174.] [Footnote 141: Sarpi's _Letters_, vol.i.pp.

231, 239.] [Footnote 142: _Ibid._ pp.

220, 222, 225.] [Footnote 143: _Vita del Padre F.Paolo Sarpi_, Helmstat, per Jacopo Mulleri, MDCCXXXXX.] The first definite warning that his life was in danger came to Sarpi from Caspar Schoppe, the publicist.

Scioppius (so his contemporaries called him) was a man of doubtful character and unsteady principles, who, according as his interests varied, used a fluent pen and limpid Latin style for or against the Jesuit faction.

History would hardly condescend to notice him but for the singular luck he had of coming at critical moments into contact with the three chief Italian thinkers of his time.