Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 6 and 7 (of 7): The Catholic ReactionSymonds, John Addington
History
Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 6 and 7 (of 7): The Catholic Reaction
Symonds, John Addington
Catholic Church -- Italy -- History; Renaissance -- Italy
Among the nuns who had abetted Osio, the two most criminally implicated
were Ottavia and Benedetta. Their evidence, if closely scrutinized, must
reveal each secret of the past. It was much to Osio's interest,
therefore, that they should not fall into the hands of justice; nor had
he any difficulty in persuading them to rely on his assistance for
contriving their escape to some convent in the Bergamasque territory. We
may wonder, by the way, what sort of discipline was then maintained in
nunneries, if two so guilty sisters counted upon safe entrance into an
asylum, provided only they could leave the diocese of Milan for
another.[190] On the night of Thursday, November 30, 1607, Osio came to
the wall of the convent garden, and began to break a hole in it, through
which Ottavia and Benedetta crept. The three then prowled along the city
wall of Monza, till they found a breach wide enough for exit. Afterwards
they took a path beside the river Lambro, and stopped for awhile at the
church of the Madonna delle Grazie. Here the sisters prayed for
assistance from our Lady in their journey, and recited the _Salve
Regina_ seven times. Then they resumed their walk along the Lambro, and
at a certain point Ottavia fell into the river. In her dying depositions
she accused Osio of having pushed her in; and there seems little doubt
that he did so; for while she was struggling in the water, he disengaged
his harquebuss from his mantle and struck her several blows upon the
head and hands.
[Footnote 190: In ecclesiastical affairs the diocese of Milan exercised
jurisdiction over that of Bergamo, although Bergamo was subject in civil
affairs to Venice. This makes the matter more puzzling.]
She pretended to be dead, and was carried down the stream to a place
where she contrived to crawl to land. Some peasants came by, whose
assistance she implored. But they, observing that she was a nun of S.
Margherita by her dress, refused to house her for the rest of the night.
They gave her a staff to lean on, and after a painful journey she
regained the church of the Grazie at early dawn. Ottavia's wounds upon
the head, face, and right hand, inflicted by the stock of Osio's gun,
were so serious that after making a clean breast to her judges, she died
of them upon December 26, 1607.
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