Note 025 In the beginning of the last century the papists of England were only a thirtieth, and the protestants of France only a fifteenth', part of the respective nations to whom their spirit and power were a constant object of apprehension. See the relations which Bentivoglio (who was then nuncio at Brussels, and afterwards cardinal) transmitted to the court of Rome (Relazione, tom. ii. p. 211, 241). Bentivoglio was curious, well-informed, but somewhat partial.

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Note to Chapter 20 of DECLINE & FALL by Gibbon