FROM MANN 23 SEPTEMBER 1742 NS 55 sieur de Gages is now the man who begins the dance by leading again up to the Panaro, but I believe he will observe the rules of country dances, and return to the place from whence he came. The first column arrived some days ago3 at Fano. Their design was to march all together to Bologna, where preparations were making, for the third of next month, but as Monsieur de Traun has desired preparations at the same place for his troops and those of the King of Sardinia, amount­ ing to near 20,000 men, it is probable the Spaniards will not advance. The Pope is on the point of breaking into an open quarrel with the Queen of Hungary. Her Apostolic Majesty's general* has seized two abbeys in the state of Milan belonging to Valenti Gonzaga,s his6 secretary of state, which the Pope so resents that he has wrote a thun­ dering letter7 to Vienna to tell her that he looks upon this step as an open affront to his person and insists upon restitution and satisfaction, and to indemnify the Cardinal ordered that the income of those abbeys should be made good to him out of the Chamber.8 Whilst this affair was depending and they were waiting for the return of the courier9 an accident happened that will not, it is thought, help towards getting his Holiness satisfaction, but may widen the breach. Cardinal Acquaviva who is omnipotent at Rome took it into his head that a 5. 21 Sept. (Stosch to Newcastle 29 Sept. 283; lxxxvii. 246-g; Conte Francesco Cristo- NS, S.P. 98/46 f. 107). fori, Cronotassi dei cardinali, Rome, 1888, 4. Traun, acting on orders of Graf Thun, P- 434)- the Austrian ambassador to Rome (Stosch 6. Apparently crossed out in MS. to Newcastle 29 Sept. NS, ibid. f. 106; Mann 7. Dated 7 Sept. 1742 NS, now in the to Newcastle 23 Sept. NS, S.P. 98/45 ff. 213- Staatsarchiv in Vienna (Ludwig, Freiherr 14). Orders were given for the seizure of all von Pastor, Geschichte der Papste, Frei­ Valenti Gonzaga's Milanese and Mantuan burg, 1886-1933, xyi- Pl i- 67)- Valenti Gon­ abbeys and benefices including the Abbey zaga's sympathies for the Emperor Charles San Lanfranco which Maria Theresa had VII and for Spain enraged Maria Theresa assigned to him in the first year of her (ibid. xvi. pt i. 66-7; Stosch to Newcastle reign (Maria Theresa to Benedict XIV 12 15 Sept. NS, S.P. 98/46 f. 100). Aug. 1741). Capello's dispatch of 25 Aug. 8. 'Le Pape a ordonnd a la Depositerie 1742 specifically says 'Si e commesso il Camerale de payer a son secretaire d'etat sequestro delle abbazie e dei benefizii ec- Valenti Gonzaga chaque mois le montant clesiastici che possiede negli stati della Re­ des revenues de ses abbayes sequestres par gina' (Arneth ii. 180-1, 503; Mercure his­ le ministere de la Reine d'Hongrie' (Stosch torique, Oct. 1742, cxiii. 368; Stosch to to Newcastle 29 Sept. NS, ibid. f. 106). The Newcastle 15 Sept. NS, S.P. 98/46 f. 100). income of the abbeys amounted 'to about 5. Silvio Valenti (1690-1756), called Va­ 8000 crowns per annum' (Mann to New­ lenti Gonzaga; cardinal, 1738; Papal secre­ castle 23 Sept. NS, S.P. 98/45 f. 214). tary of state 1740-56 (Michael Ranfft, 9. He passed by Florence 2 Oct. and Merkwurdige Lebensgeschichte aller Car­reached Rome on the 5th (Mann to New­ dinale, Regensburg, 1768-73, iii. 254-9; castle 7 Oct. NS, ibid. f. 218; newsletter, Gaetano Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione Rome, 13 Oct. 1742 NS, ibid. f. 229). storico-ecclesiastica, Venice, 1840-79, lxiii. .