414 cecilia cristellon and silvana seidel menchi
or lascivious content, his vitriolic verve for political polemic would focus
on three objectives: the arrogance of spanish dominance (Venice’s politi-
cal antagonist on the peninsula), the vice-ridden Roman Curia and its
abhorred inquisition, and the Jesuits with their aims to monopolize youth
education.88 His instinctive ability to read the general mood, uncanny
understanding of themes with immediate resonance in high circles, and
rancorous memories of personal experiences led Pallavicino to pick sub-
jects which, from 1641 on, ensured his writings an extraordinary success
and aroused concrete interest outside of italy as well. The most audacious
of his texts, all of which were naturally published anonymously, was The
Celestial Divorce, caused by the immorality of the Roman spouse, in which
Christ asks god the father that he separate from his spouse, the Church of
Rome, on account of her depravity and prolonged adultery (1643). His ear-
lier Rhetoric of Whores established an unholy analogy between the tricks
of seduction of the courtesans (which Pallavicino knew quite well from
personal experience) and the educational methods then in use in Jesuit
schools.
The incredible resonance of this genre of writings earned Pallavicino
the hatred of the spanish governor in Milan and, above all, of Maffeo
Barberini, currently reigning as Pope urban Viii (1623–44). it was against
the pope (“the barber who shaves Christ’s beard”), his nepotism, his
lack of scruples, his unbounded greed, and the entire Barberini line that
Pallavicino’s pen poured forth its most searing critiques. in doing so,
the institutional persecution to which he exposed himself (prosecution,
imprisonment) was less dangerous than the dagger of the hired assassins
he would soon come to fear. To some extent, the prolific polemicist was
protected by the Signoria and especially by the nobleman giovan fran-
cesco loredan, founder of the Academy of the Incogniti of which Pallavi-
cino was an eminent member, but they could not guarantee his safety
(after all, fra Paolo sarpi had been stabbed on a Venetian bridge in 1607
during the interdict controversy, probably by papal agents). Thus, in 1642
the publicist decided to take refuge in france. However, during the plan-
ning stages of his voyage he naively fell victim to a trap: an emissary of
the Barberini family convinced him of the possibility of obtaining a post
under Richelieu and offered to accompany him to Paris, but brought
him instead to papal jurisdiction in Avignon. After being arrested, tried,
88 spini, Ricerca dei libertini, pp. 177–99; Muir, Culture Wars, pp. 61–107.