour and what she
has proffered to free herself from the blame of her sins, both at this
juncture and in the flight, as well as in the trial which may be
referred to; in fact, quite the contrary is evident; and from the
external tests which the Convertites intended to make, but from which
they abstained when they heard the news of the birth of the son. And
would that it had pleased God that she had observed the laws of holy
modesty! for in that case so great a misfortune would not have
resulted from her whims. We should notice, further, that the
declaration made by the wife in the face of death may be doubtful in
itself, in the sense that after confession and absolution one's sin is
cancelled as if it had never been committed, so that in a court of
justice she would no longer have any need of pardon. Therefore, from
the above-cited circumstances and very strong reasons, there is no
room to doubt that Franceschini deserves the indulgence which the laws
give to excesses that find origin from the stings of honour. And, if
we were within the circumstances under which the case ought to be
adjudged according to expediency, without any hesitation, Franceschini
should be punished mildly to diminish the force of immodesty and
impudence. For the woman is not without adherents, who triumph
throughout all Rome in a coterie of treachery, both in public and in
private. This is for the oppression and derision against husbands who
have regard for their reputation. And they give the title of pedantry
to that circumspection which one ought to practise for the
preservation of his own honour.
[File-title of Pamphlet 11.]
_By the Most Illustrious and Most
Reverend Lord Governor of the
City in Criminal Cases:_
_ROMAN MURDER-CASE
with qualifying circumstance._
_For the Fisc, against Count Guido Franceschini
and his Associates._
_Summary._
_At Rome, in the type of the Reverend Apostolic Chamber,
1698._