_St. Dominic._--Was St. Dominic, the founder of the Dominican order, a
descendant of the noble family of the Guzmans? Machiavelli wrote a
treatise to prove it; but in the _Biographie Universelle_ it is stated
(I know not on what authority) that Cardinal Lambertini, afterwards
Benedict XIV., having summoned that lawyer to produce the originals,
Machiavelli deferred, and refused at last to obey the order: and
further, that Cuper the Bollandist wrote on the same subject to some
learned men at Bologna, who replied that the pieces cited in
Machiavelli's dissertation had been forged by him, and written in the
old style by a modern hand.